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June 24, 2003: Building
Robot Soldiers - Researchers are rushing to create battlefield robots
that can assist humans in combat. Michael Roger's Practical Futurist column
in Newsweek / available from MSNBC. "After years of on-again, off-again
funding of advanced robotics, the U.S. defense research establishment
is finally putting big, long-term money into military robots. ... During
this decade, military robots will probably save lives not by fighting,
but by performing some of the more mundane but still hazardous support
activities. That will cut casualties right away -- only about a third
of the servicemen killed in Iraq since May 1 have died in actual fighting.
But someday, in some army, robots will bear and fire arms on their own.
Science fiction fans may recall that the first of Isaac Asimov's Three
Rules of Robotics in his 1950 classic book 'I, Robot' was: 'A robot must
never harm a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.' In the book, that rule was ascribed to 'Handbook of Robotics,
56th Edition, 2058 A.D.'" June 23, 2003: Spy
planes steal the Paris show. By Chelsea Emery. Reuters / available
from The Economic Times. "The success of US unmanned spy planes during
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had prospective foreign buyers packing
the conference rooms at this year's Paris air show. ... 'In the discussions
we've had with international governments, it would appear that there's
a much more serious interest and a better understanding of what Global
Hawk could do,' said Carl Johnson, vice president of the Global Hawk programme
at Northrop Grumman. Unmanned technology 'is the most exciting place to
be in aerospace right now.' ... Some defence industry executives attending
the Paris air show even suggested that Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter, which is still being developed, may be the last manned
fighter plane needed for battle. But others were adamant that artificial
intelligence will never totally replace humans, especially in combat." June 17, 2003: I,
robot. Can we create machines in our own image and likeness? By Chip
Walter. The Boston Globe (page C1). "When Asimo, Honda's latest humanoid
robot, recently walked on stage waving to the crowd as part of its North
American educational tour, the audience cheered and waved back as if it
were a live celebrity rather than a piece of machinery. But then, why
not? Machines that look and act like us have been part of our imaginary
landscape since 1927 when Futura, the sultry robot in Fritz Lang's film
classic, 'Metropolis,' first stepped into the public eye. ... In the end,
the underlying argument for creating humanoid robots is that if they are
to become truly useful, they have to be capable of operating independently
in a human world. 'Our environment has been created around the physiology
of humans,' said Keeney of Honda. 'It's full of stairs and doorknobs,
light switches, counter tops, and cupboards. . . . It's got to work in
our world.'" Also see the side-bar: Robot Roll Call - From cuddly
friend-to-all-humans to the stuff of nightmares, robots have played a
huge part in our visions of the future. June 16, 2003: The
New Pet Craze: Robovacs. By Leander Kahney. Wired News. "Just
as owners of robot pets like Sony's Aibo develop emotional attachments
to their mechanical companions, people are acquiring similar feelings
for their robot vacuum cleaners. The two leading robovac manufacturers
-- iRobot and Electrolux -- report that owners treat their robovacs somewhat
like pets. ... Scientists believe that robot pets trigger a hard-wired
nurturing response in humans. It appears robot vacuums tap into the same
instincts. MIT anthropologist Sherry Turkle, one of the leading researchers
in the field, is conducting studies on how children perceive smart toys
like the Aibo, Furby, Tamagotchi and My Real Baby. She says humans are
programmed to respond in a caring way to creatures, even brand-new artificial
ones." June 11, 2003: Mars
probe lifts off for 7-month trek - Robotic unit and 2 other craft
to search for evident evidence of water and life. By Mark Carrreau. Houston
Chronicle. "NASA plans to explore the Red Planet with ever more sophisticated
robotic orbiters and landers. Sometime in the next decade, the space agency
plans a robotic mission to gather rocks and soil from the Martian surface
and return them to Earth for study by planetary geologists, setting the
stage for something bolder. 'We see the twin rovers as stepping stones
for the rest of this decade and to a future decade of Mars exploration
that will ultimately provide the knowledge necessary for human exploration,'
said [Orlando] Figueroa." June 10, 2003: A
Conversation with Cynthia Breazeal - A Passion to Build a Better Robot,
One With Social Skills and a Smile. By Claudia Dreifus. The New York Times
(no fee reg. req'd.) / also
available from CNET. "Dr. Cynthia L. Breazeal of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology is famous for her robots, not just because they
they are programmed to perform specific tasks, but because they seem to
have emotional as well as physical reactions to the world around them.
They are 'embodied,' she says, even 'sociable' robots -- experimental
machines that act like living creatures. As part of its design triennial,
the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York is exhibiting a 'cyberfloral
installation,' by Dr. Breazeal, which features robotic flowers that sway
when a human hand is near and glow in beautiful bright colors. 'The installation,'
said Dr. Breazeal, 35, 'communicates my future vision of robot design
that is intellectually intriguing and remains true to its technological
heritage, but is able to touch us emotionally in the quality of interaction
and their responsiveness to us -- more like a dance, rather than pushing
buttons.' ... Q. What is the root of your passion for robots?
A. For me, as for many of us who do robotics, I think it is science fiction.
My most memorable science fiction experience was 'Star Wars' and seeing
R2D2 and C3PO. I fell in love with those robots." June 9, 2003: June 9, 2003: MSU
prof helps NASA build robots - Eric Hansen focuses on artificial intelligence
for the metal explorers. The Clarion-Ledger "A Mississippi State
University professor is among U.S. scientists helping NASA develop a new
generation of roving robots that can 'think' their way out of tight spots
and secure valuable data while exploring the far reaches of outer space.
'It's a high-level project to build software that will help these robots
make decisions,' said Eric Hansen, an assistant professor of computer
science at the university. 'I'm working on the brain, so to speak. It's
an application of artificial intelligence.'" June 9, 2003: Possibilities
limitless for MSU's thinking robots. By Mike Wendland. Detroit Free
Press. "Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest areas under
investigation by computer scientists, who, instead of creating an AI machine,
are trying to somehow raise one. "Instead of programming a computer how
to solve some problem, we can take another approach by bring up an AI
machine like a baby -- teaching it how to read instead of programming
it how to recognize characters and grammar," he says. That is exactly
what John Weng, an associate professor in the MSU Department of Computer
Science and Engineering, is doing. ... Weng refers to Dav as an autonomous
mental development, or AMD, machine. 'Conventional machines perform after
they are built,' he says. 'An AMD machine must perform while it builds
itself mentally.'" June 6, 2003: BSC
robot beats out national competition. June 5, 2003: Convention
envisions a more robotic future. By John Keilman. Chicago Tribune
(no fee reg. req'd.). "Robots perform surgery, squire patrons though
museums, even milk cows. And robots in the home could become commonplace
soon, some experts said Wednesday at a robotics convention in Rosemont.
... [Joe Engelberger] said a machine could be helpful in home care, assisting
an elderly person to get out of bed, preparing meals and cleaning the
house, all the while keeping up a flow of cheery conversation. ... Henrik
Christensen, a Swedish robotics professor, said a sophisticated helper
robot could prompt a backlash from displaced workers. Several on the panel
and in the audience brought up questions of regulation and liability.
... Some questioned whether the elderly would welcome the formidable technology
into their homes. ... [Colin] Angle added that in his experience, people
are not reluctant to bond with a robot. More than 60 percent of the people
who have bought his company's automated vacuum cleaners have given them
names, he said." June 4, 2003: Imagine
Machines That Can See. By Mark Baard. Wired News. "Robotics experts
are turning to nature for guidance in making machines that see, hear,
smell and move like living creatures. Inspired by the neurobiology of
small animals, they're learning to make robot lobsters and other critters
that might be able to clear minefields or sniff out dangerous substances.
... Scientists are working in the emerging field of biomimetics, in which
machines are designed to function like biological systems. They have only
the foggiest idea of how the human brain perceives and acts on information
from the body's sense organs, even though they've known the mechanics
of those organs for many years. ... M. Anthony Lewis, another researcher
who attended the [Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems], is trying
to teach robots to respond in a more natural way to obstacles in their
environments. 'Getting limbs to behave without conscious thought and under
visual guidance, as they do in humans, remains a challenge,' said Lewis,
CEO of Iguana Robotics. The company is building a walking robot that runs
on a network of artificial neurons, densely packed computer chips that
can process data more quickly than conventional chips. ... 'The difference
between robots and animals is that if we get stuck, we can wriggle out
of it,' said Joseph Ayers, director of the Biomimetic Underwater Robot
Program at Northeastern University and co-editor of Neurotechnology for
Biomimetic Robots. Ayers is on sabbatical at the Institute for Nonlinear
Science at the University of California at San Diego, where he is trying
to give his own invention, a biomimetic robot lobster, the ability to
vary the levels of chaos in its neural network. 'Robots need this ability,'
Ayers said. 'Because if they can't do this out in the real world, they're
toast.'" [Also available: video clip of "Walking bot learns
from mistakes."] June 2003: Robo
Space - How Space Perception Seperates Man From Machine. By Luc Steels.
Wired Magazine. "For a robot coming fresh into the world, there is
at first total confusion. What is "above"? What is 'behind'? To the newborn
android, all sensory input is a blur. Blobs float into view, the occasional
sound drifts by, 3-D space is a mass of contradictory coordinates. The
problem isn't the hardware. Autonomous bots like Honda's Asimo and Sony's
SDR-4X II have cameras for depth perception and microphones to help pinpoint
a sound source. And in the lab, researchers in artificial intelligence
have made strides in symbolic reasoning, allowing machines to make inferences
based on definitions of spatial concepts. But combining sensory perception
and spatial reasoning remains elusive, which explains why robots lack
a true sense of space. ... Figuring out how to teach spatial cognition
is precisely what's going on in current robotics research, including in
my own laboratory. We are trying to create robots and robot cultures that
develop an autonomous approach to space, time, and action." June 2, 2003: Architecture
Review - Sophomore Jinx: Like its predecessor, the Cooper-Hewitt's
second triennial exhibition is all over the design map; this time, however,
the curators fail to come up with a coherent theme. By Joseph Giovannini.
New York Magazine. "[T]he exhibition brims with other themes that
invite elaboration that would give interpretative depth. For example,
in MIT Media Lab assistant professor Cynthia Breazeal's garden of mostly
machined-aluminum delights ['Cyberfauna'], the subject of interactivity
permitted by electronic gadgetry and artificial intelligence is raised
brilliantly, if only passingly, with robotic blooms in a 'flower' bed
that move toward you or shy away when you wave a hand." May 31, 2003: Robot
displays mettle in mine. By Byron Spice. Post-Gazette. "As a
four-wheeled robot called Groundhog crept slowly into the portal of the
Mathies Mine yesterday morning, the Carnegie Mellon University researchers
who developed it felt something unusual -- separation anxiety. They knew
that within a few hundred feet, Groundhog would have to make a right turn
as it followed the mine corridor and would no longer be in a line of sight
with the portal and, thus, would be out of radio communication with them.
