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November 1, 2007: Rise of the machines. The Economist. "[T]his weekend the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is holding a contest for robot vehicles capable of operating on their own in busy cities (see article). What is intriguing about this competition is the sort of teams taking part. ... A similar sort of thing can be seen in the development of UAVs for civilian use. Indeed, so cheap and so easily available has the technology become that even hobbyists are making UAVs (see article). ... With luck there will be many more robotic devices to do not just dirty and dangerous jobs, but also tiresome but necessary ones, such as fetching and carrying for bedridden people. Robots can do some of these jobs better and more cheaply than humans can. But the technology's spread also brings worries. ..."
>>> Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, Military, Law Enforcement, Ethical & Social Implications, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Applications, Industry Statistics October 31, 2007: Robot Boats Hunt High-Tech Pirates on the High-Speed Seas - As maritime crime heats up, will the U.S. Navy follow Israel and Singapore’s lead to stock up on new unmanned surface vessels? And could they stop Al Qaeda? By Erik Sofge. Popular Mechanics. "For years now, law enforcement agencies across the high seas have proposed robotic boats, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as a way to help deal with 21st-Century techno Black Beards. ... This past summer, Florida-based Marine Robotic Vessels International (MRVI) unveiled a USV that emphasizes reconnaissance over firepower. The 21-ft.-long Interceptor can travel at up to 55 mph, and is designed to be piloted both remotely and autonomously. For a patrol boat, autonomous control would be a huge advantage, allowing it to traverse huge stretches of open sea, instead of having to remain within radio range of a given vessel. While the Interceptor could be fitted with a water cannon or other non-lethal offensive system, its primary mission is to serve as a sentry." October 30, 2007: Next wave of robots cheaper, smarter [video]. Associated Press. "For decades robots have been the stuff of science fiction. But the bots unveiled at the RoboDevelopment Expo in SanJose, California show how they are now becoming essential to manufacturing, technology and entertainment." October 30, 2007: New generation of robots makes its debut. People's Daily Online (China). "When the computer entered the public eye more than 20 years ago, no one would have believed how quickly the PC and internet have developed. Today, many robots such as the US's 'ROOMBA,' Japan's 'ASIMO,' France's 'NAO,' and South Korea's 'IROBI' have made their debut. Is the era of the robot approaching? ... At present, there are about 900 million robots working in factories, hospitals, mines and institutes worldwide. A new generation of robots will gradually enter the family home and quietly change people's lives. Scientists generally believe that computer technology had the most significant influence on human life in the 20th Century and robots will continue to affect human life in the 21st Century. They are no longer simply mechanical hands; the new generation of robots essentially represents an intelligent manipulation system. ... A major problem now is the way humans evaluate intelligent robots. ... French scientists pointed out that the flourishing of robot development does not only foreshadow a technological revolution; but also sends out an irrefutable invitation to mankind. As a result, humans have to reconsider their future; and move in the direction of artificial intelligence research." October 29, 2007: Is Zeno the future of home entertainment? [video]. Reported by Michael Kanellos. CNET News.com. "Low-priced humanoid robot coming in 2009. Zeno, a humanoid robot with a $300 price tag, is set to be released in 2009. CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos takes a look at a prototype and asks why this one may be different than others that have come before it."
>>> Robots, Toys, Assisitive Technologies, Applications October 29, 2007: Robot Sweeps Through Tokyo Apartment to Increase Productivity. By Toru Fujioka. Bloomberg.com. "Starting a part-time job at 65 wasn't easy for Yasuo Fukamachi. It got harder when a yellow cylinder on wheels trundled past on his first day in a Tokyo apartment building and began vacuuming the floor. Fukamachi, who wipes windows and railings for 800 yen ($6.90) an hour in the high rise, had stumbled across the winner of Japan's first Robot of the Year award. Developed by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the machine is at the forefront of a government drive to offset a dwindling workforce with technology. 'I got scared after seeing the robot,' Fukamachi said. 'I got this cleaning job because my family-owned company couldn't pay much, even to me. Now I think robots might overtake me.' Japan, the first developed country to register more annual deaths than births, is promoting robots to help increase productivity by 50 percent in the next five years. ... Set up by Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry in 2006, the robot competition attracted 152 entries. Other contestants honored by the judges included a machine to catch squid and My Spoon, a feeding device for the elderly and disabled." October 26, 2007: Mecha-morals - The ethics of artificial intelligence. By Trevor Melanson. The Ubyssey Online. "The thought that robots could be so humanlike raises important moral questions, the least of which is not how to treat them. 'It used to be that animal rights, for example, according to Immanuel Kant, were really indirect in the sense that we owed an animal a duty more because it reflected on how we as humans were,' David Calverley, a former attorney now researching bioethics, told Phoenix radio station KJZZ. 'In the last thirty years, the argument has been made that animals should be given certain rights because of their status,' Calverley explained. 'They are living beings however you want to define that it’s a very complex task. And then the question becomes if you can create a machine that emulates some of those same characteristics that we’re willing to ascribe rights to animals for, why is there a principle distinction, or should their be a distinction.' ... It seems to me that there are two ways to look at the issue of ethics and robots. On the one hand, there is the ethical, which asks us if we have a moral obligation to intelligent machines. And on the other hand, there is the practical, where we must consider if our treatment of robots will be reflected in how they treat us." October 25, 2007: Peacebots Picket Robotic Violence. By Claudia Ginanni., Bryn Mawr Now. "What do robots do in the real world? They vacuum floors, work on assembly lines, assist with laparoscopic surgery and, as of last Saturday, march for peace. ... Robot Conflict, organized by the Northeast Robotics Club (NERC), was part of Robot Day, an exhibition designed to foster local kids' interest in robotics technology. Robot Day was hosted by the Institute's Partnerships for Achieving Careers in Technology and Science (PACTS) program, which works with local middle- and high-school students. [Associate Professor of Computer Science Doug] Blank and his students organized the robotic picket line, which carried signs bearing mottos like 'Make code not war,' 'Thou shalt not press others' kill switch,' and 'Extendable arms are for hugging,' partly to give those attending the event a chuckle. But their tongue-in-cheek protest was also designed to call attention to some serious issues. As a computer scientist at Bryn Mawr and the director of the Institute for Personal Robotics in Education, Blank is deeply committed to making the academic culture of computer science more welcoming to women and other groups who are underrepresented in the field. He questions the ability of a combat model to do that." October 25, 2007: Can a Robot Find a Rock? Interview with David Wettergreen (Part IV). Astrobiology Magazine. "In the final segment of our four-part interview with David Wettergreen, an associate research professor at the Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center, he explains why it’s not so easy for a robot to find a rock. ... David Wettergreen: Yeah, distinguishing a rock from a soil is a surprisingly hard problem for a robot. AM: What’s hard about it? It seems pretty obvious to me. ... AM: Over time, the trend has clearly been toward robots that can operate more and more autonomously, that can 'reason' more and more like humans. As plans to return to the moon and possibly to send humans to Mars have developed, there’s been a renewed debate about what can be done with robots and what has to be done by people. What’s your view on this? ..."
>>> Space Exploration, Robots, Applications, Vision, AI Academic Departments (@ Resources for Students), Interviews October 25, 2007: Darpa's Robot Car Race - Gentlemen, Start Your Processors. By Michael Belfiore. Wired. "Next week, three-dozen robot cars bristling with lasers, radars and antennas will rev their engines as dawn breaks over a former Air Force base in the California desert. If all the robots behave as their programmers hope, the Pentagon's Urban Challenge race will hold about as much excitement as a round of miniature golf. But it could turn into a smash-up derby. Following a week of trials by an initial field of 36 autonomous vehicles, 20 finalists will compete for $3.5 million in the Urban Challenge on November 3, the third in a series of robot car races sponsored by the Pentagon's wild-haired research department, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Transportation, Military, Grand Challenges, Applications, Science Fiction October 24, 2007: Japan traces robots' past, future. By Tim Hornyak. The Japan Times Online. "A major robot exhibition that opened Tuesday at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo's Ueno Park presents that dream as a sweeping historical progression going back centuries. "The Great Robot Exhibition: Karakuri, Anime and the Latest Robots" brings together dozens of robots, toys, artifacts and demonstrations in what is Japan's biggest 'bot extravaganza since a hit droid-fest that was held at the 2005 Aichi Expo. The show is a compelling illustration of how robots are both science and fiction and how Japan's approach to robotics is heavily influenced by fantasy. ... The exhibition is based on three themes: real robots, imaginary robots, and karakuri. The latter were ingeniously devised clockwork dolls created when Japan was closed to the rest of the world during the Edo Period (1603-1867), and they are considered proto-robots. ... It's easy to understand how this cultural predilection for anthropomorphizing things, part of an animistic religious tradition, made it natural for Japanese to want to welcome robots, especially humanoid ones, into the workplace and home."
>>> Robots, Science Fiction, Events (@ Resources for Students) October 22, 2007: Japan stages robot Olympics [video] - Japan has held a special 'robot athletic meet' in which competing robots played football and danced. BBC.
October 21, 2007: Robot Warriors In Iraq - The Pentagon Is Looking Towards High-Tech Solutions In Effort To Reduce U.S. Casualties. CBS Evening News. "The sniper nests and IED-laced roads of Iraq have posed deadly challenges for the U.S. military. The result has been speedy development of soldiers that know nothing about fear or danger: the combat robot. "It's a tremendous capability to put a robot where you do not want to put a man," said Jim Braden, of the Army's Joint Robotics Program. Never before have robots played such a wide role in a ground war, reports CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell. Five thousand robots are working alongside U.S. forces, finding booby traps or searching for the enemy. ... The Pentagon plans to spend nearly $2 billion over the next five years on robots.... The Warrior could be in Iraq by 2009, transporting ammunition or wounded soldiers. But another robot recently sent to Iraq is lethal. It's called Swords and CBS News has learned three of these armed robots could see their first combat very soon. But the military insists it is not unleashing a mindless killing machine. A soldier must press the fire button. 'You need a man in the loop,' said Braden. ... But the ability for robots to think for themselves - what designers call 'autonomy' - may not be far away."
