If, like me, you trust your computer more than any human, you’ve probably got some issues goin’ on. And what better way to address them than with a robot psychologist on the internet? MindMentor is an interactive neurolinguistic program that uses projective therapy, provocative therapy, client-centered therapy, and Pavlovian conditioning (!) to solve problems like “stress, family problems, relationship problems, motivation problems, life mission questions, sleepless nights, worrying, conflicts with friends or colleagues, et cetera. He cannot cure severe disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, hard drug addiction, et cetera.” There aren’t many details on what actually happens during the therapy sessions, but apparently, the robot does something besides regurgitate what you tell it. A one hour session will cost you $8, and you’ll get a discount on ten sessions.

Now, I have to say, this all seems just a little bit fishy. I mean, how do I know that there’s an actual robot at the other end of this, and not some measly human? It’s kinda like phone sex… How do you know you’re talking to a girl who is in fact sexy? And a girl? It’s a big problem. Or so I’ve heard. I’m skeptical for other reasons too, of course. The designers/programmers claim that MindMentor “solved people’s problems for 47% on average.” It makes me wonder how often people can solve their own problems by spending a solid hour typing them out, and whether or not it’s worth paying $8 for the privilege of doing so.

Hopefully, version 2.0 will be a robot psychiatrist, who can actually prescribe medications for my, um, ADD. And depression. And chronic pain.

[ MindMentor ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]

Nine research groups from Europe, Israel, and the US have teamed up to build a robotic rat with at least one unique feature. It has functioning whiskers! Robotics sensors are generally non-contact based, like vision sensors, laser range finders, and ultra-sonic transducers. But these technologies have their limitations, especially in harsh environments or when it’s dark. These scientists took a cue from nature, creating a robotic rat that learns about its surrounding area through touch.

The project is helping scientists understand why a flesh and blood rat’s sense of touch is so efficient and they hope that the technology might one day be used in more sophisticated applications. This project may well lead to future machines being built which are more efficient at things like rescue or search missions, with restricted visibility, even smarter planetary exploration robots.

[wis-wander.weizmann]

We first wrote about the Microdrone last September… It’s a German-made UAV that can navigate autonomously and provide realtime surveillance video. We mentioned that several civilian organizations (like police departments) had expressed interest in the Microdrone, and it looks like one of them has ponied up for one of the $60,000 aerial bots: the British Transport Police. They’ve been using a Microdrone to help prevent thefts of metal from railways, which is actually kind of a big problem. The cool part, though, is that they’ve mounted some kind of squirt gun on the bot, which fires SmartWater that can be used to track suspected perps. Most squirt guns are fairly short range weapons, and this particular model looks like little more than a tube, so I imagine (and I am totally imaging this right now) that the robot’s controller has perform some sort of high speed close range strafing run on the criminals, who (if they have any sense at all) are probably trying to gtf out of there as fast as they can.

Please, please, somebody take some video of this happening.

Please.

[ BTP Press Release ] VIA [ Telegraph UK ]

What’s better than robots with six legs? Robots with no legs. Especially the ones that not only like to get frisky with humans, but that can also be found crawling around all of those horror movie type places (OMG they’re coming in through the vents! Everybody panic!!!). It’s not just fun and games and terror, though, there’s some fancy hardware and software going on too:

This work considers two issues: snake robot locomotion and modular robot design. We achieve snake robot locomotion by designing gaits, which are cyclic internal motions that allow the mechanism to interact with the environment to propel itself forward. Our gaits enable snake robots to maneuver through a variety three-dimensional terrains and include swimming and climbing. The robots, themselves, are a modular chain of single degree of freedom units each powered by a low-cost, yet modified, hobby servo that we call the Super Servo. We have updated the internal electronics in the servo as well as created new mechanism designs so as to optimize efficiency and robustness.

I especially like the rolling motion, since as far as I know, that’s something that living snakes don’t do… Or at least, my snake did not appreciate me trying to get her to emulate it.

[ Modular Snake Bots ] VIA [ Make ]

Kenji Yanobe’s work is well known in Japan for it’s dark nightmarish look at the future. He has quite a few man-machine contraptions. The fire breathing Giant Torayan really breathes fire and was created as a kid’s toy. The Radiation Suit Atom & Radiation Suit Uran certainly doesn’t give one a particularly great outlook on the future. The Mini Tanking Machine for children, like much of his work, does far more then hint at a dangerous and scary future, it puts it directly in your face.

