Robotic Blogs

Don't foget that you can use your Amazon gift certificates at Roboteria. You can buy anything available at amazon.com through Roboteria.

It's exciting to have a credit at a store.
You feel rich and you can go on a shopping spree to splurge on everything you have always wanted.

On occasion of everyone having an amazon.com gift certificate burning a hole in their pockets, I have set up a special 'go ahead and splurge' department at Roboteria.

Hurry over and buy something before the good stuff is gone! ka-ching.

Software to control WowWee robots, Go-Robo! is available now for testing.

The windows software allows you to write programs for RoboSapiens,Robopets, Roboreptiles and Roboraptor and send the commands to them through infrared.

Young robot masters can put together a program by building up steps using a graphical design mode. More experienced programmers can use the GRIDscript (Go-Robo ID Script) language.

The full commercial release is expected in a few months but experimenters can request an early copy now.

Check out the limited time HUGE DISCOUNTS on Roboreptile and RoboPet one the WowWee page at ROBOTERIA.


Go-Robo! Creative computer programming with robots

Japanese, METI, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry chose the top ten robots from 153 nominations for their first annual Robot Awards.

The winners included Paro, the robot baby seal, My Spoon feeding arm robot from SECOM and Kondo's small humanoid KHR-2HV.

Watch this space for the upcoming announcement of the Robot Gossip Robot of The Year.


Top 10 robots selected for Robot Award 2006 ::: Pink Tentacle

Tiremaker Pirelli is pumping up their profits using factory robots to make custom tires.

The system is called modular integrated robotized system, or MIRS. "Robots manage the entire production cycle in an uninterrupted sequence from the compounds to the finished tyres , with no semifinished products to be moved around and no intermediate storage phases." No tooling changes are needed between product changes.

Niche Manufacturing Comes to a Car’s Four Corners - New York Times

Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a robot to crawl along power cables to inspect for damage.

The Robotic Cable Inspection System was developed by the Sensors, Energy and Automation Laboratory (SEAL) at UW.
The prototype has been tested mostly on underground cables on campus but was recently taken to Louisiana for field testing on the storm damaged network around New Orleans.

The robot is designed to check for damage on 3 inch diameter main power distribution cables. It has three types of sensors for assessing the condition of the cable insulation. It uses heat sensors, an acoustic sensor to listen for arcing, and 'fringing electric field' sensors to find 'water trees' that have seeped into the defects in the insulation. The robot also has video to show where it is as it communicates wirelessly back to the control base.

Project leader Alexander Mamishev says, ""Maintaining a distributed infrastructure -- power systems, roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings -- is a very large and costly endeavor. Over the years, maintenance costs more than construction. Our vision is that someday robots will accomplish the lion's share of maintenance tasks."

The research has been ongoing for five years.

uwnews.org | University of Washington News and Information

Maybe there would be a headline like the one above this article in the future, says a UK study. As reported all over the world, the UK's Chief Scientist, Sir David King, has commissioned a study to see how we can keep robots "correctly managed" to "lead to increased labour output and greater prosperity." The problem? Uppity robots will demand rights which will threaten our very ideas of humanity.

However, the idea to grant rights to robots may just be part of a plan to soak them for taxes and draft them into the army.
According to the report, "Extension of legal rights to robots would likely include requests that robots also be subject to certain responsibilities within society such as voting, the obligation to pay taxes, and serve compulsory military service"

The study is part of a futures study being conducted by consulting firms Ipsos MORI and Outsights.

Check out the Sigma Scan database here.

As a futurist I have to say that the Sigma Scan database is a nice list of emerging issues.
As someone on vacation right now, I also have to say how much it cracks me up how this one issue of robot rights has jumped into the press.

I think we should all be much more concerned about the possibility of animals learning how to talk, which is also covered in the study.
The development of human-animal communication could lead to, "The animal rights movement could be strengthened, and possibly become more militant. There could be calls for animal rights to be made equal to humans, or at least more rigorously protected in law."

Which would be worse: voting robots or militant talking dogs?