Groundhog would be on its own. If and when it emerged from either end
of a 3,500-foot-long mine corridor would depend on things the machine
could see for itself and decisions it would make for itself. Roboticists
at CMU have built many robots designed to operate autonomously, but yesterday's
experiment marked the first time that any of the machines had ventured
where humans couldn't intervene to avert an emergency. ... Groundhog is
the first of several robots that the Robotics Institute has developed
since August in response to the Quecreek Mine accident. Because that mine
inundation appears to have been caused at least in part by inaccurate
maps of an abandoned mine, researchers under the lead of William 'Red'
Whittaker have sought to build robots that could enter mines where no
sane person would venture and either draw accurate maps or perform search-and-rescue
of trapped miners." May 30, 2003: Wyoming
professors develop robots to sense terror toxins. University of Wyoming
News Service / available from the Billings Gazette. "Swarms of small
robots soon to be unleashed from University of Wyoming laboratories will
be programmed to detect and disable chemical targets in the war on terror.
David Thayer, a lecturer in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy,
is working with UW Computer Science Department researchers to combine
his expertise in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with robotic chemical
plume tracing research. The research, Thayer said, was stimulated by the
need for new defense methods after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It
incorporates what he called a 'swarm intelligence' network. Using technology
known as multimodal sensor arrays, the researchers are programming swarms
of as many as 100 autonomous mini-robots to detect chemical targets. ...
Programmed to sense a chemical, biological or even radiological plume,
the robots can zero in on the source of the contamination and eliminate
the spill without exposing people to the contaminants, Thayer said. ...
Although they essentially work as one unit, each robot is independent,
guided by artificial intelligence software." May 30, 2003: Search-Rescue
Robots Test Their Mettle in Tournaments - Researchers Aim to Improve
Vehicles' Skills for Real-Life Use. By Guy Gugliotta. Washington Post
TechNews. "Ten years ago, no one had tried to use robots for search
and rescue, but by 2001 researchers had enough expertise to deploy robotic
vehicles with some success to search through rubble at the World Trade
Center and the damaged buildings around it. Now robots compete annually
in two international search-and-rescue tournaments, measuring their progress
in diabolically difficult arenas designed by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST). With current technology, negotiating
an unstructured rubble- and debris-filled environment is about the hardest
thing there is for a robot to do. That researchers even attempt it shows
how far robotics has come in recent years. That it always fails, and sometimes
spectacularly, shows how far it still has to go. ... The challenge is
to marry two disparate disciplines. Artificial intelligence is what allows
robots to accumulate information, determine its value, map it and decide
to act on it -- either autonomously, in concert with other robots or at
the behest of a human operator. To perform the work, however, requires
a supple machine that can climb stairs, pick its way over broken concrete,
tell the difference between a mirror and a window, and squeeze into a
pitch-black basement to find a hurricane victim lying in water. ... Many
researchers credit John G. Blitch, the former chief of the Defense Department's
Tactical Mobile Robotics program, for focusing interest -- and federal
money -- on robot search and rescue. Blitch, an Army lieutenant colonel
with a special operations background, was studying robotics in graduate
school in 1995 when Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb that destroyed the
federal building in Oklahoma City. Told that there were robots on the
scene, Blitch visited the wreckage only to find that the robots had been
pulled out." May 29, 2003: Beagle2
to probe Europe's strength in robot race against US, Japan. Agence
France-Presse / available from SpaceDaily. "Europe's landmark space
mission set to lift off for Mars next week will be a litmus test of its
strength in robotic technology in rivalry with US and Japanese competitors,
according to a senior computer engineer for the project. British researcher
Dr. Dave Barnes represented the members of the Beagle2 project at the
7th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation
in Space, which took place here, in Japan's ancient capital last week.
... The 30-kilogramme (66-pound) clam-shaped probe, equipped with high-tech
robotic arms, will investigate geological features and the atmosphere
for the presence of water -- crucial evidence of life on the Red Planet.
'This mission will certainly probe levels of our robotic technology,'
Barnes told AFP after outlining the mission during the 'Robots in Space'
conference." May 26, 2003: Designing
Robots That can Reason and React. SpaceDaily. "In a large room
in Georgia Tech's College of Computing, Thomas Collins is tweaking the
behavior of a machine. Around him stand a gaggle of robots, some with
trash can figures, others resembling miniature all-terrain vehicles. They
appear to be merely functional, plodding pieces of equipment. But these
unlikely contraptions can 'think' in the sense that they can react to
and reason about their environment. Collins, a senior research engineer
in the Georgia Tech Research Institute's Electronic Systems Laboratory,
likens the 'minds' of these machines to those of clever insects that have
learned to thrive. 'A cockroach is intelligent because it can survive
and do the things it needs to do well. By that definition, these robots
are smart,' he says. ... 'Our goal is to create intelligence by combining
reflexive behaviors with cognitive functioning,' explains Ronald Arkin,
a Regents' professor of computer science and director of the lab. 'This
involves the issue of understanding intelligence itself. Is it complex?
Or just an illusion of complexity?' ... To help robots learn, the researchers
use a variety of techniques. 'Learning momentum,' a technique pioneered
by Arkin and his research team, involves teaching a robot that if a behavior
is working well, it should continue doing it. The robot adapts its behavior
in response to the environment and its own performance. Another technique
called reinforcement learning uses computer-generated 'rewards' to tell
the robot it has made good decisions - and should continue doing so." May/June 2003: Creating
a Robot Culture - An Interview with Luc Steels. The well-known researcher
shares his views on the Turing test, robot evolution, and the quest to
understand intelligence. By Tyrus L. Manuel. IEEE Intelligent Systems.
"The Turing test is not the challenge that AI as a field is trying
to solve. It would be like requiring aircraft designers to try and build
replicas of birds that cannot be distinguished from real birds, instead
of seriously studying aerodynamics or building airplanes that can carry
cargo (and do not flap their wings nor have feathers). ... Computers and
robots are used as experimental platforms for investigating issues about
intelligence. Researchers who are motivated in this way, and I am one
of them, try to make contributions to biology or the cognitive sciences.
... AI has had an enormous impact on how we think today about the brain
and the mechanisms underlying cognitive behavior." May 25, 2003: Rooting
for the robot - In the battle between man and machine, which has more
soul? Science fiction has disturbing answers. By Reed Johnson. Los Angeles
Times. Also
available at this other LA Times location (no fee reg. req'd.).
"Not so long ago, when men were men and
machines had cogs, we imagined robots and other mechanical pseudo-humans
as our opposites. Now, wired to our home computers, Prozac and Palm Pilots
in hand, Botox and breast implants lending a spooky 'perfection' to our
features as we ponder shuffling our genes in order to build a better kindergartner,
we don't seem as fazed by the idea of reprogramming ourselves into something
beyond the merely human. No wonder pop culture is increasingly ambivalent
about whether people or androids and their ilk deserve to inherit the
earth -- and which group is ultimately more 'human.' ... 'There's a huge
philosophical discussion about what makes a person a person, but I think
the important thing to acknowledge is that a nonhuman can be a person,'
says Michael S. McKenna, an associate professor of philosophy at Ithaca
College in upstate New York. 'E.T. could be a person, Data from 'Star
Trek' could be a person. There are some scientists who think that a dolphin
could be a person. Consciousness depends on the ability to reflect upon
and evaluate oneself. You needn't be a human being to be a person, and
given that it's possible there are animals that are nonhuman persons,
it's not inconceivable to imagine that you could build a person.' ...
The notion that machines could be as sentient and multidimensional as
human beings was slow to develop in pop culture. When machines began replacing
human labor on a large scale during the Industrial Revolution, they were
often regarded as Satan's smoke-belching spawn, sinister tools of the
ruling class. That attitude persisted, in fits and starts, throughout
much of the 20th century. Charlie Chaplin transformed himself into a comic
monkey wrench in 'Modern Times,' gumming up an assembly-line monstrosity." May 19, 2003: Robots
May Be Built as Companions, Expert Says. By John Roach. National Geographic
News. "'I have felt for years that the first 'killer application'
of personal robots will be companionship, especially for the elderly,'
said Roger Brockett, a professor of computer science and engineering at
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 'Robots are potentially
much smarter than dogs and they will not require the same level of upkeep.'
Brockett, who founded the Harvard Robotics Laboratory in 1983, is one
of several scientists who believe robots will some day be a part of everyday
life. They may be companions and helpers in much the same way that C-3PO
and R2-D2 chum around with Luke Skywalker on the silver screen."
May 2003: Six
Technologies That Will Change the World - Imagine robots that can
read your mood and ink-jet printers that can crank out transplantable
hearts. The visionaries you are about to meet have not only imagined these
things -- they're hard at work building them. By David Pescovitz. Business
2.0. "But universities are still where the most far-fetched and futuristic
innovations develop. MIT is where we found Cynthia Breazeal, whose socialized
robots could someday baby-sit for your kids or stand in for you at a meeting.
Informed by the diverse disciplines of electrical and mechanical engineering,
psychology, human-computer interaction, education, and design, her work
benefits from the intellectual cross-pollination that happens so easily
in an academic setting. ... Robots You Can Relate To - VISION: Machines
that interact with people the way people do. WHY: Sociable robots could
teach the young, care for the infirm -- even befriend the lonely. ...