This is the dark side of sci-fi art for sure, in a strange merging of man and robot and fear. Yanobe’s work will be on display at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art until April 16th if you’re lucky enough to be in the area.

[HCMOCA] VIA [Dvice]

Hexapods are some of my favorite types of bots. Humaniods are great and all, but humans are so uncool looking… Why settle for two legs when you can have six? The Lynxmotion BH3-R hexapod uses 18 servos inside 3 DOF jointed legs to move in virtually any direction. It’s pretty robust, with the ability to clear 4″ obstacles and a top speed of just under 1 foot per second. The foot and a half wide body is made of custom cut Lexan panels and aluminum servo brackets, and the kit includes just about everything you need to get the bot up and running, even all 18 servos (but no batts). As far as the actual build process goes, it looks quite straightforward… No soldering necessary, you just need to know how to use a screwdriver. Wiring the servos to the controller board might take some care, and I’m sure there’s a learning curve for the programming, but it’s already set up to perform simple actions like walking and turning. You control it wirelessly with a PS2 controller.

All told, the kit will run you under $750, which is really not that bad for such a capable and easy to build six-legged bot. Be sure to check out the other hexapods offered by Lynxmotion, including versions that are bigger and meaner.

[ Lynxmotion BH3-R Hexapod ] VIA [ Gizmo Watch ]

It’s not happening until June 13, but RoboGames is still something to get excited about. Taking place in San Francisco, there are 70 (!) events at the 3 day competition including racing, navigation, fire fighting (cool!), sumo, hockey, soccer, and of course combat, from 150 grams all the way up to 340 pounds. I’ll be there for a day or two covering some of the events, but if you’re in the Bay area yourself, you can buy tickets or (even better) enter your own bots and be part of the fun.

[ RoboGames ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]

iRobot has announced that they’ve received funding from DARPA to design and construct a prototype LANdroid. We wrote about DARPA’s LANdroid solicitation over at OhGizmo last June; the idea is to create an army of small, mobile, autonomous, network routers to keep advancing troop connected in battlefield conditions. LANdroids are designed to be used primarily in urban environments which have all sorts of inconveniently placed buildings that block more conventional wireless access points. These little guys are actually disposable: the idea is that they get dropped by advancing troops, whereupon they wander around until they find the most effective place to act as a network node. The bots work together to cover “shadowed” and indoor areas, and if one of them gets blown up, the rest will move themselves to keep the network operational.

From iRobot’s press release:

iRobot will design and develop the LANdroids robot. This robot will be small enough that a single dismounted warfighter can carry multiple robots, inexpensive to the point of being disposable, robust enough to allow the warfighter to drop and throw them into position, and smart enough to autonomously detect and avoid obstacles while navigating in the urban environment.

The terms of the award include $1 million per year for up to three years for software development; after that, the next stage of the award will be designing the robot itself, followed by an evaluation period. There will be other players besides iRobot in the running, but I imagine that having so much PackBot experience probably gives iRobot a head start.

VIA [ Robot Stock News ]

Robots have been the champions of the manufacturing industry for years, but it’s still pretty cool to see them in high speed action. This video shows an automated sorting and mailing system for Netflix movies. I don’t know about you, but it gives me a warm and happy and slightly worried feeling when I think that the very same movies I receive in the mail every week are sent to me by a robotic system that’s four times as fast and efficient as humans. That doesn’t forgive the fact that you sent me Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 Disc 4 when I’d asked for Disc 3, though… Completely ruined my evening.

VIA [ Communist Robot ]

My pet snake is capable of climbing up walls, but I’m pretty sure she isn’t able to stand on her tail and dance. Nor does she have blue LEDs. I guess Merlin Robotics’ “Snake” has my pet snake beat no hands down, but at least she’s not all cold and unfeeling and- Sigh. Nevermind. This robotic piece of interactive art stands 2 meters tall, and is powered pneumatically by 28 artificial muscles called “humaniform air muscles,” which are rubber balloons covered by a Kevlar mesh. They emulate natural muscles; as they inflate, they contract, just like your bicep. In contrast to standard motors and stuff, the air muscles are a very light and compliant technology. 19 sensors help keep Snake upright, and apparently, it’ll react to people by “dancing” with them… I’m not sure exactly how this is supposed to work, but I’d pay good money for someone to give it a hula hoop.

Snake will go on display at the London Science Museum’s DANA Center in April of this year.

[ Merlin Robotics Robosnake ] VIA [ Primidi ]