Robotic Blogs

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, ITRI, has annonced that they have chosen Evolution Robotics Sofware Platform,ESRP, for a standard software kit for robot development in Taiwan.

The software development kit will be offered by ITRI to help standardize robot development in Taiwan and help them to get ahead of rapid developments coming from other countries. They expect the market for robots to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars within ten years and they want to make sure that Taiwan stays up with the trend.

"We believe this coordinated approach using our SDK and the ERSP architecture will lead to much more rapid innovation of new technologies, faster time to market for new products, and overall, a stronger competitive position for Taiwan in robotics," said Mr. Chan An Pao of ITRI.

Evolution Robotics is a California based company that provides OEM support for robot software development. In the past they have announced close partnerships with other high profile robot projects. The new home telepresence robot from Bandai, NetTansor, uses Evolution's software.
Evolution has also announced partnerships with robot toymaker WowWee and Korea's URC developer Yujin Robotics. They have also announced that they will be working with Sharper Image on a new vacuum robot.


ERSP provides the basic functioning software for robots as well as the ability to integrate decisionmaking, navigation, vision and custom behaviors.

I can't help but notice that this is not Microsoft Robotics Studio. It appears that there would be no need for the MS Robotics Studio with this software. ERSP runs with MS windows and Visual Studio .NET or Linux.
Evolution, so far, has chosen a very different plan for marketing their software. While MS gives theirs away free for now, ESRP starts in the US $7500 range for educational-use-only kit.

If I had as much money as Microsoft I might consider investing in or owning a company like Evolution Robotics.


Evolution Robotics

Professor Hideki Kozima of Japan's National Institute of Communications and Technology, NiCT, presented a paper at the Robotics for Society conference in Vancouver, Canada, on two robots designed for studying child development and interactions with robots.

The two robots, Infanoid and Keepon, interact with people through movement, emotional expressions and voice.

Infanoid is a small humanoid upper torso. Infanoid can gesture with his arms and hands, make facial expressions and repeat back what is spoken to him. His two eye-cameras allow him to 'pay attention' and make eye contact.

Keepon is much simpler, looking like not much more than a marshmallow peep, but still has enough motion to appear engaged with a human. Keepon is a small soft rubber creature with no arms. It can twist to focus its attention and rock or bob up and down to express delight.

The researchers found that children will interact with the robots. They found the at first the children are a little scared of the robots. then they start to explore by poking them or waving objects at them. Eventually the children begin playing with the robots in a closed-loop relationship. The robots were allowed to play with normally developing kids and autistic children.

They expect to be able to use the robots for a better understanding of social development of both humans and robots.

Using Robots for the Study of Human Social Development (PDF)

Infanoid Project (Robotic Platforms)

via Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

The founders of a helicopter manufacturer in New Zealand have launched a project to bring high altitude rescue to Nepal. Trevor and Glenda Rogers are the founders of TGR Helicorp and of the Everest Rescue Trust. They have launched a new initiative, The Rescue on Everest Challenge:
Through innovation, design and technology, to challenge the science of aviation at extreme altitude and conquer new frontiers on Mt Everest and in Nepal.

Their goal is to operate a self-funding rescue operation based near Mt. Everest. The rescue operation would be for service to mountaineers and also any other high altitude medical emergency in Nepal. They expect that the technology and improved standards for healthcare would benefit the people of Nepal.

The rescue vehicle, dubbed the Alpine Wasp, is an unmanned high altitude full sized rescue helicopter designed by TGR. It is a capable of autonomous flight up to 30,000 feet.
Generally helicopters cannot operate much above 14,000 feet. The base camp for Mt.Everest climbers is at 17,600 feet (5364m)and the summit is at 29,035 feet (8850m).

Why an unmanned rescue vehicle? For high altitude rescues a pilot actually gets in the way. The pilot is not acclimated for the altutude or prepared for the extreme cold so they must stay inside the aircraft and cannot help in the rescue efforts. Also, the elimination of the pilot-support equipment leaves room for more rescue gear.

The Alpine Wasp is powered by a special diesel engine designed by American company DeltaHawk Diesel Engines. It operates on Jet-A1 fuel which is available in Nepal.

The Alpine Wasp will be donated to the foundation later this year after it undergoes extensive testing in the mountains in New Zealnd.

Helicopter Rescue on Everest: Saving lives on Nepal's mountains

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) stock was up 17 percent today on the announcement of a 56 percent increase in their forth quarter revenues.

The increase was due to continuing increase in sales of the DaVinci surgery robots but also substantial increases in recurring supplies and services. This is a good indication that the robots are being used successfully.

For 2006 their revenues were:
Systems sales: $206 million
Instruments/accessories: $112 million
Service/Training: $ 55 million

Total: $373 million

This, to me, seems like a fairly small number considering the size of the surgery industry. They will have competitors moving in on them but their early entry has given them an advantage. They are in a position where they can define the standards for the next decade and sell the service and instruments for the machines that they have installed.

Robot assisted surgery is creating new capabilities for minimally invasive surgery techniques and opening the door for totally new procedures. It may also allow a lower skill level to be required for some operations that had been considered extremely risky.

There will be some bumps in the road, but this technology will eventually completely transform the medical field.

Related:
Surgery On A Beating Heart May Be Safer
Surgical Robot in patent dispute
Surgical Robot Revenues Rocket 2005
Robot Surgery Legal Questions


Intuitive Surgical - Press Release

Robotics industry leader Kuka Robotics will be demonstrating a robot arm controlled by a Wii game controller at the ATX West Expo during February.

Using their industrial KR-16 robot with bluetooth to a Wii controller, the robot can mimic the actions of the Wii master. The interface was designed by SEIS Group, Inc.

Kevin Kozuszek, director of marketing for KUKA Robotics Corporation, says, "The development of more intelligent and easy to operate robots will begin to drive the development of more capable service robots for applications such as medical and ultimately for consumer use in individuals' homes."

Kuka
Kuka WiiBot


While renowned for their industrial robots, Kuka also has been known to occasionally let their robots out of the factory for a little fun: RoboCoaster, Robot DJ