A Swarm of Sensors - VISION: Networks of cheap, aspirin-size sensor robots
everywhere. WHY: Generals need to track troop movements, executives need
to follow goods through the supply chain, and conservationists want to
track energy consumption, among other reasons." May 13, 2003: The
Games Robots Play - Artificial Intelligence Researchers Have a Clear
Goal in Sight. By Guy Gugliotta. Washington Post TechNews. "[M]ost
people's first reaction to robot soccer is 'So what?' In an era when robot
submarines can find sunken treasure and drone aircraft successfully bomb
targets in the Afghan desert, the clickety-clack of RoboCup would be lucky
to hold the attention of a 5-year-old. But this is a big deal. The Aibo
dog league and a separate competition for wheeled robots have different
rules, but they share one important requirement: Once the humans flip
the switch, the robots are on their own. They 'see' the ball, 'decide'
whether to shoot or pass, defend against their opponents and select plays
based on software designed to cope with almost any eventuality. The robots
are fully autonomous." May 12, 2003: New
breed of robots, gizmos take war to next level. By Jon Swartz. USA
Today. "Unmanned machines like the X-45 are being cooked up and tested
in the country's most advanced labs. Within 20 years, squadrons of unmanned
planes will swarm enemy sites like killer bees, launching missiles and
avoiding detection with sophisticated jamming devices. Self-programmed
submarines will replace dolphins to detect and disarm mines. Robotic mules
the size of pickups will haul ammunition, medical supplies and food. Drone
ambulances will load wounded soldiers and cart them to hospitals. Crablike
robots will crawl into buildings to sniff out chemical stashes. The transition
to mechanized weaponry is key to the military's transformation from heavy
ground forces to smaller human units fortified with robotic weapons. The
goal: to limit casualties. ... Encouraged by the success of satellite-guided
bombs and unmanned spy planes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq,
the U.S. military plans to spend $10 billion between now and 2010 on unmanned
vehicles such as the X-45. In all, the Pentagon spends more than $100
billion a year developing and buying weapons. ... [C]omputerized combatants
will get smarter and more aggressive, evolving from the remote-controlled
reconnaissance machines of today to self-programmed robots that can navigate
difficult terrain and engage in combat, says Scott Myers, in charge of
robotic development at General Dynamics' Robotics Systems." May 12, 2003: The
Evelyn Wood of Digitized Book Scanners. By John Markoff. The New York
Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "Putting the world's most advanced scholarly
and scientific knowledge on the Internet has been a long-held ambition
for Michael Keller, head librarian at Stanford University. But achieving
this goal means digitizing the texts of millions of books, journals and
magazines -- a slow process that involves turning each page, flattening
it and scanning the words into a computer database. Mr. Keller, however,
has recently added a tool to his crusade. On a recent afternoon, he unlocked
an unmarked door in the basement of the Stanford library to demonstrate
the newest agent in the march toward digitization. Inside the room a Swiss-designed
robot about the size of a sport utility vehicle was rapidly turning the
pages of an old book and scanning the text. The machine can turn the pages
of both small and large books as well as bound newspaper volumes and scan
at speeds of more than 1,000 pages an hour. Occasionally the robot will
stumble, turning more than a single page. When that happens, the machine
will pause briefly and send out a puff of compressed air to separate the
sticking pages." May 6, 2003: World
of Wonder - Robots. The Daily Herald-Tribune. Packed into this one
page PDF overview is information about Realbots, such as ASIMO and
Minerva ... Reelbots, including as The Terminator ... Industrial robotics
... Robot basics ... and when you've read everything, you can try to solve
the Robot crossword puzzle! May/June 2003: Japan's
Underlying Strength - The Future as Created by Robots. By Muroyama
Tetsuya. Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry. "Today, Japan is
regarded as one of the world-class robot empires. Japan quickly adopted
robots into automated industries and is developing the world's first humanoid.
Why do Japanese like robots? The Japanese have a unique sensibility towards
objects. The Japanese perceive spiritual qualities in non-human things
and even feel a relationship with them. I believe that the Japanese fascination
with robots and the Japanese culture are entwined on some very deep level.
... Rescue robot development in the United States is one step ahead of
that in Japan in that American robots have actually been used in real
situations. Moreover, in those situations, Dr. [Robin] Murphy and her
colleagues discovered a vital point with regard to rescue robots. According
to Dr. Murphy, 'The most important factor in conducting rescue missions
which employ robots is 'information.'' ... Disaster information administration,
as explained, is undoubtedly a key point in saving lives. But there is
one problem, and that is the issue of privacy." May 1, 2003: New
hall of fame to honor real and fictional robots. By Byron Spice. Post-Gazette.
" Created by the university's School of Computer Science and Robotics
Institute in collaboration with the Carnegie Science Center and the state
tourism and economic development departments, the [Robot Hall of Fame]
will honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, with interactive
exhibits." April 30, 2003: Robot
science puts on a friendly face. By Edward C. Baig. USA Today. "'Robotics
is making breakthroughs but infiltrating society in small steps,' says
University of Southern California professor Maja Mataric. Even George
Jetson might get a kick out of what's here and coming. Take Pearl (short
for Personal Robotic Assistants for the Elderly), a 'nurse-bot' and the
stepchild of researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh.
... Then there's Grace (Graduate Robot Attending ConferencE), Pearl's
6-foot Carnegie Mellon cousin, developed along with researchers from the
Naval Research Laboratory, defense contractor Metrica, Northwestern University
and Swarthmore. ... Honda's humanoid ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovation
Mobility) ... Sony's Aibo ... Fujitsu's foot-high MARON-1 ... Evolution
Robotics' prototype ER-2 ... Roomba Intelligent FloorVac from iRobot.
... Lots of smart people think robots will minister backstage. Many innovations
to simplify our lives will be seamlessly embedded in appliances and built
into networking, maintains iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, director of
MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory ... But physical robots still
have their boosters. Carnegie Mellon's Hans Moravec has mapped out a future
well into the new century, drawing a strong parallel between robot intelligence
(measured by computer processing power) and biological intelligence:...." April 28, 2003: Georgia
Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures To Control Robotic Device. Science
Daily, based upon a news release from the Georgia Institute Of Technology.
"The Hybrot, a small robot that moves about using the brain signals
of a rat, is the first robotic device whose movements are controlled by
a network of cultured neuron cells. Steve Potter and his research team
in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology
are studying the basics of learning, memory, and information processing
using neural networks in vitro. Their goal is to create computing systems
that perform more like the human brain. ... 'Learning is often defined
as a lasting change in behavior, resulting from experience,' Potter said.
'In order for a cultured network to learn, it must be able to behave.
By using multi-electrode arrays as a two-way interface to cultured mammalian
cortical networks, we have given these networks an artificial body with
which to behave.'" April 28, 2003: Simulated
rubble field tests search and rescue robots. By Byron Spice. Post-Gazette.
"'It's the Pu Pu Platter of disaster sites,' [Illah Nourbakhsh] said of
the 24-by-20-foot, two-level arena located in the basement of Newell-Simon
Hall. Sections of the maze-like set have mirrored walls to confuse video
sensors, others are lined with sound-absorbing ceiling tiles that foul
up acoustic sensors. Some areas have stairs, others have cockeyed doors
and the floors have a variety of coverings -- everything from carpet to
tile. ... This site is a 'reference test arena' designed by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. The arenas
are used by researchers to develop robots for disaster duties and, twice
a year, have been used for international competitions -- one at the RoboCup
robotic soccer tournament and one at the annual meeting of the American
Association for Artificial Intelligence. ... Like robotic soccer, it's
an application that requires a robot to be a team member. But a rescue
robot's team would include human operators, as well as 'intelligent software
agents' that could automatically find information from the Internet and
other databases about building blueprints, hazardous materials, or the
occupants themselves. April 25, 2003: Military
robots to get swarm intelligence. By Will Knight. NewScientist. "A
battalion of 120 military robots is to be fitted with swarm intelligence
software to enable them to mimic the organised behaviour of insects. The
project, which received funding this week from the US Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is aimed at developing ways to perform
missions such as minesweeping and search and rescue with minimum intervention
from human operators. ... Swarm intelligence describes the way that complex
behaviours can arise from large numbers of individual agents each following
very simple rules. For example, ants use the approach to find the most
efficient route to a food source." April 25, 2003: RoboCup's
first U.S. regional set for next week. By Charles Sheehan. Associated
Press / available from The Nando Times. "The competition has become
more intense, the passes and shots faster and more accurate, and the players
- they no longer catch fire. Carnegie Mellon University will host the
first American Open of robot soccer next week, a regional competition
leading up to the international RoboCup 2003 in Padua, Italy, this summer.
Robotics experts say technology has advanced greatly since the first RoboCup
in 1997, when a handful of teams from the United States, Australia and
Japan competed for the first time. ... Once the buzzer sounds, there is
no human interaction with the robots - autonomous machines that are programmed
to seek the ball, block opponents, pass to an open teammate and ultimately,
to score. The robots are programmed to react to thousands of possible
game scenarios and communicate with each other about where the ball is
and what strategy to employ." April 24, 2003: Wakamaru
Bot at Your Service. By Elisa Batista. Wired News. "Pretty soon,
a robot named Wakamaru may become a fixture in the homes of elderly Japanese
who have no one else to look after them. The robot, which recently wheeled
around to greet guests at the Embedded Systems Conference, is still in
development. But it has the potential to replace a human caretaker in
Japan where robotic technology is embraced and the graying of the population
has left many young people wondering who will care for their parents.
... While Wakamaru may frighten people who are not used to being around
robots -- it resembles a science fiction alien more than a human child
-- in Japan, home to the Sony Aibo and others like it, robots are much
more acceptable members of society. ... 'Obviously, if this completely
replaces human companionship, that would be sad,' [Mark] Tilton added.
'But maybe that is a step up from television that keeps a lot of Americans
company.'" April 23, 2003: Research
and Development Takes Robots and Automation into New Territory. Plant
Automation.com. "Robotic automation has helped trim expenses and
downtime by enabling corporations to manufacture more than one product
on a production line. Cost savings can be achieved by fulfilling production
needs inhouse. ... Robots are breaking out of their cocoon of shop floor
assistance and have begun servicing more sophisticated segments including
photonics and fiber optics. With manufacturers integrating enhanced vision
and audio capabilities, these machines have become more flexible and skillful.
"'rchers and technologists are increasingly striving toward developing
innovative techniques that include the use of artificial intelligence
and progress to less human supervision,' states Technical Insights Analyst
Anand Subramanian. These modern robotics systems aid surgeons performing
complicated cardiac and abdominal operations without making large incisions.
Dexterous, voice-controlled robots can facilitate efficient microscale
operations by eliding hand tremors and offering visual magnifications.
'Surgical robots enable the surgeon to perform the surgery at the same
level of quality and time but with less pain, quicker recovery, and less
blood loss for the patient,' explains Anand." April 23, 2003: The
Meaning of Robots - What Defines a Machine as a Robot? By Lindsey
Arent. TechTV / available from ABC News. "A dictionary defines 'robot'
as a mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human, and is capable
of performing a variety of often-complex human tasks on command, or by
being programmed in advance. But engineering professor and robotics expert
Ken Goldberg of the University of California at Berkeley has a more exact
definition. 'It responds to its environment and it can manipulate its
environment. It can do things,' he says, in reference to modern dishwashers
that can sense how dirty the dishes are and change its own settings accordingly." April 20, 2003: The
Unmanned Army. By Matthew Brzezinski. The New York Times (no fee reg.
req'd.). "It is one thing for computer programs to serve as backup
systems, or for unmanned aircraft to snap pictures or relay intelligence,
functioning as little more than low-orbit satellites. That's mostly what
they were used for in Iraq. But it's a different story entirely when the
decision makers actually get to fight the wars themselves, sending machines
rather than soldiers into battle. The unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV)
is the first tangible evidence of this robotic future. ... If the UCAV
program succeeds, it could lead us to a distant point on the horizon where
no Americans in uniform will ever again fight on the battlefield -- automated
submarines launching cruise missiles, divisions of unmanned ground vehicles
racing toward enemy capitals. Autonomous helicopters will charge ahead
of the columns, flying 15 feet off the ground at full throttle, picking
off targets and ejecting microdrones capable of close-quarter fighting.