>>> Robots, Military, Autonomous Vehicles, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications, Industry Statistics October 21, 2007: Stanford team getting ready to take Junior out for a drive. By Matt Nauman. The Mercury News (SiliconValley.com). "Junior, a Volkswagen Passat station wagon, will compete this week as the Stanford Racing Team's entrant into the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Driving it will be, uh, itself - it's a robotic vehicle. Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford computer professor, again heads the effort that resulted in a $2 million victory in a similar event in 2005. This time, however, instead of a run across the Southern California and Nevada desert, the autonomous vehicles from 36 teams must deal with other traffic, obey traffic laws, merge and park. Although the purpose of the event is to foster development of unmanned vehicles for the military, Thrun thinks robotic vehicles eventually can make highways safer and less congested, and even improve the environment. He talked to Mercury News Staff Writer Matt Nauman last week. Here is a transcript of their conversation. Q: What was the significance of winning the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and how has all the fanfare affected you and the team? ... Q: Aren't robots better drivers than humans? ... Q: How significant are autonomous vehicles in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence? And how close are they to commercialization?A: Cars are a great opportunity for artificial-intelligence research to make advances. Many of the issues addressed by artificial intelligence are found in traffic, like scene research, understanding what's out there. Clearly that's something that happens in traffic. How close to commercialization? My guess is that in about six to eight years' time, we'll have technology that actually improves the performance and reliability of driving. I think the way the commercialization will go is that we'll have driver assistance systems that help people, but people are still in charge. They won't be completely autonomous for the near future. Q: How successful have robots been? ... Q: Will robot cars improve our lives and the world?"
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Military, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications, Interviews October 19, 2007: 'Robotic rampage' unlikely reason for deaths. By Tom Simonite. NewScientist.com news. "Nine South African soldiers died and eleven were injured last Friday during a live-fire exercise when an anti-aircraft gun went out of control. But, contrary to some reports, the tragic accident was not the result of an automated or robotic weapon going out of control, a defence expert says. ... Blogs and other online news sources have suggested the incident may be due to software problems, highlighting the danger of automated weapon systems. But Jim O'Halloran of defence publication Jane's Land-Based Air Defence says the incident is more likely the result of a simple mechanical failure."
>>> Robots, Military, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications October 18, 2007: Newsmaker - DARPA sees inspiration as trophy of robot race. By Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. "For Tony Tether, an upcoming race of robot cars isn't just about saving lives in the military. It's also designed to inspire a generation of technologists. As director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. government's military research and development arm, Tether pioneered a series of driverless challenges that have wowed the public and four-star generals alike. ... He was appointed director of DARPA in 2001. CNET News.com talked to Tether ahead of the Urban Challenge, the third in DARPA's series of robot races, which will award $2 million to the winner. The finals will take place November 3 in Victorville, Calif. Q: We're getting close to the Urban Challenge, and you've witnessed all of the others. So how do you suspect this one will vary from the others? ... What will be the hardest thing about the course, without giving anything away? ... So what do you think has been accomplished between the second and now? Tether: I think the thing that's really been accomplished is that these vehicles have learned to recognize not only fixed obstacles, but obstacles that are moving. ... Can you tell us how this challenge came about? [Tether:] The autonomous vehicle really came about for two reasons. One was that it's a serious mission for the military and that if we can reduce the number of people who are driving convoys in a place like Iraq or Afghanistan, we would definitely reduce the infrastructure to take care of those people. The second reason is that we are worried here at DARPA about the food stock: that the kids today in the United States don't seem to be going into engineering and science like they used to. ... What are the top three advances to come out of DARPA in the last five years would you say? ..." October 17, 2007: Next-Gen Robots Will Be Big For Holidays - High-Tech Robotics Come In Toy Packages. By Gregg Geller. WCBSTV.com. "Next generation robots will be a big hit this upcoming holiday season. Robots at this year's Digital Life Expo came in many shapes, sizes and prices, and with varying capabilities. What became clear was that no matter what you budget or desires for a new robotic toy, something is available for everyone." Videos of the robots can be accesed via links in the article. October 11, 2007: Researcher - Humans will wed robots. United Press International. "The University of Maastricht in the Netherlands is awarding a doctorate to a researcher who wrote a paper on marriages between humans and robots. David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher at the college, wrote in his thesis, 'Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners,' that trends in robotics and shifting attitudes on marriage are likely to result in sophisticated robots that will eventually be seen as suitable marriage partners."
>>> Robots, Ethical & Social Implications, The Future October 10, 2007: Rise of the robots. Reuters news video report by Joanna Partridge. "The robot 'ASIMO' has been developed by Honda and is being used in research at Bielefeld University in Germany. And while the two-legged robot can already walk, dance and carry objects, the robot developers say they are still researching how robots can interact with humans and help us with daily chores." October 5, 2007: The next 50 years of exploration. Viewpoint by David Southwood, director of science at the European Space Agency (Esa). BBC News. "We have been in space for 50 years. It is a long time and we have certainly come a long way so far. Where exactly will we be in space 50 years from now? It is hard to say. ... Humans vs robots ... Robotic explorers, sent out on our behalf, will help us find out not just what is out there but also to address many of these questions about our Solar System. Nonetheless, there always remains the question of whether we send men and women out there with the machines. Should we send people out to the unpleasant environments we want to investigate? Isn't it better to let robots take the strain? ... However beyond our Solar System, manned exploration isn't an option. This is where robotic exploration really comes into its own." October 4, 2007: Scavenger Champion - Curious George Showcases UBC Advances in Robotic Vision. By Lorraine Chan. UBC Reports. "Jim Little looks forward to the day when robots can make more decisions on their own. Little specializes in the integration of robotics and vision systems. As the Director of UBC’s Laboratory of Computational Intelligence (LCI), Little seeks to penetrate the mysteries of machine vision, comprehension and action. ... Showing prowess in all these areas is Curious George, LCI’s robot which walked away -- or in this case rolled away -- with first prize at an international competition this July. The “Semantic Robot Vision Challenge” tested the mettle of each robot through a three-hour scavenger hunt. The competition was held in Vancouver at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference and was sponsored by the U.S. National Foundation for Science. ... Little says UBC’s past advances in robotic vision helped Curious George ace this challenge. During the early 1990s, Little invented stereo-vision mapping to enhance computer vision. ... The LCI team wrote software for Curious George to Google the Internet, generating hundreds of relevant images for each scavenger hunt item. Using this database of images, the robot was then well poised to locate the three-dimensional object as it scooted around the room. Little says he hopes to apply LCI advances to creating assistive technologies. Such devices would include wheelchairs that can navigate obstacles, or a smart house that reminds you to turn off the stove. 'These robot-human interactions will enable older people to stay in their homes and live independently as long as possible.' ... To accelerate Canada’s advances in these types of projects, Little says researchers have established a national network called ICAST (Intelligent Computational Assistive Technologies)."
>>> Vision, Robots, Assistive Technologies, Smart Houses, Competitions -and- AI Academic Departments (@ Resources for Students), Applications October 3, 2007: Robot brain makes the same mistakes as humans. By Michael Reilly & David Robson. New Scientist (Issue 2624: pages 30-31; subscription req'd). "When your software crashes, you probably restart your PC and hope it doesn't happen again, or you get the bug fixed. But not Rachel Wood. When a program she was testing screwed up a task that a 2-year-old would find easy, she was elated. The reason for this seemingly perverse reaction is that Wood's program didn't contain a bug, but had committed a famous cognitive goof identified by the psychology pioneer Jean Piaget. ... Wood's robot has a brain far simpler than a baby's. But unravelling the events that led to this human-like behaviour - something that is easier to do in a computer program than a real brain - could help improve our understanding of artificial intelligence. ... It's not the only machine that has exhibited an exclusively human flaw. Last week researchers at University College London announced that they had created a computer program that falls for the same optical illusions as a humans (see 'Shared illusions' [sidebar]). It also highlights an idea we may need to get used to: as robots develop human-like strengths, the trade-off could be that they also inherit our weaknesses. ... Wood used a form of neural program called a homeostatic network, which gives the programmer control over how the neural network evolves." October 3, 2007: Driverless Truck Lurches Out of Lab. By Dinesh Ramde. The Associated Press / available from baltimoresun.com. "If the Defense Department gets its way, vehicles like TerraMax -- about as long as a typical sport utility vehicle and almost twice as high -- could represent the future of transportation for the military's ground forces. ... Oshkosh Truck, a public company that in August projected its 2008 sales would be about $7 billion, is fielding one of 35 teams whose vehicles passed qualifying tests this year. Some teams see the competition as a way to improve automotive technology. 'It's my view that we're not just trying to win but we're also trying to advance the topic of safer cars,' said Sebastian Thrun, a computer-science professor who leads Stanford University's team. 'There are so many other great uses of this technology.' ... This year's competition is expected to be stiff. Squads from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University are among those invited to participate in an Oct. 26-31 qualifying event in Victorville, Calif., along with industry teams that include employees of Delphi Corp. and Ford Motor Co. The entrants include modified cars, pickups and SUVs."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Military, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Competitions (@ Resources for Students) October 3, 2007: A Land Rover That Drives Itself - MIT's robotic car is headed to California to compete in DARPA's upcoming Urban Challenge. By Kate Greene. Technology Review. "In an airplane hanger on MIT's campus in Cambridge last week, a team of engineering students and researchers put the finishing touches on Talos, a Land Rover that drives itself. Talos is MIT's entry in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) robotic car race, which will take place on November 3, in Victorville, CA. Known as the Urban Challenge, the race will test the ability of robotic cars from 35 different teams to obey traffic laws and drive safely in a city-like environment without human assistance. The vehicles will need to find their way to a preprogrammed destination while paying attention to lane markers, other cars, and unexpected obstacles, such as potholes in the road."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Military, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Competitions (@ Resources for Students) October 2, 2007: Spot the robot - CS prof trains robotic dogs. By Linh Nguyen. The Brown Daily Herald. "Using Nintendo Wii remotes and a ball, members of the Brown Robotics Group are 'teaching' robotic dogs to play soccer. The robots learn behavioral patterns that they will eventually be able to perform on their own, and data from the study could lead to the design of more intuitive and autonomous robots. Since 2005, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Chad Jenkins has been working on the project, which tests the premise that robots can learn human behavior through direct interaction with humans better than by being explicitly programmed."
