I’ve got some catching up to do on posts thanks to back-to-back events, travel, and lack of internet, so in the meantime, here’s a Roomba with a kitty on its back:

If you’re wondering what I’ve actually been spending my time doing, check out my coverage of the 2008 LA Auto Show (which took place these last few days) over on OhGizmo… I’ve got some galleries of eco cars, exotic cars, and concept cars, if you’re into that sort of thing. RoboDev coverage will be up over the weekend. I promise.

VIA [ Neatorama ]

Just in case you can’t find yourself a real cockroach for a pet (I know, it’s tough, the poor things are practically endangered), the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab at UC Berkeley has a robot RoACH (Robotic Autonomous Crawling Hexapod) that should make you just as happy. RoACH is the world’s smallest untethered legged robot, and it manages this by not using traditional joints or motors. The entire bot only has two degrees of freedom: thanks to a flexible polymer composite skeleton, it has legs that bend either forwards or backwards, in sets of two on one side and one on the other. By carefully controlling when the sets of legs are actuated, RoACH can move forwards or backwards or turn. Rather than motors, RoACH uses shape memory alloy wires as “muscles,” which allow it to move at up to one body length per second for nearly 10 minutes on an internal battery.

Currently in the works is a sub-$1000 “desktop factory” which will allow you to build as many Roachbots as you’d like with a 2D CAD program and the addition of a simple kit of electronic components. ROACHES FOR EVERYBODY!

[ UC Berkeley Biomimetic Millisystems Lab ]

So, obviously I’m mostly just posting this video for the entertainment value (I think it’s the glasses). This robot is designed to replicate human speech as realistically as possible, employing a 19 DoF vocal system which includes lungs, vocal cords, tongue, velum, jaw, and lips. He makes sounds in exactly the same way you do, by making slight adjustments to all of these organs as air moves over them… He’s just not very good at it, so far.

You might think that the idea here is for robots to be able to reproduce human speech without sounding quite so much like, you know, robots, but that’s actually almost the opposite of what Takanishi Lab is trying to do. Rather, they are trying to get the robot to reproduce human speech so that they can reduce it to mechanical movements, and build that into a cell phone, which would be capable of an extremely high degree of voice compression. I’m not sure how practical that actually is, but it sure is amusing to watch this robot try and figure out how to make it work.

[ Waseda Talker ]

It’s a sobering fact that most insects have more brainpower, or at least more basic life skills, than even the most modern robots. Small flying insects, for example, use a process called “optical flow” to navigate by translating changes in luminance into the relative speed and proximity of objects around them. The little helicopter in the above video is using some functions developed from these principles of insect navigation by researchers at the University of Maryland to find its way down a corridor.

Why is this exciting? Well, autonomous robot navigation in unfamiliar environments has always been a fairly intensive thing. I mean, have a look at all the hardware Boss has bolted on just to find its way around a 2-D environment. High resolution cameras, lasers, sonar, radar, lidar, GPS… Not to mention a SUVload of computers. This is not especially practical for micro-UAVs. But flying insects can navigate complex environments using this optical flow technique based on little more than the equivalent of low-res (I’d think?) cameras, which is pretty much exactly what you want in a micro-UAV nav system. And, you get the bonus of a freakishly efficient ability to dodge angry hand swipes.

[ UM Autonomous Vehicle Lab ]

You know those flute lessons your parents made you take when you were a kid? Yeah, it’s all futile now, because they have a flute playing robot who can play everything you can play, only better and more robot-like. And just to give you an extra kick in the metaphorical (or actual, as the case may be) nuts, this robot not only plays the flute, it teaches other poor saps how to play the flute, too.

Waseda University’s flutist robot has everything a human flutist could possibly ask for, including two lungs, two arms with hands and fingers, a tongue, vocal cords, lips, and a silly hat. The really cool part is that it’s all functional: the robot plays the flute just like you do (assuming you play the flute), with all the same body parts (fake body parts) working the same way. His eyes contain cameras that can track the finger movements of other musicians, enabling him to adjust his tempo to match. And since he can see what you’re playing, he can critique your performance: “the robot is able to evaluate the performance of flutist beginners, as well as provide feedback to the student, in order to improve the performance.” I’m sure that goes over well.

The inventors suggest that bands or orchestras made up of deft robotic players could provide entertainment. They don’t specify what sort of entertainment, but I think it should involve music and other stuff, like violence. Or maybe I’m just not enough of a classical music fan.