... The X-45A doesn't just remove people from the cockpit; it takes humans
almost entirely out of the loop. Unlike the Predator, whose flight, video
and weapons systems are controlled by ground-based operators, nobody wields
a joystick with the X-45A. The machine, which was built by Boeing's Phantom
Works, is programmed to fly itself. All the operator has to do is load
software containing flight and battle plans and press 'Enter.' The computer
takes it from there. ... The emergence of unmanned fighting machines has
tactical, moral and political consequences that will become ever more
apparent as the technology develops." April 12, 2003: Hot
dogs with chips, and they've got a real kick. By Richard Macey. The
Sydney Morning Herald. "When the four-legged machines scamper onto
the field in July for the world robot soccer championships, one bunch
of Aussies will have something special tucked up their sleeves. ... Thanks
to months of work by a team of artificial intelligence scientists and
10 students, they will have something no other four-legged robots have
taken onto the field - team spirit. Played by teams of four robot dogs,
the sport was born in 1998 when three universities met in Paris for a
demonstration match. About 30 universities are expected to compete at
the 2003 Robocup World Championships, in Padua, Italy. ... 'Until now
robots have only played soccer as individuals,' said Will Uther, rUNSWift's
coach, who has a doctorate in artificial intelligence and machine learning
from his now arch-rival, Carnegie Mellon. Programming artificial intelligence
into robots so they can 'talk' via radio about such complex matters as
where the ball is, how far it is from each player, and who should take
the next kick, was 'very difficult.'" April 10, 2003: Humanoid
robots - the face of the future? By Alan Duggan. A series of articles
from the April issue of the South African edition of Popular Mechanics
made available by the Independent Online. "Her lips curl, her nostrils
twitch, and for a moment you would swear she's about to utter a devastating
put-down. Who is this woman, and why is she sneering at you? Relax it's
only K-bot, a humanoid robot that can mimic an impressive repertoire of
human facial expressions, including a broad smile, mild distaste, withering
scorn and unless we're misinterpreting this a distinct if somewhat
grotesque come-on." The other articles you'll find are: 'C'mon, Kismet.
say you love me;' Please don't swat this fly; Machines also have feelings,
you know; and, Meet Banryu, man’s best friend April 10, 2003: Mini
Robot Planes Deployed In Iraq. By Jennifer Viegas. Discovery News.
"Marines in Iraq are gathering intelligence using a miniature aircraft
that flies autonomously, relays information in real time and fits into
a super-sized golf bag, according to the Office of Naval Research, which
helped to develop the new plane. Called the Silver Fox, the unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) is smaller than previous flying detection devices, such
as the Predator and the Global Hawk. ... Although it stays in communication
with a remote laptop computer, the Silver Fox flies on its own, relying
on navigational systems such as Global Position Satellite. With GPS, the
plane can be programmed in advance to cover a specific territory. ...
Captain John Hobday, director of Tech Solutions, explained that the craft
first was meant for tracking whales, to protect the mammals from naval
exercises. ... In future, Mulligan hopes the Silver Fox will track, and
provide evidence against, poachers of elephants and other endangered species." April 10, 2003: A
Robot for the Lawn Lazy Robomower - Trims Grass Automatically. April 8, 2003: Machine
shop - Researchers follow their childhood dreams of building a real-life
Astro Boy. By Shinichi Maruishi. The Asahi Shimbun. "It was the
stuff of fantasies for a generation of Japanese in the 1960s. Youngsters
would be glued to the TV set watching Astro Boy, the diminutive, multilingual
robot equipped with lasers, machine guns and super hearing, triumph over
the forces of evil. But for some, Astro Boy represented the real-life
future of Japan. 'People in our generation who are developing robots are
in this business because we were fascinated by robot cartoons like Astro
Boy and Tetsujin Nijuhachigo (another cartoon robot created by Mitsuteru
Yokoyama),' said Satoshi Amagai, an executive heading Sony Corp.'s division
for entertainment-robot development. 'In my case, I wanted to create a
robot with a human mind, like Astro Boy.' ... Amagai, who studied artificial
intelligence as a university student, led the initiative to bring the
Aibo doglike robots into production. He now heads the project to develop
the SDR, a series of humanoid robots that Sony is developing. ... [I]ndustry
observers say developing and manufacturing humanoids currently does not
make much business sense because of huge costs involved." April 4, 2003: Robot
rover simulates Mars trek. By Dr David Whitehouse. BBC. "Researchers
have deployed an autonomous robot to traverse Chile's Atacama Desert as
part of a project to develop advanced rovers for Mars exploration. ...
The rover, called Hyperion, is already a veteran of an expedition to the
Arctic, another region of the Earth with similarities to Mars. ... During
the 2005 expedition, researchers will introduce a time delay and a limit
on communication with the robot to simulate the constraints of working
with a robot more than 100 million km away on the surface of Mars. 'We'll
operate under the constraints of Martian exploration in order to better
develop procedures for seeking life on another planet,' says [David] Wettergreen.
'The robot will monitor its own power, balance, locomotion, communication
and science operations as it goes. "It needs to be able to move into unknown
terrain using cameras and internal sensors - the same instruments and
information that would be available to a robot exploring Mars.'" April 4, 2003: Humanoid
robots wow Japanese. By J Mark Lytle. BBC. "Humanoid robots,
some of which can even walk on two legs, dominate the world's largest
robot exhibition, held this weekend in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. ...
As usual, Honda's Asimo stole the limelight in a way that would have the
other automatons hopping mad. ... While Honda has no plans to place the
120-cm tin man on sale, Asimo can now recognise individual faces and can
understand gestures as well as spoken commands. Meet him once and he never
forgets, responding by approaching and calling your name on subsequent
meetings." April 3, 2003: Robots
Take Dangerous Jobs - New models could clear land mines or do nuclear
cleanup. By Martyn Williams. PC World. "While Sony's Aibo and any
of the newest humanoid robots may be cute and draw attention, Japan's
robot industry has a serious side that's on display this week at Robodex
2003 here. A number of companies and universities are working on robot
technology that's designed to either save lives or make life easier. Some
are robots designed to perform jobs that are dangerous for humans, such
as mine-clearance work." April 2003: March 27, 2003: Pinocchio
robots are homeless. Reuters / available from ZDNet (UK). "Sony's
latest robots are more human than ever, but because they cost as much
as a luxury car, not many are sold Judging from the cooing at a demonstration
of Sony's diminutive SDR robot, few would dispute just how cute the humanoid
machine is. Its creator Masahiro Fujita, who called it 'him' instead of
'it,' seemed to feel genuinely guilty as he pushed it over to show how
easily it gets back up. 'I don't like this,' he said. ... The updated
SDR boasts a handful of improvements over its predecessor, including an
extra microprocessor to help it make small talk and special sensors to
keep it from pinching a human as it moves its arms or legs. At fewer than
24 inches tall and a slight 15 pounds, the robot is too small to pose
much of a threat to furniture or other household objects. And it has new
mapping and motion control capabilities to help it avoid tripping over
obstacles and to protect itself by putting out its arms when it does fall." March 24, 2003 : The
Droids of Sport - Robotic competitions are popping up around the world.
A new book, 'Gearheads,' examines their universe. By Brad Stone. Newsweek
/ available from MSNBC. "In March of 2004, teams of roboticists,
off-road enthusiasts and garage gearheads will set out in a giant caravan
on the same potentially lucrative journey attempted by countless others
over the years: the drive from L.A. to Las Vegas. But this time the trip
will be far more difficult. The vehicles at the head of the procession
will be unmanned, autonomous robots, racing against each other and the
clock for a $1 million prize offered by the U.S. military. ... The first
formal robot competition took place 32 years ago in the hallways of MIT
as part of a mechanical-engineering class called 2.70. ... From there,
robot competitions proliferated. In 1989, inspired by 2.70, Segway inventor
Dean Kamen started FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology), a robotics competition for high schoolers and their mentors.
... Teams are also competing this spring around the world in the regional
contests of the fifth annual RoboCup, a robotic soccer tournament." March 24, 2003 : Real
World Robots - They're finally among us. They may not look like the
Jetsons' Rosie, but they are actually doing real jobs alongside humans
-- in homes, hospitals and on the battlefield. By Brad Stone, with Mary
Carmichael in New York and Atsuko Koizumi in Tokyo. Newsweek / available
from MSNBC. "Over the past few years, robots have infiltrated our
ranks, robots that look nothing like the luminescent-eyed androids of
science-fiction lore. They can't emulate the human brain's boundless flexibility,
but they do take advantage of the latest innovations in computing power,
sensors and artificial intelligences, and can do one or two things well.
Today robots work in homes, hospitals and in dirty, dangerous environments
like tunnels under New York City streets. Perhaps most significantly,
they populate military bases around the world, where the next generation
of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles are currently being battle-tested.
In an industry that has risen and collapsed several times since the early
'80s, there is at last optimism that the Age of Robots might finally have
arrived." March 22, 2003: I,
Robot - by baby steps. The latest creation at MIT's media lab, a robot
named Ripley, can't play chess or guide spacecraft. He's more like a rather
slow-witted infant. By Michael Valpy. The Globe and Mail. "AI's avant-garde
reality in 2003 is Ripley, rather resembling the head of an amiable mechanical
Airedale. He's the creation of 34-year-old Deb Roy, founder and director
of the cognitive-machines group at MIT's famed media lab, who has been
building robots since his Winnipeg childhood. ... [W]hat looks to humans
to be difficult for robots, like playing chess, is in fact mindlessly
easy. And what looks easy -- because it's easy for humans to do -- is
mind-numblingly complex. Like learning language. Ripley is not being programmed
with scripted speech. He is being taught the meanings of words and how
to speak, the way a human child would be. ... Ripley learns language by
looking at an object, touching it and hearing the word for it. In the
media lab it is called 'grounding.' ... The team is about to teach Ripley
to understand the idea of point of view. When the researcher talking to
Ripley describes a beanbag as being on his own left, it will be on Ripley's
right. In effect, Mr. [Nick] Mavridis says, it will allow Ripley to step
outside himself and grasp the notion of 'other.' ... Robots, Prof. [Anne]
Foerst says, will never be humans. But they could be somebodies -- individual
selves." March 20, 2003: Intel
hammering out robot standards. By Michael Kanellos. CNET News. "Intel
is developing standards for building inexpensive robots that eventually
could automatically inspect industrial equipment or take aerial photographs.
... Currently, these robots are mostly of interest to university researchers,
but their commercial appeal is growing. ... The thrust of the robotics
effort is to reduce the cost and engineering required in building robots.
By standardizing the internal electronics, researchers and private companies
can cut costs and devote more time to developing mobility, visual recognition
systems and artificial intelligence software. The Georgia Institute of
Technology, for instance, is working on swarming robots that can mimic
bees and other insects that work in concert, similar to a project at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology." March 17, 2003: Meet
Jeeves the Robot - Eager to please, and only comes up to your knees...
