The Web Scene » Robot

Japan’s Robot Revolution Moves From Factory to the Home

sparky3887 — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:38:16 +0000

Japan is undergoing a revolution in robot technology as increasingly intelligent robotics make the transition from labs and factories to the outside world and everyday consumer applications. Already in use in Japan are robots that pour drinks, play pool, dance, function as elderly caregivers, clean, serve food, and provide companionship. “We see robots as media just like a mobile phone,” says Norihiro Hagita with Kyoto’s ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories. “And just like a mobile phone, robots would be indispensable in future.” A primary factor fueling Japanese robot development is the country’s shrinking workforce, especially in areas such as medical care. To fill this void, Toyo Riki of Osaka has developed several machines–one to greet visitors at hospital entrances and another to help patients with physical rehabilitation. Toyo Riki president Narito Hosomi says young people’s unwillingness to learn craftsmen’s skills is one reason why advanced robots are needed. In some cases, robots are being developed to handle dirty or dangerous jobs, such as firefighting or planting seeds in rice paddies. Meanwhile, other robots are being designed to perform repetitive tasks in homes or at restaurants. Carnegie Mellon University’s Curt Stone notes that Japan is “doing a great job on manipulation and hardware–the ability to make robots do what you want to do.”

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Japanese Researcher Unveils ‘Hummingbird Robot’

sparky3887 — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:31:10 +0000

Japanese researchers have developed a hummingbird robot that has the potential to help rescue people trapped in damaged buildings, search for criminals, or operate as a probe vehicle on Mars. Controlled with an infrared sensor, the robot can move up and down and turn right and left. The robot is about the size of a real hummingbird and has a micro motor and four wings that can flap 30 times per second. The researchers want to continue to develop the robot to make it capable of hovering in one spot in mid air, and also plan to add a micro camera by March 2011. “First, we need to learn about effective mechanism from natural life forms, but we want to develop something to go beyond nature eventually,” says Chiba University researcher Hiroshi Liu.

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Moving Video to “CAPTCHA” Robot Hackers

sparky3887 — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:25:35 +0000

Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have developed a new Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) security mechanism designed to stop computer algorithms programmed to beat current CAPTCHA technology. TAU’s Danny Cohen-Or led a research team that created video CAPTCHA code that uses an emergence image–an object on a computer screen that only becomes recognizable when it is moving. Humans are very good at identifying these types of images while computers are not. “Computer vision algorithms are completely incapable of effectively processing emergence images,” says TAU professor Lior Wolf. The researchers also are developing ways of generating hidden images in a natural background, such as an eagle or a lion in a pastoral mountain setting. “A good CAPTCHA has to be something that’s easy for people but hard for a computer,” says Cohen-Or.

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Slam Dunk for Future Smart Robots

sparky3887 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:32:24 +0000

For 30 years there has been intense research in the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) field of robotics, which is the process by which machines employ various sensors to concurrently map out their environment and ascertain their location. “SLAM is an essential building block of autonomous robots because robots, such as planetary rovers and undersea research craft, cannot be provided with an accurate map beforehand,” says Politecnico di Milano University roboticist Matteo Matteucci. “In such situations, the only solution is for them to create a representation of the environment as they go and determine their location in it by themselves.” Matteucci has led the Rawseeds project, a multi-university effort to create a novel set of free benchmarking tools so that fellow roboticists can compare SLAM strategies and algorithms against each other. The researchers launched the benchmarking process by developing a unique robotic test platform that incorporated six distinct vision, laser, and sonar sensor types, which they used to capture synchronized sensor data for SLAM. They then ran the platform in different indoor and outdoor environments, adjusting factors such as lighting conditions or the presence of people or moving objects. “Our goal was to establish a common, predefined way of measuring the performance of SLAM algorithms that differ by approach and sensors used–benchmarks that other algorithms could then be compared against,” Matteucci says. Future-generation robots could become smarter through the new benchmarks, he says.

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US and Australia Dominate MAGIC Robot Competition Short List

sparky3887 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:28:41 +0000

The organizers of the Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC) have created a list of 12 teams to develop their proposals. Ten teams will receive $50,000, and the remaining two teams have the opportunity to self-fund their projects. The U.S. Department of Defense and Australia’s Defense Science & Technology Organization are sponsoring MAGIC to encourage innovation in robotics, including next-generation military robots. “The quality of the submissions was very strong and exceeded our expectations,” says Greg Combet, Australia’s Minister for Defense Personnel, Material, and Science. The competition received 23 entries, and the final list included five teams from the United States, four from Australia, and one each from Canada, Japan, and Turkey. The list will be reduced in June 2010 to five teams, which will receive another $50,000 to complete their projects for a Grand Challenge Event that will take place in Australia in November 2010. Most of the teams are partnerships between universities and companies.

