Tag: Robots

Social robotics: Beyond the uncanny valley
(PhysOrg.com) -- From science fiction and academia through assembly lines and telemedicine, robots have become both physically and conceptually ubiquitous. ( Rossum's Universal Robots ), a 1920 Czech-language science fiction play in which robot was the English version of robota, meaning forced labor, in turn derived from rab, or slave. Todays animated and physical robots, however imbued with artificial intelligence, artificial muscles, vision and pattern recognition, speech recognition and synthesis, sensors and actuators, and increasingly sophisticated interactivity seem to be approaching those envisioned in Isaac Asimovs seminal work I, Robot. Social Robotics has its roots in the mid-20 th century work of William Grey Walter, a neurophysiologist and roboticist who constructed autonomous electronic robots to demonstrate that complex behavior could arise from robust connectivity between just a few neurons. (more)

The Future of Moral Machines
The fictional theme of robots turning against humans is older than the word itself, which first appeared in the title of Karel apeks 1920 play about artificial factory workers rising against their human overlords. Just 22 years later, Isaac Asimov invented the Three Laws of Robotics to serve as a hierarchical ethical code for the robots in his stories: first, never harm a human being through action or inaction; Machines are increasingly operating with minimal human oversight in the same physical spaces as we do. The prospect of machines capable of following moral principles, let alone understanding them, seems as remote today as the word robot is old. The techno-optimists among them also believe that such machines will be essentially friendly to human beings. (more)

Semi-Autonomous Road Train Trial Is a Success
A semi-autonomous, four-vehicle road train has been successfully demonstrated at Volvos test track in Hllered, Sweden, paving the way for on-road trials. In a road train, cars and trucks with the same destination are grouped together, and control is handed over to a lead vehicle thats under the command of a professional driver. I have to admit that in the beginning it feels really unusual, when youre kind of prepared to take over at any moment, said Erik Coelingh, technical project manager at Volvo, who enjoyed some relaxing time behind the wheel during a road train trial. Road trains are ideal for rush hour traffic, where cars and trucks follow similar patterns each day. (more)

Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes on the battlefield
If a robot in combat has a hardware malfunction or programming glitch that causes it to kill civilians, do we blame the robot, or the humans who created and deployed it? The researchers' latest results show that humans apply a moderate amount of morality and other human characteristics to robots that are equipped with social capabilities and are capable of harming humans. This suggests that as robots gain capabilities in language and social interactions, it is likely that many people will hold a humanoid robot as partially accountable for a harm that it causes, the researchers wrote. They argue that as militaries transform from human to robotic warfare, the chain of command that controls robots and the moral accountability of robotic warriors should be factored into jurisprudence and the Laws of Armed Conflict for cases when the robots hurt humans. (more)

Ford is ready for the autonomous car. Are drivers?
Ford is ready for the autonomous car. There is no technology barrier from going where we are now to the autonomous car, said Jim McBride, a Ford Research and Innovation technical expert who specializes in autonomous vehicle technologies. McBride said Ford has already built research vehicles with high-resolution omnidirectional cameras that can see the road and the cars surroundings far better than any driver with a few mirrors. But while Ford may be ready to take that technological jump, drivers arent quite prepared to take the leap of faith necessary to forfeit complete control of their vehicles to an onboard computer or larger network intelligence, said Mike Kane, the Ford vehicle engineering supervisor for driver assistance technologies.Its not that drivers are adamantly opposed to the concept of a driverless car, Kane said; Ford believes that through the gradual introduction of more automation, drivers will come around to the idea of a car that drives itself. (more)

Google Adds Lexus RX450h to Autonomous Testing Fleet
Published April 19, 2012 By Huw Evans Weve already heard about Googles somewhat controversial autonomous vehicle test program which began two years ago using Toyota Prii and other vehicles. The sighting comes just days after the California Senate passed Bill 1298, which enables the California Highway Patrol to set standards and performance requirements relating to autonomous vehicle testing. Speaking with Wired, a spokesperson for Google said, in the course of our work, we experiment with testing our algorithms on various vehicles to help improve our technology. Overseen by Dr. Sebastian Thurn, the director of Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Google engineer who co-created the companys Street Mapping Service, the autonomous vehicle program was initially clouded in great secrecy, though Google went public with it in 2010. (more)

IIT's copycat robot
IITs copycat robot What we have seen in movies such as iRobot, Terminator and Endhiran is something we may have to live with in the near future. The RISE Group of Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory at IIT-Madras has developed an ingenious framework that lets a robot learn chores by observing natural movements and gestures of a human being. The group headed by Pradyot KVN, a masters student, comprises Manimaran and Prahasaran, as well as internees Anshul and Abhishek. Pradyot has also showcased his research at the European Workshop in Reinforcement Learning held at Greece, and was one of 30 students from all over the world selected to attend the Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University. (more)

Qbo Robots Now Up for Pre-Order
Yesterday, we showed you a $99 robot research (and fun) platform that you can buy instead of a $400,000 robot research (and fun) platform. In that respect, it s similar to the philosophy behind other robot kits: if you buy a Qbo, you don t have to worry about spending a lot of time and money (maybe most of your time and money) building a robot from scratch that does what Qbo can do. Qbo will be coming in three different flavors: basic, lite, and pro, and here are the differences: Qbo Basic: If you want to customize all of Qbo s guts, Qbo Basic is just a chassis with all the plastic covers and mechanical parts along with HD webcams and a set of controller boards. Qbo Lite: For researchers who want a robot that works out of the box (like all you software types), Qbo Lite includes sensors and computers and comes fully assembled and ready to go. (more)

Google's self-driving car gets green light in Nevada
The first fully licensed self-driven car a modified Toyota Prius won a special permit on Tuesday, the first of three applied for by Google, which allows it to be used on the state's roads, including the famous Las Vegas strip. Autonomous vehicles are the "car of the future," said Bruce Breslow, the director of Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), in a statement. He also thought that self-driving cars whose brakes and accelerators are connected to computers, and which are fitted with GPS, a substantial database, artificial intelligence systems, and a laser radar (Lidar) which can detect obstacles such as people, cyclists and other cars on or around the road could be substantially safer than human drivers. The cars in Nevada will have a special licence plate with an infinity sign to indicate that they are not necessarily being driven by a human...... (more)

Open Source Robotics Foundation Officially Announced
Last month, we broke the news that DARPA had decided to award the contract to produce a standard simulation environment for its Humanoid Challenge to the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which nobody had really ever heard of. She s also the president of the Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC), a non-profit organization established to speed the creation and deployment of ground robotics technology, which seems like it would dovetail pretty well with the OSRF. He s the executive vice president of Yujin Robot, a South Korean company best known for their home and entertainment robots. As one of of South Korea s first generation of service robotics companies, Park is in a good position to promote the OSRF in Asia. (more)

Video Friday: Talking Vacuums, Robotic Buttocks, and How Not to Fly a Spacecraft
Via [ Kokatu ] Plastic Pals found this incredible video of a transforming robot that actually transforms from a (fully operational) car to a (fully operational) humanoid and back again: If you ve ever wanted to see a PR2 embarrass itself, here s your chance: Don t miss Another One Bytes the Dust, either. Via [ Willow Garage ] Cocorobo is yet another very expensive and suspiciously Roomba-looking vacuum from Asia, with yet another suite of, uh, unique features thrown in, including remote control, voice recognition, and something about emotions: Apparently, if you talk to this vacuum every day, that puts it in a good mood, which is expressed by changes in movement. Via [ DigInfo ] This may be a video on how not to fly a robotic spacecraft, but as far as testing a robotic spacecraft goes, this is (sort of) exactly what you want to have happen: [ Project Morpheus ]...... (more)

'Smart' Homes Prevent Illness, Run The Dryer
Smarty-pants, tattle-tale homes may be just around the corner, predicts Diane Cook, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Washington State University. "In the home, the idea is that computer software, playing the role of an intelligent agent, perceives the state of the physical environment, reasons about this state using artificial intelligence, and then takes actions to achieve specified goals, such as maximizing comfort of the residents and maintaining health and safety," Cook writes. Present home-management systems must be pre-programmed by home owners: You need to tell your system when to turn your heat on or off. So far, in fact, may autonomous intelligence advance that tomorrow's homes may need to incorporate software that provides for occupants "to retain ultimate authority to resent the system and to impose restraints that prevent the home from taking undesired or harmful actions. (more)