By John Lui. March 14, 2003: Mind
of the company - Science is finding that mimicking living systems
to produce robots is about understanding biology, not physics. There are
lessons here for the way we run our corporations. By Tim Wallace. Financial
Review Boss. "The phrase 'fast, cheap and out of control' was coined
by Australian-born scientist Rodney Brooks and a colleague for an article
published in 1989 advocating the use of robots in space exploration. Internet
guru Kevin Kelly later adapted it for the title of his 1994 book on new
modes of thinking in artificial intelligence, while filmmaker Errol Morris
used it for his 1997 documentary film featuring the robotics scientist.
... Brook's work on AI challenges us to rethink OI (organisational intelligence)
and to smash the machine, rebuilding it from the bottom up - fast, cheap
and out of control. ... The most celebrated of all early efforts to create
a robot that could do childish things resulted in Shakey, built at the
Stanford Research Institute in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and so named
because of the way its camera and TV transmitter mast shook when it moved.
... The designers of Shakey, and of the projects following it, believed
that for a robot to act intelligently in the world it first needed an
accurate model of that world. ... What must be happening in insects, Brooks
realised, was sensing connected to action - sensors to actuators - very
quickly. The key to building a similarly efficient robot, he concluded,
was to have it react to its sensors in the same way, so it did not need
a detailed computational model of the world. 'If the building and maintaining
of the internal world model was hard and a computational drain, then get
rid of the internal model. Every other robot had had one. But it was not
clear that insects had them, so why did our robots necessarily need them?'" March 13, 2003: A
bug's life for robots. The Economist Technology Quarterly. "Thanks
to advances in engineering and prototyping, a new generation of biologically
inspired robots is beginning to crawl all over the place. Cockroaches
are the inspiration for some of the most ambitious. At the forefront of
this interdisciplinary field is Robert Full, professor of integrative
biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Full cheerfully
admits that some of his real-life critters can be disgusting, but they
offer valuable insights into how to conquer challenging terrain. ... According
to Martin Buehler of the Centre for Intelligent Machines at McGill University
in Montreal, the usefulness of wheeled robots has reached its peak. Research
into many-legged robots, however, is still in its infancy, and the potential
pay-off from them could be huge. The main focus is on creatures with four
or more legs." March 12, 2003: Gentle
touch of robot milker. BBC. "[A] robotics expert has been given
a grant to develop technology which makes the milking process not just
fully automated but also sympathetic to the cows. Dr Bruce Davies, from
Pontardawe, near Swansea, is perfecting a flexible arm - intended to mimic
an elephant's trunk - which will seek out a cow's udder and attach itself
to the teats. ... A 'thinking camera' on the arm uses the latest in vision
software to locate the cow's teats and is said to be much more gentle
when slipping on the milking cups. ... 'The current robots are built around
industrial robots of today, which are very mechanical, relatively threatening
devices, and also use what might be relatively expensive equipment for
finding the teats in the first place,' he said." ... Research suggests
cows adapt well to automated milking systems and that there is an increase
in yield." March 10, 2003: Robot
farming step closer. The New Zealand Herald. "The farmer of the
future will not wear gumboots, says an agricultural engineer. 'He will
be somebody who just goes to the office occasionally,' said Ian Yule,
of Massey University. Robotic tractors would soon be at work using the
global positioning system (GPS) to make farming more efficient. ... 'It
is possible to have tractors that run themselves and get their instructions
from an office' ... Dr Yule said the technology was so reliable tractors
could operate in the dark. 'In terms of guiding the machine and controlling
how fast it goes, all that can be done without human intervention.'" March 6, 2003: Robots
at the bedside in US health care experiment - Its bedside manner has
kinks to work out, but an experimental robot may one day help the US health
care industry cope with burgeoning ranks of the elderly and ill. Reuters
/ available from ComputerWeekly CW360
/ also available from
MSNBC (Robot nurses learn bedside manners). "For now the robots operate
primarily as a form of mobile video telephone allowing patients and doctors
to communicate. But eventually, they may help the health care industry
serve millions by wheeling patients to dinner, or even taking temperatures
and drawing blood. 'This technology enables health care professionals
to care for people in remote locations at a fraction of the time it would
normally take,' said Loren Shook, chief executive of Silverado Senior
Living, an operator of assisted living facilities for people with Alzheimer's
disease. Silverado's Calabasas, Calif., care center is the site for a
clinical trial of a robot made by InTouch Health Inc. that is designed
to allow real-time, one-on-one communication between doctors and patients,
health care management and staff or between patients and their families."
March 6, 2003: Making
robots more like us. By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee. The New York Times
(no fee reg. req'd.). "Call it crazy, but Monica Nicolescu has taken
a robot under her wing. At a robotics laboratory at the University of
Southern California, she puts the two-wheeled machine through its paces,
leading it through a maze of short plastic pillars to an orange box on
the floor. It follows her around the lab, observing and reproducing her
every step. Through this high-tech game of monkey-see, monkey-do, Ms.
Nicolescu and her colleagues train robots to perform simple jobs like
picking up the box. But their goal, and that of other robotics researchers,
is to build robots that will be capable of doing not only tasks they have
been programmed for, but new and more complicated ones as well. Despite
advances in artificial intelligence, sensors and mechanical devices, researchers
are still a long way from realizing the guiding vision of robotics: machines
that can move and work like humans, learn new tasks with little or no
training, and react with sensitivity to the changing moods of their mortal
masters. Instead, most robots remain human-dependent machines that can
perform only specialized tasks, like welding parts in a factory, searching
through the rubble of a collapsed building or vacuuming a living room.
Few display what could be considered sensitivity to people, and those
that do tend to be toys, like Sony's Aibo pet, that serve only to entertain.
Robotics researchers are realizing that the journey to more autonomous,
adaptable robots will require more than just improvements in mechanical,
sensory and computing capabilities. Equally important, they say, is improving
the way people and robots interact: after all, they say, that may be how
robots will learn, and to be truly useful, robots must be acceptable to
people." March 5, 2003: Robot
finger has feeling - Artificial muscle feels the weight of objects
it moves. By Phillip Ball. Nature (Science Update). "Scientists in
Spain have developed a robotic finger with a sense of touch. It is made
of a polymer that can feel the weight of what it's pushing and adjust
the energy it uses accordingly. This is similar to the way we use our
sense of touch." March 2, 2003: Robots
to the rescue. By Dave Scheiber. St. Petersburg Times. "In the
war on terror, University of South Florida engineering professor Robin
Murphy finds herself a pioneer on the front line with a new kind of soldier:
the search-and-rescue robot. ... As a professor of human-robotic interaction
and head of CRASAR, Murphy has led her team of students to worldwide recognition
as leaders in the field. January's Discover magazine honored Murphy in
its 'Top 100 Science Stories of 2002' edition. She was featured for her
advances with rescue robots, in particular the work she and several graduate
students performed at the site of the World Trade Center. ... Her father
was a mechanical engineer, and growing up in Mobile, Ala., Murphy took
notice: 'That's what I always wanted to be.' She immersed herself in science
fiction, a passion that one day would lead her to name her robots after
female science-fiction writers. 'I never really identified with the heroes,
the ones who fought all the space wars,' she says. 'I always thought the
scientists who built things for these guys to go and do great things were
far more interesting.' ... 'I just want to be of use,' she says, as her
bustling robot seminar winded down last week. 'You look at what these
guys in fire and rescue service have to do. The technology is there to
help them. And it's up to my community of scientists to get to where we
can give the right technology to the right people at the right time.'" March 1, 2003: Best
Sci-Tech Books of 2002 - Asking Big Questions. 36 top books address
science's most complex puzzles. By Gregg Sapp. Library Journal. "Technology
- Brooks, Rodney A. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. ...
Computers were the revolutionary technology of the late 20th century.
Brooks, director of MIT's famed Artificial Intelligence Lab, contends
that robotics will be the next technological wave and that these complex
machines will force us to reconsider what it is that makes us fully human." February 28, 2003: Benton,
Bryant students slated for Botball event. February 27, 2003: Sunday
morning Sumo - Robotics club wrestles with miniaturization. By Peter
Tupper. CanadaComputes. "From the Jetsons to Speilberg and Kubrick's
A.I. , robots have long been a staple in visions of the home of the future.
Despite their long history on page and screen, only a few robots--Sony's
AIBO, Friendly's Robomower, and the Roomba vacuum cleaner--have been commercially
produced and they are regarded more as novelties. Still, the robots of
film and fiction have spawned new hobbies and sports, and leagues of enthusiasts
whose tinkering may eventually lead to more intelligent devices that will
prove truly useful in the digital home of tomorrow. ... It's the monthly
meeting of the Vancouver Robotics Club (www.vancouverroboticsclub.org),
where amateur and professional robot-builders gather to show off their
collections." February 26, 2003: MIT
engineer earns prize for robot 'swarm' research. Associated Press
/ available from the Concord Monitor. "Long before he was an MIT
engineer, James D. McLurkin's laboratory was his bedroom, bathroom and
backyard in his Long Island, New York home, where he concocted stink bombs,
tried to launch a flaming airplane into the sky, built a Lego monorail
train, and turned toy cars into remote control robots. Today, the 30-year-old
engineer has turned his youthful curiosity into cutting-edge engineering,
inventing the world's smallest self-contained robots and researching how
to build robot 'swarms' that could someday tackle dirty, dangerous, or
dull tasks that humans shun. His work in microrobotics, which could be
deployed as far away as Mars or as nearby as the living room, has earned
him a place among the world's leading robotics experts, as well as the
Lemelson-MIT Program's $30,000 student prize, which was to be announced
Wednesday at the Boston Museum of Science. 'I started geeking out an early
age. Robotics is when you combine Legos and video games to remote control
cars and electronics, and put those in the same bedroom. You get robotics
shortly thereafter,' he said." February 24, 2003: Pilotless
aircraft carrier jet makes first test flight. Associated Press / available
from Ananova. "The Pegasus, also known as the X-47A, flew for 12
minutes before successfully landing on a runway at the Naval Air Warfare
Centre in California's Owens Valley. The arrowhead-shaped plane completed
the flight autonomously, following a series of pre-programmed way points."
February 23, 2003: Eyes
on $1-Million Prize for Robot Ground-Vehicle Race. February 22, 2003: Subs
newest aid in counting fish population. By Michelle Knott. New Scientist
News Sevice / available from The Star. "A robot submarine that can
be taught to recognize any fish species could soon be helping conservationists
find out if fish populations really are as close to collapse as some suspect.