FT.com / World / UK - UK report says robots will have rights

Quick Links:

Engineers at Lehigh and Carnegie Mellon universities, working with a Philadelphia-based start-up, have integrated robotics, laser and wireless technologies into a new system that promises to make it safer and cheaper for wheelchair users to drive a car.
ScienceDaily: Robotics, Laser And Wireless Technologies Make Driving Safer For Wheelchair Users

In his research Sven Rönnbäck of Luleå University of Technology in Sweden has developed a new prototype wheelchair that can be either driven manually or remote controlled but can also navigate on its own.
gizmag.com

Adaptive, sensor-laden garments could provide a new way for quadriplegics to control their wheelchairs. ...the researchers are developing an adaptive device using sensor-laden fabric. The garment is printed with 52 flexible, piezoresistive sensors developed at the University of Pisa.
MIT Technology Review

Previously...
Home helper robot
Biped locomotor

I will be traveling and having a merry Christmas over the next week so I may not have time for regular posts.

I will try to find time to to direct you to some interesting and worthwhile links.

The US postal service needs fewer people but humans still have to read handwritten addresses to keep the robots running.
Floridian: Robots that deliver
I wonder if they have thought of using Mechanical Turk.
Jobs of the future.


From GoRobotics.net: Hanson Robotics, creator of ultra-realistic robots like Albert Hubo and Phillip K Dick heads, is talking about making 2-foot humanoids for the home entertainment market.

robots.net found a video of a robot arm with a perfect handshake.

SB:Insects with their guts removed and replaced with delicate clockwork mechanisms. Kinda creepy?

Expect a flying robot Dragonfly next year from Robosapien creators WowWee.
The flying robot is powered completely by flapping wings - no propellers. According to T3, it can fly for 15 minutes within 150 feet of the remote control.



The design of the robot fly is based on the ornithopters of Sean Frawley who is currently a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and consultant to toymaker WowWee.
The design is based on the rubber-band powered ornithopter plans that Frawley designed while in high school. With a friend he started a online business, Ornithopter Technologies, selling the flyers.

Video via T3.com

WowWee expects to have the Dragonfly robots available for sale by next Christmas. They have a debut planned for the Consumer Electronics Show next month.

UPDATE:
Check out the official FlyTech website www.flytechonline.com

UPDATE2: Radio Shack shows these available now for $50 with a 1-2 day delivery. I have not ordered one myself so I don't promise anything. If someone else gets one that quick please post a comment here.
Special Projects -- Invention Mysteries Serial Story | NIE WORLD

Scientists in the University of Washington Laboratory for Neural Systems have demonstrated an interface between a person and robot that registers commands from the human's thought patterns alone.

The semi-autonomous robot works as a team with the human operator. The person wears a skull cap covered with 32 electrodes that pick up the brainwave patterns and send them to a computer.
In the demonstrated experiment, the robot found two blocks while the human operator watched the action on a computer screen through the robots eyes. The operator then thought about which block to choose. The robot picks up the correct block 94 percent of the time.

Says leader of the project, Rajesh Rao, "This is really a proof-of-concept demonstration. It suggests that one day we might be able to use semi-autonomous robots for such jobs as helping disabled people or performing routine tasks in a person's home." For example, you think, "I might like a beer," and your robot servant walks to the store, buys it and brings it to you.

Check out the movie here.

Related:
Asimo Researches Brain Control

Robot Controlled By Brain-in-a-dish
Neural Interface
Brain Implants Control Arm


uwnews.org | University of Washington News and Information

Rescue workers have brought in flying drones to help locate hikers lost near the summit of Mount Hood in Oregon.

A Colorado non-profit organization, Alliance for Robot-Assisted Crisis Assessment and Response, ARACAR, has joined the search efforts for the lost mountaneers. ARACAR brings 18 inch flying surveyors with visible light and heat sensing eyes. They can be operated from up to six miles.
Rescue teams had hoped that the remote flyers would be able to search even with the continuing bad weather that has kept them penned in at lower altitude camps.
As of yesterday the weather was still too severe even for the robots.



