This little camera may not look like much, and in fact, it’s not much, measuring less than 3″ square. But what it can do is huge. It’s a LADAR (or LIDAR) camera, which uses a laser to create 3D images. This tiny little guy has a 128×128 pixel sensor, and it’s able to detect objects up to 22,000 feet away with a depth resolution of up to one inch, depending on what laser is installed as an illuminator. LADAR (Laser Detection and Ranging) uses timed pulses of laser light to determine how far away and how reflective something is, and this particular camera is able to operate at up to 30 frames per second, which results in pretty decent 3D video:

Since the laser pulses are only 20 nanoseconds long, they’re invisible to the human eye, most cameras, and night vision systems. The ability to create on-the-fly 3D maps ought to give PackBots some autonomous navigation capabilities, or if nothing else, they’ll improve situation awareness, especially in complicated urban environments. You can watch a 60 minute long presentation on the technology here.

[ Advanced Scientific Concepts ] VIA [ Robot Stock News ]

I don’t suffer from hay fever myself, but I guess enough people in Japan do that a weather forecasting company (Weathernews) is deploying some 200 of these 2 pound, volleyball-sized robots to hang around outside and sniff pollen. Each of the styrofoam “Pollen Robots” has two eyes which glow different colors (white, blue, green, red and purple) depending on how much pollen they sense in the air. Results are uploaded every minute over the internet to update an online pollen map.

These networked environmental monitoring bots are a lot like the smart coconuts we wrote about over on OhGizmo last year, even if they are a little less, uh, stoned out.

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

According to Defense News, the Israeli military is in the early stages of planning a robotic defense system with the ability to “take over completely” from humans. We’re not just talking automated weaponry here… this system would be a command umbrella, able to take control of automated and semi-autonomous systems like interceptor missile launchers in the event of “attacks that exceed physiological limits of human command.” As far as I know, this is the first system that’s being designed to operate (at least partially) without any humans in the loop at all. Some meat from the article:

“It will be designed for man-in-the-loop as well as autonomous operations,” said Milo, the officer spearheading the vision within Israel’s user community. “But right now, our emphasis is on algorithms, not autonomy. Man-machine interface is the name of the game, because the more clever we make the interface, the more successful we’ll be in providing operators and commanders the situational awareness they’ll need to make very tough decisions…”

“Our approach cannot be based exclusively on man-in-the-loop, nor can it rely only on the opposite. Rather, we need to build an operational concept and a system that is flexible and situationally dependent,” Milo said.

In the future, and “under very complex scenarios,” Milo said, the envisioned super system would be able to generate a level of supreme situational awareness and snap intuitive capabilities that could surpass the very best wartime commanders.

“We’re talking about something that sees everything and calculates everything and makes decisions that can only be made through a real revolution in BMC4ISR [Battle Management/Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance],” he said. “We’re not there yet, and it could take a decade. But this is our vision and we’re running in that direction.”

There’s no denying the advantages of having a system like this in place. And even if humans are available to be in command, I have no doubt that Skynet the system will be capable of making more timely and efficient decisions than humans, because that’s what robots are good at. What robots are NOT good at, however, are making decisions like these… And we’re not talking about computer games, here. That could have been WW3, and it’s not the first time we’ve come close thanks to a computer error. I’m sure Israel is cognizant of the risks involved in giving control of weapons to a computer, I just fervently hope they’ve watched all the relevant movies and know what they’re getting themselves into.

VIA [ Danger Room ]

This is what happens when a puppy encounters a Roboquad in autonomous mode with an aggression level set to high (aka doom mode). Bonus: Mario music, 8-bit graphics, and sound FX.

VIA [ Funhouse ]

Is it just me, or does this robot look really freakin’ creepy? Called Robovie, he was deployed in the Universal Citywalk Osaka shopping center to assist shoppers. Robovie has 16 cameras and 6 laser range finders, and is able to watch up to 20 people at a time and diagnose their mood based on their actions into one of 10 categories, including waiting, wandering, walking fast, running, hopelessly lost, totally freaking out, etc. (those last two, I made up). When it encountered disoriented patrons, Robovie pointed them where they wanted to go. Otherwise, he recommended local shops and restaurants. No word on what his recommendations were based on, but I assume it’s not personal experience.

The good news is that Robovie will be available for hire starting in June, in Japan.

What can I say, I’m in love. I just have to keep posting Keepon vids whenever I can find them, in the vain hope that somehow, someone will just SEND ME HIM TO PLAY WITH. Does Keepon dance to bagpipes? I could test it out, you know. It could be vitally important.

The sweatband absolutely kills me.

[ BeatBots ]

The neat thing about this little bot is that his internal muscle consists of a shape memory alloy wire. Shape memory metals are able to “remember” a shape, and return to that shape after they’ve been deformed through the application of heat. It looks like the way this robot works is that the joint is pulled closed with a spring, and when the shape memory “muscle” is heated, it straightens, opening the joint. Small bristles on the footpads keep it moving forward.

People have been playing with shape memory alloys for years, and they’re totally cool. Imagine having a car with shape memory alloy paneling: got a dent? Fix it with your zippo. All it’s going to take is finding some way to make shape memory alloy available cheaply and in bulk. Someone get on that, please.

VIA [ Eggshell Robotics ]

This robot arm is certainly not the most menacing orchestra conductor I’ve ever seen, but that’s a good thing, right? Now, I’ll be totally honest: I don’t speak French, and the website is in French, so who knows what the story is with this thing. The performance was in Laval, France, but I’m not sure what was actually behind the arm movements… As in, was it all preprogrammed, or was there some inherent randomness like a human conductor would have?

If anyone speaks French, do us all a favor and post in the comments.

[ Robot-orchestra.fr ]

Dogs are great at a lot of things. Like, being furry. Playing fetch. Lying down. The Dream DX dogbot from Sega Toys is able to do all of those things except for the last two, although I think it was just being ornery about the lying down bit. It can move its eyes, mouth, head, and tail, and is able to recognize and respond to about as many phrases as your real dog probably is. Look for it in Japan sometime soon for the equivalent of $270.

VIA [ Newlaunches ]

The 2007 robot of the year award (as decided by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry) went to FANUC’s dual arm, vision based industrial robot system. Take a close look at the arms operating in the video above, and you’ll notice that they’re plucking randomly positioned and oriented objects off of the conveyor belt. In other words, the robot isn’t just repeating actions, it has to think about every single thing it picks up. And it’s pretty damn quick about it, if you ask me, with the ability to pick up and position up to 120 items per minute. If only my arms could move that fast, just think of the possibilities! Or, on second thought, don’t.

[ FANUC ] VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]