Mr. Future

Robot Watch has a great article on a new Robo-One competition in Japan, to be held September 6th in Kawasaki’s Azeria “underground city.”

The competition’s goal is to have your robot “Buy things [in] the underground city”, which sounds fantastically sci-fi, post-apocalyptic chic. To accomplish this the robots may use both tele-operational control and autonomous behavior.

In the five minute qualifying rounds, robots were sent around with a shopping basket. Their mission: picking up 3 eggs and a small (robot-sized) t-shirt, placing them in the basket, and returning to their operators.

Needless to say, egg manipulation is extra-challenging for robot hands, and Robot Watch has some excellent video footage of robot-splattering trial and error.

Link (English machine-translated link here.)

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)

The Engineer reports on a project at Plymouth University that combines computer vision / object recognition, and A.I. learning with human-robotic interaction.

The work at Plymouth is an effort to apply human learning processes to robotic systems, teaching the robot word meanings and object recognition as if it were a small child.

“There will be speakers, a microphone and two cameras in the robot’s head, which [researcher] Belpaeme said will be able to pick out humans in a room, make eye contact, track human gaze and interpret pointing gestures and correlate them with what is being pointed at.

‘We are going to make the robot look cute and we are going to try to trick people into teaching the robot things just as they would a small child.’”

Link (via Ralph. Thanks Ralph!)

An episode of Computer Chronicles (1983-2002) about the Tsukuba Expo 85 has some fantastic segments about mid-80s robotic visions of the future.

At 10:57 We get a good long look at Waseda University’s Wabot 2 playing the organ, with great commentary about robots and society from the late Professor Ichiro Kato.

And at 18:32, there’s a love scene from German designer / futurist Luigi Colani’s Robot Theater. A few years back I saw the robot actors on display at Nagoya’s Robot Museum. Seeing them in motion here just made my morning.

Of course there are other good clips of the Expo’s mag-lev monorail, France’s proto-web MiniTel, and Sony’s first Jumbo-Tron.Colan

Budget-battered NASA Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers, Spirit, “into hibernation mode” for the coming Martian winter, and limit the activities of the other robot, Opportunity, to fulfill an order to cut $4 million from the program’s budget, mission team members said Monday.

The news comes amid belt-tightening at NASA headquarters, which is under pressure to juggle Mars exploration and projects to study the rest of the solar system. Both rovers were originally planned for three-month missions, but due to a number of factors including their amazingly successful designs, the robots are now in their fourth year of continuous exploration. It costs NASA about $20 million annually to keep the rovers running.

Link (via Yahoo/AP)

Update:  Spirit spared?   NASA issues conflicting signals as to the rover’s fate.

“…shortly after CNN.com published the story, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said the agency will not shut down one of the two Mars rovers, according to spokesman Bob Jacobs.

“There is a process that has to be followed for any mission to be canceled and the cancellation of the Mars Exploration Rovers is not under consideration,” Jacobs said. “There is an ongoing budget review within the agency’s Mars exploration program. However, shutting down of one of the rovers is not an option.

NASA headquarters spokesman Dwayne Brown confirmed the budget directive had been issued. The cut’s purpose is to offset cost overruns with the Mars Science Laboratory, a rover set to launch next year, he said.”

Link

Osaka Museum of Creative Industries was host to a number of culinary robot wonders, but best among them had to be Toyo Riki’s Takoyaki-bot.  A rare treat in the states, Takoyaki is an intimidating but delicious junkfood of choice for Tokyo street food carts.

The robot chef prepared each octopus-ball fritter individually from scratch, mixing, pouring, turning, adding more batter at just the right moment. Finally it arranged the takoyaki on a plate, basting each one with sauce, and shaking on a bit of seaweed and fish flakes for good measure.

RobotWatch has a film of the robot in action here.

Link (via LiveScience)

Well, I’ve never been to Spain, but I kinda like the robots.

Developed in Barcelona by Pal Technology Robotics, the person-sized REEM-B lasts longer, and can carry more weight than any other humanoid robot in its class.

While it has an impressive compliment of software features, from face tracking to real-time environment mapping and navigation, REEM-B’s ability to lift and carry up to 25% of its body weight sets it apart from the tea-tray-carrying Asimos of the world.

It’s also boasts a 2 hour on-board battery life, a first for a humanoid robot this size.

What if countries described robotics technology in the same manner as, say, the space race?

If they did, the USA would realize that they now have a serious robot frog gap.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a mighty robot frog named Mowgli, capable of jumping more than 19 inches onto a standard office chair.

Just the sort of chair that a sitting government official, or nuclear scientist might use…

Robotic frogs aside, what other technology milestones will we have in a worldwide robotics race?

Link (via The Raw Feed)

Little Dog is the latest step in the evolution of the all purpose robotic pack-mule, product of DARPA’s Learning Locomotion Program.

USC professor Stefan Schall, working with Boston Dynamics, is using Little Dog as a software and sensor tool to research methods of negotiate difficult terrain.

Little Dog has been designed to continually evaluate it’s positioning and center of gravity, dynamically adjust its walking pattern based on position, velocity and acceleration. If its footing fails, it learns from it’s mistakes and attempts an alternet route.

Link (via BotJunkie)

Japanese robotics company Tmsuk has formed an alliance with Microsoft to bring Microsoft Robotics Studio extensions to their range of consumer and commercial robots.

Tmsuk is probably best known for their Banryu ( Guard Dragon ) security robot, though they build everything from giant robot rescue machines to electric baby-sitters.

If nothing else, the partnership deeply underscores the advantages of having common development libraries for robotics projects.

Yoichi Takamoto, the Tmsuk president, said: “Right now, we cannot adopt one technology used in robot A to robot B. If Microsoft software comes to be used by many developers, then technological advances in robotics will dramatically accelerate.”

Microsoft is not alone in building common robotics development environments and code libraries. Later this week, we’ll be taking a look at some of the open-source alternatives to Microsoft Robotics Studio.

Link - to the Times Online coverage.
(via Artificial Intelligence and Robotics)