25 most recent entries:
Stanley headed to Smithsonian (Jun 27 2008 19:49 GMT)
Stanley, winner of DARPA's 2005 grand challenge, is on his way to be part of an exhibit at Smithsonian's National Museum. But first, Stanley is being displayed at San Jose's Tech Museum until July 17. Venture capital firm Mohr Davidow along with members of the Stanford team gathered for a reception to talk about the amazing Volkswagen Touareg and the technology that guided it through 132 miles of the Mojave desert autonomously.
CMU and GM Team Up on Driverless Vehicle Lab (Jun 26 2008 18:26 GMT)
CMU issued a press release on a collaboration between the school and General Motors Research & Development Lab. Together they will establish a new Autonomous Driving Collaborative Research Lab (CRL). A previous CRL was set up with help from GM in 2000 and renewed in 2003. According to Larry Burns of GM, "technologies ranging from electronics, controls and software to wireless capabilities and digital mapping could ultimately change how people drive and use their vehicles.
Mental Maps and Honeybee Odometery (Jun 25 2008 15:44 GMT)
Keeping and consulting internal maps is a frequent method employed by robot builders to navigate complex environments. A Nature article describes the debate over whether Honeybees, which are much smarter than robots, keep internal maps. When a honeybee finds food, it communicates the distance and direction to the hive through a complex dance. 20 years ago, Fred Dyer and James Gould placed food in a very unlikely place (the middle of a lake on a boat) to see what would happen. A specially trained bee that knew the location of the food tried to tell the hive but the other bees didn't seem to believe it.
If I Only Had Brain (Jun 24 2008 14:52 GMT)
A NetworkWorld article looks at artificial intelligence (AI) and ponders what happened to it. In 1965 Herber Simon said AI was 20 years away. In 1967 Marvin Minsky said it was one generation away. So where it is? Self aware, learning, thinking, feeling machines have turned out to be a lot harder to build than anyone thought (in part because understanding natural intelligence has taken a lot longer than anyone thought).
Random Robot Roundup (Jun 23 2008 16:13 GMT)
Scott Broock writes, "This is a fun video about Robot Village in NY that you guys might be interested in". Sebastian Tyl is the first to report the little robot tribute included in the new Mozilla Firefox v3 browser. If you have it, type "about:robots" in the address bar and see what you get. If you haven't upgraded yet, take a look at the screen grab.
Robots: A Robot Fly at Harvard and at the MoMA (Jun 20 2008 12:03 GMT)
In the second episode of Robots, the podcast for news and views on robotics, we interview Rob Wood, founder and director of the Harvard Microrobotics Lab. He gives us an insight into work on his robotic fly, which has been buzzing around the web for the past year. Outside the web Wood's fly has touched down in the MoMA as part of an exhibition on Design and the Elastic Mind. In the second part of this episode Paola Antonelli, the curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, explains the robot's relevance in art and design. Tune in!
A Turing Test for Consciousness (Jun 19 2008 20:38 GMT)
"Consciousness is part of the natural world. It depends, we believe, only on mathematics and logic and on the imperfectly known laws of physics, chemistry, and biology; it does not arise from some magical or otherworldly quality. That's good news, because it means there's no reason why consciousness can't be reproduced in a machine - in theory, anyway." Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi go on to say, in the IEEE Spectrum article Can Machines Be Conscious?
Animatronics Technology of 1933 (Jun 18 2008 14:43 GMT)
"Back in MY day...." (creeky voice) we built robots with plywood and steam engines. Back then, a PIC was used to break ice, and an oscillator was someone without direction. This look back at an old Popular Science magazine article by the Modern Mechanix blog shows the innards of a giant sloth created for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. He moves his head, breathes and roars using a prehistoric array of bellcranks, bellows, and even a state-of-the art electric motor controlled by a remote operator.
iRobot Wins RFP to Create Liquid Shape-Shifting Robot (Jun 17 2008 16:15 GMT)
iRobot announced that it has won DARPA's RFP for a shape-shifting chemical robot. Nicknamed ChemBot, the robot should be "soft, flexible, mobile objects that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their static structural dimensions; reconstitute size, shape, and functionality after traversal; carry meaningful payloads; and perform tasks.
