Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 19 of February , 2008 at 6:33 am
As with most people, sometimes I remember my dreams, and sometimes I don’t. I’ve always wished for some way to record what was going on… Especially for those few occasions where during a dream, I realized I was dreaming, and took full (full) advantage of it. Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns have created a robotic work of art that uses brain activity recorded during REM sleep to program the movements of a robot. Unfortunately, the programming is rather subjective in that there’s no way to directly correlate dream actions with what shows up on an EEG:
The use of the EEG data is a bit more complex. Running it through a machine learning algorithm, we identified several patterns from a sample of the data set (both REM and non-REM events). We then associated preprogrammed robot behaviors to these patterns. Using the patterns like filters, we process the entire data set, letting the robot act out each behavior as each pattern surfaces in the signal. Periods of high activity (REM) where associated with dynamic behaviors (flying, scared, etc.) and low activity with more subtle ones (gesturing, looking around, etc.). The “behaviors” the robot demonstrates are some of the actions I might do (along with everyone else) in a dream.
I imagine that with a bit of time and calibration, and perhaps some additional measurements of muscle movement, there could be some way to differentiate between (say) dream running and dream flying. Still, it’s an intriguing concept, and the results are interesting to watch:
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 19 of February , 2008 at 6:17 am
Okay, so technically this an R/C vehicle and not really a robot… But then, the PackBot isn’t really a robot either, by that definition. Defining what a robot is can be a tricky business. You know what, though, this thing is damn cool and it’s robot-y enough that I’m posting about it anyway:
Not a bad amount of traction for a 3.5kg vehicle powered by a steam engine… If iRobot were to adopt this tech for their PackBots, they could run forever on little more than wood and water, but I doubt they’d react as well to being tossed through windows. The treads and chassis are from a 1/35 scale Leopard battle tank model, and the powerplant is a 45psi Regner model marine steam engine. Aside from that stuff and the R/C equipment, it was all hand built, a process which you can read about (a little bit, at least) on the Questioneering blog. Lots more pics here.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 18 of February , 2008 at 6:35 am
Robot cooks are shaping up to be one of the next big things when it comes to automation. If you think about it, robots should be ideally suited to cooking, since it’s basically a construction project involving a set of components being assembled according to an instruction manual. This robot makes octopus balls entirely from scratch, hand-turning them to make sure they cook evenly, and adding sauce and seasonings after moving the finished ones over to a serving tray. I’ll confess to not being exactly sure what an octopus ball is, but what the heck, if a robot cooked it for me, I’d totally eat it.
In your new book, you offer a lot of helpful, concrete advice on building a robot army to defeat alien invaders. But shouldn’t we be forming armies of bioengineered defenders too? What would be your first pick for a life form we should reengineer for alien defense?
Bugs. Just like robots, bugs are covered in armored exoskeletons, impervious to having their legs ripped off, and I’m pretty sure that they haven’t got any feelings. How to Build a Robot Army doesn’t pay much attention to genetic modification, but it puts a whole lot of thought into how to upgrade biological creatures with robotic modifications. Here’s a fun fact to know and tell: Scientists believe that by implanting a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) at the pupa stage, insects will integrate the devices seamlessly into their bodies as they grow – like a tree growing through a fence. Hmmm… Let’s take a peek into my Bag of the Future. What’s that? It’s full of robot scorpions!
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 15 of February , 2008 at 5:30 am
I’m gonna try real hard to pretend that this isn’t a Keepon videospam post (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and talk a little bit about what everyone’s favorite little dancin’ squishbot is actually designed to do, since he’s more than just a pretty face. Really, he is. Keepon was created to exchange emotions with, and provide attention to, small children in a simple and comprehensive way. Although he’s programmed to track faces and dance autonomously, when working with children, Keepon is generally controlled by a remote operator. He’s capable of two primary actions: “attentive” (Keepon is “looking” at something specific) and “emotive” (rocking back and forth or bobbing up and down). The simplicity of these actions means that Keepon is very, very easy to understand, relate to, and get along with.
Keepon works at a day-care center for children with developmental delays and/or disorders. Despite his simplicity, he seems to be quite effective as an interactive diagnostic tool:
The children showed various actions in relation to Keepon. Sometimes they showed vivid facial expressions that even their parents had not seen before. They also showed prosocial actions like trying to feed Keepon, putting on a cap on its head, and kissing it. As a whole, the observations suggest the following points:
-The children with difficulty in inter-personal communication (especially, those with PDD and autism), were able to approach to Keepon with curiosity and security. This is probably because Keepon seemed to be neither a complex human nor a simple toy.
-Some of the children extended their diadic interaction with Keepon into triadic inter-personal interaction, where they tried to share the pleasure and surprise they found in Keepon with others, like their caregivers and nursing staff.
-Each child showed a different style of interaction that changed over time, which would tell us a “story” of his or her personality and developmental profile, which would not be thoroughly explained by a diagnostic label like “autism”.