US military embraces robots with greater autonomy
U.S. military embraces robots with greater autonomy PENN HILLS, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - The unattended steering wheel on the 15-ton military truck jerked sharply back and forth as the vehicle's huge tires bounced down a rain-scarred ravine through mounds of mine rubble on a rugged hillside near Pittsburgh. Of more than 6,000 robots deployed, about 750 have been destroyed in action, saving at least that many human lives, the Pentagon 's Robotics Systems Joint Program Office estimates. "The ground domain is much, much tougher than the air domain because it's so dynamic," said Myron Mills, who has worked on both aerial and ground robotic systems and now manages an autonomous vehicle program for Maryland-headquartered Lockheed Martin Corp. Enough progress has been made that Lockheed's Squad Mission Support System, a 5,000-pound (2,268 kg) vehicle designed to carry backpacks and other gear for overloaded foot soldiers, is now being tested in Afghanistan. (more)

IAI`s military robot acts like barber in charity role
IAIs military robot acts like barber in charity role (PhysOrg.com) -- In robotics, three hands are better than one, in the form of a device that has been developed by Intelligent Automation Inc (IAI) for use as troop support. The three-armed robot can protect troops by lending its handling skills to carry out backback inspections for explosive devices, for example, and, to use the military term, "disarm" Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Paul Bosscher, a robotics engineer at Harris, described the impressive features of its device to ABC News at the time. "The robot can cut wires, pull blasting caps, surgically defeat the explosive device and in the process save all of this forensic evidence that they use to ID who the bombmakers are what their bomb-making methods are," Bosscher said. (more)

Watch: Woman or Machine? Sophisticated Japanese Shebot Blurs the Line
Imagine a world where robots conduct traffic, work in factories, make sushi and vacuum office floors. Her creator, Japanese robotics guru Hiroshi Ishiguro, programmed her built-in computerwith 65 behaviors, making her one of the world s most intelligent robots. Ishiguro says his new robot F, as he s named her, is more elegant and approachable than his past creations. (MORE: New Sprinting Humanoid Robot Will One Day Come with Flexible Arms and Tactile Skin) The biggest difference between Ishiguro s copy of himself and F are the number of actuators, or motor-like mechanisms, that control behaviors. (more)

Schools digest: St. John Brebeuf
The students and staff at St. John Brebeuf School recently celebrated 100 successful days of school. Lab (Science Technology Engineering and Math) at St. John Brebeuf School will provide students with hands-on learning experiences to further enhance their science and math skills. A RoboArm is a high-tech robotic arm that students program to enhance comprehension in math and science concepts. As a result scientific and mathematics concepts come alive as students do science and apply math. (more)

Be afraid: Robot experts say machines are catching up
The idea of a robot coup d'etat is based on the sci-fi notion of "technological singularity" -- the point where machines become powerful enough to improve their own instruction sets and capabilities without human intervention, leading to a runaway chain of self-upgrades that surpasses human comprehension. Smart machines like IBM's Watson supercomputer aren't the product of some magical breakthrough, but of a lot of separate research efforts that solved individual problems. The rapidly advancing power of microchips means that machines with far fewer chips will be able to perform Watson-like feats. Smart machines are already designing the chips that are paving the way for ever smarter machines. (more)

The Need for Autonomous Vehicle Law
Advertisement Related What happens if you get into a collision with an autonomous car? The development of autonomous cars is accompanied by numerous legal uncertainties that, if left unresolved, may discourage companies from investing in the development of such technologies, despite their great promise for reducing the number of deaths and injuries on our highways. What if you could make your car follow the car in front of it perfectly would the driver be responsible then? Nevada has updated their laws to allow texting while driving a licensed autonomous car, but Nevada has prohibited being intoxicated in the same autonomous vehicle. (more)

Devangshu Datta: Man and machines
The most obvious example of defence research translating into normal civilian use is the Internet, which was launched as a project to develop communications protocols to survive wartime network disruptions. The payoffs for autonomous driverless cars, or roadbots as they are sometimes known, would be large. The early roadbot trials started with the Eureka project between 1987 and 1995. These could negotiate multi-lane highway traffic without much intervention. (more)

Design and print your own robot
MIT is leading an ambitious new project to reinvent how robots are designed and produced. Funded by a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project will aim to develop a desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours. This research envisions a whole new way of thinking about the design and manufacturing of robots, and could have a profound impact on society, says MIT Professor Daniela Rus, leader of the project and a principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). It currently takes years to produce, program and design a functioning robot, and is an extremely expensive process, involving hardware and software design, machine learning and vision, and advanced programming techniques. (more)

Video Friday: Happy Easter, With Robots
Robots, I guess, are really big on Easter. I think the TurtleBots at Clearpath Robotics need to have their dates reset, cause they re a wee bit early on the Easter egg hunt: Unknown to the human employees at Clearpath, our robots decided it was high time they partook in the fun of Easter celebrations. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at work to find all available surfaces covered in eggs and an Easter egg hunt in full swing. In a characteristically cheeky move, one of our more personable TurtleBots took it upon itself to play Easter Bunny and hide eggs around the office for the other TurtleBots to find. (more)

DARPA Robotics Challenge: Here Are the Official Details
Illustration of a disaster response scenario part of the DARPA Robotics Challenge: The robot on the right uses a power tool to break through a wall, and the one on the left turns a valve to close a leaking pipe. Image: DARPA DARPA to the robotics community: the challenge is on. The DARPA Robotics Challenge is offering tens of million of dollars in funding to teams from anywhere in the world to build robots capable of performing complex mobility and manipulation tasks such as walking over rubble and operating power tools. It s all about adaptability what s the most adaptable system that can be used during that first day or two of the disaster when you have a chance to reduce the scope of the disaster by taking action, Dr. Gill Pratt, the DARPA program manager who s organizing the challenge, told IEEE Spectrum. (more)

Continental Develops Semi-Autonomous Car Technology
Companies like Audi are even developing an all-round system that drives the car in traffic jams. An "Emergency Steer Assist" system helps drivers swerve to avoid hazards, and a force-feedback accelerator pedal to encourage more efficient driving. Continental considers it "driver assist" technology, rather than something to take over driving entirely, but in testing the car has operated well on the highway, slowing with traffic, avoiding construction cones and edging along with stop-and-go traffic. While many are uneasy over the though of their cars driving for them, autonomous cars are getting closer and closer to production reality, and some states--such as Nevada--have already given the technology the green light....... (more)

Monkeys Control Virtual Limbs With Their Minds
Now, by implanting electrodes into both the motor and the sensory areas of the brain, researchers have created a virtual prosthetic hand that monkeys control using only their minds, and that enables them to feel virtual textures. Using the first set, the monkey could control a virtual monkey arm on a computer screen and sweep the hand over virtual disks with different textures. By giving the monkey rewards when it identified the right texture, the researchers discovered that it took as few as four training sessions for the animal to consistently distinguish the textures from one another, even when the researchers switched the order of the visually identical disks on the screen. Although the monkeys are all adults, the motor and sensory regions of their brains are amazingly plastic, Nicolelis says: the combination of seeing an appendage that they control and feeling a physical touch tricks them into thinking that the virtual appendage is their own within minutes. (more)

Spin-based magnetologic gate to replace silicon chips
The University of California, Riverside has received a $1.85 million National Science Foundation grant to develop a new way of electron-spin-based computing beyond the scope of conventional silicon electronics. For spin-based computing, data is held in the spin state of the electron. This involves developing a new type of building-block device known as a magnetologic gate that will serve as the engine for this technology similar to the role of the transistor in conventional electronics. For the logic operations, electrons move through the graphene and use its spin state to compare the information held in the individual magnetic electrodes. (more)

Automation: Leading the way
Australia 's rapidly expanding multi-billion dollar mining technology and services industry is leading the drive for innovations to boost productivity and efficiency. As Australian mining exports increase, mining companies are investing significant resources into the development and implementation of remote automation and unmanned machinery to meet this demand. The isolated geographical locations of many Australian mines, in addition to safety considerations, make remote automation and unmanned machinery an attractive option for mining companies. While traditional automation and robotic technology in the mining industry has comprised standalone autonomous equipment managing a selected process, today it is possible to connect these discrete processes resulting in an integrated, productive mining environment. (more)

Tiny Robot Makes Big Jumps with Explosive Microrockets
We've seen all kinds of crazy jumping robots, from humanoids to grasshoppers to soft and flexible spheres. But when you start making small robots, like seriously small robots (on the millimeter scale), you have to find new ways to get them to jump, and the Army Research Laboratory has teamed up with the University of Maryland to develop a couple clever ideas. To move, it relies on on the rapid conversion of stored chemical energy to gas in a chemical reaction, which is just a fancy way of saying either rocket motor or controlled explosion. First Leaps Toward Jumping Microrobots by Wayne A. Churaman, Aaron P. Gerratt, and Sarah Bergbreiter from the Army Research Laboratory and the University of Maryland Microrobotics Lab was presented this week at the 2011 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. (more)