The ARACAR team joins the efforts of Eugene Mountain Rescue, the 10th Special Forces Search and Rescue team , the Hood River Crag Rats, Corvallis Search and Rescue and the U.S. Air Force's 304th Rescue Squadron.

Also, a cell phone signal was detected a few days earlier so eavesdropping experts have been called in. The cell company, the FBI and a government funded spy company out of North Carolina, Iomax USA, have been mustered to try to pinpoint the location of the hikers' phone.

It is believed that one of the hikers is injured near the summit. Two others in the party were thought to have gone for help and could be anywhere on the mountain.

Oregonlive.com: Search

More on ARACAR from Rocky Mountain News.

Microsoft released their Robotics Studio Software yesterday. The robotics software, which was announced back in June, is a complete development environment for robots. It includes a visual programming language, a 3-D virtual simulation environment and a runtime framework for interfacing with all kinds of hardware.

The software is free for hobbyists, experimenters and students and costs $399 for those wanting to use it commercially. Download it here.

Microsoft hopes that their software will become the heart and soul of future robots just as DOS and Windows launched the revolution in desktop computers.

The software has gained enthusiastic support since the beta release in June. It is already in use by many, many companies, schools and roboticists.

For just one example, research lab SRI International announced yesterday that they are creating robot localization, navigation and mapping software with MS Robotics Studio. SRI's software will give autonomous robots the ability to know where they are, map-out where they want to go and how to get there.

It has already been used with iRobot, Lego and others.

Will robots become as dependent on Microsoft software as PC's are now? It is a possibility.

Will we become as dependent on robots as we are on computers?
Probably.

The Robot Gossip Contest 1 to identify the turning point - when we become dependent on robots - is still open.

One reader, JakeH, has pointed out that the semiconductor manufacturing industry is already dependent on robots. His observation is appreciated but I still think society as a whole can survive without them for now.

It will not be long though before control some very necessary part of our lives so that without them civilization as we know it would crumble.
We will see signs of this in legislation that will set standards of reliability or define liabilities for failures of a robot.



Microsoft Robotics Studio Now Available to Provide Common Development Platform: More than 30 vendors offer support for creating broad range of innovative robotics applications.

Pennsylvania company Chatten Associates has released their latest version of telepresence interface for military and civilian use.

The Head Aimed Remote Viewer, HARV, is based on the eMagin Z800 3DVisor on the human operator and gimbal-mounted camera on the remote robot.
The 3DVisor fills the operator's vision as it tracks their head movements. The robot's camera exactly follows the motion of the operator's head.

The interface has been used for explosive disposal robots and weaponized robots as well as civilian use on bulldozers. It can increase the effectiveness of the human/robot team by many times. According to Chatten, "The sense of tele-presence is so convincing that the operator’s vision processing is ”fooled“ into believing the operator is actually on the vehicle."

Chatten Associates : Human/Robotic Interfaces : Welcome

Amid rumors swirling around Asimo's rock-star lifestyle, fans were aghast when he collapsed during a live performance. His press corps maintained their usual silence while speculation grows that his busy schedule and pressures from the launch of his new film career may be taking their toll.



He has recently been in Germany filming a series of commercials for Honda that will appear on British television. The director of the project says that he has been well behaved but he is not very flexible when it comes to making adjustments on the set.

According to The Independent online, "Asimo does not have the prima-donna tendencies of a lead actor." But he is still learning the craft. The article says of the director, "He endured a "slow, arduous and painful process" where the slightest diversion from the script called for advanced mathematics, re-programming and the loss of hours of valuable filming time."

The advertising campaign is said to begin today with the launch of short scenes being released onto iTunes. One wonders whether the live performance breakdown is a sign that Asimo is overplaying his battery life or maybe this is just a couch-jumping stunt to start the buzz about his new films. Asimo emerged from rehab last year with significant upgrades - could we be seeing a relapse?

Either way, this darling of science, big business, government and royalty is bound to come through this more popular than ever with his reputation unscathed.

via PinkTentacle

Swiss company K-Team Corporation has released their next generation mini mobile robot for research and education.

The Khepera III is the latest version of the Khepera line that has been used in education for ten years.

