Robotic Blogs

Police in Merseyside,UK are testing an unmanned flying robot to help control the population. The BBC reports that the machine will be used "mainly for tackling anti-social behaviour and public disorder."

The unit is a small 2 pound vertical takeoff helicopter with four blades. It can have visible and infrared cameras. It can be programmed to follow a course using GPS or controlled remotely by a police officer on the ground.


The ground person watches the action from the sky high robot's point of view through video glasses display.

The robot is very quiet so you may not even know you are being watched. But it only flies for 20 minutes.

There is no word on when it will be fitted with weapons.


BBC NEWS | England | Merseyside | Pilotless police drone takes off

the Robot Hall of Fame at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has announced four new inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame.
This years inductees include one robot from fiction and 3 real life milestone-setting robot creations.

The inductees are:

Lt. Cmdr. Data
from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
""Data played a pivotal role on questions of robot 'right to life' matters and human/machine philosophies," said juror Ray Jarvis, director of the Intelligent Robotics Research Centre at the Australian National University."

Raibert Hopper
Invented by Marc Raibert at CMU and MIT.
"The one-legged Hopper was ideal for studying dynamic balance because it could not stand still, but had to keep moving to stay upright. "The Raibert Hopper was the visionary effort that set the entire field of robotic locomotion in motion." The lessons learned with the Hopper proved central for biped, quadruped and even hexapod running. Raibert is now president of the robotics firm he founded, Boston Dynamics."



NavLab 5

"NavLab 5's crowning achievement was "No Hands Across America," a 1995 cross-country tour on which it did 98 percent of the driving. "This was the first time that any autonomous vehicle had traversed so much different terrain," said juror Chuck Thorpe"

LEGO Mindstorms
""This kit did more to take creative robotics to the masses than just about any other retail product," said juror Illah Nourbakhsh, associate professor in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute.
Juror Joanna Haas, director of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center, agrees. "LEGO has made robotics truly accessible to a broad audience — children and adults alike — and the Mindstorms sub-brand supports wildly popular play and learning in homes, classrooms and museums all around the world.""
Buy LEGO Mindstorms NXT



May 15: Carnegie Mellon Adds Four More 'Bots to Robot Hall of Fame - Carnegie Mellon University

A man in Wiltshire, UK has converted a toy truck into a remote controlled metal detector to help him find lost treasures in the countryside.

His invention was inspired by stories of techniques to find old land mines and a bad back that prevents him from sweeping the ground with a manual metal detector.

He has worked to perfect his device for 7 years and estimates that he has spent 2000 British pounds (US $3800).
It includes a metal detector and camera to send images back to the control unit.

The robot is not only easier to use but more effective than handheld devices.

He says he has found hundreds of old coins and relics. One of his finds, a Medieval Pilgrims badge, is now in a museum.

John Invents Treasure Hunting Robot (from Wiltshire Times)

A robot named Wizard, designed to crawl through air conditioning ducts to clean, look for leaks and apply special coating was honored by the UK's Knowledge Transfer Partnerships as the Best Engineering Excellence for 2007.

The honor goes to Breval Technical Services and Bell College who cooperated to develop the service robot.

Breval (a subsidiary of Spice plc on London exchange) has spent three years developing the Wizard robot which is in testing phase with customers now.

The robot uses 8 wheels to drive through ventilation ducts. The company thinks that the Wizard will be able to reduce maintenance costs and extend the life of ducting for their customers.

Nice use of a robot. It does a nasty dirty job and also improves our ability to work inside small ducts.

Bell College News

ACR-News: Wizard the AC robot works magic on judges

Odyssey Marine Exploration (OTC:OMR) announced last week that they had recovered over 500,000 coins from a colonial period shipwreck.

They are keeping the location of the site, code named "Black Swan" secret until they have completed their salvage operations.

The find is worth at least US $500,000,000 based on an estimated average value of the coins, some in "dazzling mint state" condition, at US $1000 each. The estimate is considered preliminary because only 6000 of the half million coins have been inspected.

The remotely operated diver Zeus has allowed the salvage team to use "diligently followed archaeological protocols" to ensure that they get the best historical value from the sites. However, Odyssey claims that they have still not been able to determine the identity of the ships.
The Zeus is capable of diving to 2500 m (8200 ft). It weighs 8 tons in air with 8 thrusters and 2 seven function manipulator arms. It is connected to the surface through a fiber optic umbilical for telemetry and high-definition video.

The treasure, they say, was recovered from "beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country," but they still expect other claims on the booty.

I think, technically, it all belongs to the robot, since he was the one who made the recovery possible, but it will be shared with he investors in the company.


Odyssey's Latest Shipwreck Find Yields Over 500,000 Silver And Gold Coins - Press Release