>>> Robots, Robotic Pets October 1, 2007: Study Finds Human-Robot Attachment. By Greg Bluestein. The Associated Press / available from Examiner.com. "People give them nicknames, worry when they signal for help and sometimes even treat them like trusted pets. A newly released Georgia Tech study shows that some Roomba owners become deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and suggests there's a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house - even flawed ones. 'They're more willing to work with a robot that does have issues because they really, really like it,' said Beki Grinter, an associate professor at the school's College of Computing. 'It sort of begins to address more concerns: If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn't have to be as reliable.'" October 2007: DARPA's Robot Car Race Hits the City - 2007 Preview (with Video). By By Erik Sofge. Popular Mechanics. "It’s a mercilessly hot day in Robot City, Carnegie Mellon University’s 40-acre test site on the banks of Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River. Dozens of spectators line the bleachers overlooking a looping, two-lane test track. One of them raises his hand and asks the question on everyone’s mind: 'What are the chances that it could turn into a HAL?' The 'it' refers to Boss, the robotic Chevy Tahoe being inspected by officials from DARPA, the Pentagon’s research and development wing. ... This is a qualifying round for the upcoming Urban Challenge, a robotic car race set in a mock city. ... This year’s race, scheduled for November 3, promises to be DARPA’s most complex yet. A cross between a DMV driving test and a rally race, the event will require vehicles to merge, pass, park and generally stay out of trouble, all while trying to complete the course within 6 hours. ... I’m loaded into the back seat for what I assume will be a leisurely ride. Boss has other plans. ..." October 2007 [issue date]: A Robot Buying Spree - New orders received by North American-based robot companies rose 39% in the first half of 2007. By John Teresko. Industry Week. "Industry is buying. The evidence: New orders received by North American-based robot companies rose 39% in the first half of 2007, says the Robotic Industry Association (RIA). North American-based robot suppliers sold nearly 10,000 robots through June, valued at $563.2 million.
>>> Robots, Manufacturing, Industry Statistics, Applications October 2007: New Autonomous Vehicle Climbs Cars on the Attack (with Video). By Erik Sofge. Popular Mechanics. "It’s a chilling milestone, even for a military robot: Lockheed Martin’s MULE (Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment) has autonomously clambered over a 5-ft.-high obstacle." September 29, 2007: Robot makers - The future is now. By David Ho. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Decades later, [Colin] Angle says the age of household robots has truly arrived, and the Jetsons it's not.'In the '60s, it showed people what robots might have to offer, but it's a limited and impractical vision,' Angle said at the Digital Life technology show in New York this week. 'Say goodbye to the Jetsons, goodbye to Hollywood robots, and say hello to (perhaps a little boring) but fantastically useful robots.' Robots stole the show this year with models such as the Wi-Fi-controlled Spykee 'spy robot' from Meccano of France and toylike devices from Wowwee Robotics. ... Angle and robot experts say a hurdle for the young industry is getting people to accept robots as real-world tools, not science fiction. 'Having an actual physical moving robot, that's still pretty unusual for most people. But what people are not necessarily realizing is how that technology is creeping in in different places,' said Joel Burdick, a mechanical engineering professor and a robotics specialist at the California Institute of Technology. ... Burdick said people may not fill their homes with clearly identifiable robots, but everyday devices will gradually get smarter. As the novelty wears off, people will eventually stop using the term 'robot' to refer to these labor-saving devices, [Ayanna] Howard said."
>>> Robots, Science Fiction, Robotic Pets & Toys, Household Appliances, Applications September 27, 2007: Robot Diet Coach Keeps You in Line. Good Morning America | ABC News. "Across campus in the MIT Media Lab, Cory Kidd has been busy building his own robot, Autom. 'Autom is a weight-loss coach. So what she does is talk to you about how much you're eating and exercising. And the reason for that is we know that people who are trying to lose weight or keep off weight that they've lost who keep track of those two things are more likely to be successful,' said Cory Kidd, robot inventor. Autom helps people stick to their diets by verbally asking dieters to input data about what they ate on a touch screen. The robots then provide encouragement and advice. Automs are making test runs now in Boston-area homes. ... And the Autom already has a host of fans, singing its praises. Amna Carreiro lost 9 pounds in eight weeks."
>>> Robots, Assisitive Technologies, Applications September 25, 2007: MacArthur Foundation Gives Out ‘Genius Awards.’ By Felicia R. Lee. The New York Times. "24 recipients of this year’s $500,000 'genius awards,' to be announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. ... 'Every class has its own tempo to it; they’re all wonderful,' Jonathan F. Fanton, the foundation’s president, said in an interview. 'There are some interesting clusters you might note. There are a lot of people creating technology for the future. Another cluster deals with people working on the frontiers of medicine, and yet another cluster comes from other countries.' Most of this year’s fellows are known primarily in their own fields, like Yoky Matsuoka, 36, a robotics researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, who creates prosthetic devices and develops rehabilitation strategies for disabled people."
>>> Neuroscience, Robots, Cognitive Science, Machine Learning, Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students) September 25, 2007: Robot dogs race to be soldier's best friend. By Will Knight. NewScientist.com news. "LittleDog was created for the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by US robotics company Boston Dynamics. And now DARPA has selected six university research teams, including ones at MIT and Stanford, to compete to develop the best algorithms for controlling the robot puppy. The agency hopes this will help identify the best adaptive strategy for moving over irregular surfaces. ... The six teams have each been given a LittleDog and a section of near-identical artificial terrain for the robot to cross. The video (top, right) shows one the robots -- CMU's LittleDog -- in action. Videos of other LittleDogs can be found here, here and here. [All 4 videos can be accessed via links in article] ... Max Lungarella, a robotics researcher at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, says the project provides a great opportunity for comparing different approaches. 'What is really interesting about the whole project is the idea of a common research platform,' he told New Scientist. 'A lot of research in robotics is done on platforms built ad-hoc.'." September 21, 2007: 'Self-aware' space rovers would be speedy explorers. By Michael Reilly. NewScientist.com news. "Robots armed with an innate sense of self and an insatiable curiosity could be the next big thing in interplanetary exploration, covering an alien terrain much faster than today's turtle-paced rovers. ... Josh Bongard of the University of Vermont, US, has designed a simulated rover that shows how to work much faster. This rover 'imagines' itself and its immediate surroundings, and heads off to explore the areas that stimulate its curiosity. The approach lets it navigate uncharted territory much more quickly without putting itself in undue danger. To simplify the challenge, Bongard created a rover that does not use sophisticated camera vision, but instead relies on just two tilt sensors to gain information about its world." September 19, 2007: Stanford University Engineers Builds New Robot Car - Doesn't Need A Driver To Cruise Around. abc7news.com. " Stanford students are developing a concept car for a contest sponsored by the Pentagon. From a distance, it looks like a normal Volkswagen Passat with a roof rack. But this car, with it's eight laser sensors, a highly accurate GPS system, and two on board computers uses artificial intelligence to drive itself. 'That even means through moving traffic and even obeying California traffic laws,' said David Orenstein from Stanford University Engineering. Meet Junior, Stanford University's entry into this years urban challenge. The Pentagon is sponsoring the contest in the desert. ... Junior and it's creators at the Stanford racing Team hope to be one of the 20 finalists at the Urban Challenge Qualifiers to be held in Victorville next month."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Competitions (@ Resources for Students) September 14, 2007: Threat detector. The Engineer Online. "Cranfield University researchers have been chosen as part of a team for the MOD’s first 'Grand Challenge' -- a national competition to design an autonomous robot that can identify, monitor and report military threats in urban areas. ... The team has just 12 months to carry out an ambitious task to produce their system, which will be comprised of two unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV)." September 13, 2007: Sebastian Thrun - Probabilistic Robotics and the DARPA Challenges. Audio podcast from Talking Robots. "In this episode we interview Sebastian Thrun who is the director of the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) in California. He tells us how he won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge along with the Stanford Racing Team and Stanley the robot car. 7 hours is all Stanley needed to find its way through 215km of California's Mohave Desert thanks to its secret ingredient: probabilistic robotics. Sebastian Thrun is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in the area of probabilistic robotics, which is concerned with perception and control in the face of uncertainty. It's all about computing the odds based on what you know and what you learn along the way." September 13, 2007: Google puts $30 million behind lunar robot. By Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. "Google on Thursday announced it has sponsored the Google Lunar X Prize, a robotic race to the moon with a purse of $30 million. The contest invites private teams from around the world to build a robotic rover capable of roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and then sending video, images and data back to Earth, among other feats. The idea behind the challenge is to urge private industry to develop new robotic and virtual-presence technology to reduce the cost of space exploration. ... The contest comes at a time when NASA is working on new spacecraft and technology to take man back to the moon within the next 12 years. At a recent artificial-intelligence conference, Peter Norvig, the former head of computation at NASA's Ames facility who is now Google's director of research, suggested that the space agency is taking the more expensive approach in trying to send astronauts to the moon and that it should focus on robotics."
>>> Robots, Space Exploration, Autonomous Vehicles, Grand Challenges, Applications September 13, 2007: Robot maker with a penchant for realism builds artificial boy. Associated Press / available from CNN.com. "At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination of five years of work by [David] Hanson and a small group of engineers, designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic companions, or social robots. ... Unlike clearly artificial robotic toys, Hanson says he envisions Zeno as an interactive learning companion, a synthetic pal who can engage in conversation and convey human emotion through a face made of a skin-like, patented material Hanson calls frubber. 'It's a representation of robotics as a character animation medium, one that is intelligent,' Hanson beams. 'It sees you and recognizes your face. It learns your name and can build a relationship with you.' ... Hanson has been recognized for his work, garnering accolades from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in 2005 and a 'best design' award at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial last year."