Thew Khepera III is 130 mm in diamater and 70 mm tall. It is designed to work on a tabletop or run around on a lab floor.

It comes with 8 looking-out and 2 ground-looking infra-red sensors and 5 ultra sonic sensors. It has an embedded Linux operating system and communicates via serial or USB.

It can be upgraded for wireless communication, color camera and miniature manipulator. Also, the open-source interfaces can be adapted to almost any application.

The cost is not shown on the website yet. The Khepera II is in the US $1300 range depending on the options.

See the movie...

K-TEAM Corporation

A new exhibition called Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006, is opening at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in NYC. It will run from December 8 until July 29, 2007.

One of the design technology examples on display are robot lobsters designed to crawl along the bottom of coastal areas to monitor the environment or search for mines.



The robot lobster are from the Biomimetic Underwater Robot Program at the Marine Science Center of Northeastern University.

The underwater robots are based on the neurophysiology and actual behavior of lobsters. The biomimetic design allows greatest performance and adaptability of the robots to the rocky bottom where they operate.

The lab, led by biologist Dr. Joseph Ayers, is also working on another underwater robot modeled after the eel-like lamprey which is propelled through the water by the undulations of its body.



Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum | National Design Triennial: Design Life Now

A vision software company, a robot maker, a university and possibly one of the world's largest employers of robots, Toyota, are joining forces to bring the gift of sight to factory robots.

Their objective is to empower robots to recognize random parts in a bin and be able to pick what is needed.

The project is led by Braintech who already makes vision guidance software for factory robots. The robot hardware expertise will come from ABB and it will all be held together with research help from University of British Columbia Collaborative Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory.
There is also money coming from Precarn, a non-profit that helps new technology startups in Canada.

Owen Jones, CEO of Braintech describes their high expectations and ambitious schedule, "Our internal analysis projects a market size of over 450,000 systems, just for the automotive sector and worth approximately $1Billion in software revenues. With Precarn’s financial support and in collaboration with UBC, ABB and Toyota we expect to release our first commercial system by the end of 2007."

Braintech Teams with ABB, Toyota, and University Of BC - Robotics Online

Evolution Robotics has announced that they have partnered with Japanese toymaker Bandai to give visual pattern recognition abilities to a home robot kit.
Their new creation is the NetTansor robot which was introduced last month will be available for sale in Japan in December.

The 12 inch tall robot rolls on 3 wheels and includes, cameras, microphone and speakers, and collision avoidance sensors.


The robot will be accessible remotely so that you can check on your home while you are away. Also, using the Evolution Robotics ViPR technology it will be able to recognize changes and make decisions on its own.


For example, the robot could act as a security guard and only call you if a person enters the house. Or it could keep an eye on how much dog food is left and warn someone - you or another of your household robots - when the food is gone.

The robots also include software for games with kids that use the robot's visual recognition skills.

The ability of the robot to make decisions based on what it sees will add another level of practicality to the home robot.

Bandai and Evolution Robotics Partner on Breakthrough Telepresence Robot

Evolution Robotics is also working on home robot software for visual or navigation with Wowwee and Yujin Robotics.

The Quigmans on Yahoo! News

Also...Andy sex robot

Ubiko is a rolling robot that responds to voice request.
This helper from UBIX is designed to be a greeter in a store. It can welcome people, show them around and recommend products.
According to Akihabara News, you can hire Ubiko for only 350 euros per hour.


Ubiko, the robot that will eventually put you out of work : Akihabaranews.com

According to Xinhau the new security robot jointly developed by the Robot Research Institute of the Civil Aviation University of China and Tianjin YAAN Technology Electronics Co. Ltd., is the first of its kind in China.



The two-wheeled robot looks like a small car. It can roam independently on flat surfaces and up to a 20 degree incline.

It can be sent to find its own way or travel a pre-programmed route.

It transmits infromation from its wide-angle cameras back to a base station.

The stylish design looks like America 1950's futuristic (or 2000's China futuristic).


Xinhua - English

Accuray, the makers of the robot radiosurgery machine CyberKnife have applied with the SEC for a stock offering.