Boston Dynamics' Bigger BigDog Robot Is Alive
UPDATE 9/30 4:05 a.m.: Video of Boston Dynamics' new, bigger quadruped, called AlphaDog, is here. Boston Dynamics, the company that brought the world the beloved BigDog quadruped robot, is now showing off its newest beast. The official name is LS3 (Legged Squad Support System), but it seems that the Boston Dynamics guys are calling it BullDog instead. Marc Raibert, the flower-patterned-shirt-wearing founder and president of Boston Dynamics, discussed the LS3 project in a keynote talk today at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. (more)

Asimo shows off dance moves
Honda's humanoid robot, Asimo, was demonstrating its latest abilities at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems recently held in San Francisco. Victor Ng-Thow-Hing, Behzad Dariush, and colleagues were at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems recently held in San Francisco where Spectrum captured this video demonstrating two recent advances. Later, the scientists explain how they're using gestures to improve Asimo's communication skills. China's equivalent of Google, Baidu, plans to release a mobile operating system, Baidu-Yi, based on a customised version of Android and with a marketplace for apps such as games, maps and other [...]... (more)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Authors?
By PAGAN KENNEDY Published: October 14, 2011 One day, I stumbled across a book on Amazon called Saltine Cracker. The book was co-edited by someone called Lambert M. These books, or booklike products, lie in wait for the distracted shopper, someone who might think, Oh good, I really need a tome on Spearmans law of diminishing returns, so Ill just go ahead and pay $84. And with one overhasty click on the Place your order button, the shopper can pay a lot of money for a book that turns out to be warmed-over Wikipedia. VDM Publishing puts a notice on the cover of its books, boasting high-quality content by Wikipedia articles! (more)

This Week In Bots: Thinking, Charming, Walking, And Life-Saving Droids
Meka is intended to design a robot that builds emotional links between humans and the machines themselves, and at the recent Intelligent Robots and Systems event, Professor Sentis of the University of Texas showed off Meka's most recent iteration. He's created a system called Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network, SOINN, which means instead of mutely and un-intelligently following pre-programmed tasks, his Kawada Industrie's robot called Hiro can actually perceive and interpret information about the real world environment around it, and process existing knowledge, to complete an assigned task. For example, by training an inquisitive robot like Hiro to do a number of tasks--with the robot querying for help when it's not sure about something--he thinks it'll ultimately be possible to ask Hiro to make a cup of tea, and have it share knowledge with a robot in England about how to complete the task (something this robot has learned itself). (more)

How Google's Self-Driving Car Works
Once a secret project, Google's autonomous vehicles are now out in the open, quite literally, with the company test-driving them on public roads and, on one occasion, even inviting people to ride inside one of the robot cars as it raced around a closed course . Thrun and Urmson explained how the car works and showed videos of the road tests, including footage of what the on-board computer "sees" [image below] and how it detects other vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic lights. The car then combines the laser measurements with high-resolution maps of the world, producing different types of data models that allow it to drive itself while avoiding obstacles and respecting traffic laws. The vehicle also carries other sensors, which include: four radars, mounted on the front and rear bumpers, that allow the car to "see" far enough to be able to deal with fast traffic on freeways; The second thing is that, before sending the self-driving car on a road test, Google engineers drive along the route one or more times to gather data about the environment. (more)

Robot vision lags behind human sight
Related articles NEW YORK: By pitting human vision against that of machines for the first time, computer scientists have shown that machines still struggle with interpreting visual patterns, compared to their human counterparts. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, implies that computer vision research still has a long way to go before machines have visual perception rivalling that of humans. Humans recollect, robots forget The fact that humans are better than machines at understanding visual patterns did not come as a surprise to scientists. For machines to achieve a higher level of visual understanding, artificial intelligence researchers are teaching them to recognise individual parts of an object and combine their relative positions into a recognisable whole object. (more)

Military Robots Take Off Photos:Drone Time
The brawny combat robot, made by QinetiQ North America, a unit of the U.K.'sQinetiQ GroupPLC, rolls on tank-like treads. Military robots are a deadly serious business, and the gadgetry on display at the Unmanned Systems North America exhibition here underscores the shift by defense companies to selling combat by remote control. Over Japan, pilotless military surveillance planes recently inspected the damage from a nuclear disaster. The former Navy admiral said military researchers are starting to see the potential of unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs, to hunt for mines or other threats, much as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan accelerated the demand for bomb-disposal robots to search for suspected roadside bombs. (more)

Factory robot-arm inventor dies at 99
The Unimate, as the product became known, was designed to perform jobs that were dangerous or costly for human workers. In 2006, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers estimated more than 950,000 industrial robots were in operation worldwide. Devols business partner was engineer Joseph Engelberger. Today 3:00 am The Interior Department announced Friday that it would hold the first oil and gas lease sale for the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill last year. (more)

Fukushima Robot Operator Writes Tell-All Blog
An anonymous worker at Japans Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing the ups and downs of his experience as one of the lead robot operators at the crippled facility. His blog provides a window into the complex and dangerous work environment faced by the operators, a small group of young technicians who, like other front-line personnel, must approach areas of high radiation, deploying remote-controlled robots to assist with efforts to further stabilize and shut down the plants four troubled reactors . The robots, two PackBots and two Warriors , known for their explosive-disposal work in Iraq and Afghanistan, have performed remarkably well at Fukushima, even after repeated jobs in high-radiation environments, which damage electronics . published on his blog, titled " ," or "Say Whatever IWant *Do Whatever I Want," covering a period from late April to early July 2011 [right, screenshot of a post]. (more)

URSI project pushes bounds of artificial intelligence
But while such individuals may believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) belongs solely in the realm of science fiction, Professor of Cognitive Science Ken Livingston and his team of student researchers share a different perspective. Jeff Hawkins, creator of the Palm Pilot, was the first to found an institute for computer-based neuroscience research, known as the Redwood Center for Theoretical Based Neuroscience in Menlo Park, Calif. Hawkins is also credited as one of the first people to suggest that the human brain is physiologically hardwired to make predictions. However, Livingston and his team were able to take their research one step further by obstructing its visual and audio input. And as we come to depend on these technologies, there is a whole lot of our intelligence that we are offloading," said Livingston. (more)

Clever Cornell Robot Finds your Lost Keyboard
The same research group at Cornell has also been working on clever ways to allow robots to efficiently interpret scenes and identify objects, which is one of those things that robots are going to have to be good at before they can really become helpful in our homes. Humans have the ability to look at a scene and immediately pick out important elements while ignoring everything else, because we have brains that are awesome like that. So if you ask a robot go to find you (say) a computer keyboard, it's got to enter a room and methodically search every pixel-equivalent area until it finds what it's looking for. What the Cornell research group has been teaching robots to do is to be able to rapidly break down a scene into general categories, and then recognize how some categories are related to others. (more)

Problem-Solving Robot Swarm Goes After Our Books
Problem-Solving Robot Swarm Goes After Our Books Teamwork in humans is inspiring. Teamwork in highly-coordinated robots is a bit eerie. Created by artificial intelligence researcher Marco Dorigo of Belgium's Universitibre de Bruxelles, the "Swarmanoid" is a team of specialized robots designed to work together to solve environmental problems. Two foot-bots snap onto the hand-bot, escort it to the bookshelf, and release it. (more)

Body conscious
Maybe if it has a body IN January, Max Versace and Heather Ames were busy with two newborns: their son Gabriel and Animat, a virtual rat. In 1989, he built Genghis, a six-legged insect-robot that was able to navigate without the help of a central control system. According to Lakoff and his supporters, our "embodied mind" explains not only rudimentary intelligence, such as how we learn to visually recognise objects, but even complicated, abstract thought (Artificial Intelligence, vol 149, p 91). Then, a couple of years ago, Versace and his team began to realise that there was hope for embodiment after all?- if you skipped the physical body. (more)

Thought-Controlled Robot Avatars: Boon for Disabled
Robot avatars will provide a new level of freedom and interaction for the disabled, elderly, or bed-ridden that they do not currently enjoy -- some even controlled by a user's thoughts, say scientists, inventors and enthusiasts. These avatars will "fill in" for those who are not able to physically attend -- communicating for them, said science fiction author Robert Sawyer. NEWS: Humanoid Robot Learns Like a Child "This is liberating for the person [who is disabled]," Sawyer told FoxNews.com. Wilford used a "telepresence" project called NetHead to connect with the world from home, a free-standing terminal that serves as a robotic avatar. (more)

September 11 and the Rise of Robots
Military robots such as the SUGV and the Packbot in development at Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot do things humans can't or don't want to do.Click to enlarge this image.James Leynse/Corbis September 11 had quite a different meaning for me before it became 9/11. And early on that cool blue morning I took my daily run from our Chelsea apartment down the West Side Highway past the World Trade Center to South Ferry and back. I never thought much about the Twin Towers then, except sometimes to remember the convoluted history of how they got built in the first place, or to feel their overwhelming presence in what was then a low-rise part of Manhattan as I breezed past, with no sense of how gigantic their absence might become. Robots have been used in the aftermath of many subsequent disasters -- hurricanes, building collapses and, most recently, in the nuclear plant meltdown at Fukushima. (more)