>>> Robots, Vision, Speech, Natural Language Processing, Science Fiction, Robotic Toys, Events (@ Resources for Students) September 12, 2007: Japan eyes robots to support ageing population. By Masayuki Kitano. Reuters UK. "It looks like a washing machine on wheels, but the bulky contraption vacuuming the hallways of a Tokyo high-rise is a robot. Japanese researchers hope that robots like this one will be the answer to a pressing question hanging over the country -- how to cope with an ageing population and a declining labour force. ... Such robots capable of operating in homes, offices and other venues outside factories are still rare even in Japan, a powerhouse in the field of robotics and home to roughly 40 percent of the world's industrial robots. ... [Isao] Shimoyama is among a group of University of Tokyo researchers who are working with counterparts from seven leading Japanese firms -- including Toyota Motor Corp, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd -- to develop robotic and information technology that will lead to a new generation of robots in the next 15 years. ... Such machines do not need to be humanoid, although robots that resemble people have some advantages, said Shimoyama, who researched humanoid droids earlier in his career. ... While safety is an obvious concern, robots also need to be sensitive to people's needs." September 6, 2007: Robot-Assisted Rescuers Seek Answers in Wake of Utah Mine Collapse - Crews sent a hastily improvised robot crawler into the Crandall Canyon mine, but it was no match for seismic activity, groundwater and other challenges. By Larry Greenemeier. Scientific American News. "As Senate hearings get underway this week to probe the accident at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah that claimed the lives of six miners and three rescuers, attempts are also being made to evaluate the performance of robotic equipment sent in to assist the failed rescue mission.... Workers, handicapped by time constraints and the continued shifting of the mountain's mass, were able to get only one mobile robot through a borehole and onto the mine's floor, where it traveled as far as seven feet from the point of entry, says Robin Murphy, director of the Institute for Safety Security Rescue Technology at the University of South Florida. The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration, charged with overseeing all rescue and recovery operations in the aftermath of the August 6 cave-in, asked the Institute's Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue for help shortly after the accident. ... Murphy hopes that lessons learned at Crandall Canyon will be incorporated into any standards that the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, develops for future rescue robotics. Since every disaster is different, the best robotics designs give rescuers the most flexibility, she says, adding, 'You never get it all right, even if you think you know what's down there.'" September 5, 2007: Zeno Could Be Next Robot Boy Wonder. By Lance Ulanoff. PC Magazine. "David Hanson -- the genius inventor, father of 'Frubber' life-like robotic skin, and the man who brought us a robotic Albert Einstein head -- today introduced a prototype of what could become the next must-have personal robot. You can visit the Zeno web site www.zenosworld.com (editor's note: the site's URL isn't live yet, but should be available in time for Wired's NextFest) to see the first videos of Hanson's latest creation: a 17-inch-tall, 4.5-pound humanoid robot boy named Zeno. The prototype, which will have a formal unveiling at Wired Nextfest in California next week, is described as an intelligent 'conversational robot' and will ultimately be part of Hanson's 'Robokind' line of personal, interactive bots. ... Hanson has high hopes and big ambitions for Zeno. 'We're combining the best artificial intelligence with this theater for fiction so that the way that it's crafted the artistry makes the robot seem like it's more intelligent. It turns robotics into an art medium.'" September 3, 2007: Robot boats in ocean race trials. BBC News. "The small, robotic boats are taking part in sea trials with scientists from universities in Canada, Austria, France, as well as Aberystwyth. ... Called Microtransat 2008, the challenge was conceived by academics in Aberystwyth and Toulouse, France, and it is thought to be the world's first transatlantic race for such boats. ... Dr Mark Neal from the department of computer science at Aberystwyth came up with the idea for the race. He said: 'The aim of the race is to stimulate the development of autonomous sailing boats. This may seem esoteric and trivial, but there are large numbers of applications that would benefit greatly from robot sailing boats.' Dr Neal said next year's boats must be 'fully autonomous', self-sufficient in terms of energy and no longer than four metres in length." September 2007: Gun-Toting Ground Robots See Action in Iraqi Streets. By Stew Magnuson. National Defense Magazine. "The U.S. Army quietly entered a new era earlier this summer when it sent the first armed ground robots into action in Iraq. So far, the robot army’s entry into the war has been a trickle rather than an invasion. Only three of the special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system (SWORDS) have been deployed so far. ... Whether SWORDS and other armed robots become effective weapons remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is moving forward with dozens of other robotics programs -- from the now ubiquitous surveillance drones to ground robots that perform security and logistics duties. SWORDS could be the first step leading to a larger 'robot army.' ... [John] Saitta said until the day artificial intelligence can accurately identify targets, the military can’t take the human out of the equation. 'There are times in a combat environment -- particularly urban areas where not everyone is a bad guy -- there should be someone making the decision to pull that trigger.'" September 2007 [issue date]: Where Will the Next 50 Years in Space Take Us? Popular Mechanics. "Expert Opinions For our current cover story, which commemorates the first 50 years of spaceflight by looking ahead to the next 50, PM asked leading thinkers from Buzz Aldrin (a robot fan) to Arthur C. Clarke (he wants a sub-orbital joyride) where they thought the half-century ahead could lead. Check out their predictions...."
>>> Space Exploration, Robots, The Future September 2007: Swimming to Europa - A robot designed to explore Mexican sinkholes is pointing the way to Jupiter's watery moon. By Jean Kumagai. IEEE Spectrum Online. "Their goal is to field-test one of the most intelligent and agile underwater robots ever crafted, a possible predecessor of a machine that might someday swim the vast, ice-crusted ocean of Jupiter’s mysterious moon Europa. Called DEPTHX, for DEep Phreatic THermal eXplorer, the 1.3-metric-ton machine can maneuver freely, draw detailed, three-dimensional maps of its watery surroundings, and collect solid and liquid biological samples as it senses changing conditions in its environment. Most important, it does all that without any guidance from human operators. Such autonomy would be essential if the robot ever does swim on Europa -- which may be warm enough, thanks to geothermal activity, to have given rise to some sort of life. Human control of a robot sub that far away isn’t an option: ... DEPTHX is the brainchild of Bill Stone. ... Of the countless engineers who as children read the fictional adventures of Tom Swift and dreamed of becoming the fearless explorer-inventor, Stone is arguably the one who actually did it. ... Autonomy also means the robot has to decide on the fly where and whether to gather biological samples. The machine starts by characterizing its surroundings. ... The robot then 'trains' itself by taking a baseline water sample. The liquid is inspected under an onboard microscope, and a subroutine counts any moving objects (likely micro-organisms), tracks their paths, and measures their speed. Another subroutine tells the robot’s video camera to take a baseline reading of the cenote’s slime-covered walls, measuring their color, intensity or saturation, and texture. The result of each subroutine is a statistical classifier...." August 30, 2007: Robot's search and rescue. The Sydney Morning Herald. "Robbie 8 was developed by German information technology students with the long-term goal to help rescue earthquake victims. It is also a world champion. Robbie came top of its category in the July RoboCup in Atlanta where nearly 300 teams from 33 countries competed in the annual showcase of artificial intelligence at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Students at the University of Koblenz-Landau spent more than two years developing Robbie 8, which is designed to work independently by using real-time reasoning unlike other rescue robots that operate by remote control." August 27, 2007: Toyota, Sony working together in robotics. By Yuri Kageyama. The Associated Press / available from TheStar.com / also available from USAToday.com. "Toyota and Sony, two of Japan's biggest technology names, are getting together in robotics, both sides said today, to develop an innovative, intelligent, single-seat vehicle. But don't expect Toyota Motor Corp. to resurrect Sony's now defunct Aibo dog robot -- as some devoted robot fans may be hoping. Sony Corp.'s technology for Aibo and the childlike Qrio is still being kept in-house at the Japanese electronics and entertainment company, said Sony spokesman Tomio Takizawa. ... Toyota has shown a futuristic-looking single-seat vehicle called i-swing at various events. The automaker, on track to beat General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest as soon as this year, has also shown humanoids that can walk and play a trumpet. Also today, Toyota is introducing as a guide at its showroom at headquarters TPR-Robina, a womanlike robot-on-wheels it has developed." August 27, 2007: USF robotics experts help in search for Utah miners. The Associated Press / available from ABC Action News. "A team of Florida robotics experts are helping with the search for six men trapped inside the collapsed coal mine in Utah. ... Robin Murphy is the director of the Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue at the University of South Florida. She says her camera's ability to obtain images in the mine is a long shot. ... The camera is similar to one used to search the wreckage of the World Trade Center in New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attacks."