$89k for a Robotic, Drive-by-Wire Ford SUV (Jun 16 2008 18:11 GMT)
Jesse G Hurdus writes, "thought I'd send some interesting news your way. Team VictorTango's base vehicle platform for the Urban Challenge (which placed third, just behind Stanford), is now being sold as a product by TORC Technologies. Of course, this is just the fully Drive-By-Wire Ford Hybrid Escape (minus sensors and A.I.), but its very cool none-the-less!
Random Robot Roundup (Jun 15 2008 18:34 GMT)
For those who were wondering about RobotGrrl, she's going to Stanford for the EPGY AI program. Our RoboGrrl story was picked up by several other blogs and, between Styrobot sales, donations, and a $1500 scholarship from Stanford, she was able to pay for the tuition. There's a good interview with RobotGrrl over at RoboJenny's blog. She has a few Styrobots left, so you still have a chance to buy one. Roland Piquepaille let us know about two new robot stories he's blogged about including NASA tests of robotic vehicles and teams of robofish.
Origami using Surgery Robot (Jun 15 2008 03:59 GMT)
Using the Da Vinci Robotic system from Intuitive Surgical, a surgeon at the Department of Telesurgery of Kanazawa University in Japan showed off its abilities and his by creating a tiny origami crane no bigger than a penny. Video. This opens up a whole new group of items that doctors can accidentally leave behind after your appendectomy or lap band surgery.
Robots, the Podcast for News and Views on Robotics (Jun 13 2008 11:01 GMT)
Following the conclusion of the Talking Robots podcast series, the follow-up podcast Robots will continue to provide a look behind the scenes of robotics in research and industry. In addition, Robots, will offer an even more in-depth view, by complementing the high-level picture given by professors running research labs with news and views from people building and programming robots at the work-bench. To discover Robots, the podcast for news and views on robotics, visit the new website. Feedback? Comments?
Talking Robots: Final episode (Jun 13 2008 10:43 GMT)
After 45 interviews with high profile professionals in robotics, nearly 200'000 downloads and a good insight on today's and tomorrow's robotics the final Talking Robots episode interviews people without a robotics background on their thoughts about robots. Following it's great success, the podcast now breaks free from it's university roots and is continued under the name Robots, the podcast for news and views on robotics. Check out the new website - and don't forget to update your RSS feeds!
Git Along Little (cyborg) Dogies! (Jun 12 2008 18:04 GMT)
A US Department of Agriculture news story describes some unusual research being done by Dean M. Anderson of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. Anderson is working with engineers at MIT to develop a "walkman-like headset" for cows. Once fitted with the new hardware, a cow would received commands controlling their movements. The headset would combine GPS data with remote commands sent from humans to guide the cows across the range and into the corral.
Ugobe secures 12,8 million dollars in additional funding (Jun 12 2008 04:41 GMT)
Ugobe, Inc., makers of Pleo the sophisticated dinosaur robot has raised another 12.8 million dollars in additional venture capital for the purpose of extending the Ugobe robot line. As written in a recent VentureBeat article, Taiwanese manufacture Hyield Venture Capital Company, a division of FoxConn Technology led this recent round of funding that included the Frontier Management Group in Shanghai, China, and Maxima Capital who launched Dell's Asian operations facilities. This brings the total funding raised by Ugobe so far to 24 million dollars.
Ping Pong Playing Robots (Jun 11 2008 16:04 GMT)
Robots capable of playing Ping Pong with humans have been around for more than 20 years. In 1988 MIT published "A Robot Ping-Pong Player: Experiments in Real-Time Intelligent Control (AI)" by Russell L. Andersson. Ping Pong is interesting to roboticists because it requires understanding of dynamic environments, accurate real-time vision, fast actuation, and intelligence to play the game with a winning strategy.
TI Engineers Develop OMAP3530 Board for FOSS Community (Jun 10 2008 22:00 GMT)
According to a LinuxDevices.com article, "A small group of Texas Instruments (TI) employees is readying a low-cost development board with an open hardware design." The embedded controller, know as the Beagle board is being developed for use with Linux. It includes TI's OMAP3530 SoC which is based on the 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 core and can deliver 1200 MIPS. They also threw in a 430MHz TMS320C60x core, an Imagination SGX 2D/3D graphics processor, 128MB of RAM and 256MB of Flash (there's also an SD slot if you need more memory).