High Performance Modeling Helps Robot Take a Step
A project using MapleSIM modeling software at the University of Manchester is helping to perfect the process of humanoid walking in robots. As part of the CICADA project, a number of researchers in the Schools of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Mathematics are working on learning and control approaches to make the bipedal humanoid robot walk. Work at the University of Manchesters Centre for Interdisciplinary Computational and Dynamic Analysis (CICADA) coincides with studies being conducted by Professor Darwin Caldwell at the Italian Institute of Technology. He developed a novel compliant humanoid robot called COMAN. (more)

Dog vs. Robot: Which Is the Better Soldier?
U.S. forces are using more canines and robots to carry out dangerous missions.Click to enlarge this image.Getty Images From infantry units to secret SEAL teams, the U.S. military is using increasing numbers of dogs and robots to assist in conflicts across the world. Or can nothing replace the trusty canine? NEWS: U.S. Navy Seals Secret Weapon: Dogs Well, Jeff Jaczkowski, deputy project manager at the Robotic Systems Joint Projects Office, says he's trying to make robots more dog-like. NEWS: Snake Robots Could Disable Bombs In fact, the same military unit that raided and killed Osama Bin Laden in May is now looking for a few good dogs to help them conduct secret missions. (more)

Science council moves to safeguard South Africa's robotics prowess
We suggest that you upgrade to the latest version of any of the following browsers: close notification Since Czech playwright Karel Capek popularised and, indeed, named the concept of the robot in his 1920 science-fiction play, RUR (Rossums Universal Robots) the word is derived from the Czech word robota, which means labour it has exerted a fascination on both the popular and the scientific, and on engineering and technological minds. This was Unimate, developed by the Unimation (Universal Automation) company in the US, which was specifically founded to manufacture robots for industry. (Unimation was later bought by Westinghouse and subsequently sold to the Franco-Swiss Stubli group, which incorporated it into its robotics division; the name Unimation is no longer used. Some have limited learning ability, explains Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) mining robotics project manager Liam Candy . (more)

students' aerial robot tops world entries
Robin Singh, Deepan Kishore Kumar, Anant Mithal, Pavitra Bhalla and Saurabh Ladha, students from Bits Pilani Dubai campus. They came first in the International Aerial Robotics Competition, held in North Dakota, for their aerial robot prototype that can think for itself while navigating unknown spaces. Dubai: In the build-up to the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC), students from 28 universities across the globe have been developing prototypes for flying robots that can "think" for themselves. The eight students, whose majors include electronics, mechanical engineering, computer science and IT, built an autonomous indoor flying vehicle that could navigate through an unknown environment and retrieve a 100-gram object. (more)

This Week In Bots: Droids, Drones, And The Future Of Telepresence
UAV Games This week saw what is billed as the first of its kind of airshow--an aerial ballet of UAVs in American airspace, specifically over Albuquerque as part of a convention organized by the Technical Analysis and Applications Center from New York State University. Four models of electric motor-powered UAVs were on display, beaming back live video to show off their surveillance powers and their remote-controllable agility. The demonstration is timely, as a debate is opening up at the moment concerning the future of UAVs in U.S. airspace. was a story in the Washington Post this week, discussing a possible future for privately paid aerial surveillance after the FAA proposes new rules in January about allowing UAVs to fly in ways that're currently not permitted. (more)

Aldebaran Robotics announces Nao Next Gen humanoid robot (video)
Aldebaran Robotics' Nao robot has already received a few upgrades from both the company itself and other developers, but it now has a proper successor. Aldebaran took the wraps off its new and improved Nao Next Gen robot today, touting features like a 1.6GHz Atom processor and dual HD cameras that promise to allow for better face and object recognition even in poor lighting conditions. Check out the gallery below and the video after the break for a closer look.Nao Next Gen Show full PR text NAO Next Gen: Aldebaran Robotics launches a new generation of its humanoid robot Aldebaran Robotics, the world leader in humanoid robotics, has released its latest version of the NAO robot - NAO Next Gen. I created Aldebaran Robotics in 2005 with this aim: to contribute to humankinds well-being," states Bruno Maisonnier, Founder and Chairman of Aldebaran Robotics. (more)

Robots in London: New exhibition explores world of robotics
Robotville will communicate the current state of play where everything is at when it comes to robot structures, robot abilities and robot appearances, claims Nick Hawkes, a lecturer in artificial intelligence and programming at the University of Birmingham. Some of Hawkess recent work will be on show at the exhibition he helped build Dora, a robot able to map an area and then, if in a home, for instance, locate and fetch familiar items. While Hawkes predicts that, within certain parameters, robots will become more and more useful, he concedes that cyborg bounty hunters are unlikely. I can imagine robots doing menial, automated tasks in prisons, hospitals, hotels places where there are a consistent set of requests, he says. (more)

Integration Insights
How 2-D vision is used in conjunction with a robot National Instruments is a measurement and automation company and leading machine vision and scientific imaging tools provider. For over 15 years, National Instruments has provided hardware and software tools for imaging applications, including NI Smart Cameras, Embedded Vision Systems, Frame Grabbers, interactive configurable software, and flexible programming libraries that include hundreds of advanced image processing functions. An unmatched range of vision inspection, guidance and identification solutions along with our unique global network of vision specialists make Cognex the largest and most successful vision company in the world. is a worldwide leader in the development of advanced digital camera technology products for machine vision, industrial imaging, computer vision, and traffic and surveillance applications. (more)

2011 review: The year in technology
Electric vehicles herald rise of the in-car appThe emergence of the electric car is leading to a suite of smartphone add-ons Crowdsourced translations get the word out from LibyaWith the Arab spring under way early this year, we wrote about techniques that blended machine translation and human crowdsourcing to help dissidents get their message out from behind the communications blackout imposed by the Gaddafi regime Shock wave puts hybrid engines in a spinA prototype engine that relies on shock waves could allow hybrid cars to boost their efficiency even further Robot-only internet helps machines share secretsThe advent of a world wide web for robots will let automatons learn from each other's experiences a first step towards them working in the real world 3D printing: The world's first printed planeThe promise of 3D printing has finally taken off with the development of a drone that takes just a week to create The cyberweapon that could take down the internetA new form of attack would turn the internet against itself and would be extremely hard to repel Better than human? (more)

Google Wins Driverless-Car Patent
Google has notched another important milestone the granting of a U.S. patent in its march to develop autonomous cars. MOUNTAIN VIEW, California Tech giant Google has notched another important milestone the granting of a U.S. patent in its march to develop autonomous cars. In its application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Google said its process covers "methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. " I don't mind automated cars, as long as the driver ultimately has full control, and ability to override it at any time/ still drive manual, and the error rate of the automated system is equal to, or below a human operator. (more)

AI to predict sun's next attack on Earth
JUST before noon on 1 September 1859, an English solar astronomer named Richard Carrington witnessed the biggest solar flare ever recorded. So researchers are now turning to automated image-processing and artificial intelligence to better forecast the sun's behaviour and give us time to prepare for a solar onslaught. Over the past two decades, several solar flares and magnetic storms of varying intensity have hit Earth. Solar observatories that study the sun continuously should be able to give us some warning before an impending storm. (more)

Preparing Humans To Work In A Robotic World
You may update your e IBD preferences at any time by going into My IBD and selecting Update Your e IBD Preferences. Robots and computerized automation have evolved to the point of being, well, almost human. And with that comes the worry that robotics are taking jobs at a pace that stymies employment. ViewEnlargedImage Leaving Humans Behind While employment growth has stagnated in a weak economy, sales of industrial robots almost doubled last year, says the International Federation of Robots. (more)

Stunning Video of PETMAN Humanoid Robot From Boston Dynamics
PETMAN is an adult-sized humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm best known for the BigDog quadruped. Boston Dynamics is building PETMAN, short for Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin, for the U.S. Army, which plans to use the robot to test chemical suits and other protective gear used by troops. Marc Raibert, the founder and president of Boston Dynamics, tells me that the biggest challenge was to engineer the robot, which uses a hydraulic actuation system, to have the approximate size of a person. PETMAN was one of the robots that most impressed attendees of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in San Francisco last month. (more)

Virtual robot links body to numbers just like humans
Read more: "Squishybots: Soft, bendy and smarter than ever" ONE of the many curious habits of the human brain is that we tend to associate small numbers with the left side of our body and large numbers with our right. The so-called SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect is well established: people respond faster to a number (by pressing a button, say) with their left hand when the number is small and with their right hand when the number is large. Similarly, people who have brain damage that causes them to ignore the left side of their body show a bias towards larger numbers when asked to report the middle of a numerical interval. This way of learning sets up links between small numbers and the part of the brain that controls our left side, and vice versa, that persists into adulthood. (more)

