BotJunkie’s 1,000th Post
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 16 of July , 2009 at 7:38 am
A thousand posts. A thousand posts. Since Saturday July 28 2007 at 3:32 pm, we’ve been bringing you the very latest news and happenings from the existing (and emerging) robot world with, I’d like to think, some not insignificant amount of success. It’s been awesome, and it’s only going to get more awesome… Here’s to the next 1,000 10,000 posts.
In celebration (or something) of our last two years here on BotJunkie, I’ve put together a little retrospective with ten posts from the BotJunkie archives on some of my favorite topics, with hints on what we might be able to expect (or hope for) from robotics over the next few years:
LittleDog Navigates Ruff Terrain – With nearly half a million views on our YouTube channel, this video is the second most popular one we’ve posted (after the robot zombie chair), but I have a soft spot for this little guy, especially since we later met his big brother. Walking is still a difficult thing for robots, and walking over variable terrain while getting kicked in the ribs is an impressive feat for robots and humans. Two legged walking is a different matter entirely, of course, but it won’t be long before BigDog’s reflexes appear in humanoids.
Robot Is In Ur Kitchen, Deconstructin’ Ur Omelettes – Typically, robots are taught how to do things by translating specific actions into code, and programming the code into the robot. This is, to put it mildly, rather tedious, and makes it difficult for the robot to adapt to new situations that it has no preprogrammed instructions for. A much more effective method is to program a robot to learn by itself (though trial and error) or directly from humans. These skills are going to be of critical importance when it comes to getting robots into our homes, which is what everyone agrees is the next big robot market to crack.
SRI’s Wall Bot Sticks With Static – Robots benefit from virtually unlimited possibilities when it comes to locomotion, and even if you just take a very specific application (like climbing walls), people have come up with all kinds of different ways to make it happen. Besides static sticking, we’ve seen robots that use claws, suction cups, sticky feet, grippers, vacuums, elastomer treads… Not to mention things like robot snakes that are able to do a fair amount of climbing on their own. And that’s just climbing robots; the list of innovative ways of getting robots to move themselves goes from robots that roll to robots with wheel legs to robots that roller skate, and many many more.
Cyborg Insects Off The Drawing Board, Into The Air – As many advantages as robots offer, in most cases, biological systems (with evolution behind them) still have robots whipped, especially when it comes to tasks requiring complex structures in small sizes. Cyborgs try to blend the best of both worlds by using robotics in concert with biology, and the amount of success that has been had in this field in just the last few years has been remarkable, especially when it comes to insects.
Hyper Robot Drummer Can’t Stop Drumming – Robots don’t have to practical. Sometimes, the very fact that they’re not at all practical makes them endlessly entertaining, and the Little Yellow Drum Machine is a perfect example of this, as are CrabFu’s SwashBots and the dancing hexapods. It’s always a lot of fun to see what’s possible when humans with imagination (and some know-how) can get robots to do, and as components get cheaper and more sophisticated and more readily available, the possibilities for useless (but awesome) creativity expand.
ABB FlexPicker Robot Scares The Croissants Out Of Me – A lot of effort goes into making robots seem like humans, but robots are arguably most effective when they take what humans do, and do it as a robot does, without any pretense of humanity. It’s startling just how much better robots are at doing specific tasks: they are much faster, much more accurate, and they never complain or get tired or go on strike. It makes me wonder how long it’s going to be before robots steal all of our jobs.
Your Dog Wants A Robotic Tennis Ball Slingshot – To me, what is heralding the age of robots that we’re on the verge of entering is the fact that some guy who got tired of throwing a tennis ball for his dog just went and built a robot to do it for him. We’ve written about many different examples of this sort of thing, but the essence of the idea is that robots are becoming easier and more accessible to everyone, and if you wish you had a robot to do something for you, it’s getting to the point where (with some basic knowledge) you can build yourself one.
Swarms Of Cute Little Bots Solve Big Problems – While building bigger and more complex robots is certainly one approach to completing tasks and solving problems, a (potentially) cheaper, more efficient, and more robust way is to just use swarms of smaller, versatile, modular little bots. What one bot can’t do by itself, a whole bunch of them can, including banding together to move objects much larger than themselves. It’s a whole different philosophy to robotics that emphasizes communication, teamwork, and adaptability, and it may be the future of everything from search and rescue robotics to military robotics.
Bittersweet Video: Robot Gets Destroyed By IED – We post a lot about robot concepts and robotics research, but robots are on the job right now, and not just in factories: PackBots like Scooby Doo are doing the things that are too dangerous for humans to do, and this video reminds us why, as we’ve been reminded before… Bots get killed, but they’re more replaceable than humans. We followed up with some poignant posts about the relationships that soldiers can form with their robots, and what happened to Scooby Doo.
Most Awesomest Robot Dance Video EVAR! – No surprises here: BotJunkie loooooves Keepon. But it’s not simply because he’s cute and knows how to dance… With the dangers of the Uncanny Valley swallowing many robots, Keepon is able to achieve an impressive level of personality with barely any physical features and only a few motions. It’s going to be a while (if ever) until real humans will be comfortable interacting with robots that look almost, but not quite, like humans. And until then, Keepon, along with his wild cousin, is an excellent example of how making a robot that people want to interact with like human doesn’t have to be like a human at all.
There were a couple more posts that almost made it onto this list, but didn’t… They’re our two most controversial posts, after the jump.
NSFW: Arse Elektronika 2007: F**king Robots – This was probably the most controversial (and explicit) post we’ve ever made. I guess most humans aren’t quite ready for robot sex… I went in thinking it would be something relatively tame, and it, um, wasn’t. But like it or not, robot sex is inevitable, and in many ways, it’s already going on. It all depends on what you decide to call a robot, which is a whole other issue.
Maker Faire 08: Pleo vs. ComBot (Graphic Robot Destruction) – The other contender for most controversial post is this video we took at Maker Faire last year of an operational Pleo getting destroyed by a Combot. This upset a lot of people, which is both perfectly understandable and not understandable at all. To me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of robot human interaction: at what point does a collection of hardware and software become something that humans can get emotionally attached to?
By the way, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. You guys (and gals) are the reason I get to spend a couple hours a day reading and writing about robots. I love doing it, and I especially love reading your comments and knowing that you’re just as into all this crazy robot stuff as I am.
Now, on to post 1,001…
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