The Sunnyvale, California company was founded in 1990 to sell the first Cyberknife systems for limited use radiosurgery in treating tumors in the head and neck.

Since then, the robot system has advanced and successfully used for many different radiosurgery procedures.

Over 140 of the multi-million dollar machines have been installed worldwide.

Accuray will try to raise US $230 million in the offering.

Making Radiosurgery an Option for Every Cancer Patient

Do you feel the need to get more personal with your vacuum cleaner robot? Maybe you want to speak to it through Bluetooth or serial port. Maybe you just want to get a better understanding of how your vacuum robot sees the world.

This new book by Tod E. Kurt, Hacking Roomba, can show you everything you need to know about bringing your floor-running friend to life.

Just published. Available from Amazon.com

Hacking Roomba

Researchers at Bielefeld University in Germany are working on a robot to help understand and develop robot-human interaction.
The robot, BIRON, for Bielefield Robot Companion, will give a person its full attention and learn from them.

BIRON first recognizes a person's face and tracks it. If the person wants to talk to BIRON they must look at the robot. The robot can recognize speech and hand gestures and will follow you if you ask it to.

The robot is built on a Mobile Robots base with laser rangefinder, cameras, microphones and a video screen for a face.

Applied Computer Science Group - BIRON - the Bielefeld Robot Companion

Industrial robot manufacturer Kuka and Canadian amusement park ride designer Primal Rides have joined forces to produce themed rides based on a Kuka robot arm.

The 6 degree of freedom arm has been used before as a ride called Robocoaster.
The arm can carry over 1000 pounds (500 kg) out to a 3.3 meter reach. It is capable of accelerating the payload to 2g's.



Evidently the Robocoaster just shook you around until you puked. The Primal Rides game will be fully interactive. The planned "Fight or Fright" ride will challenge participants to shoot at themed targets for points. As the rider's points go up, the targets and speed of the ride increase - until you barf.

Primal Rides plans to offer the ride designs around robot arms and be able to change the game or the theme without replacing the expensive body-slamming hardware.


KUKA Robotics and Primal Rides Sign System Partner Agreement for New Fully Interactive Amusement Ride: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Four of the gates at Denver International Airport are now using robot bridges move passengers on and off the planes.
The passenger bridges made by Dewbridge are smart enough to find the doors of the planes and dock without help from any people. These passenger tunnels are also double-armed to allow opening both front and rear doors of the planes.

The bridges use Energid Technologies' vision system and object recognition technology to find the doors on the planes. The vision system is supposed to work in any kind of weather including rain and snow and to be able to recognize the doors regardless of the color or patterns painted on the plane.

Right now the Autodocker passenger bridges are used on four United Airlines gates but their use may spread. They can eliminate the need for one person at the gate and reduce the turnaround time by up to ten minutes.

They probably can dock more accurately than humans too.

Dewbridge Deploys Energid Robotic Vision Technology for AutoDocker(TM) Jet Bridges at Denver Airport

A robot helper to follow you around and clean up after you may not be too far off.

Researchers at Stanford University are teaching a robot how to reach for and pick up objects that it has never seen before.
The STAIR project, for Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot, is an effort to get robots to perform useful household tasks and being able to pick up objects is just one part of the puzzle.

The overall project has four tasks as objectives for a helper robot:
Fetching a book or a person from an office, in response to a verbal request.
Cleaning up after a party, including picking up and throwing away trash, and placing dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
Using tools (screwdriver, hammer, pliers, etc.) to assemble an IKEA bookshelf kit.
Showing guests around an active area (in which things change daily), answering questions and keeping track of the entire group.

While picking up objects may seem like a small step, the team is quite optimistic about the future of their intelligent robots. Dr.Andrew Ng working on the project says that, "Within a decade we hope to develop the technology that will make it useful to put a robot in every home and office."

So far they have developed an algorithm for a one-armed robot to correctly pick up things around the lab. The education of the robot started with identifying pick-up points on drawings of objects then graduated on to looking at real things. The robot uses a simple camera and figures out where to grab the object by 'triangulating' between two views of the object and comparing it to past experiences rather than trying to build up a complete 3D model and calculating the best handle.