Honda Shows Smarter Robot, Helps In Nuclear Crisis
WAKO, Japan (AP) Honda's human-shaped robot can now run faster, balance itself on uneven surfaces, hop on one foot and pour a drink. Honda's demonstration of the revamped "Asimo" on Tuesday at its Tokyo suburban research facility was not only to prove that the bubble-headed childlike machine was more limber and a bit smarter. Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters some of Asimo's technology was used to develop a robotic arm in just six months with the intention of helping with the nuclear crisis in northeastern Japan. Ito acknowledged that the first idea was to send in Asimo to help out, but that was not possible because the robot cannot maneuver in rubble, and its delicate computer parts would malfunction in radiation. (more)

Robots vs. Humans: Real Steel or Dumb Metal?
Right from the start let's agree that the argument of humans or robots is getting close to being a dead heat in some areas. For example, NASA and General Motors built the 300 pound Robonaut2 - or R2 - a robot that is capable of using the same tools as humans and now works alongside them in space onboard the International Space Station. Granted the robot takes up valuable space station space, but it doesn't have to be fed or go to the bathroom - major advantages in space. But while robots can in certain areas achieve what humans cannot, you only have to look as far as say the products that are thought of and designed by the humans at Apple. (more)

Researchers Develop World's First Robot System to Dress Elderly and Physically ...
The Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), a national corporation university in Japan, has developed the worlds first robotic system that can learn to dress the physically challenged as well as aged persons. According to Associate Professor, Tomohiro Shibata from the Mathematical Informatics Laboratory who also headed the research, Barrett's robots are incomparable because they are able to respond to even the slightest physical interactions, implementing the algorithms to learn to clothe people. The group led by Associate Professor Tomohiro Shibata, in response to the key technical problem has created a dual-arm robotic system, which can learn clothing-assistance motions after just a few trials. (more)

HRP-4C female robot has a new walk (w/ video)
HRP-4C female robot has a new walk (w/ video) (PhysOrg.com) -- Japan's entertaining robot that sings and looks like a beautiful young female is finally learning how to walk just like a beautiful girlwell, almost. Robotics developers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have released a video of their HRP-4C Miim robot to show how it can walk better than before. The robot is based on User Centered Robot Open Architecture utilizing fundamental robotic technologies including real-time Linux, RT middleware, robot simulator openHRP3, and speech recognition. AIST researchers, like other scientific groups dedicated to robotics, have been working hard to create the perfect walking robot and to design walking technologies that can make their robots most closely resemble the way humans walk. (more)

Stanford joins BrainGate team developing brain-computer interface to aid people with paralysis
Stanford University researchers are enrolling participants in a pioneering study investigating the feasibility of allowing people with paralysis to use a technology that interfaces directly with the brain to control computer cursors, robotic arms and other assistive devices. BrainGate is based on research and technology developed in the laboratory of John Donoghue, PhD, the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University, director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science and a senior research career scientist with the Providence VA Medical Center. In 2006, Donoghue and Hochberg led the publication of a landmark paper in Nature demonstrating that trial participants could control a computer cursor and other devices directly by neural activity. Earlier this year, the BrainGate2 research team published another paper in the Journal of Neural Engineering showing that the system allowed a patient to accurately control a computer cursor more than 1,000 days after it was implanted...... (more)

Watch This Robot Control a Person's Arm Using Electrodes
Tweet When this robot needs a hand, it borrows yours. In an experiment that opens a new chapter in human-machine interaction, a French research team has demonstrated how a robot can control both its own arm and a person s arm to manipulate objects in a collaborative manner. From a medical point of view, you might want to encourage the person to move more, and that s when the robot can help, by moving the person s arm to reach and hold the glass. The audience at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), where the researchers presented their results in September, let out a nervous gasp upon seeing the video of the experiment: In the study, Adorno and his colleagues, Ant nio Padilha Lanari B and Philippe Fraisse, attached four electrodes to the arms of five healthy volunteers test subjects, who were also blindfolded, to avoid visual feedback. (more)

A Dream of Robots
...talk by MIT CSAIL Professor Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Speaking at the "Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything" symposium commemorating MIT's 150th anniversary celebration back in April, Kaelbling described the emerging research frontiers at the intersection of robotics and AI. (from the CCC blog June 27th, 2011 by Erwin Gianchandani). April, 2011. (more)

A panel discussion about Artificial Intelligence.
The Charlie Rose Show television broadcast: A panel discussion about the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence with Rodney Brooks of MIT, Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research and Ron Brachman of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. December 21, 2004. (more)

A.I. and Space Tech.
Art Chmielewski, project manager for New Millennium project ST6, discusses artificial intelligence and new technologies for NASA spacecraft. October 21, 2002. (more)

All-new ASIMO (Nov 2011)
Honda unveiled "All-new ASIMO", a new version of their humanoid robot. It can run at 9kph and hop on one or both legs, and more. November 8, 2011. (more)

Almost Human - Robotics in the 21st Century.
Watch this interview from the WGBH Thinking Big series. "James McLurkin, a robotics engineer at the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, imagines a world filled with robots, where man-made intelligent machines do the work deemed too dangerous for people -- such as searching for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings or exploring the farthest reaches of space. McLurkin acknowledges that such sophisticated robots are a long way off, but he hopes to have a fun-filled career trying to make it happen.". October 5, 2005. (more)

Anybots' humanoid robot trains to do the dirty work.
Demo of Dexter, a walking robot. Interview with founder of company. 04/10/2007. (more)

Art and Science: The World’s First Robot Film Festival
From the Computing Community Consortium Blog July 27th, 2011 by Erwin Gianchandani. Have you heard about the Robot Film Festival? This past weekend, a huge crowd of roboticists, artists, and filmakers converged on Manhattan for the world’s first-ever Robot Film Festival. Dubbed a two-day celebration of robots on film, the event sought “to inject a sense of playfulness into traditional science and engineering and explore frontiers before technically feasible.” Over 50 short films were screened ... 7/24/11. (more)

Best-of Humanoid League Team Nimbro at RoboCup 2007.
Short clips showing winning team, NimbRo at RoboCup 2007. July, 2007. (more)

BigDog.
The video shows recent testing of BigDog, a rough-terrain quadruped robot developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA. The goal for BigDog is to carry equipment on any terrain where humans can go on foot. (BigDog was developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA.). July 14, 2008. (more)

Bio-inspired Flying Robots.
In this video we present bio-inspiration as the main drive for the design of platforms, autonomous navigation strategies and aerial swarming for flying robots.. July 14, 2008. (more)

CB2: Child Robot with Biomimetic Body.
CB2, a novel child-like robot, has been built by the JST ERATO Asada Project to simulate child development. Its flexible, life-like movement and full-body soft skin enable it to interact closely with people. This video demonstrates the robot's potential as a synthetic platform for understanding the development of human communication. July 14, 2008. (more)

CSE Colloquia - 2007: Broadening Computer and Robotics Education and Participation for Women.
"Women and other underrepresented groups represent a vast amount of untapped human resource potential needed to fuel both industry and academic research needs. Professor Andrew Williams [Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia] describes a cohesive, integrated approach to increase the participation and education of women and African Americans using innovative robotics and computer curriculum and competitions. Williams provides several examples, including how the all-women Spelman College's SpelBots RoboCup Four-Legged robot soccer team, and the joint Spelman and Carnegie Mellon University NSF-sponsored project, C.A.R.E. [Computer and Robotics Education for African American Students], have inspired young girls to pursue education and research in robotics and artificial intelligence." November 14, 2006. (more)

CSE Colloquia 2001 - Machines with Emotional Intelligence. Speaker: Rosalind Picard, Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Over 70 studies on human-machine interaction in the last decade have pointed to an intriguing phenomenon: People interact with machines in a way that is basically social, even when the interaction was not designed to be that way. This program will describe how we're giving computers some social skills, specifically the ability to recognize and respond appropriately to human emotion. Examples are shown on keyboard-mouse-monitor systems that try to assess user frustration for usability feedback, and wearable systems that classify affective state based on skin-surface measurements." Questions from the audience follow the talk. October 18, 2001. (more)

CSE Colloquia 2001 - Reasoning with Cause and Effect. Speaker: Judea Pearl, University of California, Los Angeles..
"This talk [given by Judea Pearl, University of California, Los Angeles] summarizes concepts, principles, and inference tools that are useful in modeling aspects of causal reasoning. The principles are based on structural-model semantics, in which modifiable functional relationships, representing autonomous physical processes are the fundamental building blocks." Questions from the audience follow the talk. October 4, 2001. (more)

Cart at Mech. Eng. Dept. prior to Stanford AI Lab.
Stanford M.E. Dept. 1966. (more)