Not bad for a little yellow puffball, right? More Keepon vids (the ones you really want to see) after the jump. (Read more…)
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 14 of February , 2008 at 7:09 am
Next time you’re at Kita Kyushu airport in Japan and are too lazy to carry your own luggage, you might be lucky enough to get to use one of these robotic skycaps, the RoboPorter. It’s 4 feet tall and responds to audio commands, so all you have to do is put your bags on it and tell it where you’re headed, and then meekly follow along. It has a touchscreen interface if you’re not in a chatty mood, and can carry up to 110 pounds. The only thing is, this little guy doesn’t look quite large enough to cope with the volume of baggage that you now see at most international airports. Personally, I’m either traveling with a very small amount of luggage (i.e. carry-on) or a very large amount of luggage (i.e. the entirety of my worldly possessions). In either case, this robot would not be particular useful to me, but I appreciate the step towards mitigation of all physical activity.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 13 of February , 2008 at 6:47 am
If you’re not familiar with Dean Kamen, you should be: although he’s best known for inventing the Segway, he has also invented all sorts of other robotic and medical devices, and currently runs FIRST (a robotics/engineering organization for students) as well the Deka Research & Development Corporation (he also knows a thing or two about sci-fi). Deka has been working on the “Luke” robotic prosthesis on a DARPA grant; it’s designed to be a readily available and easily customizable replacement arm “for people who want to literally strap it on and go.” Most prosthetic arms currently available are so ineffectual that amputees just give up on them, and because the market is so small (only about 6,000 are needed every year) there isn’t much financial incentive for large companies to develop an effective technology.
Thanks to a two year, $18 million DARPA grant, Deka has managed to create a modular robotic arm that’s the same size, shape, and weight as a human arm that sports 18 degrees of freedom, only 4 less than a human arm has. The arm is fully self-contained, with internal motors, batteries, and circuit boards that have been folded up to save space. The interface can either be surgical (the user controls the arm through existing nerves) or mechanical (a small joystick controls the arm and provides vibration feedback to indicate grip strength). As you can see, it’s amazingly effective when it comes to precision and dexterity:
The future of the Luke arm is, at the moment, in doubt… In order for the arm to be commercialized, it has to be approved by the FDA, which means costly clinical trials that aren’t covered by the DARPA grant. Deka needs to find some additional funding somewhere (maybe from other government sources) to complete the trials and move the arm on to a manufacturer. Now that the bulk of the R&D is more or less finished, the Luke arm could be on the market in as few as two years, if the FDA approves. The cost? Likely somewhere north of the $100,000 that current state of the art prosthetic arms go for, but for those 6,000 people every year, I can only imagine that it would be worth it.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 12 of February , 2008 at 6:23 am
The fact that Yasukawa Electric Corporation’s SmartPal V knows how to sort laundry by color and type, and then hangs it up, makes me instantly distrust it, simply because it’s smarter than I am. When it comes to laundry, anyway… But is sorting laundry really so different from enslaving humanity? Hm? Is it? IS IT? Yes, yes it is.
SmartPal V was designed from the ground up to be a service robot, helping people in their homes with daily tasks. It stands nearly four and a half feet tall and weighs an intimidating 280 pounds. At least you can outrun its top speed of 2.2 mph. Using 4 CCD cameras and voice recognition, it can recognize and respond to individuals, or just wander around and keep things tidy on its own. 21 joints including a bendable waist allow it to pick things up off the floor, and it can continue to do so until its battery runs out after about 2.5 hours, or until you get tired of listening to it use its voice synthesizer to complain about how it’s got a brain the size of a planet, but you’re making it pick up trash and sort laundry.
Definitely too early for availability, but I’m fairly confident that production is in the cards, since Japan seems to be looking towards robots for elder care in the near future.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 11 of February , 2008 at 3:02 am
The whole point of robots is that they’re not human. When it comes to military ops, the upside of not being human is that robots can get blown up and it’s not such a big deal. The downside (and it’s a big downside) is that robots aren’t yet ready to make their own decisions in battle, meaning humans have to be in the loop somewhere. Chatten Associates has created a camera system designed to provide robot operators with a real telepresence; that is, feeling as though they’re in the robot’s shoes treads. The HARV (Head-Aimed Remote Viewer) system combines a gimbal mounted remote video system on the robot with gyro equipped VR goggles for the user; wherever you move your head, that’s where the camera looks. The HARV can improve mission performance by 300% – 400%, and includes a 36:1 optical zoom, night vision camera, laser target designators, stereo audio, and a price of only $40,000. The following video shows the HARV being demoed on a few different platforms, including a MAARS battlebot armed with a paintball gun (cool!):
Currently set for delivery to the military in March is an updated HARV system, with a higher resolution thermal imager and a laser rangefinder, able to geolocate targets up to 2km away. Next step? How about something for, say, UAVs? Brilliant idea! We’ll just have to arrange some way of stealing it from the Canadians… Video after the jump. (Read more…)
If it hasn’t been pulled by Pixar yet, here’s the latest Wall-E trailer, complete with what could be the extent of the dialog that the movie has to offer. Rumor has it that it’s basically going to be a silent film, except with bitchin’ sound effects. And so much cuteness that I want to poke my eyes out.