Robot learns to grasp everyday chores

ArtBots is having a New York regional show this week as part of the Science+Art Festival.

8 robot artists and groups will show off their creations from November 9 -12. And it is free!

There have been quite a few robots featured here at Robot Gossip from previous ArtBots shows.
For you NYC readers - send me some pictures!


ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show

The perfect tennis partner.

The SwingShot Tennis Mate tennis robot from Astro Research Corporation.
Astro Research is a Japanese firm specializing in satellites and launch services. So naturally their research led to the invention of a tennis robot. But, no, the Tennis Mate does not launch balls into orbit.
The robot uses a real tennis racket to serve the balls with an easy lob or advanced power-serve. The robot takes commands from remote control or pre-set parameters from its control panel. The hopper holds 150 balls - enough to warm up any serious tennis player or wear out any normal person.
A special non-speaking feature allows the robot to sit there quietly even if the player swears at it and insults its family.

It will sell for around 840000 yen (US$7100). They are targeting tennis clubs and schools.

See a video here:
TENNIS MATE

A recent idea for small robot trains to run on America's underutilized railroad tracks may face more hurdles than just technological problems.
In the US there are around 3000 accidents per year at highway railroad crossings. (Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis)

Quoted from Oregon Public Broadcasting:
By Elizabeth Wynne-Johnson

Officials in Hermiston, Oregon are squaring off against the nation's largest railroad over remote-controlled trains.

Union Pacific already uses remote control to move locomotives inside dozens of Northwest rail yards. The company says the technology enhances safety and reduces human error.

Hermiston officials got an anonymous tip this week that Union Pacific was planning a test run right through town in the wee hours of the morning.

City Manager Ed Brookshire says the tracks through Hermiston include too many dangerous crossings. But Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says no such test was planned.

Mark Davis: "I think it was probably a misunderstanding or a rumor that was started bc of all the data gathering over the last several weeks."

The railroad is using a stretch of the Hermiston track for computer modeling. But it says more study and federal approval are needed.


Public NewsRoom

The Katana robot arm from Swiss company Neuronics AG is designed to work with a human partner.
The arm weighs about 4kg and has a payload capability of 500 grams with a 60 cm reach. (About 1 pound lift with 2 foot reach) It can position the grippers to within +/- 0.1mm accuracy.

The light touch and slow movement of the arm makes it perfect for working with a person. No guard or human exclusion zone are needed. The arm can automate tedious locating tasks for a person and can position a workpiece much more accurately than a person ever could.

The robot hand can be equipped with all kinds of sensors and grippers: soft fingers, vacuum pick-up, sensors for pressure, infrared, conductivity or anything else you can think of.

It can also be mounted on a small cart to carry things around the lab for you.

It comes in 5 and 6 degree of freedom models and you can expect the price to start around US $25K.


Neuronics AG - Intelligent Automation

I continue to be amazed by the toys that are coming out. This one will sell out quick!

Lucky The Incredible Wonder Pet can do 15 tricks from voice commands - the usual doggy stuff: shake, sit, come, bark "Take me out to the ballgame". He walks, he talks, just like a real dog.
This is intended for kids 5-9 years old which means it is probably durable. But it looks like it would be fun for everyone. I admit I have not seen one yet.

Reviews say that the voice recognition works great right out of the box. It retails for US $60.

The manufacturer, Zizzle, says they kept the cost low by using an inexpensive chip for the doggy brains.
Lucky's intelligence comes from Sensory Inc's RSC-4128 microprocessor. The chip includes speech recognition, speech synthesis, an 8-bit microcontroller and 128k ROM all on a single chip. It can be had for under $2 per unit in large quantities.



Throw on a tail, some big round eyes, then wrap it in fur and you got yourself a blockbuster toy.

I have seen the future of robots and it is fuzzy.

The Korean Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) launched the pilot program of the national 'Ubiquitous Robot Companion' effort last week.

The pilot series will consist of 1000 of five different robot models placed in homes. This first round of robots will be used to get the bugs out of the system and to develop applications in preparation for commercial release.
The robots are expected to cost around US $1000 when they are commercialized.