Collection of Industrial Robot Videos.
Collection of 88 short videos from several different manufacturers, showing robots welding, cutting, painting, etc. (more)

Computer Chronicles: Computers and the Pentagon - Part One (1986).
"The world's biggest computer user is the U.S. government and the military in particular. This program reviews the military uses of computer technology. Shot on location at various research centers around the country. Featured are the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Advanced Decision Systems in Mountain View, California. Demonstrations include the Pilot's Assistant and the Battlefield Commander's Assistant. Also flight and battle simulators from Singer Link." 1986. (more)

Computer Chronicles: Neural Networks.
"Neural networks are artificial intelligence systems modeled after the human brain. This program looks at several examples and applications. Included are Braincel 1.1 from Promised Land Technologies [demonstrated by Murray Ruggiero], BrainMaker Professional 2.0 from California Scientific Software [demonstrated by Mark Lawrence], MacBrain 3.0 from Neurix [demonstrated by Matt Jensen], NeuroSMARTS from Cognition Technology [demonstrated by Richard Mansfield], and ExploreNet from HNC. Also includes visits to NASA [Max Reid describes HONN: Higher Order Neural Network] and Intel [Mark Holler describes ETANN: Electronically Trainable Analog Neural Network] to see the work they're doing on neural networks." Also appearing on the show is Tom J. Schwartz (The Schwartz Assoc.). Hosted by Stewart Cheifet and Jan Lewis. May 15, 1991. (more)

Computer Chronicles: Robots - Japanese Style (1985).
Host Stewart Cheifet visits High Tech Expo '85 in Tsukuba (Science City), Japan, to look the latest computer and robotics technology. 1985. (more)

Crusher: Unmanned Ground Vehicle.
Three videos of CMU's vehicle, Crusher. NREC (CMU's National Robotics Engineering Center) designed and developed the Crusher vehicle to support the UPI program's rigorous field experimentation schedule. The UPI program features quarterly field experiments that assess the capabilities of large scale, unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) operating autonomously in a wide range of complex, off-road terrains. UPI's aggressive mobility, autonomy and mission performance objectives required two additional test platforms that could accommodate a variety of mission payloads and state of the art autonomy technology. Crusher represents the next generation of the original Spinner platform, the world's first greater-than-6-ton, cross-country UGV designed from the ground up. Crusher offers more mobility, reliability, maintainability and flexibility than Spinner, at 29 percent less weight. 2005. (more)

DaVinci's Walking Lion (1515).
The mechanism of Leonardo DaVinci's walking lion is shown in this video. Links to videos of other DaVinci inventions. 2008. (more)

Discussion of and Demonstrations of Learning Programs for Robots.
The first half of the film is a lecture by Marvin Minsky describing the basic ideas of Patrick Winston's learning program, using examples and "near misses" to refine the program's model of what an "arch" is. The second half of the film is a narration by Dave Waltz describing other robotics research at MIT. He discusses Tim Finin's program that uses Winston-like models to recognize objects that match the model even when parts of the object are obscured. It uses hypotheses about dimensions of the objects that it can not directly observe. 1975??. (more)

Domestic robots compete in Istanbul
Robots that can hunt out snacks and wipe tables have been competing in the world league of intelligent mechanoids. The RoboCup competition, which features engineers from 40 countries, has been taking place in Istanbul and now includes home robot trials. Machines are tested on their ability to throw away rubbish, clean tables and fetch tasty treats from the kitchen. July 13, 2011. (more)

Domo Robot Helping With Chores.
The MIT CSAIL Humanoid Robot Domo helps a person with everyday chores. One of several Domo demonstrations on YouTube. 2007. (more)

Four students in Portugal have built a robot which will helps clean floors..
Four Students in Portugal have built a cleaning robot designed to clean floors. July 09, 2008. (more)

Friendly Robots
As a designer of sociable robots, MIT engineer Cynthia Breazeal thinks about her creations in terms of hearts and minds as well as nuts and bolts. In this slide show, Breazeal introduces us to Kismet and other emotionally appealing robots, and she compares "raising" robots to teaching children. 11.01.06. (more)

Game-Based Learning.
On a mission to teach their Aibo robo-dogs to play soccer, the Brown Robotics Group is designing an online video game experience where users can remotely control the dogs in real soccer matches. The data logged from the games will be used to teach these old dogs some brand new tricks!. July 14, 2008. (more)

Google Author Series: Daniel Wilson - How to Survive a Robot Uprising.
“Daniel H. Wilson discusses his book ‘How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips On Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion.’” He then takes questions from the audience. January 30, 2006. (more)

HRP-2.
HRP-2 is a humanoid robot designed by Japanese researchers that is programmed to reproduce dance steps with the practiced grace of an electronic geisha. The 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) robot is seen here at a press demo at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science on January 12, 2005. (more)

Hands-Free Human-Robot Interaction.
Using emerging sensing technology, the iRobot Packbot is demonstrated responding to voice and gesture-based commands in real time. July 14, 2008. (more)

Hear Here.
Raj Reddy, et al. Video made in 1969, showing work from 1968. (more)

How Does the Brain Work? (Ch.2 of 4).
Another professional PBS show on AI. Much of the focus is on the Watson program. Nice historical footage of Art Samuel. 02/02/2011. (more)

Humanoid Tai Chi Robot.
Robo-Erectus Humanoid Robot performing Tai Chi at Singapore Robotics Games 2008. The robot is developed by the Advanced Robotics & Intelligent Control Centre (ARICC) at Singapore Polytechnic. April 2, 2008 (more)

Introduction to Robotics: Stanford CS223A, July 2008 (home)
Playlist: Course | Introduction to Robotics Description: Introduction to Robotics (CS223A) covers topics such as Spatial Descriptions, Forward Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics, Jacobians, Dynamics, Motion Planning and Trajectory Generation, Position and Force Control, and Manipulator Design. 16 lectures by Professor Oussama Khatib several video demos. July 22, 2008. (more)

Introduction to Robotics: Stanford CS223A, Lecture 13
Lecture by Professor Oussama Khatib for Introduction to Robotics (CS223A) in the Stanford Computer Science Department. Professor Khatib shows a short video on Juggling Robots, then lectures on robotics control. July 22, 2008. (more)

Introduction to Robotics: Stanford CS223A, Lecture 16
Lecture by Professor Oussama Khatib for Introduction to Robotics (CS223A) in the Stanford Computer Science Department. For the last meeting of the quarter, Professor Khatib shows a short video on PUMA robots demonstrating compliant motion and force control, lectures on Compliance, and shows the class various types of robots. July 22, 2008. (more)

Introduction to Robotics: Stanford CS223A, Lecture 8
Lecture by Professor Oussama Khatib for Introduction to Robotics (CS223A) in the Stanford Computer Science Department. Professor Khatib shows a short video on Mobile Robots: Automatic Parallel Parking, then finishes Kinematic Singularity and the Jacobian. July 22, 2008. (more)

Japan Displays Robo History.
A new exhibition celebrates Japan's long history in the field of robotics. Demos from prototypes. October 2007. (more)

Kato, the Geocaching Robot.
Kato is a geocaching robot at the University of Alberta. This video shows how Kato sees the world with its laser scanner and how it uses this information to navigate around obstacles to a hidden cache. July 14, 2008. (more)

Konabot.
Konabot is the first Explosives Robot created entirely in Argentina. The project was developed by researchers of the Department of Computation (Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires). In this video the researchers explain the project development and how Konabot works. July 14, 2008. (more)

Lighthill Controversy Debate at the Royal Institution with Professor Sir James Lighthill, Professor Donald Michie, Professor Richard Gregory and Professor John McCarthy.
Professors Donald Michie [Edinburgh], Richard Gregory [Bristol] and John McCarthy [Stanford] challenge the pessimistic findings & views of Professor Sir James Lighthill [Cambridge], author of "The Lighthill Report" [Artificial Intelligence: A General Survey, in Artificial Intelligence: a paper symposium, Science Research Council (1973)]. June 1973. (more)

MIT's Nexi MDS Robot.
Early demo of MDS capabilities of Nexi. April 6, 2008 (more)

MIT's Nexi MDS Robot: First Test of Expression.
This video shows an initial test of the MDS (Mobile Dexterous Social) Robot designed and built in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab's Personal Robots Group, UMASS Amherst's Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics, Xitome Design, and Meka Robotics. It illustrates the robot's expressive range of movement using scripted animations and pre-recorded speech. April, 1, 2008 (more)

NAO Robot Demonstration After The Earthquake
The RT Corp robot shop in Tokyo sustained considerable damage, to the point that the company will have to abandon the building and search for a new location. But, that didn't slow them down. On Sunday they were in Fukuoka, Japan demonstrating the NAO humanoid robot to a large crowd of delighted fans. March 20, 2011. (more)

