Clipmarks | wildcat's 'robotics' clips

Say wow! the flying jellyfish

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:49:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Last year Festo surprised everyone with their amazing prototype of the Air_ray a manta ray that swims through the air and the b-IONIC Airfish. We reported on it in a great post which was titled "Airships are just like fish in the sky" Festo is currently at the Hannover Messe 2008 and they brought an just as stunning new project with them. We present the Air Jelly, a jellyfish that swims through the air. Currently the information about the AirJelly is only available in German at the Festo Website but the pictures speak for them self, of course we also provide you with a direct link to the autotranslated Page in English about the AirJelly
The Video on the Website of Festo did not work for me so I uploaded it to YouTube just in case you can not see the "Flim" on the Festo website:

Tags: robotics, jellyfish

Nothing to lose but their chains

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:36:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.economist.com

Robots are getting cleverer and more dexterous. Their time has almost come

Today, thanks to the relentless increase in the power of computing, the latest robots are being fitted with sophisticated systems that enable them to see, feel, move and work together. Robot engineers call this “mechatronics”: the union of mechanics, optics, electronics, computers and software. Some factory robots are now smart enough to be released from their safety cages to work among humans. And as they become cleverer and more dexterous, they are starting to move from factories to offices and homes.

A robot is defined not by its appearance, but by how it is controlled. The more automated it is and the more it can determine its behaviour, the more likely it is to count as a robot. Many single-function service robots are already familiar

Vision and touch are improving fast enough for the cage soon to be removed.

As with industrial robots, the first service robots to enter production will be shaped by their job

Tags: robotics, dexterity, economy, industrialization, technology

Robots Advance

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:35:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.jumpthecurve.net

Last week, I explained how humans might soon be learning things from robots. Today, I’d like to explain why robots might become a more integral part of life faster than most people expect.

Yesterday, Technology Review published an interesting article entitled: ”Robots Learns to Use Tools.” What is really intriguing about the article, which describes a new robot called the UMass Mobile Manipulator or UMan for short, is that the robot is employing sophisticated algorithms to teach itself how to deal with unfamiliar objects.

One of the major barriers to date with robotics is that programmers have had to write complicated software code to help robots deal with almost every contingency that it might encounter. For example, for a household robot to be effective, it needs to recognize every item that might conceivably be in someone house—everything from a pair of scissors to a flower vase. This is no easy chore.

The implications of self-learning robots could be quite profound

Tags: robotics

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:04:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Robots are not human, but humans aren’t the only things that have emotions,” she said. “The question for robots is not, Will they ever have human emotions? Dogs don’t have human emotions, either, but we all agree they have genuine emotions. The question is, what are the emotions that are genuine for the robot?”

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

There is ongoing debate about what constitutes life. Synthetic bacteria for example, are created by man and yet also alive. Some go so far as to say that robot “emotions” may already have occurred—that current robots have not only displayed emotions, but in some ways have experienced them.

“We’re all machines,” says Rodney Brooks author of “Flesh and Machines,” and former director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, “Robots are made of different sorts of components than we are — we are made of biomaterials; they are silicon and steel — but in principle, even human emotions are mechanistic.” A robot’s level of a feeling like sadness could be set as a number in computer code, he said. But isn’t a human’s level of sadness basically a number, too, just a number of the amounts of various neurochemicals circulating in the brain? Why should a robot’s numbers be any less authentic than a human’s?

Tags: robotics, intelligence, life

Dutch robot Flame walks like a human

Fri, 23 May 2008 09:57:05 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

Researcher Daan Hobbelen of TU Delft has developed a new, highly-advanced walking robot: Flame. This type of research, for which Hobbelen will receive his PhD on Friday 30 May, is important as it provides insight into how people walk. This can in turn help people with walking difficulties through improved diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.

If you try to teach a robot to walk, you will discover just how complex an activity it is. Walking robots have been around since the seventies. The applied strategies can roughly be divided into two types.

To watch Flame in action click here (WMV, 5.25MB).

Tags: robotics, flame, walking

Artificial mouth takes on a chewy problem

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:02:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: technology.newscientist.com

An artificial mouth that can reproduce the mush created by a human munching on an apple has been created by French researchers.

It could form part of a robotic taste-tester designed to improve food quality and our understanding of flavour.

Previous groups have developed artificial mouths that can analyse soft foods or sets of robotic jaws to test teeth. But, until now, none has been able to recreate what happens when a human chows down on hard foodstuffs.

Taste test

Many of the flavours we taste are generated by the release of volatile compounds from food, which pass around the back of the mouth and up into the nose.

Hard foods release those compounds differently according to whether they are crushed, sliced, or liquidised.