>>> Hazards & Disasters, Robots, Applications; also see Could Robots Replace Humans in Mines? August 21, 2007: Rock sampler. The Engineer Online. "Autonomous systems developed for ESA’s ExoMars rover, which will allow it to analyse Martian terrain and identify the best point on rocks to drill for samples without need for human intervention, could treble the speed at which the rover can collect a sample, compared to previous Mars rovers. ... 'This system allows the rover to do more than find flat areas to drill. The versatility of our system and its ability to pinpoint the best site to take samples, even from complex micro-features on rocks, could be vital when looking for evidence of exobiology,' said Dr Dave Barnes, a Reader in Space and Planetary Robotics at the Computer Science Department at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. ... ExoMars, which is scheduled to launch in 2013, is the first mission in the European Space Agency’s Aurora programme to explore Mars and the Moon." August 18, 2007 [issue date]: Robots surf the web to learn about the world. By Michael Reilly. New Scientist (Issue 2617: pages 22 - 23; subscription req'd). "Just as you might run a Google image search to see what a Buddha's hand citron looks like, so robots, and computer programs, are starting to take advantage of the wealth of images posted online to find out about everyday objects. When presented with a new word, instead of using the limited index it has been programmed with, which is the conventional method, this new breed of automatons goes online and enters the word into Google. The robot or software uses the resulting range of images to recognise the object in the real world. ... To test the idea, last month [Paul] Rybski, together with colleague Alexei Efros, organised the first Semantic Robot Vision Challenge at the annual conference of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in Vancouver. Four teams took part, entering one robot each. The robots were given a list of 20 objects, including a DVD, a CD case, a banana and a calculator, that would be strewn across tables and chairs in a 6-metre-square area. The robots were allowed one hour to search the internet for images that were relevant to the words on the list and to analyse them. After that, they had to set out in search of the items. ... Curious George ended up winning, by identifying seven of the 20 objects, including distinguishing between a red bell pepper and a red plastic cup, which had been deliberately added to cause confusion." August 17, 2007: Chris Melhuish - Energy Autonomy. Talking Robots podcast. "In this episode we interview Chris Melhuish, who is the director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of Bristol and the West of England in the UK. Whether for your iPod or robot, we all crave for a better energy autonomy. Batteries, solar panels and gas tanks are the usual, but what if machines could digest bugs or waste to get on the move? Chris Melhuish presents the fly-eating EcoBot, artificial gills for underwater robots and the technology behind Microbial Fuel Cells. The question now is whether these robots will be begging for food or capable of autonomously foraging for it in their environment (SlugBot). So... why don't we have humanoids sitting in our restaurants yet?" August 17, 2007: LawnBott - a Roomba for your backyard? This robotic lawnmower can come out to work while you're away. By Clayton Collins. The Christian Science Monitor. "Don't like to mow during the dog days? The electric LawnBott -- a device from Paradise Robotics that looks like the child of R2D2 and a tiny Ferrari -- can roam a yard solo, its mulching blades whirring quietly, then dock and recharge until its timer awakens it." [Watch the brief video report in the sidebar.] August 15, 2007: In the next war, maybe, no drivers will be needed - In the fight against roadside bombs, two Twin Cities companies helped create a car that drives itself. By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo. Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com). "Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices have become one of the greatest threats to U.S. troops traveling the roads in Iraq, causing more than 40 percent of U.S. military fatalities. The U.S. military wants to reduce that risk by using robotic vehicles to ferry supplies by themselves without humans at the steering wheel. Comtrol Corp., a Maple Grove company that makes computer-routing equipment, teamed up with the Bloomington-based subsidiary of a German company, Sick AG, that makes laser measurement sensors, to bring the robotic car of the future closer to reality. They are participating in a contest sponsored by DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which created the forerunner of the Internet in the 1960s - to develop a robot vehicle that can handle complex situations, like those dealing with traffic and the hazards of war. ... It's science fiction getting tailgated by science fact. Although robo-cars won't be on your street for another 20 years, maybe, company officials say, military officials have a tighter deadline: They want their own robot vehicle on the road within eight years. 'Hopefully by 2015, a good percentage of the Humvees and convoy vehicles will be autonomous,' said Bradford Beale, Comtrol's vice president. ... Comtrol and Sick have been involved in the contest before, but this year they are teaming up - along with several other companies - to co-sponsor North Carolina State University's entry, the Insight Racing Lotus Elise." August 15, 2007: Spelman team makes point with robotics. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (ajc.com). "After watching college graduate students struggle to score in an international robotics competition, the women from Spelman College -- led by a first-year student -- knew they were in the big leagues. The premise of the 11th annual RoboCup, sponsored by the RoboCup Federation, seemed simple enough: Get off-the-shelf, programmable robotic dogs to recognize and pass a soccer ball. Advanced techniques would have teams work to block and score goals against an opposing team. But the experiments in artificial intelligence from some of the 16 teams, from Turkey to Japan to China, that preceded them showed that the mechanical pups didn't always have enough minds of their own. ... After all, it was hope -- and a sense of purpose -- that brought [Andrew Williams] to Spelman in the first place to become an associate professor of computer and information sciences. ... Three years ago, he was a faculty member at the University of Iowa who loved teaching but who longed to help African-Americans reach their full potential. ... He settled on Spelman and Atlanta as a place to raise his three children. That first year [2005], he worked with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to become fluent in the appropriate programming language and set off to find interested students.... The Spelbots submitted technical data and a video and became the first all-female team and the first from a historically black school to qualify for the competition, selected as one of 24 teams from 33 who applied."
>>> Competitions -and- Academic Departments -and- Diversity -and- Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Robots, Resources for Educators; also see this related article August 11, 2007 [issue date]: Robots to revive dying dance routines. New Scientist (Issue 2616: page 23; subscription req'd). "Humanoid robots could one day serve as prancing libraries of long-forgotten dance routines - able to reproduce them for curious audiences without a moment's rehearsal. It's the latest approach to preserving traditional folk dances as the people skilled in performing them gradually die off. The idea comes from Shin'ichiro Nakaoka and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo, Japan. They used video motion-capture systems to record the movement of a dancer performing a Japanese folk routine called the Aizu-Bandaisan." [Video available via link in article.]
>>> Robots, Applications August 10, 2007: Advance of the homebot - US inventors of personal robots reveal how close their homebots are to providing help in the home. Click, BBC's technology programme, presented by Spencer Kelly. "Countries like Japan and South Korea are synonymous with robots. There, domestic machines have started to make inroads. In the West, the homebot industry is years behind. But there are people with a mind to change that. 'I think you'll see more robots in the service industry, more things in handicapped and elderly care,' said Bob Allen of OLogic. ... Mr Allen has demonstrated his prototypes at various shows, hoping to get big business to back his ideas. He has already persuaded one genius to join him - 15-year-old home-schooled coding ace Tony Pratkanis. ... While Mr Allen may one day prove that robots like his deserve a place at the right hand of humans, the guys at the Stupid Fun Club in Berkley are studying how man is likely to react to that premise. ... The club is the brainchild of Will Wright, creator of the games SimCity and The Sims. For a long time he has been fascinated with the way humans and technology could and should interact, he explained. An example is his microwave and fridge, or Hotsy and Mr Cool, as he calls them. 'We basically gave them a personality and intelligence,' said Mr Wright. 'They have voice recognition and you have to talk to and interact with them for them to operate. The fridge won't open unless you have a conversation with it. Eventually they develop relationships with you depending upon how you have treated them. They may decide they like or dislike you. And when you leave they can actually talk to each other and gossip."
>>> Robots, Assisitive Technologies, Smart Rooms & Household Appliances, Vision, Neural Networks, Speech, Natural Language Processing, Applications August 10, 2007: Robot vehicles take on tough jobs. By Laura Smith-Spark. BBC News. "Got a destination too dirty or dangerous for a person to want to go there? The day could soon come when a robot vehicle takes humans' place as a matter of course. ... Some of the latest advances have been on show at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Washington DC. ... One pioneering ground vehicle on display, developed by General Dynamics Robotic Systems, will be among the first semi-autonomous vehicles to be produced for the military. Designed for use in sensitive areas such as a large ammunition compound, the MDARS machine can use data to choose its own routes, drive itself and even 'talk' to the locks on bunkers to check they have not been tampered with. ... The same semi-autonomous technology may in the future be transferred to a robust vehicle for use in combat situations, replacing current machines which must be remote controlled by human operators. ... The military is also operating hundreds if not thousands of small unmanned planes in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... While many unmanned vehicles are designed for military use, increasingly companies are also looking to tap into civilian commercial markets. ... 'The general idea is that it's robotics to assist people, not to replace people,' [said Mr Dewer Donnithorne-Tait]." August 9, 2007: Could Robots Replace Humans in Mines? By Eric Weiner. NPR. "Why do human beings still risk their lives burrowing miles under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the world? It's an increasingly urgent question, given the recent high-profile mining accidents in Sago, W.Va., and Huntington, Utah. A small corps of engineers and robotics experts envision a day in the not-too-distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work, and even help rescue trapped miners, like the six men trapped in a mine in Utah. ... Robotic technology, in particular, holds much promise, [Davitt] McAteer says, especially when it comes to mapping mines and rescuing trapped miners -- the special operations of the mining industry. Robots can go where humans dare not tread:.... One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie-Mellon University's Robotics Institute. It was called Groundhog and it looked like a golf cart on steroids. ... The latest prototype is called Cave Crawler. It's a bit smaller than Groundhog, and even more advanced. It can take photos and video and has sensors mounted that can detect the presence of dangerous gases. Cave Crawler is entirely self-contained -- no tethers connecting it to the surface -- and 'learns' as it roams a mine by mapping its environment in three dimensions then following the map it has just created. ... 'None of the robots are a panacea,' says Byron Spice, a spokesman for Carnegie-Mellon. 'You're putting them into wet, cold, hot, smoky, and all-around horrible environment. The sensors get dirty, and the robots break down."'Some experts predict that robots in mines will serve much of the same function that they do in the automotive industry. The robots do the most repetitive and dangerous jobs, but don't eliminate the need for human workers." August 9, 2007: Three books about what it means to be human -- and maybe post-human. By Bill O'Driscoll. Pittsburgh City Paper. "Three new books address our provisional status as a distinct species. Thumbs, Toes and Tears is Chip Walter's engaging, nimbly written tour through the evolution of the body parts and bodily functions that make us human. ... Walter's tale, however, leads to a ghost: the ghost of evolution yet to come. Quoting the writings of such thinkers as visionary Carnegie Mellon robotics scientist Hans Moravec, Walter (himself a CMU adjunct professor as well as a journalist), prophesies our transformation into a new species he dubs 'Cyber sapien -- a creature part digital and part biological.' ... Moravec also cameos in Almost Human, Lee Gutkind's book [Almost Human - Making Robots Think] about CMU's famed Robotics Institute and the struggle to create an autonomous robot -- one that can function without human assistance. ... Meanwhile, Eliezer J. Sternberg weighs in on consciousness with a companionable little volume titled Are You a Machine? A key question for this Brandeis University student of neuroscience and philosophy is whether consciousness can emerge from physical structures. Are our minds merely patterns, replicable in labs? Daniel Dennett (who says yes) and John Searle (who says no) are among the philosophers Sternberg surveys, all while leavening with puckish humor his considerations of famous thought-experiments about the nature of consciousness, and of writings from Descartes to double-helix co-modeler Frances Crick. The artificial-intelligence guru whom Sternberg cites is not CMU's Moravec, but like-minded Ray Kurzweil." August 9, 2007: This summer camp is all about technology. By Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. "For two weeks in August, 13-year-old Malcolm Lazarow is in a kind of hog heaven for computer gamers. One of thousands of kids attending iD Tech Camps on college campuses across the country this summer, Lazarow is here at Stanford University in a vacated fraternity house filled with desks, computers and teenage boys. It's Lazarow's third year at iD Tech camps, which he learned about from a friend. ... Kids take classes on video game design, Web design, digital video editing, programming and robotics (a new class offered this year), for a total of about six hours daily on the computer. ... [Lydia Luxama] said iD Tech boasts camp-like activities, too. During the day, kids will have water balloon fights, play dodge ball, or feast on Quiznos sandwich platters. ... Still, the iD Tech camps are sorely lacking in girls. About 80 percent of the more than 2,000 kids that will attend iD Tech camps at Stanford this summer are boys. That figure likely mirrors overall trends in the computer science industry of men versus women. But the camp's directors say they're constantly reaching out to girls to gain more interest."