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Video Gallery: Rover Navigation 101 - Autonomous Rover Navigation animation.
Simple explanation of Mars Exploration Rovers' autonomous driving software. January 13, 2004. (more)

NOVA: The Great Robot Race.
Join NOVA for an exclusive backstage pass to the DARPA Grand Challenge—a raucous race for robotic, driverless vehicles sponsored by the Pentagon, which awards a $2 million purse to the winning team. Armed with artificial intelligence, laser-guided vision, GPS navigation, and 3-D mapping systems, the contenders are some of the world's most advanced robots. The program is divided into seven segments: A Hard Problem; The Red Army; Team Dad, TerraMax, and Ghostrider; Stanley; Making the Cut; The Race is On; and Everybody Wins. March 28, 2006. (more)

Nanobot pushing a nanoball across the field.
Video of a nanobot scoring goals released to promote the 2007 RoboCup Nanogram Demonstration Competition. June 28, 2007. (more)

New ASIMO Receiving and Delivering a Tray.
Short video showing ASIMO carrying a tray of coffee. December 2005. (more)

Nova scienceNOW Profile: Cynthia Breazeal.
Nova scienceNOW broadcast segment about "a daring engineer designs robots to communicate and interact the way people do." "Thinking outside the box of traditional engineering, Breazeal designs these robots with theories of child development and parent-child interactions in mind, equipping her creations with an ability to learn and giving them expressive, human-like features. And if, as Breazeal hopes, robots are to become our partners, they need to develop the same social skills as people, including emotions. NOVA scienceNOW joins Breazeal in her lab and introduces viewers to some of her seminal inventions: the famous toddler- like robotic head named Kismet; Leonardo, a million-dollar joint project with Stan Winston, legendary in Hollywood for The Terminator robots; and a touch-sensitive teddy bear called the Huggable, which may someday comfort patients and assist caregivers in hospital pediatric wards." November 21, 2006. (more)

Of Robots and Men - Rights for the Artificially Intelligent.
"KJZZ's Dennis Lambert speaks with Scottsdale attorney David Calverley, whose research into bioethics is driving him to artificial intelligence." January 23, 2007. (more)

Radio Interview with Rodney Brooks.
Fresh Air. WHYY-FM / available from NPR. "Rodney Brooks, the director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). His new book is called Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. Brooks offers a vision of the future of humans and robots." March 4, 2002. (more)

ReadyBot Goes to Work.
First prototype of kitchen-helper robot. "Readybot is intended to be a general-purpose, moderate-dexterity robot. It is built with commonly available components and is capable of being mass-produced. It is designed to perform common household and commercial tasks." January 2008. (more)

Robo-Cup German Open 2005.
RoboCup German Open 2005 at Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum Paderborn. Short video clips of robot teams in soccer competition & other events. 2005. (more)

RoboCup German Open 2008, Humanoid League Winner NimbRo
The video shows the performance of the Humanoid League team NimbRo at RoboCup German Open 2008. For the first time, 3 vs. 3 soccer games were played. The NimbRo robots clearly won the competition. May, 2008. (more)

Robot Conducts Orchestra.
A robot designed by Honda conducts a Detroit Symphony performance of 'Impossible Dream'. May 14, 2008. (more)

Robot Festival in Tokyo
Short video from the 2009 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo shows state-of-the-art industrial robots. 2009. (more)

Robot arm assembles water pump.
Richard Paul, et al. 1973. (more)

Robot arms assemble bearings and a hinge.
Hand Eye Project. 1973. (more)

Robot hand stacks toy cubes.
Robert Bolles. 1972. (more)

Robot risk 'is worth it'.
BBC HARDtalk's Lyce Doucet interviews Rodney Brooks. August 19, 2002. (more)

Robot takes to Antarctic skies.
Unmaned robotic aircraft flies over Antarctica for the first time. March, 2008. (more)

Robotic animal thrives on land, in sea.
The Salamander Robot is an experimental machine that has been developed at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). It can operate in three modes: swimming, slithering and walking. See the device in action, and find out why it's a technological first. CNET News.com's Zamir Haider reports. 03/22/2007. (more)

Robotics Engineer.
Dr. Ayanna Howard takes us to JPL's Mars Yard and more as she describes how engineers design and test future rovers for Mars. August 21, 2003. (more)

Robotics Principles.
Collection of URLs for many demonstrations of robots from 1980s to the present.. various. (more)

Robots Become Human
Microsoft may have found a breakthrough in artificial intelligence with the creation of a robot that can sense humans and their movements, a Virtual Admin. Science Channel Video. Interview with Eric Horvitz. July 24, 2009. (more)

Robots aim to top humans at air hockey .
First, a supercomputer beats a chess master. Then, an artificial intelligence program deals defeat to a poker champion. Next: A robot takes on humans in air hockey. July 08, 2008. (more)

Robots that climb walls.
"US scientists have developed robots using the same principles of electro-magnetics that make balloons stick to ceilings after being rubbed. The robots, developed by a team in SRI's Mobile Robotics and Transducers Programme, are around the size of a remote-controlled car and have caterpillar tracks similar to those on toy tanks. The technology could be used to enable robots to work in areas that are difficult for humans to go, such as tunnels or outside large buildings." July 8, 2008. (more)

Roomba Videos
"This YouTube channel is designed to give you an inside glimpse of iRobot. We'll show you a vast array of interesting videos, interviews with roboticists, ideas and answers to your questions. Check back often to see what's new and cool!". 2009. (more)

Rover Flight Director Report: May 23, 2007.
The Spirit rover found soil deposits on Mars that were formed by processes that require the presence of water. Half a world away, Opportunity continues to survey "Victoria Crater." Report by Richard Morris, Rover Flight Director. May 23, 2007. (more)

STARMAC: Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control.
STARMAC, the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent is a testbed of 6 quadrotor helicopter unmanned aerial vehicles that fly indoors and outdoors to experiment with autonomous agent algorithms. This video presents an overview of the control system, the vehicle capabilities, and the experimental applications for the testbed. Results of many experimental flights are shown, along with some fun flight results that push the limits of what the vehicles should be able to handle. July 14, 2008. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "Almost Human" segment from the "Robots Alive!" broadcast.
Rodney Brooks is beginning to build the first robot with human-like senses, allowing it to learn about the world for itself, like a human baby. April 9, 1997. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "Go, Team!" segment from the "Natural Born Robots" broadcast.
Robot soccer teams test their mettle in RoboCup 99. In these games, speed and strategy are the keys to victory. November 2, 1999. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "I, Robot" segment from the "Life's Really Big Questions" broadcast.
Philosopher and author Dan Dennett marvels at the human machine and its unique ability to wonder. December 19, 2000. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "Look, No Hands!" segment from the "Robots Alive!" broadcast.
Computer engineers are developing autonomous cars that can follow the highway and avoid obstacles without human intervention. April 9, 2007. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "Mazes and Squiggles" segment from the "Robots Alive!" broadcast.
The world’s best robots compete to navigate mazes and chase after tennis balls, to test out the latest artificial intelligence programs. April 9, 1997. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "RoboFlyers" segment from the "Robots Alive!" broadcast.
Students compete to build a flying machine capable of autonomous flight. January 7, 1996. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "Robot Independence" segment from the "Life's Really Big Questions" broadcast.
Natural selection is at work in the artificial world, as robots learn to reproduce without us. December 19, 2000. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "Robots Have Feelings, Too" segment from the "Natural Born Robots" broadcast.
SAGE, Bit and Kismet are robots with social skills. Researchers hope robotic emotions will make tomorrow's technology more user-friendly. November 2, 1999. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: "World Cup for Robots" segment from the "Games Machines Play" broadcast.
Teams of robots programmed for soccer go head-to-head in RoboCup 2001. May 21, 2001. (more)

Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda: Robot pals.
3 segments: Part 1 - Ripley: Ripley is a robot that can see, hear and manipulate its environment. Alan watches him figure out how to 'pick up the heavy one' from an array of objects. Part 2 - Leonardo the Lovable: Cute little Leonardo learns from his interactions with people and their reactions to him. Robonaut is meant to become a robot that's just another member of an astronaut team. We see how a remote operator could control Robonaut to do complicated tasks in space. April 13, 2005. (more)

Seaglider.
The animation is a 3D simulation of how the Seaglider maneuvers. Cut-away views of the internal mechanics show how the Seaglider pitches, rolls, dives, ascends, and surfaces. These Seaglider animations demonstrate how the Seaglider moves through the ocean and communicate with satellites to transmit data and determine its global position. As the Seaglider dives and ascends its wings cause it to glide, allowing horizontal movement. Internal sensors monitor the depth, heading and attitude of the vehicle. External sensors are constantly scanning the ocean to determine water properties. 2008. (more)