New Robots and Robot Standards at AUVSI Conference (Jun 09 2008 16:30 GMT)
This week at the AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America conference, representatives from the AUVSI, NATO, DoD, and TTCP will meet for a day long workshop to address the need for standards in autonomous robot aircraft in the areas of airspace management, payload and sensor integration, and frequency spectrum management. More info on the AUVSI's efforts can be found at their online forum. Meanwhile, other organizations are showing off their latest autonomous robots including Warrior Aero-Marine's new GULL 36 autonomous sea plane (PDF format) and robosoft's robuLAB 10. Other vendors are hyping the latest fuel cell energy storage devices for achieving very long run times with autonomous robots.
Random Robot Roundup (Jun 06 2008 22:52 GMT)
Rog-a-matic noticed a LEGO Iron Giant robot on flickr. VIA has announced the Mini-ITX 2.0 specification which should be of interest to robot-builders as it calls for lower power consumption and more I/O. Roschler has written up a review of WowWee's latest robot, Wrex the Dawg. He's also reviewed WowWee's upcoming Tri-Bot.
Grant Imahara VEXplorer Contest Videos Posted (Jun 05 2008 16:46 GMT)
Tom Atwood of Robot Magazine writes with an update on the Grant Imahara VEXplorer Robot Challenge, "25 robot enthusiasts are competing for a first-place $5,000 scholarship on YouTube, and the videos that are the contest entries can be viewed at the VEX Robotics VEXplorer Challenge webpage. Second prize is a $2,000 scholarship, and Innovation First will give $200 gift certificates to 10 additional winners in this competition to produce a creative, different cool application using only VEXplorer kit parts and any other components that were made available to contestants via a $100 credit at www.vexrobotics.com. Use of SolidWorks in the project (a student license is included in the VEXplorer package) and good videography strengthens a contestants score when entries are judged.
Dino-MITE - New free software for Pleo (Jun 05 2008 02:41 GMT)
BAUER Independents Ltd. has released Dino-MITE, a sophisticated software package for Pleo owners that you can download from Bauer's web site. Once you connect your Pleo to the USB port of a Windows 2000 (or better) compatible computer, you can get a detailed glimpse of the internal state of your Pleo including: servo positions, nose camera view, microphone input, internal state variables and more. You also get a command window which you can use for trying out different direct commands on Pleo.
The Great Texas B9 Build Off (Jun 04 2008 21:43 GMT)
Jerry Chevalier, a member of the B9 Builders Club, recently hosted a robot building event at his home in Rowlett, Texas. In addition to B9 builders from all over the United States, he also invited R2 builders and members of the nearby Dallas Personal Robotics Group. There were lots of B9 and R2-D2 robots, some working and some under construction. Other Star Wars astromechs such as the R5 also made an appearance. There were also smaller robots, movie props, and even a working replica of the Jupiter 2 flight console.
Giant Robots Invade Pittsburgh (Jun 03 2008 15:16 GMT)
Brittnee Koebler writes to tell us about "Pittsburgh, Pa.’s summer celebration of robotics, Robot 250, a community art and technology program that is taking over the city this summer. Robot 250 is a city-wide community art and technology program that will take Pittsburgh by robots - The festival will turn Pittsburgh into a living, breathing learning lab by enabling students, families, artists and the public to build their own robots. Beginning on June 17 through July 28, visitors and native Pittsburghers will start to see gigantic robotic installations or “
Panasonic EVOLTA Robot Climbs Grand Canyon (Jun 02 2008 21:57 GMT)
In an advertising campaign, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, the maker of Panasonic products, created a blue 134 gram (5 ounce) robot that scaled a rope up the Grand Canyon. The robot ran on just two AA Evolta batteries, trying to demonstrate that the EVOLTAs are the longest lasting batteries. Unfortunately, the weather was poor and the robot is not waterproof, so they had to attempt several times before finally succeeding in scaling the 530 meters in 6 hours and 46 minutes. There is a video of the brave little robot.
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