>>> Summer Camps -and- Equality & Diversity (@ Resources for Students), Robots, Video Games August 8, 2007: DARPATech 2007. Tech Talk, by the editors of IEEE Spectrum. "The purpose of DARPATech seems to be a call for proposals to realize some of its most cutting-edge, impossible-to-achieve ideas. The Trauma Pod is one of those -- a portable, self-contained trauma unit for wounded soldiers on the battlefield that would require no human assistance for anesthetic administration, surgical assist, or any other function. A surgeon could remote in and perform complicated surgery, but everything else is intended to be purely automated."
>>> Robots, Medicine, Military, Applications; also see this related article August 8, 2007: When robots roam the earth - Sometime this century, artificial intelligence may become its own species. Society will need new rules to cope. The Monitor's View (Commentary). The Christian Science Monitor. "What will be the first alien intelligence with which humans come into contact? Surprisingly, it won't come from another planet. Instead, these entities will be the work of humans -- robots with an artificial intelligence that will demand new rules about their roles in society. That's the conclusion of the European Robotics Research Network, which issued a 'Roboethics Roadmap' last spring. Sometime in this century, the group figures, robots will be considered intelligent enough -- even self-aware, in some sense -- to be considered a species all their own. 'It will be an event rich in ethical, social, and economic problems,' the group concludes. ... In the United States, Reps. Mike Doyle (D) of Pennsylvania and Zack Wamp (R) of Tennessee have formed a Congressional Caucus on Robotics to look at 'this first great technology of the 21st century.' ... Robot experts like to say that intelligence is intelligence, no matter what the material form. But that doesn't provide answers for tricky ethical questions. ... Thinking about when a robot would be granted rights could help us better appreciate human rights."
>>> Ethical & Social Implications, Robots, Applications August 7, 2007: SKorea draws up code of ethics for robots. By Lim Chang-Won. AFP News Brief from France 24. "South Korea, at the forefront of the drive to develop robots which can do anything from guarding the border to caring for the elderly, is now drawing up a code of ethics for them. The nation, which has set an ambitious goal of a robot in every home by 2013, has launched a project to write what it believes will be the world's first Robot Ethics Charter. It will be released by year's end. 'We are setting rules on how far robotic technology can go and how humans live together with robots,' said Kim Dae-Won, a professor at Myongji University who heads a team of 12 scientists, doctors, psychologists and robot developers. 'A society in which robots and humans live together may come faster than we think, probably within 10 years.' ... The Korean charter will set broad guidelines to curb the use of robots for undesirable or dangerous purposes. 'Robot ethics are part of human ethics. The purpose of this charter is to find ways of coexistence between humans and robots, not to restrict the development of robotics,' Kim told AFP." August 6, 2007: Special Report - The Cutting Edge of Defense IT. Government Computer News (Volume 26, Number 20). "Technology has always been essential to military strength, but breakthroughs developed within the military often are not limited to weapons. This special report introduces some of the Pentagon’s most advanced information technology projects, in the context of their relation to commercial products and battlefield necessities." [Audio is available for each article.]
>>> Military, Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Transportation, Cognitive Science, Grand Challenges, Applications August 2, 2007: First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq (Updated). Wired's Danger Room Blog by Noah Shachtman. "Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any warzone -- the machines are carrying guns. After years of development, three 'special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system' (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots 'haven't fired their weapons yet,' Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. 'But that'll be happening soon.'" The update includes a link to a video of SWORDS in action. August 2007: Robots, Incorporated - Microsoft's best and brightest are quietly trying to bring robotics into the mainstream. By Steven Cherry. IEEE Spectrum Online. "Software pundits and tech analysts can be forgiven for overlooking Microsoft's new robotics group. ... Yet this tiny group of elite software engineers, housed in a small set of open offices known as the 'Broom Closet,' handpicked by a 26-year company veteran who has the ear of Bill Gates, and tucked into a tiny corner of the company's research budget, has put together a set of tools that may bring robot manufacturers under one roof, the way Windows did for most PC makers. Indeed, future versions may someday find their way into more machines than Windows did -- and be just as lucrative. Microsoft's eventual plan is to charge users US $399 to license up to 200 copies of the software components that go into a commercial robot. ... Good robotics programming is far harder than writing a typical application for personal computers. Each component is expected to act autonomously and react to complicated events in the world of a kind that a printer or mouse never has to deal with. Robotics Studio, released in December, aims to handle much of that complexity for robot programmers. ... An enhanced version, previewed in April, will be used this fall in computer-science and engineering classes at Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and other schools. And it's already being tested by a variety of manufacturers, from makers of the tiny iRobot units to Kuka Robot Group, in Augsburg, Germany, which in May released the first robot able to lift 1000 kilograms. ... Today's $11 billion robot sector -- mostly industrial robots -- will double by 2010, according to estimates by the Japan Robot Association, and it should exceed $66 billion by 2025. Most of the growth will be in nonindustrial applications -- especially, analysts say, in areas such as toys, transportation, and health and senior care. ... The International Federation of Robotics predicts that 5.6 million robots for domestic, entertainment, and leisure applications will be sold from 2006 to 2009.... The idea for the robotics group came from several different sources. ... The message to Gates was clear: go anywhere in the world, from Germany to Korea, and there's an excitement, an anticipation that something is happening with robots. They're a powerful attractor for students and everyone else. And concurrent, distributed programming on multicore multiprocessors was the new, disruptive technology that was going to take robots out of their largely industrial settings and put them everywhere. Once Gates decided to involve Microsoft in robotics, the next step was to figure out how." July 31, 2007: Robots battle for military prize. By Jonathan Fildes. BBC News. "For two weeks during the summer of 2008, an army of autonomous robots will march across the Wiltshire countryside. The machines will compete in the UK Ministry of Defence Grand Challenge, a competition to find new technology to support ground troops in urban areas. Fourteen teams have now been picked as finalists to go head to head in a range of trials next year. Winning designs include a swarm of miniature helicopters and a host of sensor-laden unmanned aerial vehicles. ... The competition, carried out in August 2008, will focus on the urban environment and will be carried out at Copehill Down, an army training centre on Salisbury Plain."
>>> Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, Military, Grand Challenges, Applications July 30, 2007: More Than Meets the Eye. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC, New York Public Radio. "Robots with artificial intelligence have been a science fiction staple for decades, but now some researchers might be close to making them a reality. New York Times contributing writer Robin Marantz Henig and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Rodney Brooks describe new machines that can make eye contact, read social cues, and even help out around the house. Are they too good to be true? Read Henig's article, 'The Real Transformers.' Weigh in: What would you like a robot to do?"
>>> See the referenced article below; AI Overview, Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Robots, Machine Leaning, Nature of Intelligence, Emotion, Applications, Interviews July 29, 2007: The Real Transformers - Researchers are programming robots to learn in humanlike ways and show humanlike traits. Could this be the beginning of robot consciousness -- and of a better understanding of ourselves? By Robin Marantz Henig. The New York Times Sunday Magazine (cover story). "I was introduced to my first sociable robot on a sunny afternoon in June. The robot, developed by graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was named Mertz. ... At the moment, no single robot can do very much. The competencies have been cobbled together: one robot is able to grab a soup can when you tell it to put it on a shelf; another will look you in the eye and make babbling noises in keeping with the inflection of your voice. One robot might be able to learn some new words; another can take the perspective of a human collaborator; still another can recognize itself in a mirror. Taken together, each small accomplishment brings the field closer to a time when a robot with true intelligence -- and with perhaps other human qualities, too, like emotions and autonomy -- is at least a theoretical possibility. If that possibility comes to pass, what then? Will these new robots be capable of what we recognize as learning? Of what we recognize as consciousness? Will it know that it is a robot and that you are not? ... [Cynthia] Breazeal realized how complicated it was to try to figure out what, or even whether, Kismet was feeling. '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?' ... Robot consciousness is a tricky thing, according to Daniel Dennett, a Tufts philosopher and author of 'Consciousness Explained,' who was part of a team of experts that Rodney Brooks assembled in the early 1990s to consult on the Cog project. In a 1994 article in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Dennett posed questions about whether it would ever be possible to build a conscious robot. His conclusion: 'Unlikely,' at least as long as we are talking about a robot that is 'conscious in just the way we human beings are.' But Dennett was willing to credit Cog with one piece of consciousness: the ability to be aware of its own internal states. ... Robot consciousness, it would seem, is related to two areas: robot learning (the ability to think, to reason, to create, to generalize, to improvise) and robot emotion (the ability to feel). Robot learning has already occurred, with baby steps, in robots like Cog and Leonardo, able to learn new skills that go beyond their initial capabilities. But what of emotion? ... Some believe that emotion is at least theoretically possible for robots too. Rodney Brooks goes so far as to say that robot emotions may already have occurred -- that Cog and Kismet not only displayed emotions but, in one way of looking at it, actually experienced them. 'We're all machines,' he told me when we talked in his office at M.I.T. '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? ... 'I want to understand what it is that makes living things living,' Rodney Brooks told me. At their core, robots are not so very different from living things. 'It's all mechanistic,' Brooks said."