Searching with an Autononmous Robot.
We discuss online strategies for visibility-based searching for an object hidden behind a corner, using Kurt3D, a real autonomous mobile robot. This task is closely related to a number of well-studied problems. Our robot uses a three-dimensional laser scanner in a stop, scan, plan, go fashion for building a virtual three-dimensional environment. Besides planning trajectories and avoiding obstacles, Kurt3D is capable of identifying objects like a chair. We derive a practically useful and asymptotically optimal strategy that guarantees a competitive ratio of 2, which differs remarkably from the well-studied scenario without the need of stopping for surveying the environment. Our strategy is used by Kurt3D.. June 11, 2004. (more)

Shakey the Robot.
Shakey's organization and performance. Peter Hart and Nils Nilsson. 1972. (more)

Singularity Summit 2007 Keynote Speaker - Rodney Books: The Singularity, A Period Not An Event.
Whatever writes future history will look back at what we are calling the singularity not as a single event but as a period of time. The singularity period will encompass a time where a collection of technologies were invented, developed, and deployed in fits and starts, driven not by the imperative of the singularity itself, but by the normal economic and sociological pressures of human affairs. A Hollywood treatment of the singularity would have a world just like today's, plus the singularity, as a singular event. In reality, the world will be changing continuously due to rapid growth in technologies that are both related and unrelated to the singularity itself. The future will be embedded in a different world than the one we inhabit. And the AI systems we create will not have the same desires, beliefs, and goals as today-us. Tomorrow-us will be much better equipped for the changes that will take place in our world. This talk will explore how things might unfold and how we will transform ourselves along the way. September 8, 2007. (more)

Social Referencing with Leonardo.
The furry robot Leonardo engages in an interaction with a human teacher based on infant social referencing. Leo learns how to react to a number of novel objects by attending to the emotional reactions of his caregiver. July 14, 2008. (more)

Social Robots
Would you want a robotic friend who could chitchat, do chores, even take care of you? Such bots may be here soon. Aired February 23, 2011 on PBS, NOVA ScienceNow. . (more)

Surgical Robotics: Is R2D2 in Your Future?.
"Surgical Robots are here now; they have their roots in Stanford-based research and Silicon Valley development. How do they work? What can they do? Thomas Krummel, MD, [Emile Holman Professor and chair, Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine] addresses the current uses of surgical robotics, the reasons for using them and their role in future medical treatments." Questions from the audience follow the talk. March 23, 2006. (more)

TED Conference - Hod Lipson: Robots that are "self-aware".
“Hod Lipson demonstrates a few of his cool little robots, which have the ability to learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate. At the root of this uncanny demo is a deep inquiry into the nature of how humans and living beings learn and evolve, and how we might harness these processes to make things that learn and evolve.”. March 10, 2008. (more)

Talking Robots: The Podcast on Robotics and A.I..
This podcast series features interviews with high-profile professionals in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for an inside view on the science, technology, and business of intelligent robotics. Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, EPFL, Switzerland. (more)

The Age of Intelligent Machines: The Film. By Raymond Kurzweil.
From the original video notes: A survey of Artificial Intelligence showing AI at work and under development. The paradoxes, promise and challenges of advanced computer science, with authorities Marvin Minsky, Roger Schank, Raj Reddy and other leaders in the field. 1987. (more)

The Future of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Andrew Ng (Stanford University) is building robots to improve the lives of millions. From autonomous helicopters to robotic perception, Ng's research in machine learning and artificial intelligence could result one day in a robot that can clean your house. Control and Perception are the two main problems; machine learning is essential. May 21, 2011. (more)

The Future of Robotics.
Bruce Gellerman hosts this episode of Living on Earth, distributed by Public Radio International. "From vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers to military landmine detectors, robots are becoming increasingly present in our daily lives. Living on Earth’s Bruce Gellerman visits MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) to meet a humanoid robot named Domo, its creator, PhD student Aaron Elsinger, and the man behind all the magic, CSAIL director Rodney Brooks." Links to various audio formats are offered and the transcript is also available. January 12, 2007. (more)

The Next Big Thing (Series Two): Machines with Minds.
Real moving, interacting robots is one promising direction in artificial intelligence. But what about the original hope of matching human performance, and what has A.I. told us about the human brain? When science of artificial intelligence was launched in the 50s, its goal was to match the intellectual achievements of human beings. Why isn't machine intelligence already far superior to that of people? Chaired by Colin Blakemore [Oxford University], the panel consists of Professor Aaron Sloman (University of Birmingham), Dr Amanda Sharkey (University of Sheffield), and Professor Igor Aleksander (Imperial College). 2002. (more)

Top Ten Robot Videos.
Links to ten robot videos. (more)

Two Generations of Robots for Human-Robot Interaction Research.
In our research on engagement and collaboration in human-robot interaction at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) from 2003 to 2007, we developed first a "penguinoid" and then a humanoid robot which can recognize and track human faces, detect and respond to human nods and gaze, and which itself uses pointing, gaze and simple spoken dialogue to communicate. This research is continuing at WPI. July 14, 2008. (more)

UBC's Dynamo Project: The World's First Soccer Playing Robots. A collection of 4 videos from the University of British Columbia's Laboratory for Computational Intelligence.
"Alan Mackworth and his group [at the Laboratory for Computational Intelligence, Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia] proposed and built the world’s first soccer-playing robots, which led to the development of robot soccer as the premier global platform for multi-agent robotic research through the International RoboCup Foundation, where he has been honoured as 'The Founding Father'." This early work by The Dynamo Project is shown in the four videos, and explained in the first (the only one with a soundtrack). 1992 - 1993. (more)

UK Future TV: Future Technology episode with Austin Tate.
"Austin Tate of the University of Edinburgh talks about artificial intelligence techniques and their use in emergency response centres." March 10, 2007. (more)

Unicycle riding robot unveiled
Japanese robot firm Murata manufacturing has unveiled a robot which is well-balanced enough to ride a unicycle. The robot called "Murataseiko-chan" can also detect obstacles with its sensor and move toward or around them. Sept. 24, 2008. (more)

Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle.
DARPA created the Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle (UGCV) program to develop vehicle prototypes based on novel designs unrestrained by the need to accommodate human crews. The resulting prototypes demonstrate advanced configurations and technology that are applicable to UGV design programs for the US Army’s Future Combat System (FCS). NREC with its three first level subcontractors (Boeing, Timoney Technology and DRS-TEM) developed and tested Spinner, a highly durable, invertible, six-wheel-drive, hybrid-powered vehicle that responds to the need of a UGCV to surmount challenging terrain obstacles, be easily teleoperated, and able to withstand an occasional moderate crash and rapidly recover. Date unknown (more)

Video of First Computer with a CPU and ERNST ARM Robotic Arm.
Film switches between clips of Ernst arm moving through picking up and stacking blocks and between shots of the TX-0 Computer. 1955?. (more)

Video of the Winograd-Demonstration SHRDLU.
Video showing the commands and queries given to Winograd's SHRDLU system, together with the view of the blocks in SHRDLU's blocks world. Includes examples of explanations given by the program about why & how the program manipulating the blocks performed some actions. (more)

Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly ... and cooperate
At the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, at the University of Pennsylvania, flying quadrotor robots move together in eerie formation, tightening themselves into perfect battalions, even filling in the gap when one of their own drops out. You might have seen viral videos of the quads zipping around the netting-draped GRASP Lab (they juggle! they fly through a hula hoop!). Vijay Kumar headed this lab from 1998-2004; he's now the Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where he continues his work in robotics, blending computer science and mechanical engineering to create the next generation of robotic wonders. March, 2012. (more)

Visual Elements in Robotics: excerpt from "AI: What Can it Do? Where is it Going?".
Excerpt from lecture by Herbert A. Simon. March 21, 1990. (more)

Washburn Lecture Series at the Museum of Science, Boston: "2001: A Space Odyssey. Are we there yet?" Lecture one (of three) - Human/Computer Conversation: HAL and Beyond, with Justine Cassell, Ph.D..
Justine Cassell's lecture, "Human/Computer Conversation: HAL and Beyond," was the first in the three speaker lecture series: "2001: A Space Odyssey. Are we there yet?" November 6, 2001. (more)

Will Small Step for Robots Lead to Giant Leap for Robotkind?
"Just how close are we to being replaced by robots? NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien examines the efforts under way to develop robots that are just like us." Video clips of many robots and interviews with researchers, including Marvin Minsky. Oct. 29, 2010. (more)

Wired Science Interviews: Red Whittaker, Roboticist.
Ziya Tong talks to Red Whittaker about his career path, autonomous robots in hazardous environments and emergency situations, the DARPA Urban Challenge, his favorite robot, and much more. Film clips of his robots at work are interspersed throughout the discussion. 2007. (more)