So if a robotic system is going to "experience" the same tastes that humans do when eating, the food must undergo the same changes that occur in the mouth, says Gaëlle Arvisenet at ENITIAA in Nantes, France.

Pulp friction

Tags: robotics, mouth, taste

Real-Life Droid 'By End of the Year'

Mon, 05 May 2008 09:52:35 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Real-Life Droid Army of Robotic Spiders to Be Deployed 'By End of the Year'

In another creepy case of life mimicking fiction, BAE Systems is creating an army of robotic spiders that they will be selling to the US Army to use in warfare. The development is causing some worry over whether some of the frightening scenes in the sci-fi flick Minority Report were a fairly accurate representation of the future.

In the movie, Tom Cruise is chased by an army of government deployed robotic spider spies attempting to hunt him down. Although Hollywood intended it as science fiction, the US military says they are dropping the fiction part of the equation.

Dr. Joseph Mait of the US Army Research Lab explains, “Robotic platforms extend the warfighter's senses and reach, providing operational capabilities that would otherwise be costly, impossible, or deadly to achieve."

Eventually we hope to have animals flying and slithering.

Tags: robotics, soon, here

Robots could do work of 3.5 million people by '25

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:12:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: search.japantimes.co.jp

Robots could be performing the work of 3.52 million people by 2025 to help cover a labor shortage in the graying society, an industry body said Thursday.

The Machine Industry Memorial Foundation has estimated that "working robots" under development by Honda Motor Co. and many other leading companies could take over about 970,000 jobs in medical and nursing care services.

In the agriculture and forestry sector, 450,000 jobs could be held by robots if harvesting and pruning robots spread widely, according to the foundation, an affiliate of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In services such as cleaning and delivery, robots could do the jobs of 1.41 million people.

It projects that 74 minutes of free time per household could be created each day by robots that do household chores such as cleaning. This could help more women enter the labor market, the foundation said.

Tags: robotics, labor

Robotic Bird Makes First Flight

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:41:17 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

A micro-aircraft with feathered, morphing wings showed off its stuff yesterday when the bird-like craft lifted off for its first flight. And its landing was just as dramatic: The RoboSwift crashed into a tree.

The craft weighs less than three ounces (80 grams) and spans just 20 inches (51 centimeters) from wingtip to wingtip. Its small size and onboard cameras make RoboSwift a possible soaring spy: The craft could make scientific observations of wild birds without disturbing them or hover above crowds of people or vehicles for government and law enforcement surveillance purposes. In fact, the Dutch National Police Services Agency said it will financially support the craft's development.

"The new vehicle can really morph like a bird does. It uses actual feathers," Lentink said.

In the future, the craft will get lessons in bird-flying behaviors such as gliding. When gliding, the motor will be turned off and the propeller will fold up so the aircraft can fly even more quietly and save energy

Tags: birds, robotics

Nature versus Robot

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:05:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

This could just be the first of many battles to come between natural flying predators, and man-made flyers inspired by nature.

Robotic dragonfly toys made by WowWee Robotics are being snatched by birds of prey. One boy had his grabbed by a Red-tailed hawk not long after unwrapping one on Christmas day. You can read his account of the event. Engadget reports that WowWee has been contacted by 45 people about the same issue in the past two months.

There are bats, birds and other insects out there that will find it a cinch to catch robot butterfly's, mechanical birds or even cyborg moths. It will be a long time until our artificial flyers will be anywhere near a match for Nature's airbourne hunter-killers.

During both world wars pigeons were used to carry messages across enemy lines in Europe, leading to some attempts to use Peregrine falcons to catch the messengers. Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of that tactic if animal-like robots do see active service.

Tags: robotics, nature

New Machine Interprets Dreams

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:08:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Sleep Waking daydreams. Credit: Fernando Orellan, Brendan Burns/Union College
Sleep Waking acts as if it is flying. Credit: Fernando Orellana, Brendan Burns/Union College
Sleep Waking stands up. Credit: Fernando Orellana, Brendan Burns/Union College

More Images

Sleep Waking daydreams. Credit: Fernando Orellan, Brendan Burns/Union College

Sleep Waking is an unusual art work that combines recorded brainwave activity and REM sleep with robot behaviors. The Sleep Waking robot plays back your dreams, or, if you will, presents an interpretive dance of your dreams.

The Sleep Waking robot is the result of a collaboration between Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns. Orellana spent a night in The Albany Regional Sleep Disorder Center in New York. The staff wired him up and collected data of every conceivable kind: EEG, EKG, rapid eye movement - you name it. Orellana describes the use of the data to animate the robot in this way:

Tags: robotics, dreaming

Redefining the Limits of the Human Body

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:43:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: While humans have been set apart from other animals as a species that makes tools, that definition may change to it being the only species that incorporates tools.

