So sad, but so true… The Roomba is just too damn cute to ever be successful at making anything more efficient, unless you upgrade to the scheduler model that can do its adorable little job while you’re not around.

[ Miscellanea ]

::sniff:: Excuse me, I seem to have something in my eye…

[ Luke Randall ] VIA [ Laughing Squid ]

We’ve seen any number of robots that are good at climbing up vertical surfaces, and RiSE is one of the more talented ones. Unlike the more specialized climbers, RiSE has no trouble walking on level ground or uneven terrain and can even make the transition from walking to climbing and back again, autonomously. It’s not as fast on the ground as a PackBot and it can’t climb smooth surfaces like a GeckoBot, but it’s a pretty darn good compromise, if you ask me.

[ RiSE ]

The Technical University of Munich dropped off their ACE (Autonomous City Explorer) robot somewhere in Munich with no maps and instructions to make its way to the city center, 1.5 kilometers away. How was it supposed to do that? Same way you would: by asking strangers for directions.

ACE is able to search out humans, verbally ask for directions, interpret pointing gestures, say “thank you,” and proceed on its way. After 5 hours and 38 interactions, ACE reached its destination. I have to wonder, though, if we really want robots to be asking people for directions. It’s not a very efficient use of time, especially considering the various highly accurate navigation systems available to robots and the notorious fallibility of humans. I mean, I can understand how it’s a friendly thing to do, and how the robot is emulating what a person would do in the same situation, but part of the point of robots is that they can be better than us, right? Asking for directions is just so, you know, biological. Ew.

VIA [ New Scientist ]

This is a concept lunar rover from Team Italia, contenders for the Google Lunar X Prize, which will award $20 million to the first team to land a robot on the moon, go 500 meters, and send back high def video by 2012. Rather than develop one big expensive and complex robot, Team Italia is working on “spiders or crabs that could deploy as a swarm of mobile cameras and sensors on both legs and wheels.” So far, they’ve been working with what seems to be a modified off-the-shelf hexapod, and although I have no idea how this is practical for lunar exploration, they’ve turned it into a fairly good dancer:

At the end of the video, it kinda looked as though they’ve modified their hexapod with ankle wheels of sorts, that lets it transform into a hexapodal car. Imagine what kind of dance moves you could do with that… How ’bout some kind of six-legged moonwalk?

[ Team Italia ] VIA [ Space.com ]

Christian Cerrito’s collaborative robots (“Cobots”) are interactive artists, taking input from humans and using it to create line drawings. There are two types of bots: the SoundBot, which translates noises into movement commands, and the ShadowBot, which draws around shadows. While people are encouraged to interact with the little robots directly, Cerrito accidentally made a little bit of art on his own while finishing up his thesis:

While Cerrito was writing his final paper, swearing loudly at his computer, the SoundBot doodled on the floor, recording his frustration. “At some point I looked at the floor, and there was this beautiful drawing,” he said.

In certain situations, the SoundBot requires verbal encouragement to go about its business, and will only move and draw when spoken to. In an alternate setting, the SoundBot draws in a set algorithmic pattern, deviating from its assigned path when yelled or screamed at. Finally, the user can “steer” the SoundBot with their voice, forcing it into a sustained spin by talking or yelling at it, eventually releasing it off in a new direction when they finally quiet down.

More info on ShadowBot, after the jump. (Read more…)

We didn’t know what to think of it when it first showed up, didn’t really understand it when it was here, and now it’s gone (from US distribution, anyway). Do we care? Um, I have no idea. If you’re anywhere near a Sony Style store, you might be able to pick up one of these for just $99, which is a serious markdown from the MSRP of $350-$400. I wish I could tell you that that was a good deal, but I honestly just don’t know.

Update: looks like it was just a rumor, and Sony says it’s not true. So, my question is, why not? Selling like hotcakes, are they?

Do any of you have a Rolly? Do you hate it, love it, or are you just confused most of the time?

VIA [ Sony Insider ]

Last time the Charles Milby High School robotics team from Huston tried to get LARA, their LEGO Autonomous Robotic Android, to Michigan for the Robofest competition, they used FedEx. Big mistake. LARA arrived two weeks late with a fractured spine. So this year, thinking that it would be easier, they just bought her her own ticket.

“(We) almost did not get her on the plane: sent to two different scanning sites, TSA inspected with x-ray, physical, photos, chemicals, bomb squad, extensive interviews with TSA and FBI and bomb squad…finally we were allowed on since one of the inspectors saw the robot on the news through a story on RoboFest and I was wearing a ST Lawrence RoboFest t-shirt.”

And with that, LARA ended up in seat 5A on Continental Airlines. No, you still can’t bring a bottle of water, but an android? No problem!

LARA is anatomically correct in that she has a skeleton, muscles, and even a nervous system. Although she may not look like it from the pics, she can stand up on her own. She responds to verbal and gestural commands and is made entirely out of LEGOs, and her creators are hoping to make her into a kit that other schools can build and use as an educational tool.

There’s some video of LARA on the Team RoboBuffs YouTube channel, but it’s pretty random and doesn’t seem to involve the robot actually, you know, doing anything.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ GetRobo ]

Last time the Spirit rover was in danger on Mars, it was NASA’s fault. But this time, it’s something even worse than an inefficient and overburdened and underfunded bureaucracy: loose soil. With only five functional wheels, Spirit has sunk up to its axles, and will likely not move for weeks as engineers try to decide what to do.

Having operated on Mars for 1,800 days (Martian days), Spirit has outlived its original mission plan by a factor of twenty. It certainly deserves a more dramatic end than getting stuck in some dirt… I’m voting for either a direct hit by a tornado, or alien abduction.

VIA [ Mars Daily ]

Looking sort of like a hybrid between LittleDog and RiSE V2, Boston Dynamics’ newest climber (developed in partnership with UPenn) trades six legs for four legs and, thanks to some new brushless motors mounted on a new type of leg, can scramble up vertical surfaces at close to a foot per second. After the RiSE V3 footage in the following video, there’s some of RiSE V2, so that you can compare the two climbing styles:

To me, the new version RiSE looks much more biological… And not just because it has four legs instead of six. It really does kind of scramble instead of climb, like a squirrel or something, only supporting its entire weight on two limbs for brief periods. They’re trying to get the robot optimized to run along the ground, too. The benefits here are obvious: legged, clawed robots would have the ability to move rapidly over uneven surfaces, scale walls and buildings, and basically be able to track you down and spy on you anywhere.

[ RiSE V3 ]