More of me ranting discussing some things, after the jump. (Read more…)

I’m sure most of you remember BigDog, Boston Dynamics’ pack-hauling robotic quadruped with the ability to walk around on ice while looking really, really funny. If not, allow me to refresh your memory with one of the most entertaining robotics videos I’ve ever seen:

DARPA, impressed with the BigDog prototype, has ordered up a new robot that I’m just going to go ahead and call BiggerDog. While BigDog can carry about 340 pounds for 13 miles, BiggerDog is going to have to carry upwards of 400 pounds for 20 miles over any and all terrain. It’s also going to have to sprint at 10 mph, carry enough fuel to last all day, operate in freezing cold and blistering heat, and be able to handle puddles and swamps and torrential downpours. And it’s going to have to get a heck of a lot quieter.

And, there’s more. DARPA also wants BiggerDog to be able to autonomously follow either GPS waypoints or a human, and respond to voice and gesture control. This all sounds pretty demanding, but the hardest part (getting a robot to walk on four legs over uneven terrain while carrying stuff) has been done already. Also, my guess is that DARPA wouldn’t ask for all of these specifics unless they were well within the realm of possibility. I can’t wait to see the result, especially if there are some icy surfaces and a few hefty kicks involved.

[ Boston Dynamics ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

The types of power supplies we’re used to here in the macro world don’t tend to scale down to nanosizes very well. YOU just try building a combustion engine that’ll work in the human blood stream. Even batteries and electric motors have some finite minimum sizes. When it comes to cell sized machines, our bodies have a bunch of clever solutions that researchers are trying to steal, not the least of which are nanobot engines based on sperm.

Why sperm? Well, sperm are energetic little guys. They can swim along at up to 3 mm per minute, which is pretty good considering they’re only about 50 µm long, and they’re powered by stuff called ATP, which they make all by themselves from simple sugars. It’s this ability to create and utilize energy that researchers are interested in. Sperm have a bunch of bendy twisty proteins attached to their tails that turn sugar (glucose) into ATP (which is what your body uses to store and release energy), and then get rid of the waste products. This efficient system (it’s called glycolysis) has been successfully duplicated on a chip, and researchers think that these little ATP power supplies could be used to run all kinds of things from propellers to medication pumps.

I’m sorely tempted to end this post with all kinds of inappropriate things, but I’m going to be mature about it and just say that I’m all for this kind of research. As long as they don’t waste any of them.

[ MSN ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]

Besides the pictures, there isn’t really any more information on this project by The Play Coalition. But the pics say it all, I think: the robot bottom half of the plant basket is basically a photovore, with light sensors that control four legs, beautifully constructed out of wood.

Just give this thing some sensors and a brain, and you’ve got yourself a house plant that can take care of itself.

[ The Play Coalition ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

Back in the day, dinosaurs were pretty awesome. Now, they’re pretty extinct, but the 160-odd million years that they were around gave them some time to study up on things like flight dynamics. Researchers are attempting to create a versatile unmanned aerial vehicle based on the body of a pterodactyl, specifically an early Cretaceous Tapejara wellnhoferi that used to live in what is now Brazil. The dino had a wingspan of up to 6 meters and probably weighed up to 15 kilos, which is a lot of potential payload. The idea is to recreate the pterosaur on not just a structural level, but actually mimic its entire biology, including flight musculature to enable to robot to fly just like a real pterodactyl would have.

It’s not just flight, though. Somehow paleontologists have figured out (or guessed) that pterodactyls were able to walk quadrupedally, run bipedally, and even sail, using their wings as sails and their head crests as rudders to steer. There’s a lot of adaptability there, and Petrodrones will have the ability to “alter their wing shapes using morphing techniques to squeeze through confined spaces, dive between buildings, zoom under overpasses, land on apartment balconies, or sail along the coastline.”

The prototype should have a wingspan of 80cm, and my guess is they’ll tackle the most obvious (and in some ways, easiest since it’s been done before) flying aspect first. Details will be presented October 7th at the Geological Society of America’s joint annual meeting in Houston.

See an artist’s rendition of what Tapejara wellnhoferi may have looked like, after the jump. (Read more…)

We like snakebots around here. We really really really really do. Anna Konda has to be one of my favorites, though, and not just because of her hilaaaaarious name. No, I like Anna because she has an integrated super soaker. Check it out toward the end of this vid:

Anna Konda is 3 meters long, weighs 75 kilos, and has 20 joints, each with 33 degrees of freedom. The robot doesn’t just shoot water, it’s actually powered by water. Each joint module contains hydraulic valves and cylinders capable of handling up to 1450 psi of water pressure. The disadvantage of water power is that the robot isn’t likely too be able to operate untethered, but that’s okay, since Anna Konda is designed to be a fire fighting robot. The high water pressure that powers the robot makes it very strong, and also serves to keep it cool while winding its way through flaming danger zones like tunnel fires, burning buildings, or near explosives or hazardous chemicals. And before you ask, yes… You can attach it to your garden hose and it’ll wiggle around and water your plants for you.

SINTEF (somehow an acronym for The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research, it’s in Norway) is currently looking for collaborating partners to develop a complete system.

[ SINTEF ]