Gizmo::Robots show off at CEATEC

The fledgling home robotics market is set to become a multi-billion dollar global industry over the next decade and many of the technologies that will underpin the coming revolution – like those showcased last month at CEATEC Japan 2003 – are already with us.

Several leading robotics manufacturers demonstrated advances in movement, dexterity and intelligence at CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) which adopted the theme ‘Ubiquitous Community-Forward to the Next Stage.’

Among them was HOAP-2, a robot trained in the Chinese martial art called taijiquan from Fujitsu that can stomp like a sumo wrestler and even stand on its head. Fujitsu plans to market a limited number of the robots to universities and companies in 2004.

“gmorph 3” from Wind River Systems also demonstrated exceptional agility and dexterity – its array of pressure sensors and 30 compact motors allow the robot to walk upright and perform complex movements including back flips.

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iRobot’s Robots Clear Land Mines And Clean Your House

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Most fascinating is a product called Swarm. In a room, 16 small, square robots on wheels are scattered on the floor. Each one has three lights on top resembling a traffic light–red, yellow and green. The point of the Swarm project is to be able to program lots of robots to communicate with each other using proprietary Behavior Language software. And we’re not talking about 10 or even 100 bots, but 10,000 or more. The name ‘Swarm’ comes from the robots’ ability to work like insects.

‘We especially looked at the behavior of ants and bees for this,’ says James McLurkin, Swarm Project Manager. ‘We don’t want to copy their behavior, but want to look at a working system that basically recruits workers to different sites.’

The robots communicate using an infrared light signal that begins with a chosen leader (which has an antenna on its head) and then spreads to the rest. So essentially, they ‘talk’ to each other. When this happens, the lights begin flashing. Each light has an accompanying sound. The sounds tell the robots how far away they are from each other.

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Technology Review: Segway Robot Opens Doors

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have crossed a robotic arm with the bottom half of a Segway to make a robot named Cardea that can traverse hallways and push open doors.

Cardea, named after the Roman goddess of thresholds and door pivots, is the one-armed first prototype of a robot designed to have three arms and the ability to safely interact with humans at eye level.

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Kurt3D – An Autonomous Mobile Robot for Modelling the World in 3D

Kurt3D is an autonomous mobile robot equipped with a reliable and precise 3D laser scanner that digitalizes environments. High quality geometric 3D maps with semantic information are automatically generated after the exploration by the robot.

Precise digital 3D models of indoor environments are needed in several applications, eg, facility management, architecture, rescue and inspection robotics. Autonomous mobile robots equipped with a 3D laser range finder are well suited for gaging the 3D data. We have equipped the autonomous mobile robot KURT2 and a mobile 3D laser range finder for the automatic generation of compact and precise 3D models. The proposed method consists of four steps.

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TCS: Tech Central Station – Robot Rights

Robots are people, too! Or at least they will be, someday.’ That’s the rallying cry of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Robots, and it’s beginning to become a genuine issue. We are, at present, a long way from being able to create artificial intelligence systems that are as good as human minds. But people are already beginning to talk about the subject (the U.S. Patent Office has already issued a — rather dubious — patent on ethical laws for artificial intelligences, and the International Bar Association even sponsored a mock trial on robot rights last month).

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‘Companion’ robot represents the future in nursing home care

The new face of nursing home caregivers has rolled into the Silverado Senior Living Center in Cypresswood. It’s called the Companion, and California-based InTouch Health is hoping this robot will alleviate the country’s shortage of doctors and nurses by allowing for virtual visits across hundreds of miles.

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Nine-eyed robots are go

Nine-eyed robots are go ROBOTS should have eyes in the back of their heads as well the front. Researchers in the US say a robot’s navigation skills could be vastly improved by giving it ‘omni-directional’ vision.

A robot on the move must be able to sense whether it is travelling in a straight line or spinning on the spot. But telling the difference is difficult with just a single camera for an eye. Yiannis Aloimonos, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland in College Park, says the best way to understand the problem is to imagine seeing the world through a cardboard tube.

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ScienceDaily News Release: People Are Robots, Too. Almost

People Are Robots, Too. Almost Popular culture has long pondered the question, ‘If it looks like a human, walks like a human and talks like a human, is it human?’ So far the answer has been no. Robots can’t cry, bleed or feel like humans, and that’s part of what makes them different.

But what if they could think like humans?

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Carnegie Mellon Will Induct Four Robots into Newly Established Robot Hall of Fame

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Carnegie Mellon University will induct four robots into its newly established Robot Hall of Fame(TM) in a ceremony at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center at 8 p.m. Monday, November 10.

The robots to be honored fall into two categories–robots from science and robots from science fiction. Their creators or others with a close relationship to the robots will attend the ceremony to accept a certificate in their honor.

The Robot Hall of Fame was established earlier this year to honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, along with their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.

A Robot Hall of Fame Web site will be unveiled at the induction ceremony. The goal is to create a permanent, interactive exhibition involving robots that will educate and entertain a wide variety of audiences.

A panel of experts, each serving for a two-year term, will choose robots in each category to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

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The next selection of robots for induction into the Robot Hall of Fame is scheduled to take place in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Oct. 13-16, 2004.

Contact: Anne Watzman

412-268-3830

Carnegie Mellon Will Induct Four Robots into Newly Established Robot Hall of Fame

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Carnegie Mellon University will induct four robots into its newly established Robot Hall of Fame(TM) in a ceremony at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center at 8 p.m. Monday, November 10.

The robots to be honored fall into two categories–robots from science and robots from science fiction. Their creators or others with a close relationship to the robots will attend the ceremony to accept a certificate in their honor.

The Robot Hall of Fame was established earlier this year to honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, along with their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.

A Robot Hall of Fame Web site will be unveiled at the induction ceremony. The goal is to create a permanent, interactive exhibition involving robots that will educate and entertain a wide variety of audiences.

A panel of experts, each serving for a two-year term, will choose robots in each category to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

[…]

The next selection of robots for induction into the Robot Hall of Fame is scheduled to take place in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Oct. 13-16, 2004.

Contact: Anne Watzman

412-268-3830