Mr. Future

Stanford University has launched a series of 10 free, online computer science and electrical engineering courses. These include topics in Artificial Intelligence and “Introduction to Robotics“, taught by distinguished robotics professor Oussama Khatib.

Editor of MIT Press’ The Robotics Review, President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research, Dr. Khatib’s recent research been focused on “human centered / human friendly robotics,” haptic interactions (including “lazy” robotic movement studies).

Each course comprises downloadable video lectures, handouts, assignments, exams, and transcripts. A complete online course catalog is available here.

And just to see what you’d be getting into, here’s the first video lecture from “Introduction to Robotics”

Link (via Device Guru)

Looking for that mid-range robot to bridge the gap between your i-Sobot and a Robonova? Mech-RC is hoping to occupy that niche soon.

Their core platform is a 17-servo humanoid robot with a remote control and a custom set of gui-oriented pc software focused on animation and integration of sensor accessory kits. While there’s only a few paragraphs of background information out so far, it looks like they’ll be offering optional orientation sensors, infra-red “weapon” gaming sensors and lights, and an interface board for additional servos and sensors.

The Mech RC comes in 2 body styles, a basic-black cylon-esque model, and a MechWarrior style “Ground Pounder” (pictured below-left)

The brochure also mentions a “coming soon” education-oriented model (below-right), with MS Robotics Studio integration, wireless BlueTooth connectivity, and an onboard camera. Sweet.

We can’t wait to find out more about this promising looking line of robots. No release date mentioned yet, but you’ll know more when we do.

Link - (via Toyology)

So you love your Lego Mindstorms set, and built many a brilliant contraption. But the gang at the malt shop robotics club just won’t take you seriously when everything you’ve invented is made out of plastic bricks. What’s the next step?

You might want to give CMU’s Terk/Qwerk platform a shot. Developed as springboard for robotics and AI education, Qwerk is the all-singing, all-dancing hardware brain they’ve designed a slew of tools and projects around. It sports a 200 MHz Arm9 processor running Linux 2.6, Ethernet, WiFi, Webcam video support,4 2-amp motor controllers, 16 servo controllers, 16 digital I/Os, a cup holder, a built-in audio player, a Xilinx FPGA, and … more.

But all that hardware would be no jolly good without the wisdom to use it, so CMU has set up a half-dozen project “recipes” to help get you get your feet wet. Their (free) software tools range from a web-cam based remote control and robotic “dance-moves” recorder to a Java development environment and extensions for using the Microsoft Robotics Studio.

Though it doesn’t come with bricks, cogs and wheels, for only $350 Qwerk looks like a steal.

TeRK Link and Qwerk Link

(via KurzweilAI.net )