... Daniel Doolittle and his colleagues at the Virginia Institute of Marine
Science in Gloucester Point, Va., have developed an autonomous underwater
vehicle (AUV) that takes sonar pictures of passing fish shoals and uses
an artificial intelligence system to recognize the fish species in question
and count them. ... [H]e and his colleagues designed neural-network software
that can be programmed to recognize any number of different species by
their shape and the way they move. The neural network learns which combinations
of inputs, such as shape details, lead to a particular output, such as
a positive species identification. ...The U.S. navy is interested in the
smart subs, which could be put to work patrolling harbours or shipping
lanes on the lookout for mines or other weapons." February 21, 2003: Robotics
technology hasn't come of age -- yet. By Manny Frishberg. Puget Sound
Business Journal. "Far from science fiction, robots have already
played an important part in American business for decades -- mostly in
the form of the giant industrial machines that weld and paint car bodies,
wire together silicon chips or wrap and stack packaged goods. February 21, 2003: Machine
Intelligence Fails Fascination Test. Opinion by Gaby Wood. Newsday.
"Earlier this month in Manhattan, Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov
played what he called the first fair chess match between a man and a machine.
... Deep Blue was not the first contraption to attempt to replicate the
calculations of the human mind. A long time earlier, in 1769, an 'automaton
chess player' was built for the empress of Austria by a Hungarian civil
servant named Wolfgang von Kempelen. It was made up of a wooden figure
dressed in Turkish costume and seated behind a large chest, on top of
which was a chessboard. ... Von Kempelen's machine demolished a number
of eminent opponents - Napoleon, Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great
- and several thinkers, including Edgar Allan Poe, sought to unveil its
secret. ... The nearer artificial intelligence experts come to simulating
a human being, the more clearly they perceive the particular difficulties
of the task; there is still so much we don't know about ourselves." February 21, 2003: In
Emergencies, Bots to the Rescue. By Michelle Delio. Wired News. "[T]his
week a couple dozen robotics researchers left their labs and donned hard
hats and steel-toed boots to participate in a one-day workshop intended
to show them what a real search-and-rescue experience is like. Computer
scientist Robin Murphy, director of the university's Center for Robot-Assisted
Search and Rescue, led the workshop. 'It's so important to get computer
scientists into the field so they can get a real-world perspective on
human-machine interaction,' Murphy said before the workshop. ... Researchers
continue to program these robots with greater intelligence. In an emergency
situation, the machines can't rely solely on commands from humans because
wireless communication can be difficult to maintain in remote terrain
or deep inside a collapsed building. Until they can be programmed to act
on their own, the bots must at least be smart enough to continue moving
forward through an emergency site until communication signals resume.
If communication is not restored, they should know when and how to return
to home base." February 21, 2003: No
Drivers Wanted in Race for $1 Million. By Bob Drogin and Aaron Zitner.
Los Angeles Times (no fee reg. req'd) / also avaiable from The Baltimore
Sun (Race
for $1 million -- no drivers wanted). "Think 'Mad Max' meets
Jules Verne. Or 'BattleBots' hits 'Cannonball Run.' Think winning $1 million
for racing a robocar. That will be the Pentagon's unlikely pitch to more
than 200 potential participants Saturday in Los Angeles at the announcement
of a public competition to build and race unmanned ground vehicles from
Los Angeles to Las Vegas in March 2004. The rules are simple. 'No humans
or other biological entities' allowed onboard. No radio or remote controls.
... The race, called the Grand Challenge, is the brainchild of the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, the $2-billion whiz-bang
shop at the Pentagon that helped create the Internet, Stealth aircraft,
'smart' bombs and the pilotless Predator plane. ... The robo-race is in
a tradition of grand challenges designed to inspire the public and push
the frontiers of science. ... Contests also have a history in the world
of robotics." February 20, 2003: Robot
game sparks student interest. By Karen Klinka. The Oklahoman. "Research
describing how Botball robotics can interest school students in science
was recently presented at a national meeting by a University of Oklahoma
professor. But Oklahoma's annual regional Botball Robot Tournament Saturday
in Oklahoma City will allow people to see that process in action, said
David P. Miller, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at
OU's College of Engineering. ... 'We're actually still in the process
of putting together firm numbers to show this,' Miller said. 'But there's
substantial anecdotal evidence that a lot of students never thought of
science, technology or engineering as a possible career path until they
went into one of these robotics contests around the country.' The experience
of robotics competition helps many students realize that they understand
these subjects and that there are jobs in those fields, he said."
February 19, 2003: Who
should explore space, man or machine? By Richard Stenger. CNN. "The
Russians and Americans may have ended their rivalry beyond Earth, but
another contest for dominance in space remains, one that pits biology
and brains against circuits and chips. ... So who should explore space?
When grilled by Capitol Hill lawmakers last week, NASA administrator Sean
O'Keefe expressed support for both man and machine. 'It's not a question
of either or, robotics or humans,' O'Keefe said. 'The strategy we try
to employ is not an either or but the best of both.' ... Interestingly,
robots might someday take over some spacewalking chores. NASA is working
on a prototype called Robonaut to handle more mundane tasks of astronauts
in space. But Robonauts would supplement, not replace, the work of humans,
whose depth and breadth of performance is beyond current robotics capability,
according to Chris Culbert, a robotics researcher at NASA's Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas." February 18, 2003: Robots
are getting more sociable - Researchers work on machines with a human
touch. By Alan Boyle. MSNBC. Please note: accompanying
the article is a link to an interactive brief history of robotics.
"For [David] Hanson, K-Bot is step down a decades-long path in cognitive
science. Future robo-faces could be used to test theories about how humans
come up with acceptable responses to social cues. Eventually, the robot
itself might recognize when it has flashed an inappropriate expression
or made an ill-timed remark, then adjust its own software accordingly.
There may even be occasions when humans who have a psychological problem
with socializing could learn a thing or two from K-Bot's descendants.
Many other robotics experts are working on their own brands of sociable
machines. Cynthia Breazeal, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, was a pioneer in the field, by virtue of a cute contraption
called Kismet. ... Now she's working on a furry, lop-eared robot named
Leonardo, which was designed with the aid of experts in animatronics.
'There are many, many, many, many possible applications,' she said. Sociable
robots could serve as entertainers, nursemaids, servants or surrogate
friends. The software advances could also lead to better on-screen 'virtual
humans' in situations where the physical form isn't needed -- say, providing
a friendly 'face' at automatic teller machines. ... Looking beyond the
science and engineering, the effort to construct more humanlike robots
has a philosophical point as well, the researchers said. 'Robots have
always been an intriguing mirror to our own conception of what it means
to be a human,' Breazeal said." February 18, 2003: Roboburgh
Robotics represents the sizzle that goes with the steak of factory and
process automation. Essay by James H. Morris. Post-Gazette. "There
is definitely a lot more to robotics than R2D2. Robotics plays a role
whenever computers deal directly with the real, physical world -- sensing
movement, smelling chemicals, moving freight or driving vehicles. One
of Pittsburgh's most successful new companies is McKesson Automation,
which sells a system that mechanically dispenses medicines in hospitals
in order to eliminate human error. In other words, robotics represents
the 'sizzle' that goes with the 'steak' of factory and process automation,
a huge continuing enterprise that accelerates as computers become ubiquitous.
... Quiz: What Pittsburgh sports team won three world championships in
the last decade? Answer: Carnegie Mellon's Robotic Soccer Teams! Playing
on an international stage against teams from all over the world, Carnegie
Mellon's small, wheeled robots and Sony Aibo legged robots have been bringing
home the gold in the International RoboCup Federation's annual competitions
since 1997. Prior to this year's main event in Italy, Carnegie Mellon
will be hosting the first American Open robotics competition on campus
from April 30 to May 4. The event will be open to the public. February 17, 2003: Robotics
put new face on the future. Sci-fi depictions still a long way off.
By Eric Schmidt. The Denver Post. " The scientists spoke at a symposium
on 'biologically inspired intelligent robots' based on models from nature.
The idea is not to mechanically replicate animals but to adopt forms from
nature that lead to more useful technology, said Yoseph Bar-Cohen, a physicist
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. ... Cynthia Breazeal, a robot behavior expert
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also discussed the relationship
between man and machine. She said there is a cultural aspect to artificial
intelligence that goes beyond engineering into the realm of sociology
and psychology. ... The inevitable allusions to science fiction drew mixed
responses from the scientists. Bar-Cohen said movies such as 'Star Wars'
or 'A.I.' give researchers ideas to pursue but don't necessarily point
in the right direction. Breazeal said science fiction can be difficult
for researchers because it sets the bar so high." February 13, 2003: Hello,
Dolly! By Jennifer Schuessler. The New York Review of Books. Two reviews:
1) "Gaby Wood's sprightly and imaginative book Edison's Eve:
A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life looks back to
the time when science and entertainment, the study of life's mysteries
and the attempts to build imitations of it, were one and the same. ...
The quest for mechanical life has its roots in the ancient world, but
Wood begins her story in Enlightenment Europe, where 'the ambitions of
the necromancers were revived in the well-respected name of science.'
The eighteenth century was 'the golden age of the philosophical toy,'
and its most celebrated engineer was Jacques de Vaucanson." 2) "[Rodney]
Brooks has just published his own book, Flesh and Machines: How Robots
Will Change Us , a highly readable overview of robotics that begins
with Vaucanson's duck and moves briskly through W. Grey Walter's pathbreaking
mechanical tortoises of the 1950s (which learned conditioned reflexes
the same way any carbon-based animal does) to a radiant future when we
will finally let go of our sense of 'tribal uniqueness' and embrace a
robot-enabled super-longevity -- if the machines don't kill us all off
first, that is. Brooks's own research concentrated on so-called 'humanoid
robots,' mechanical life forms that know how to behave at a cocktail party."
February 11, 2003: Beauty
in the eye of the android. BBC. "Artificial intelligence experts
in Fife have unveiled a robotic head which they say can scientifically
determine how attractive women are to men. But they have warned that it
does not work in reverse because masculine appeal to women is not as likely
to be based on looks alone. Specialists at Kirkcaldy-based Intelligent
Earth company said that the head-shaped android was capable of calculating
how 'feminine' or 'masculine' a person's face is. ... Managing director
David Cumming said: 'The artificial intelligence technology we've developed
here learns to recognise what sex someone is by drawing on its past experiences,
in much the same way that the human brain learns when we are children.'
... The artificial intelligence firm received its first prototype of the
robot, nicknamed Doki, last week and is now mass producing the android." February 10, 2003: At
one with the universe - Do androids dream of electric sheep? Colin
Tudge in London examines definitions of consciousness and artificial intelligence.
The Age. "Is the brain simply a computer, and is consciousness merely
the feeling we get when we think? Or is consciousness a primary component
of the universe, which the brain can latch on to, like a radio receiver?
... There are three points of view. The first, which can be traced back
to the founder of modern computing, Alan Turing, and is embraced by the
Oxford physiologist Colin Blakemore, is pragmatic. Turing pointed out
that it is impossible to know whether other human beings are conscious.