Clip Source: www.weforum.org

The discussion particularly explored the possibilities that neuroscience holds for extending knowledge and the profound implications that technology holds for people who are physically or cognitively impaired. It was suggested that homo sapiens is evolving into homo roboticus.

Other insights:

Brain activity that produces action can be recorded. As a result, signals can be sent in real time to robotic devices, either implanted or remote. It is possible, for example, for the brain/machine interface to enable an amputee wearing a robotic vest to regain mobility.

Implanted neuro-prostheses can restore motor functions in cases of spinal cord injuries or lesions. They can "read" intentions of the brain to produce movement.

Prosthetic limbs will be able to provide osteoperception as well as movement.

Implants, called bions, which work wirelessly, can be inserted into muscles in the body to enable direct control of robots

Tags: robotics, neuroscience, brain, human body, limits

Robot Chef Makes Tasty Octopus Balls

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:31:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

A robot chef was cooking octopus balls autonomously at the Osaka Museum of creative industries last month. The device was created by Toyo Riki of Japan.

The food-savvy robot wears a towel twisted rakishly over its upper module. The octopus balls are made individually, each one carefully made from scratch. The octopus balls are made in thirds; the cooking delicacy must be hand-turned after each portion cooks to add the next bit of dough, creating a perfect octopus ball.

The final steps include putting the octopus balls on a plate, basting each one with sauce, and shaking on some spices.

The purpose of the demonstration is not to create a finished robot chef product, but to demonstrate robotic capabilities. As far as I'm concerned, though, these treats look ready to eat. Bring on the robot chefs!

Science fiction fans have been waiting almost a century for tasty treats prepared by tireless automatons; consider Edgar Rice Burroughs who, in his 1912 story A Princess of Mars, wrote about them:

Tags: robotics, cooking

Robots Evolve And Learn How to Lie

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:33:22 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to communicate—lighting up, in three out of four colonies, to alert the others when they’d found food or poison. The fourth colony sometimes evolved “cheater” robots instead, which would light up to tell the others that the poison was food, while they themselves rolled over to the food source and chowed down without emitting so much as a blink.

Some robots, though, were veritable heroes. They signaled danger and died to save other robots. “Sometimes,” Floreano says, “you see that in nature—an animal that emits a cry when it sees a predator; it gets eaten, and the others get away—but I never expected to see this in robots.”

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Robots can evolve to communicate with each other, to help, and even to deceive each other, according to Dario Floreano of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Floreano and his colleagues outfitted robots with light sensors, rings of blue light, and wheels and placed them in habitats furnished with glowing “food sources” and patches of “poison” that recharged or drained their batteries. Their neural circuitry was programmed with just 30 “genes,” elements of software code that determined how much they sensed light and how they responded when they did. The robots were initially programmed both to light up randomly and to move randomly when they sensed light.

To create the next generation of robots, Floreano recombined the genes of those that proved fittest—those that had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source.

Tags: robotics, evolution

Japanese robot walks like a monkey

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:24:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

It may walk like a Japanese robot, but it's thinking like a monkey in the United States.

Japanese and US researchers said Wednesday they have created a humanoid robot that acts according to the brain activity of a monkey all the way across the Pacific.

The experiment was part of efforts to develop prosthetic limbs which can be mentally controlled by people with disabilities.

A laboratory in the western Japanese city of Kyoto unveiled a 155-centimetre (62-inch) tall humanoid, with a friendly-looking face including bulging black eyes, who walked via signals coming into its legs through wires.

"For the first time in the world, we were then able to make our humanoid robot in Japan walk in real-time in a similar manner as the monkey," it said.

Tags: robotics, prosthetics

Clipmarks | wildcat's 'robotics' clips

Say wow! the flying jellyfish

Nothing to lose but their chains

Robots are getting cleverer and more dexterous. Their time has almost come

Robots Advance

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Dutch robot Flame walks like a human

Artificial mouth takes on a chewy problem

Taste test

Pulp friction

Real-Life Droid 'By End of the Year'

Real-Life Droid Army of Robotic Spiders to Be Deployed 'By End of the Year'

Robots could do work of 3.5 million people by '25

Robotic Bird Makes First Flight

Nature versus Robot

New Machine Interprets Dreams

Sleep Waking daydreams. Credit: Fernando Orellan, Brendan Burns/Union College

Sleep Waking acts as if it is flying. Credit: Fernando Orellana, Brendan Burns/Union College

Sleep Waking stands up. Credit: Fernando Orellana, Brendan Burns/Union College

Redefining the Limits of the Human Body

Robot Chef Makes Tasty Octopus Balls

Robots Evolve And Learn How to Lie

Japanese robot walks like a monkey