The robots are for helping around the home with reports from the web, amusing the kids, ordering out food and remotely monitoring your home.

Since the robots stay connected, new applications can be added at any time.

The government program envisions a robot in every home in Korea by 2020. The government, universities and many robot, software and telecomunications companies are cooperating on the efforts.

There are still many people skeptical that the robots will offer enough services for their cost. In this pilot test, say MIC officials, they want to iron out the technical problems first.

In addition to the home robots, 20 robots will be released into airports and train stations to help tourists with information and directions.

The Korea Times : ‘I, Robots’ Come to Homes in Thousands

Spanish company Aerovision demonstrated their Fulmar unmanned flyer for use as a forest fire monitor.

The Fulmar aircraft is 3 meters wide and weighs about 20 kg (under 50 pounds)fully loaded. It is launched with a sling-shot and can stay aloft for up to 8 hours.
The Fulmar can carry both video and infrared cameras and transmit back from up to 50 km away to a base station in a laptop pc.

The flight plan, including take-off and landing, can be pre-programmed in the base station or the unit can be flown by joystick control.

The Fulmar system was designed as a low cost system for civilian applications.

AEROVISION

I like this new robot toy from Tyco. It is an R/C robot insect that includes a hidden 6-shot dart gun It is called NSECT for New Science of Experimental Combat Technology. There is a whole story line that goes along with that.
At $100 they are not exactly giving it away but it sure looks fun - and hackable.


The big selling feature of it is supposed to be the speed that it can scamper across the floor. That's probably well needed so whomever gets shot with the darts doesn't stomp the thing and end all the fun real quick.



Buy it here.

Promoting the robot agenda.

Robot researchers from 8 universities in the UK have joined together to form a network to promote the public understanding of robots.

The program called "Walking with Robots" was launched October 23 in London. It will include activities for adults as well as university and younger students.

The program will be designed to dispel myths about robots, increase understanding and eventually quash any resistance to robot domination.

Professor Noel Sharkey, EPSRC senior media fellow at the University of Sheffield and one of the founders of the collaboration says, “Robots are coming thick and fast with robotdomesticss, gardeners, cooks, companions, lovers, taxis, factory workers, space explorers, soldiers, maybe police and certainly pets."
"The public need to be prepared for the revolution.”

The first project organized by the program is parliamentnt of 16 to 20 year olds where they will debate the issue of robots' rights.

The "Walking with Robots" program is planned to run for three years but full submission of the public to robot control will probably take a bit longer.


Walking with Robots

Who says robots have to look like tin cans and perform acrobatics to be fun?

Here is a project to create a simple motion sensing robot in a fuzzy stuffed sheep.



The sheep's eyes have the motion sensors and the servo-driven head turns to watch the action.
It zeroes in on motion, including a breathing person, and after a time stares right at them.

Says the builder, "Basically, it looks like any other stuffed animal, except that if you sit in the same place for a while, you will notice that it seems to be looking at you."

I don't think I would keep it in my bedroom. I just don't like the idea of this thing staring at me all night.

2 Robots � RoboSheep

A California inventor is proposing that we send cargo robots out onto the unused rails around the world.

The railroad rails, he says, sit idle most of the time which is a waste of expensive capital. His plan is to make lightweight cargo robots to carry products around the country during the time in between when real trains use the tracks.

What if another train comes while the robot is going? We should build a second set of tracks, he says, that's still cheaper than building more highways.

While it seems cool to think of thousands of unmanned trucks zipping around the country, automatically coordinating with each other to avoid collisions - dropping the price of shipping to pennies - it may be more complicated than it appears. Today railroads seem to have a problems keeping manned trains on the tracks.

However, it may be an idea whose time has come. There has been alot of new technology invented since the idea of the 'train' has been in use. The combination of information technology, fast computers, sensors, new engine designs may be enough to start a new era in transport. Also, most of the train wrecks these days seem to be due to 'human error'. Robots may be able to do a better job.

Maybe it is time we re-evaluated the use of railroad tracks.


Home of the Rail Robot