Because we feel conscious, we assume other people must be like us. But
this can only be an inference. But suppose we made a computer - a robot
- that could make whimsical jokes and pass the sandwiches without being
asked.... [T]he emerging modern view says that matter and consciousness
are not separate entities, as Descartes supposed, but complementary aspects
of the universe. Both exist, but neither is primary. Each is the obverse
of the other, like two sides of a coin." Also raised in the article
is the question: "Is it reasonable to ascribe consciousness to a
droll and well-mannered aunt, yet deny it in a robot that behaves like
one?" February 4, 2003: Mitsubishi
shows off robot carer - A Japanese company has developed a robot that
doubles as a house-sitter and nurse. Ananova. "Mitsubishi's three-foot,
wheeled creation has cameras inside its head and comes equipped with voice
and face recognition capabilities. ... The company says the aim has been
to create a dependable companion, particularly for old people or those
in frail health. The robot can even spot when owners may be suffering
from side-effects of their medication." February 4, 2003: Should
we be up there at all? By Hiawatha Bray. Boston Globe. "In a
time when unmanned satellites can broadcast TV images around the world,
and robots can scurry across the surface of Mars, why send people into
space? ... Still, for Neil de Grasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director
of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, it's the human need for heroes
that justifies the vast expense and terrific peril of human space flight.
'I have yet to see anyone give a ticker-tape parade for a robot,' he said." February 3, 2003: To
seek, to find and not to yield - The Columbia disaster should not
stop manned space trips. Comment by Duncan Steel. The Guardian. "Nowadays
many space activities may be carried out by robotic craft, controlled
from the ground or by their on-board computers. But there is a limit to
what can be done remotely, or using artificial intelligence. Space agencies
try to minimise cost in every way, and anything involving manned flight
implies far higher expenditure, but in the end there is no replacement
for a human brain. Many probes have been sent to Mars, and this year Nasa
and the European Space Agency will launch others, but these have all been
robotic craft with limited capabilities. To understand Mars, and conduct
a proper search for life, eventually we'll need to send a geologist with
a rock hammer - plus, of course, some pretty sophisticated analysis equipment." February 2003: Robots
That Suck - Have they finally come out with a robot for the rest of us?
By George Musser. Scientific American. "When humans use a personal
computer, we enter into the computer's world. If it can't do something,
or if it crashes, too bad; we have to deal. But a robot enters into our
world. If floors are uneven, if legs get in the way, if lighting conditions
change, the robot has to deal. Extra computing power doesn't necessarily
help; on the contrary, more sophistication typically means less resilience.
Through the school of hard knocks (lots of them), robot experimenters
have learned to keep things simple. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
professor and robo-guru Rodney A. Brooks led the way in the mid-1980s
with a new style of robot programming, in which cheap sensors directly
trigger elementary behaviors. ... Apart from DustBot, a cheap but clever
toy made by the Japanese company Tomy, the first consumer robot that could
vacuum was Cye. Released in 1999 by Pittsburgh-based Probotics, Cye is
the Apple II of robots: just pull it out of the box and plug it in. ...
Last October, Brooks's own firm, iRobot, based in Somerville, Mass., brought
out Roomba, a robot tailor-made for vacuuming. The lead designer, Joseph
L. Jones, is co-author of the 1993 book Mobile Robots: Inspiration to
Implementation , which remains the single best guide for beginning hobbyists
(it got me started). The main subject of the book, the Rug Warrior project,
grew out of a floor-cleaning bot that Jones had built for a contest at
M.I.T. ... Roomba closely resembles a vacuum robot, Trilobite, that was
introduced by Swedish appliance maker Electrolux in November 2001." January 31, 2003: 'Living'
machines unsettling. Book review by John Freeman. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
" Americans may think of Thomas Edison as the great inventor of the
light bulb and the phonograph, but he did have a flop or two in his lifetime,
as Gaby Wood reveals. Her charming 'Edison's Eve,' recently named a finalist
for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award, recounts the story of
Edison's attempt to make the first talking doll. ... Wood places this
interesting failure within a history of experiments in automation, arguing
that current forays into artificial intelligence have their roots in the
18th century, when building an automaton was so heretical that scientists
who tried to do so were sometimes run out of town. ... Examined as part
of a continuum, these primitive robots raise the same questions: Why do
scientists feel a need to replicate life? And why, when they fail, do
they feel such shame?" January 30, 2003: Robot
chauffeurs approaching fast. By Garry Barker. The Age. "The halcyon
day of the robot chauffeur is approaching. With Australian technologies
already successfully tested in Queensland and on roads near Versailles
in France, you will eventually be able to sit back in your car sipping
a glass of wine, reading, chatting on a mobile phone or watching TV and
have the vehicle drive you smoothly, safely and automatically to your
destination. Ljubo Vlacic, of the School of Micro-electronic Engineering
at Griffith University, who leads the team that developed the technology,
says it is ready for commercial application but he does not expect to
see it in public operation for some years. ... 'We are talking about cooperative
autonomous vehicles,' [Professor Vlacic] says." January 28, 2003: ASIMO
Robot to Tour U.S. By Lance Ulanoff. PC Magazine. "ASIMO, Honda's
four-foot tall walking robot wonder, has arrived on US shores to kick
off a nationwide, 15-month educational tour that will culminate in a visit
to the North America school that comes up with the best essay on robotics.
The tour, fully funded by Honda, is aimed at students from grades five
through high school. ... 'ASIMO's good looks are deliberate,' said ASIMO
North American project leader Jeffrey Smith. A humanoid appearance is
'key to ASIMO's acceptance in society.'" January 29, 2003: Hearts
and minds. The Nation. "According to the Japan Robot Association,
the market for industrial robots was worth 400 billion yen (Bt155 billion)
in 2001. If its predictions are sound and robots are bought by more households,
then the domestic market will expand to three trillion yen in 2010 and
eight trillion yen in 2025. 'Just as almost every household has a computer,
we're assuming every household will have a robot,' an official of the
association says. This year will be 'the year of the robot', says Kenji
Kimura, president of the Business Design Laboratory in Nagoya, which is
planning to launch the world's first robot 'that can communicate with
people by recognising their feelings'." January 29, 2003: Embedded
in our unconscious. The Nation. " The history of robots dates
back almost 2,800 years. In the ancient Greek epic the 'Iliad', written
in the 8th century BC, Homer depicted what is believed to be three prototype
robots a robot that moved around on wheels, a humanoid robot and a robot
designed to work in a factory. 'People have long dreamed of creating something
to help them in their work,' says Tokyo University Professor Susumu Tachi,
an expert in robotics. The term itself comes from the Czech word robota,
meaning drudgery or servitude and was first used in the 1920 play 'RUR'
('Rossum's Universal Robots'), by Czech author Karel Capek. ... In the
18th century, karakuri ningyo, or wind-up dolls, were developed in Japan.
Osaka University's Asada said the dolls were early Japanese robot prototypes.
But it was only after World War II that robots had any practical use.
In 1960, Joseph Engelberger developed Unimate, the world's first robot
with a real-life function. ... Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd bought Unimate
technology from Engelberger's firm, and in 1969, Unimate robots took to
the factory floors for the first time in Japan." January 28, 2003: Interactive
robots serve as performers. By Corey Takahashi. Newsday / available
from The Modesto Bee. "'We found a great junkyard,' cheers Chico
MacMurtrie. 'This is, like, a score.' The Brooklyn artist is on a hunt
for tube-stock aluminum at J.P. Salvage Inc. in Staten Island, an important
first step in creating his beguiling 'interactive robotic performance
art.' Before you begin picturing scenes from 'Star Wars' or automated
Christmas elves, it should be known that MacMurtrie, a serial winner of
National Endowment for the Arts grants, does not consider his creations
toys -- or stamping-plant automatons. They're sculpture. ... The robots
struggle to stand, walk and play instruments, sometimes resembling infants
in their movements, other times seeming like frightening cyborgs. Each
work explores body language and movement, a long-time interest of MacMurtrie's.
'I'm not about robotics. I'm an artist that's using robotics as a way
to express my ideas,' he says. 'I'm interested in it more ultimately as
artwork.'" January 24, 2003: Revolutionary
technology ready to transform how, how much housework you do. By Cindy
Hoedl. The Kansas City Star. "Now a whole fleet of labor-saving machines
with revolutionary new technology is about to land in your living room,
your kitchen and your yard. Bring them on, says Mary Whitlow of Kansas
City. 'I'm the first one to get everything,' she says. 'I love technology.'
Whitlow purchased a Robomower by Friendly (from $599) on the Internet
more than a year ago. ... Not only does it cut the grass, Whitlow says,
but it also mulches, edges and doesn't use gasoline. 'So it's good for
the environment -- I like that,' she says. ... [James] Dyson calls his
battery-powered vacuum 'automatic' rather than 'robotic.' He says factories
are full of robotic machines that perform only pre-set tasks. But an automatic
vacuum has to have artificial intelligence, he says, to be able to clean
rooms of all shapes and sizes, maneuver around obstacles and know when
it's finished. The first-generation automatic vacuums face a greater challenge
than their successors will, Dyson says. That's because they 'are trying
to clean homes that never were meant to be cleaned by robots.' Just as
modern clothes are designed to be cleaned by a washing machine, one day
homes will be built to be cleaned by robots, making it easier to design
the robot." January 24, 2003: Personal
robots - Why they're nearly here. By Patrick Houston. ZDNet. "
The Aibo turns four in a few months--or 28, if you measure the age of
Sony's mechanical pooch in canine time. I didn't expect it to live so
long. Even though Sony sold out the first 5,000 Aibos it produced within
20 minutes, I've always considered the gadget--with top-end prices pushing
$1,500--as a novelty for the Hammacher-Schlemmer set. But then, as part
of our recent search for the Next Big Thing in personal tech, I talked
to robotics experts Victor Matsuda, Helen Greiner, Una-May O'Reilly, and
Hans Moravec. ... After chatting with them all, I believe that, starting
this year, more and more of you will be welcoming truly utilitarian robots
into your homes, where they will vacuum the floors, watch the premises,
serve as 'personal agents,' and otherwise help you live your life more
efficiently. Yes, robots are no longer just the stuff of Star Wars sequels
anymore. They won't be relegated to the factory floor. Robots are getting
real." January 23, 2003: Honda
unveils robot - The Japanese company says the 4-foot tall, 115-pound
robot is the most intelligent humanoid robot in the world. By Andrew Black.
Oregon Daily Emerald. "Last month in Tokyo, the Japanese automobile
company Honda unveiled what it considers the most intelligent humanoid
robot in the world. The new robot, named ASIMO for Advanced Step in Innovative
Mobility, stands four feet tall, weighs 115 pounds and has a striking
resemblance to a moon-walking astronaut. ... 'In Japan they are used as
greeters,' [Stephen] Keeney said. 'In the U.S., we plan to use ASIMO to
encourage children to be excited about science.' The ASIMO robot uses
a camera mounted inside its head to interpret body postures and gestures.
