Most robots aren’t what you’d consider to be inherently artsy, but they have no trouble following really complicated directions involving tedious and repetitive tasks. Like making mosaics. Which, you know, doesn’t really require any talent, so to speak, just a lot of time… It’s kinda like big paint by numbers. Perfect for robots! A company called Artaic is employing an industrial robot arm to pick and place little colored tiles to create as big a mosaic as you want, of anything you want, whether it’s a picture or an actual piece of art. Prices start at about $165 per square foot installed, which seems like a lot but is apparently quite competitive, especially considering how fast the robot can churn stuff out. Here’s a vid; the actual mosaicing stuff starts at about a minute in:

[ Artaic ] VIA [ Robots Dreams ]

Robots are noisy critters, whether they use servo motors or air power to move their joints . Personally, if I had a robot in my house, I’d insist on it making all of those brrrrzzzzzz noises to keep it from sneaking up on me, but I can understand how some people might prefer to live their robot-assisted lives in quiet ignorance. Doctor Kwang Jin Kim has developed an artificial muscle that’s based on a traditional air powered design, except that it’s powered by hydrogen instead. Hydrogen is not inherently quieter than air, but Dr. Kim has implemented a sort of chemical storage tank for the hydrogen that works silently, taking the place of noisy pumps and compressors.

The chemical storage tanks consists of pellets of a compressed copper and nickel powder. The powder drinks up gaseous hydrogen, effectively storing it as a solid. When the pellets are heated up, they release the stored hydrogen into a conventional air muscle, causing it to expand in width and contract in length, just like your muscles do. The amount of hydrogen released into the muscle can be controlled by variably heating the storage tank, and there are no moving parts, making the entire system silent.

I’m sure it’s going to be a while before we see these muscles anywhere, since quietness is probably not, at this point, worth the cost and complication of replacing an air pump with a fancy hydrogen storage system. Look for this sometime in the future with the release of the Incredible and Amazing Home Robot Version 2.0: now with new Silent Hydromuscles!

[ Dr. Kim's Website ] VIA [ New Scientist ]

These incredible paintings from artist Brian Kappel show us what we have to look forward to when robots are in charge. It’s gonna be great! It’s real artwork, though, which means that sadly, you’re not going to be able to spend 15 bucks on a copy for your living room.

Couple more pieces, after the jump. (Read more…)

I guess the bee crisis is worse than it seems, because the National Science Foundation is giving Harvard a cool $10 million to develop a robot bee colony. That’s right, not just one, but an entire colony of robot bees. The bees will buzz around on flapping wings, use optical flow sensors for navigation and obstacle avoidance, sport cute little antennae as well as “pollination and docking appendages,” and use an as yet unspecified power source.

This scheme will seem a whole lot less crazy if you recall that Harvard had a lifesize robotic fly that was operational (mostly) back at the beginning of 2008. Even with that foundation, developing the body of the robot is going to be no small challenge, but there’s also the brain of each robobee plus the organization and communication of the colony as a whole to consider.

All of the aims and goals of the project revolve around “pushing advances” and “spurring innovation” as opposed to creating a robobee army. Which is good, I guess. And, in case you were wondering, the robobees are all gonna be dudes, and consequently sting-free.

[ Harvard RoboBees ] VIA [ Robot Living ]

DEKA’s prosthetic robot arm is commonly referred to as the “Luke” arm, but this new robotic hand may be more appropriate for that title, at least as far as the movie goes. Not only is this artificial hand, called the SmartHand, controlled directly by the brain (as opposed to actuated by muscle movements), but it provides some degree of feedback to the nerves of the user, including pressure and even texture (!). So this guy can actually feel things through the robot hand. It’s a neural interface. Like in Star Trek. Welcome to the future, people.

[ Press Release (Translated) ]
[ BBC ] VIA [ Communist Robot ]

Why is it that so many animals get to have tails, but not humans? It’s just not fair, because so so often I find myself in a tail wagging mood. Wei-Chieh Tseng has constructed a strap-on robotic tail which looks, and acts, enough like the real thing to satisfy any expressive needs you may have. Built with an Arduino board and a servo or two, the tail is directly controllable with a Wiimote, or using RFID tags that represent different emotions:

Hmm, I wonder if there’s a yiff mode on this thing…

VIA [ Engadget ]

Roppie is Asia’s latest stab at a home service robot that will be able to take care of a large and rapidly aging population. He can fetch things for you, pour you a glass of water, and display information on his tummy. Impressed? Yeah, I’m not either.