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Getting Your Robot On: Wearable Machines’ Intimate Interface

sparky3887 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:09:24 +0000

Engineers around the world are exploring all kinds of possibilities for wearable robot interfaces, from brain implants to touch interfaces. Professor Jacob Rosen and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Bionics Lab have devised a robotic arm guided by the electrical signals sent by the brain through the nerves to contract the muscles. These signals can be read by electrodes affixed to the skin in key locations above the muscles. Rosen says robot device operation via electromyograph (EMG) signals is advantageous for a number of reasons, including the fact that the method is less invasive and less costly than other sources located closer to the brain. In addition, EMG is a better alternative to simple touch interfaces because it can yield new insights about muscle physiology and improve people’s ability to simulate and anticipate specific movements. “We are trying to allow a loose-leash situation by developing software that employs algorithms that emulate the muscle physiology, also known as a myoprocessor, to predict what a muscle is going to do before it has begun to do it,” Rosen says. He is modeling the muscles to increase his wearable robots’ responsiveness to human intentions, and also is using the robots to help study how human motion works, how it goes wrong, and the best way to fix such problems. Rosen says medical applications, specifically rehabilitation, are his primary area of concentration. Rosen’s EXO-UL7 robot arm can substitute for a physical therapist, permitting the remaining muscle control residing in a damaged arm to move the whole limb plus a load by compensating for gravity.

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UWE Scientists Design First Robot Using Mould

sparky3887 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:07:31 +0000

University of the West of England scientists have created a biological robot using mold. The researchers, led by professor Andy Adamatzky, developed an amorphous non-silicon biological robot, called plasmobot, using plasmodium, the vegetative stage of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum. The project aims to design the first-ever fully biological amorphous massively-parallel robot. Adamatzky says previous research has already proven that the mold can have computational abilities. “This mold, or plasmodium, is a naturally occurring substance with its own embedded intelligence,” he says. “The plasmodium is capable of solving complex computational tasks, such as the shortest path between points and other logical calculations.” Adamatzky says the plasmobot can sense objects, span them in the shortest and best way possible, and transport tiny objects using pre-programmed directions. Plasmobots can have parallel inputs and outputs, a network of sensors, and potentially the number-processing capabilities of a supercomputer. The mold-based robot will be controlled by spatial gradients of light, electromagnetic fields, and the characteristics of its substrate material. “It will be a fully controllable and programmable amorphous intelligent robot with an embedded massively parallel computer,” Adamatzky says. He says that eventually it might “be possible for thousands of tiny computers made of plasmodia to live on our skin and carry out routine tasks freeing up our brain for other things.”

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Researchers Reveal New Robot: A Fish Called WANDA

sparky3887 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Scientists at Australia’s Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, the National Centre for Sensor Research at Dublin City University, and the Defense Science and Technology Organisation Maritime Platforms Division have developed the Wireless Aquatic Navigator for Detection and Analysis (WANDA), a robotic fish that contains a camera and can seek out and swim toward a particular object of interest. The researchers say WANDA’s real innovation is an active flexible joint tail fin that is activated through conducting polymer artificial muscles. Researcher Scott McGovern says the major advantage of the polymer materials is the ease with which it mimics the tail fin motion of a real fish. WANDA is more mobile and flexible than previous sensing systems, and its fish-like movements create better maneuverability than conventional propeller-driven devices. Conducting polymers also are more robust than the traditional materials used in similar devices. WANDA has been designed to continually swim and search for a pre-defined color and could be used to detect water quality and pollution levels in water catchments and dams. Existing systems detect pollution at certain points along the catchment, but WANDA could swim around the entire structure to provide a more thorough picture of the whole area. WANDA also is capable of inspecting water pipers that human divers cannot reach, or mapping out underwater areas.

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Robot With Bones Moves Like You Do

sparky3887 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:19:39 +0000

Human anatomy could serve as the blueprint for humanoid robots and enable them to interact with their environment in a more human manner, according to the European team behind the Eccerobot project. The researchers are building a robotic anatomy based on the way human bones, muscles, and tendons are linked together and work. The robot has plastic bones that resemble biological shapes, and the kite-line used to move them is tough, like tendons. The team uses elastic cords to give the robot’s muscles some bounce. “We want to develop these ideas into a new kind of ‘anthropomimetic robot’ which can deal with and respond to the world in ways closer to the ways that humans do,” says project leader Owen Holland from the University of Sussex. The robot also will be built with some human-like artificial intelligence.

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Nurses Open to Idea of Robots

sparky3887 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:23:19 +0000

A study performed by SINTEF for the Norwegian Association of Local Regional Authorities found that nurses and care-sector employees would welcome sensor and robot technology to help them in nursing homes and home care for the elderly. The survey found that cleaning, moving, and lifting patients are potential applications for care and nursing robots, and that the development and introduction of new technology should occur in such a way that the level of support they provide will be maintained or improved. During the survey, many of the participants were initially skeptical of using robots in elder care, but over the course of the interviews they started to imagine and mention scenarios in which robots could be of use. “It is worth noting that the staff still prefer themselves to perform tasks that currently require personal contact,” says SINTEF Technology and Society project leader Kristine Holbo. “However, they would like routine tasks such as dealing with dirty clothes to be handled by a robot.” Holbo cautions that the survey only interviewed elder-care personnel, and not the people the robots and sensors would be attending to. “We need to be sure that any devices that we introduce are functional, and have to avoid ‘pushing’ technology onto the users,” she says.

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