The robot can recognize up to 10 different people and address them by
name, it can communicate simple messages and it can guide people to pre-programed
destinations. It also can walk up and down stairs, avoid immobile objects,
recognize its name when called, shake hands and transmit images of a visitor's
face. Keeney said he envisions ASIMO eventually evolving into a tool to
guide the blind or to assist people in wheelchairs." January 22, 2003: Robotics
seen as answer to dangerous military jobs. Reuters / available from
The Mercury News. "The medium-weight Stryker armored combat vehicle
moves quickly, skirting trees and other dangerous obstacles as it scouts
out enemy territory -- but there's no person at the controls. This is
an autonomous robotic vehicle built by General Dynamics Corp. , which
gets to its pre-set destination by relying on an array of sophisticated
sensors, infrared cameras, and images gathered by satellites, all of which
are updated by a high-powered computerized mission planner 10 times a
second. ... 'Where this is all leading is the ability to replace men in
the military in what they call the dirty, dangerous and dull missions,'
said Scott Myers, vice president of Eagle Enterprise, the General Dynamics
division that is developing the robotic Stryker, in addition to commercial
applications such as an automated pharmacy and postal sorting equipment." January 21, 2003: X-Men
- "Host Bob Edwards describes a recent International Trade Court
ruling over whether the X-Men -- a group of mutant superheroes -- are
human." NPR's Morning Edition. "After inspecting 60 action figures
and stacks of legal briefs, [Judge Judy Barzilay] ruled this month that
for purposes of import, the X-Men are not human, and Marvel wanted it
that way. When the suit began six years ago, there was a 12 percent duty
on dolls that have human characteristics as opposed to a 6 percent duty
on creatures in the forms of animals or robots, dubbed toys." [Audio
file] January 21, 2003: SnowDroid
working on AI toy. By J. Adrian Stanley. The Daily Camera. "Business
owner Stephen Matson hopes to deliver what the Jetsons promised America.
Matson's company, SnowDroid Industries, is working to develop artificial
intelligence machines. ... SnowDroid has developed the first prototype
in what it plans to turn into a line of toys. 'Rovie,' a robot designed
to play with children, has an artificial brain that simulates the brain
of an insect. ... Randy Willig, chief scientist for SnowDroid, said Rovie
has a personality and emotions. He said the robot is also able to sense
its environment, gain life experiences, keep up with a walking child and
respond to stimuli with lights and sounds. 'Instead of making a robotic
pet, we wanted to make a pet robot,' Matson said. ... If all goes as planned,
Rovie will be the first in a line of 'Mechpets.'" January 18, 2003: January 15, 2003: Robotic
Snakes May Fight Terror, Save Lives. By Brian Handwerk. National Geographic
News. "Snake-like robots already exist in rudimentary forms. But
[Howie] Choset's creations push the envelope. Small and very strong by
design, Choset's snakebots measure just five centimeters (two inches)
in diameter. The use of beveled gears around their circumference, allows
the serpentine robots many more degrees of movement than conventional
robots -- including the ability to move efficiently in three-dimensional
space. Choset's machines use complex mathematical algorithms that enable
them to autonomously sense and respond to obstacles and variations they
encounter while navigating across landscapes. Such innovations mean that
the snakebot may soon become a highly effective tool for difficult applications
like the complicated and dangerous work of urban search and rescue. ...
In the future, similar robots might work on the most complex machine of
all -- the human body. 'In the long run, the epic application for this
technology is surgery,' Choset explained. 'It could enable us to perform
better surgical operations without having to open up a person -- but unless
there is some kind of critical breakthrough that sort of thing won't happen
for a while.'" January 14, 2003: Vacuum
sweeps into history. By Kevin Maney. USA Today. "Maybe you've
run across Roomba. It was one of the few sensations of the holiday season.
It is a $200 robot vacuum cleaner, about the diameter of a dinner plate.
... Because of Roomba, 2003 could go down as the year robots became part
of everyday life. ... It could become the first robot most consumers own,
and it would then shape their perceptions and expectations of robots,
the way Apple defined the PC. This is key. We grew up on robots like Gigantor
and Rosie from The Jetsons. At the 1939 World's Fair, Westinghouse showed
'Elektro, the amazing Westinghouse Moto-Man'- servant of the future. We
thought robots would be computerized, mechanized humans. Roomba says:
That's wrong. Robots will be computerized, mechanized appliances." January 12, 2003: Pentagon
seeks robots for $1 million arms race. Reuters / available from The
Times of India. " January 12, 2003: Looking
to Iraq, military robots focus on lessons of Afghanistan. By Justin
Pope. Associated Press / available from The Detroit News / also available
from The Billings Gazette (Robots
of war: Designers learn from Afghan campaign). "In future wars,
robots may drop from the sky by the hundreds from unmanned aircraft, swarming
like giant insects over battlefields in coordinated, terrifying assaults.
But that is a decades-away scenario. For now, military planners and robot
designers are simply trying to improve devices -- some of which could
see action soon in Iraq -- by incorporating lessons from Afghanistan,
where robots saw their first significant military action. You'd be hard
pressed to find anyone in the military who says robots will one day replace
soldiers. Yet the newest robots being developed by companies including
iRobot range farther from their 'masters' than did their forebears in
Afghanistan. They can navigate terrain and obstacles more deftly, lay
down a cover of smoke, test for chemical weapons and extend a 'neck' that
can peer around corners. ... Robots will someday master many of the complex,
individual tasks required in combat, experts insist. Then, something even
more powerful will follow: robots that work together." January 3, 2003: Automatons
Acting on Attitudes - Researchers Develop Robots That React to Human
Emotions. By Paul Eng. ABC News. "The line between man and machine
is becoming less distinct as technology evolves. Researchers at the Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, Tenn., are working to develop a robot that can
respond to human emotions. Nilanjan Sarkar, an assistant professor of
mechanical engineering and the principal researcher for the robot project,
says the prime motivation is to develop a better, more natural means for
machines to interact with humans. 'There is a lot of communication that
is implicit between two persons,' says Sarkar. 'We study each other's
faces and body language to see how the other person reacts. 'Are you bored,
are you paying attention, are you excited?' ' But to pick up on these
human cues, Sarkar proposes taking a different tact from those tried by
other robotics researchers. Rather than using cameras to capture visual
clues, Sarkar's research focuses on the "physiological aspects"
of human expressions. 'For example, if you are excited, your heart beats
faster, your palms might get sweaty,' says Sarkar. ... 'There are many
situations where this would be ideal,' says Sarkar. 'In rehabilitation
where a patient has to relearn the use of a limb, it can get quite frustrating
and they quit. If you have a robotic aid that senses that frustration,
it could help them along the way — modifying the rehabilitation,
much like a personalized teacher.'" January 1, 2003: Humanoid
robots: companions or just costly toys? By Taiga Uranaka. The Japan
Times. " In the 1950s, Astro Boy drew on his 100,000 horsepower and
hip-mounted machineguns to fight evil-doers. Despite his supposed April
7, 2003, birthday, however, the creation of robots the likes of Astro
will probably remain a superhero pipe dream forever. This hasn't stopped
companies like Sony and Honda from throwing big bucks behind the production
of humanoid robots. But skeptics wonder what the expensive contraptions
can really offer consumers. ... Sony Corp., creator of the popular AIBO
pet robot, will market a small humanoid robot this year at 'the price
of a luxury sedan.' ... 'Our aim is to provide people with a life partner,'
said Toshi Doi, Sony's corporate executive vice president, who described
the robot as a 'moving Teddy Bear' in the digital age. The consumer electronics
giant hopes entertainment robots will become one of its sales pillars
within a decade, he said. ... Many of those involved in the development
of humanoid robots maintain they will find their way into households much
the same way as PCs. ... But some robot experts remain skeptical that
consumers will see them as anything but expensive toys. ... 'I don't think
anyone can make a successful business out of marketing humanoid robots,'
said Shigeki Sugano, a professor at Waseda University's Humanoid Robotics
Institute. "There are few people who need such robots.' ... 'I think
the key to success is supplying robots that meet users' specific needs,'
[Hajime] Aoyama said." January 1, 2003: Robots
offer learning opportunity. By Fumiko Endo. Daily Yomiuri. "Yoshiaki
Sakagami, chief engineer of Honda R&D Co. who oversaw development
of the new Asimo's recognition ability, believes that the robot should
serve as a 'life assistant' for human beings. Describing Asimo as a 'multifunctional
machine to enrich human life,' Sakagami, 45, hopes that the humanoid robot
will become able to help people--especially wheelchair users--move around.'
... During the process of developing the robot, Sakagami began worrying
about the fact that advanced technology has become too close to human
beings. 'I am worried that people empathize too much with robots. I especially
feel great concerns when I see children--who don't even understand human
society--interacting with robots,' he said. For instance, children do
not know what makes robots move. 'I am afraid that they do not recognize
the border between the real and virtual world,' he warned. ... Sakagami
agrees with the oft-quoted belief that the concept of robots in Japan
differs from that in Europe and the United States, a difference that is
said to spring from differences in religious beliefs. Due to such concerns,
when Honda Motor Co. started developing Asimo, it asked the Vatican whether
the production of humanoid robots would be acceptable for Christians.
The Vatican's response was moderate, showing a full understanding toward
the company's project." January 1, 2003: Coexistence
of humans and robots - Nation adjusting to robots. 2003 New Year's
Special. By Fumiko Endo. Daily Yomiuri. "Since ancient times, people
dreamed of creating machines or beings to help them in their work. The
Japanese were no different, but had to wait until the 20th century, when
industrial robots came into their own. Confined for years to plants and
factories, robots finally entered livingrooms and walked into lobbies
with the release of a slew of robots, including Sony Corp.'s pet robot
Aibo in 1999 and Honda Motor Co.'s Asimo in 2000. Industry watchers now
believe we are witnessing the dawn of the age of the robot, in which robots
and human beings coexist in harmony." January 1, 2003: Yes,
they're cute - Will they think someday? By Mikiko Miyakawa. Daily
Yomiuri. "Is it possible for robots to have minds like human beings?
Prof. Hiroshi Tsukimoto of Tokyo Denki University attempted to answer
this controversial question by focusing on robots' capability of understanding
language in his book titled 'Robotto no Kokoro' (Robot's Mind). In considering
this issue, ... While many scientists claim that computers will become
able to understand and use languages just like people, Tsukimoto, an expert
on artificial intelligence, believes it will be impossible for computers
to do so as they have no bodies. The professor claims that the comprehension
of languages involves 'functional physical movement.' In other words,
understanding of words is associated with images built up through one's
physical experiences, he said." FOR MORE ARTICLES, SEE THE ROBOT NEWS ARCHIVE |
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