There have been so many robots like this that the only reason I’m writing about this particular one is that it’s a bad dancer. It’s no longer especially notable to construct a mobile home robot with couple arms and a slick body that can bring you stuff… It’s time for the next generation of home robots, which either need to be a.) way way cheaper, b.) way way smarter and more versatile, or c.) both. Or maybe both is the generation after the next generation, but it’s definitely not here yet.

[ DayLife ] VIA [ DVICE ]

We’re all waiting for somebody to come up with a robot to do the dishes, and Panasonic is taking an uninspiring crack at it with this complicated setup that includes a robot arm and hand controlled by a camera on an overhead track. It’s nimble enough, and includes sensors to enable it to grip fragile glasses without breaking them, but there isn’t really any breakthrough technology here.

The biggest news is that this is one of the first commercial demos from Panasonic’s fledgling robotics unit (formed last year), which hopes to sell over a billion dollars worth of robots by 2015. It’s always good to see major companies exhibiting continuing faith in the robotics market in general, and the home robotics department specifically, despite what continues to be slow growth in everything but toys and robotic vacuums.

According to this report, Panasonic is worried about potential legal issues stemming from the lack of safety standards and liability laws concerning robots that interact with humans. We’ve been over this before, but I mean, somebody has to take the plunge on this sort of thing… Would it be too idealistic of me to suggest that Panasonic just make the safest robot bed possible and stick it on the market? I’m not sure why the safety standards for a robot bed would be any different from the safety standards for a regular bed and a motorized wheelchair, and iRobot has managed to get Roombas into our homes without killing anyone, so there’s already some precedent for this sort of thing. I dunno… It just seems to me that fear of liability should be the last thing that keeps robots out of our lives.

[ PC World ] VIA [ Engadget ]

Just a few months ago, Saya was teaching hapless Japanese schoolchildren why they should be terrified of robots. Shockingly, she/it doesn’t seem to have that job anymore. Still more shockingly (seriously this time) she has a new job as a receptionist at Takashimaya department store in Tokyo.

[Saya] can provide about 700 programmed responses to questions and commands , enough to direct customers to the appropriate floor, make small talk, and answer a few basic questions about herself and her background. Although she responded appropriately most of the time, the cyber-receptionist occasionally seemed to misunderstand what people said. For example, one person complimented Saya by saying, “You are pretty,” but the robot flashed a look of disdain and responded with, “Are you crazy?”

Uh, that’s not a misunderstanding… Saya may be digging herself a hole at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley, but at least she’s got some brains in that creepy skull of hers.

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

Back in April, we showed you a conceptual drawing from Boston Robotics for a squishy robot designed to change its shape to squeeze through holes.

The robot in this video is not that robot.

It’s part of the same DARPA ChemBots program, though… This particular SquishBot has been developed by iRobot in cooperation with University of Chicago, and uses a deformation technique called “jamming” to move around. The vid does a better job of explaining exactly how jamming works than I ever could, but the basic idea is that the robot is made up of a bunch of little plastic pockets containing something that could be, but probably isn’t, whatever they fill beanbag chairs with. Normally, the plastic skin of the pockets holds the beanbag stuff together so tightly enough that it forms a solid. When the pockets are inflated with air (that’s what all the hoses are for), the beanbag stuff gets some extra wiggle room, stops binding, and the pockets turn squishy. Combining a bunch of these pockets gets you a robot with a skin that can be made flexible, rigid, or a combination of both. By controlling each pocket, the robot can move itself around and squeeze though holes, under doors, or into ear canals.

This video is actually from sometime last year, according to IEEE:

“The video shows the project as it was about a year ago. The current stage has a bit different design and is moving toward the ability to include sensors or even connect different blobs together, but those details are sketchy.”

Stupid sketchy details. It’s frustrating to know that there’s an evolved version of the SquishBot blobbing around over at iRobot and we can’t see it. Arg. If anybody from iRobot wants to send us a blurry cellphone picture, we’d much appreciate it.

VIA [ IEEE ]