>>> AI Overview, Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Robots, Machine Leaning, Nature of Intelligence, Emotion, Applications July 26, 2007: An Emotional Cat Robot. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. Technology Review. "Scientists in the Netherlands are endowing a robotic cat with a set of logical rules for emotions. They believe that by introducing emotional variables to the decision-making process, they should be able to create more-natural human and computer interactions. 'We don't really believe that computers can have emotions, but we see that emotions have a certain function in human practical reasoning,' says Mehdi Dastani, an artificial-intelligence researcher at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. By bestowing intelligent agents with similar emotions, researchers hope that robots can then emulate this humanlike reasoning, he says. ... In addition to improving interactions, this emotional logic should also help intelligent agents carrying out noninteractive tasks.... 'It's a heuristic that can help make rational decision-making processes more realistic and much more computable,' says Dastani. ... Other robots have been designed to mimic human expressions. But Dastani's focus on how emotions might affect decision makes it different from many of the other projects on emotional, or affective, computing, such as MIT's Kismet robot, developed by Cynthia Breazeal. With Kismet, like other affective robots, the focus is on how to get the robot to express emotions and elicit them from people." July 25, 2007: Dogged determination leads to RoboCup victory - How does a small liberal arts college in Maine overwhelm computing legends in the sport of canine soccer? By Marsha Walton. CNN. "Bowdoin College's RoboCup captain, Henry Work, says it was a combination of programming skills, competitive spirit, and fuel from Dunkin' Donuts. ... The RoboCup competition uses soccer-playing robots to promote research in computing and artificial intelligence. The engaging Sony AIBO dogs have lured undergrad and graduate students from around the world to competitions on four continents; Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. Why use soccer to further such complex scientific goals? 'The reason for soccer is that everybody understands it. We don't have to explain that the goal is to get the ball in the goal. Everybody knows instantly,' said Tucker Balch, associate professor of computing and director of the Georgia Tech Institute for Personal Robots in Education. Georgia Tech hosted RoboCup 2007. ... The aspect of the game that becomes almost eerie for non-scientists is that once the game starts, the humans cannot give commands, but the dogs 'talk' to one another. ... And, as the creators of RoboCup, the Robot World Cup Initiative, realized when it premiered in 1997, the challenges faced by a robot playing soccer can translate to many other fields, such as manufacturing or medicine. ... About 300 teams, with 1,700 participants representing 37 countries, took part in all divisions of RoboCup 2007." July 24, 2007: Evil HAL 9000 or Benevolent R2D2 - The Future of A.I. [podcast]. Patt Morrison's live one-hour public affairs show with guest host, Jon Beaupre. 89.3 KPCC-FM , Southern California Public Radio. "Our most vivid images of artificially intelligent machines tends to come from science fiction movies, and they usually fall into two categories: evil robots run amok, bent on destroying mankind or wise androids assisting and saving humans. The reality of A.I. machines is a little more complex, but the advancements are coming in leaps and bounds with ever more intelligent and autonomous systems that are being designed for such tasks as caretakers for children and the elderly, independent transportation vehicles and war making. There are still many ethical and safety concerns that must be addressed. How long before we can all expect to have our own A.I. robot friend in our homes?" Jon's guests are:
>>> AI Overview, Ethical & Social Implications, Robots, Science Fiction, Grand Challenges, Autonomous Vehicles, Filtering, Information Retrieval, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Poker, Checkers, Games & Puzzles, Applications July 23, 2007: Search and rescue. By Bettina Grachtrup. Deutsche Presse-Agentur / available from The Sydney Morning Herald. "Robbie 8 is a robot developed by German information technology students with the long-term goal of helping to rescue earthquake victims. It is also a world champion. Robbie came top of its category in the recent RoboCup in Atlanta where nearly 300 teams from 33 countries competed in the annual showcase of artificial intelligence at the Georgia Institute of Technology. ... In the RoboCup competition in Atlanta, Robbie had 20 minutes to find his 'victims' - shop window dummies wrapped in heated blankets. Student Peter Schneider, who monitored the robot by computer, said Robbie scored most points for the map it drew of the affected region." July 21, 2007: Worried about getting old? Get a robot to help. By Erin Anderssen. Globe and Mail. "According to the 2006 Census, released this week, one out of seven Canadians is now over the age of 65 -- double the proportion half a century ago. Four million others are less than 10 years away from senior citizenship. The resulting burden on a limited group of caregivers will be immense. Young adults will be too busy keeping the economy running to tend to ailing parents. ... Their best hope may be the advent of robots who can serve as companions, nurses, drivers, household help and safety monitors for aging Canadians. And, luckily, robots are evolving just as fast as people are aging. ... Researchers around the world are fine-tuning a virtual ecosystem of robots, which may or may not look like science-fiction fantasies -- computers watching us through cameras, intelligent wheelchairs, machines with perky grins and cone-shaped bodies -- but can remember prescriptions, give directions, order takeout or just have a chat. ... The question is: Are we ready for them? Many scientists say it's no longer clunky software keeping robots in computer labs. It is the ethical and legal debate over what human beings want and expect of artificially intelligent machines once they head out into the world. ... To get an idea of just how far robotics has come in a decade, consider the RoboCup, a soccer tournament for smart machines. ..." July 19, 2007: Robotics. An In Depth report from CBC.ca News. Features include:
>>> Robots, Medicine, Manufacturing, Ethical & Social Implications, History, Science Fiction, Robots (@ Software & Hardware), Summer Camps - and - AI Courses - and - Competitions - and - Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Applications, Industry Statistics July 18, 2007: Martin Hägele - The European Robotics Market (podcast). Talking Robots. "In this episode we talk to Martin Hägele, who is the head of the Robot Systems Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, Germany. He presents the current landscape and trends in the European robotics market." July 16, 2007: Rise of Roboethics - Grappling with the implications of an artificially intelligent culture. By Lee Billings. Seed. "The close timing of these three developments [in Japan and South Korea, and an update from EURON] reflects a sudden upswing in international awareness that the pace of progress in robotics is rapidly propelling these fields into uncharted ethical realms. Gianmarco Veruggio, the Genoa University roboticist who organized the first international roboethics conference in 2004, says, 'We are close to a robotics invasion.' ... Of course, we've been grappling with the idea of physical and emotional dependence on our artificial creations since at least the time of the Romans. ... A scientific understanding of human response to social robots began with MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum's landmark experiments in 1966. ... Weizenbaum was deeply troubled by what he discovered during his experiments with ELIZA: Some of his students exhibited strong emotional connections to the program ... a phenomenon now known as the 'Eliza Effect.' ... Social scientist Sherry Turkle, the director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self and one of Weizenbaum's former colleagues, calls ELIZA and its ilk 'relational artifacts'.... [Brian] Scassellati points out that the effects of social robots move beyond the psychological; there is a sociological effect on us as a culture. 'There was a huge outcry when Sony decided not to continue producing the AIBO....'" July 16, 2007: Robots go under the seas - 2 Bay State firms' devices help the Navy clear mines from the ocean more safely and efficiently. By Hiawatha Bray. The Boston Globe (boston.com). "The REMUS 100 has gone hunting for submerged mines, the kind that could vaporize any boat in this peaceful harbor, or open up the belly of a warship in the Persian Gulf. It's the ideal task for an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV -- basically, a self-guided seagoing robot. REMUS -- the name stands for Remote Environmental Measuring UnitS -- was born from research at Massachusetts' famed Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. ... 'REMUS was the first AUV that was certified by the Navy for use as a weapon of war,' said [Christopher] von Alt. ... REMUS doesn't swim alone; in Cambridge, Bluefin Robotics Corp. produces a competing line of undersea robots, based on technology developed for the Navy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... [Y]ou can't broadcast radio signals through water, and only very simple commands can be sent through sonar pulses. Essentially, underwater robots are on their own. They must be smart enough to find their own way to their destination, carry out their missions, and then bob to the surface to transmit data or ask to be picked up. ... Both Bluefin and Hydroid have civilian customers, such as oil companies surveying the seas for good places to drill." July 14, 2007: Reseacher talks robots' past, present, future. By Derek Pivnick. The Pensacola News Journal. "Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in downtown Pensacola, has been at the forefront of developing software to allow machines to interact with humans. This technology was on demonstration Friday at Pensacola Naval Air Station. Bradshaw spoke with the News Journal about the effort to get robots to collaborate with humans. ... Q: How do you communicate with the robots? ... Q: Can these robots be used in anything other than warfare? ... Q: How long before robots take over the world? ..." July 13, 2007: Machines descend on base. By Derek Pivnick. The Pensacola News Journal. "The public got its first glimpse Friday at technology that eventually could help protect U.S. forces in harm’s way. Robots displaying the latest in artificial intelligence participated in a demonstration at Pensacola Naval Air Station’s Bravo Pier. ... The goal of the demonstration was to get the machines to become active parts of a team with their human counterparts. Some of the robots respond to voice commands and, through computer software, talk back to their controllers. ... 'A lot of this is about the artificial intelligence, making things smarter,' said Robin Murphy, a USF computer science professor. Ultimately, it will mean that machines can work more independently as they gain intelligence." July 13, 2007: Robot subs vie for top honors. CNET News.com photo gallery, captions by Jonathan Skillings. "Under water is the place to be this weekend if you're an engineering student looking for a challenge. This begoggled midshipman is sharing pool time with the U.S. Naval Academy's entrant in the 10th annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, taking place at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego. ... The robot subs--more formally, autonomous underwater vehicles--must take into account a range of factors: computer control, power management, navigation, buoyancy and hydrodynamics. ... The competition isn't limited to teams from the United States. Four universities from Canada have entered, as have the Delhi College of Engineering and Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology. There's also a team from Amador Valley High School in the San Francisco Bay Area." July 11, 2007: Robotic Farmer - Automated weeding could eventually reduce the use of herbicides. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. Technology Review. "Scientists in Denmark are developing an agricultural robot for identifying and eliminating weeds. While this might seem like a relatively easy task, it actually requires a lot of machine intelligence to pick out the weeds among the crops. The robot is still in the early stages of development, but the researchers hope that it will ultimately lead to a reduction in the amount of herbicides used by farmers and therefore cut costs. Called Hortibot, the semi-autonomous robot is a navigational platform designed to have different agricultural tools fitted to it to either mechanically remove weeds or precision-spray them with herbicide." July 10, 2007: Three-armed robot to work on space station. By David Shiga. NewScientist.com news. "A three-armed robot that could autonomously clamber around the outside of the International Space Station and help astronauts with maintenance work has successfully completed a round of tests on the ground. Eurobot is being developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) by an industrial consortium led by Thales Alenia Space, which is based in Cannes la Bocca, France. ... The robot demonstrated its ability to move around the space station autonomously by climbing hand over hand on the lab's handrails. Watch Eurobot in action (video is nine times actual speed). [Video can be accessed via link in article.] ... The robot may eventually be used for mundane tasks that the astronauts would otherwise need to do, such as putting away tools and equipment after maintenance jobs." July 10, 2007: Thai rescue robot wins again. By Apinya Wipatayotin. Bankok Post. "A Thai team which designed and built a rescue robot has won the World Robocup Rescue Championships, held in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, for the second year in a row. ... It beat 17 rival teams from eight countries, including world-class robot maker teams from the US, Germany and Japan, which won the second prize. ... The outstanding performances of the Independent robot has prompted the Defence Ministry to ask the KMITNB to produce rescue robots for military rescue operations, said Mr Jackrit [Suthakorn]."
