BotJunkie is merging with Automaton to form the best robotics blog on the Net! Please continue following our stories at our new home and update your RSS reader with our new feed. See you there!
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 12 of April , 2010 at 3:57 am
Remember how robots are designed to do jobs that are too dull, dirty, or dangerous for humans? Being a sniper target definitely falls into the latter category, and we can all be glad that we have robots around to take those bullets in our place (since I’m sure that’s how it would work). The Australian Defense Force gets to shoot at these target bots from Marathon Robotics, which are Segway RMP bases with hoody half-mannakins on top that respond to being shot by toppling over. The robots are programmed to wander around randomly, and when one goes down, the rest scatter.
You know, it seems like maybe this robots instead of humans being shot at is a pretty good idea. Maybe it’ll even catch on, since I can’t imagine why anyone would have a problem with robots in the military or anything…
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 12 of April , 2010 at 3:31 am
We got a tweet from @NDRobots letting us know about an annual robot football competition at Notre Dame. As the final project of their senior year, 60-70 engineering undergrads are split into teams to design and build the robots, which play a remarkably realistic game of 8v8 football. The field is 94 feet long and 50 feet wide, and the rules are basically the same as standard American football: you get kick-offs, first downs, punts, and field goals. The scoring is slightly different (rewarding successful robot to robot passing), but even tackling is implemented:
Tackling: Each player has a tackle sensor (like an air bag sensor in a car) that shuts off power to the robot for 2 seconds when it is hit hard enough to register a tackle. A green running light indicates an operational player, a blue light indicates a tackled player, and a throbbing red light indicates pain due to repeated or serious impacts.
The bots are primarily remote controlled, but the students are working on some autonomous behaviors, such as a single button push for a three robot snap-receive-handoff combo.
Video interview on the competition, after the jump. (Read more…)
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 12 of April , 2010 at 3:02 am
If you find that robots are arousing you slightly more than normal this week, that’s because it’s National Robotics Week.
I said, it’s NATIONAL ROBOTICS WEEK!
What does this mean for you? Well, it means that you now have an excuse (if you needed one) to wander around everywhere with your robot(s) educating and/or terrifying the public. If you don’t have a robot, fear not, because there are all kinds of incredibly awesome events going on this week where you (you!) can get up close and personal with them.
Here in SF, Stanford is hosting a robot block party (where we’ll get to see this and this, among other bots), and Adept (maker of this crazy thing) will have an open house.
If you live in a less interesting bit of the country, there’s a complete schedule for NRW events here.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 9 of April , 2010 at 1:58 am
Autonomous UAVs tend to be heavily dependent on GPS. GPS is pretty awesome, after all… Being able to pinpoint your location anywhere on Earth makes navigation a snap. GPS doesn’t work indoors, however, so robots that need to get around inside have to rely on different technologies. MIT’s Robust Robotics Group has developed a UAV (the same as this one, it looks like) that can autonomously navigate through unmapped indoor environments using a laser scanner and some clever software. The robot creates a map as it goes, and can search for objects at the same time, making it (potentially) very useful for search and rescue or reconnaissance tasks.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 8 of April , 2010 at 2:55 am
You’ve got a giant banking center. It has 9 buildings and 5,500 employees. How nice for you. Too bad you can’t get any business done, since all 5,500 people get immediately and hopelessly lost as soon as they step outside their cubicles. Solution? Robots! Santander’s Group City in Madrid has employed a swarm (their word) of futuristic “interactive guest assistance” robots to help people find their way around the place. I’m not entirely sure where the swarm bit comes into play as we’re used to hearing it (i.e. cooperative group intelligence) as opposed to just a different word for “bunch,” but there certainly are a bunch of them, and they’re pretty cute:
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 8 of April , 2010 at 1:59 am
IEEE put together this cool slideshow with a bunch of different exemplifications of the Uncanny Valley… Artificial creations that are creepily not quite human:
Now, there are some things in that slideshow that I might not have included… Like ASIMO, for example. I’ve talked about this before, but I feel like not having a face keeps ASIMO from trying to look human, and therefore out of the Uncanny Valley. Same thing with RIBA: a smiling bear is just not that uncanny. I don’t think that there’s anything inherently creepy about robots acting like humans, things just get weird when they try to look human.
On the other side of things, I think Emily manages to pull it off: She’s software, not hardware, but I admit, I was fooled. See the video here. We’re still a long way off from being able to do that with hardware, and arguably, it might not even be a good idea to try. In any case, the Uncanny Valley is going to be around for a good long while, and we’ll keep having fun cringing at the robots that end up at the bottom of it.
Writing by Greg Intermaggio on Wednesday, 7 of April , 2010 at 12:22 am
Dino Segovis of DinoFab.com gives us the breakdown of a Roomba 4000 in a 20-minute, 2-part video packed with tons of digestible, relevant information!
Top 5 Things We Learned:
The Roomba 4000 is very hacker-friendly, in that is has innumerable sensors and motors, most of which are easily disconnected and repurposed.
If you’re taking apart your used Roomba, be ready for dust! These things work in dust, carpet, and generally dirty places all day- so get your mask ready.
The drive wheels use planetary gears, which is mostly just badass – planetary gears offer a nifty solution to creating a gear train that ends in the same axis as the input. HowStuffWorks has a great article with more info on planetary gears here.
For the front bumper, the Roomba 4000 uses IR sensors, instead of a simple button sensor to detect whether it’s touching a wall. Presumably this is for durability reasons- though that doesn’t explain why they opted for normal pushbutton sensors elsewhere.
Every sensor has a unique plug, making disassembly/reassembly infinitely less terrifying, since it’s easy to determine what goes where. No more plugging the kneebone into the jawbone.
All in all, the 2-part video is an impressive show of Roomba knowledge- the ease with which Segovis moves through the different parts of the dissection show that he’s had his hands in a fair few robots. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did- now I’m off to Craigslist to look for my own!
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 7 of April , 2010 at 12:07 am
Life magazine has a online slideshow of “Curious Robotic Animals,” most of which we’ve posted about before. We didn’t post about this bunnybot, though, probably because it’s from back in 2000, before BotJunkie (or most of the rest of the exciting bits of the internet) existed. Life doesn’t provide much in the way of specific information about the robot besides the date on the picture and the name (“Patata”), and something about making faces and voice recognition. A Google search turns up just a bunch of pictures of potatoes, so until we find out more, just enjoy the least happy robot bunny ever.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 6 of April , 2010 at 12:48 am
Next time you find yourself in Bangkok and hungry, the Hajime Restaurant should be at the top of your list, since its waitstaff consists of four dancing robots in samurai outfits. Each table has a touchscreen display, and the robots will deliver your orders and then clean up after:
I’m not certain, but the proportions of the arms and the blue coverplates make me think that the robot is a Motoman. If so, it wouldn’t be a surprise, since Motoman robots already have plenty of experience at serving food.