>>> Hazards & Disasters, Competitions (@ Resources for Students), Robots, Multi-Agent Systems, Applications July 9, 2007: Using a Robot to Teach Human Social Skills. By Emmet Cole. Wired. "Children with autism are often described as robotic: They are emotionless. They engage in obsessive, repetitive behavior and have trouble communicating and socializing. Now, a humanoid robot designed to teach autistic children social skills has begun testing in British schools. ... Developed as part of the pan-European IROMEC (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions ) project, KASPAR [Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics] has two 'eyes' fitted with video cameras and a mouth that can open and smile. ... The researchers hope that the end result is a human-like robot that can act as a 'social mediator' for autistic children, a steppingstone to improved social interaction with other children and adults. 'KASPAR provides autistic children with reliability and predictability. Since there are no surprises, they feel safe and secure,' [Dr. Ben] Robins said, adding that the purpose is not to replace human interaction and contact but to enhance it. ... Using robots to interact with children is nothing new, although there's been a lot of new research lately into this kind of work. The Robota dolls, a series of mini humanoid bots developed as part of the AURORA project, have been in use as educational toys since 1997. The Social Robotics Lab at Yale is collaborating with a robotics team from the university’s department of computer science to develop Nico, a humanoid robot designed to detect vulnerabilities for autism in the first year of life." July 8, 2007: Miniature Robots Play in World's First Nanoscale Soccer Game at Atlanta Tech Contest. By Greg Bluestein. Associated Press / available from Canadian Business Online / also available from The Boston Globe: Miniature robots play nano-soccer. "Robots of all sizes have descended on the campus of Georgia Tech for the RoboCup, an international contest that pits robotic creations against one another in a range of technical challenges. But perhaps the most intriguing event was Saturday's Nano Cup, a competition hailed by organizers as the world's first nanoscale soccer game. Held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, its organizers hope to show the potential for building tiny devices that can be used in manufacturing, biotechnology and other industries. They also hope to develop manufacturing standards for the untapped field. 'If you take an ant and leave it on its own, it can't do much. But many ants can do incredible things,' said Michael Gaitan, the leader of the agency's microrobots project. 'We think the same way with microrobots. We'll have to see where it takes us. For now, it's soccer.' Five teams from the U.S., Canada and Switzerland answered the call...."
>>> Competitions (@ Resources for Students), Robots, Multi-Agent Systems July 7, 2007 [issue date]: The programmable robot of ancient Greece. By Noel Sharkey (Professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, UK. His forthcoming book is called The Tin Man). New Scientist (Issue 2611: pages 32-35; subscription req'd). "Constructing a mechanical lion that could walk, let alone present flowers to the king, can't have been a simple task back in 1515 - even for a genius like Leonardo da Vinci. How he managed this feat remained a mystery until 2000, when US robotics expert Mark Rosheim came to a surprising conclusion. ... [W]as da Vinci influenced by an earlier design? And if so, how far back in history can we trace programmable robots? In search of answers I followed the technology back through medieval Europe to the Islamic world, where I have found evidence of an even earlier programmable automaton, made in Baghdad by the brilliant 13th-century engineer Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari. ... Yet the trail doesn't stop there. It led me even further back past the automata of the Byzantine court and ancient Rome to ancient Alexandria. It was here that Hero, one of the greatest Greek engineers, constructed a programmable robot that pre-dates da Vinci's by 1500 years. ... So what exactly do we mean by 'programmable'? ..." July 6, 2007: RoboCup Kicks Off in Atlanta - Competition Spawns Technologies for Military and Consumers. By Brittany McCandless. ABC News. "Transformers may be filling the nation's movie theaters, but real-life robots from all over the world are convening in Atlanta to showcase their futuristic ability to help humans -- and to bend it like Beckham. From Iran to Ireland, Germany to Greece, nearly 300 teams from 37 countries are participating at RoboCup 2007 at the Georgia Institute of Technology, competing in events from search-and-rescue operations to robotic soccer games. The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that will beat the human champion World Cup team by 2050. 'This is truly an international event,' said Tucker Balch, an associate professor at the Georgia Tech College of Computing and general chairman of RoboCup 2007 Atlanta. ... The competition features research robotics, meaning the more than 1,700 participants from universities, high schools, middle schools and elementary schools are showcasing new technology. Balch said soccer is the game of choice because it's one of the most international games and it's easy to recognize the robot's goal. ... Real-time perception, artificial intelligence, multirobot collaboration and design principles of autonomous machines are just some of the technologies at work in a single game. 'It's driving many technologies forward all at once, even though on the surface it appears to he a simple game,' Balch said."
>>> Competitions (@ Resources for Students), Robots, Multi-Agent Systems, Vision, Military, Hazards & Disasters, Applications July 4, 2007: Rat-brained robot thinks like the real thing. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. New Scientist.com news. "A robot controlled by a simulated rat brain has proved itself to be a remarkable mimic of rodent behaviour in series of classic animal experiments. The robot's biologically-inspired control software uses a functional model of 'place cells'. These are neurons in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that help real rats to map their environment. They fire when an animal is in a familiar location. Alfredo Weitzenfeld, a roboticist at the ITAM technical institute in Mexico City, carried out the work by reprogramming an AIBO robot dog, made by Japanese firm Sony, with the rat-inspired control software. When placed inside a maze, the robot learnt to navigate towards a 'reward' in a remarkably similar way to real rodents, using landmarks to explore. ... Weitzenfeld is also working closely with neuroscientists who are experimenting with real rats. 'Our goal is to extend our current models by testing new hypotheses in robots,' he says, 'and by performing corresponding new experiments with real rats that may lead to further understandings in rat spatial memory and learning.'" July 2, 2007: CajunBot zooms ahead UL team gives demonstration for DARPA. By Marsha Sills. The Shreveport Times. "The Jeep is CajunBot II, the autonomous vehicle designed by a team of students and researchers at UL for the Department of Defense's DARPA -- or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. On Wednesday, CajunBot II showed DARPA officials what it could do. The officials will decide in a few weeks which teams will compete in its Urban Challenge on Nov. 3. The challenge was created three years ago to promote the development of autonomous vehicles that could perform defense duties -- from scouting and armed defense to delivering supplies in war zones. The team was one of 53 that DARPA officials are visiting to see which 30 will move on to the qualification event at the end of October. ... The small production crew is filming the team's success as part of a Discovery Channel Science series on the technology and teams behind these driverless vehicles. The UL team is one of 10 who will be featured for the series. Another Louisiana team -- Team Gray of Metairie, a private sector team that includes some students from Tulane University -- will also be featured." July 2007: Swarm Behavior - A single ant or bee isn't smart, but their colonies are. The study of swarm intelligence is providing insights that can help humans manage complex systems, from truck routing to military robots. By Peter Miller. National Geographic Magazine. "'Ants aren't smart,' [Deborah M.] Gordon says. 'Ant colonies are.' A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, allocating workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called swarm intelligence. ... . It relies instead upon countless interactions between individual ants, each of which is following simple rules of thumb. Scientists describe such a system as self-organizing. ... In Houston, for example, a company named American Air Liquide has been using an ant-based strategy to manage a complex business problem. ... Working with the Bios Group (now NuTech Solutions), a firm that specialized in artificial intelligence, Air Liquide developed a computer model based on algorithms inspired by the foraging behavior of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile), a species that deposits chemical substances called pheromones. ... By demonstrating the power of self-organizing models to mimic swarm behavior, [Craig] Reynolds was also blazing the trail for robotics engineers. A team of robots that could coordinate its actions like a flock of birds could offer significant advantages over a solitary robot. ... Marco Dorigo's group in Brussels is leading a European effort to create a 'swarmanoid,' a group of cooperating robots with complementary abilities ... Military agencies such as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) have funded a number of robotics programs using collaborative flocks of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, schools of torpedo-shaped underwater gliders, and herds of unmanned ground vehicles. But at the time, [Centibots] was the largest swarm of robots ever tested." THERE'S MORE ! SEE THE ROBOT NEWS ARCHIVE |
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