In this somewhat abusive video, the researchers are trying to get a robot named Justin to hit himself, or hit (ahem) his two balls together, but Justin is having none of it: he knows exactly where his arms are in relation to the rest of his body at all times, and is able to prevent collisions. To figure out where the different parts of his body are, Justin uses feedback from the artificial muscles in his arms, which is analogous to how humans do it. When you touch your nose with your eyes closed (or try to), you’re using kinaesthetics to know where your arm, hand, and finger is without looking. Instead of relying on pre-programming, Justin is able to self-model his appendages to dynamically prevent accidents.

If you’d like to know more about Justin, please see the citation in the comments or visit http://www.phriends.eu/.

VIA [ New Scientist ]

This is Monty, a teleoperated humanoid robot powered by compressed air. Despite (or perhaps because of) his questionable facility with dishes, he’s designed (in the near future, anyway) to perform tasks in industrial or hazardous environments that would otherwise require the physical presence and decision making skills of a human. He can balance on his own on two wheels (like a Segway), can carry up to 20 kgs, and will operate for “hours” off of a scuba tank. His hand is modeled very closely on the human hand, and is nearly as dexterous. As you can see from the video, operating Monty takes a substantial amount of coordination: a joystick in one hand moves his body, and a glove on the other hand will transmit the arm and hand movements of the operator to Monty’s arm and hand. In the second video clip, Monty accidentally knocks an object off the table he was at, so we asked if he was capable of picking things up off the ground (he didn’t look like he was designed to bend over). I was pretty impressed that he was able to do so, albeit with the operator standing nearly over his shoulder.

[ Anybots ]

This industrial robot, called Kuka, is busily writing out the full version of the Martin Luther bible by hand. Or I guess you’d say by robot arm, but it’s actually doing very precise calligraphy with a pen, putting my chicken scratch to shame. I think it’s pretty cool to see an industrial robot doing something so delicate and (okay, okay) beautiful. There are a few more photos available on here on flikr.

[ robotlab ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]

Making robots spatially adaptive can be a complex and time consuming process. Really, it’s a lot easier (albeit less flexible) to just give a robot a detailed map of its environment to help it navigate. The only problem is that making high resolution spatial maps of large areas is a huge chore, demanding precise and repetitive measurements. Geez, if only there was some sort of system that was good at completing repetitive tasks with precision…

This (unnamed) survey robot developed by Spatial Robotics Solutions (of course) is able to autonomously wander around any area, using high resolution cameras and LIDAR to map interior spaces with millimeter accuracy. The data it produces can be integrated with a GIS or CAD system, and it’s damn fast, able to map anywhere between 70,000 and 240,000 square feet per day. Additional capabilities include live video, two-way audio, change detection, and support for sensor packages. The robot is being promoted as a facility maintenance device, but there’s a lot of inherent versatility in an automated mapping robot. It’s worth mentioning, I suppose, that the base unit for this robot is from Mobile Robots, who are responsible for these outrageous platforms.

[ Spatial Robotics ] VIA [ Spatial Robots ]

Thanks to the Kanagawa Institute of Technology’s Air Pressure suit, in the very near future the elderly will have super strength. The suits would be used by old people to get around and lift things more easily. And it would be just as beneficial to their caregivers, who need to carry them around. The wearer can lift a person as heavy as 100 kilos as if they were carrying only half that weight.

Admittedly, the suit is clunky, and yes it likely takes a long time to put on. It also weighs 66 pounds. But if an elderly person does manage to actually put one on, what you have is a world where elderly people stomp around in robot exoskeletons, complaining about rock music and how “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore”. The next thing you know Grandma is throwing a car at you! A world where robots evolved from little old ladies? It could happen. And soon.

For the moment, the suit is only made to order and is destined for nursing homes and hospitals. But they do hope it will be in homes in the future.

You have been warned. Start treating your elders with respect NOW. They like revenge.

[Yahoo] VIA [The Raw Feed]

A restaurant in Germany has replaced waiters and other staff with an automated system that handles just about everything. You select your meal by using touchscreens at the table and it arrives a few minutes later on the gravity feed rail system. Very “The Jetsons”.

Arguably, this is not full fledged robotics. It is however a step in the right direction as far as dining out. If these kinds of restaurants take off, in the not too distant future we might see hover-bots delivering meals, or even robots wearing bow-ties to take our orders. Or maybe not, but it’s still awesome.

If future robot restaurants ever take off, they’ll have places like this to thank for their innovation.

[ Gizmodo ]

Jackie shoots perfect free throws and does not miss a single basket. He has no NBA ambitions however, he is busy enough loading skids full of seed and corn at Beck’s Hybrids.

At Beck’s annual Becknology Days, he wowed crowds with his hoops skills.

The Atlanta plant is home to two robot palletizers made by Columbia Okura in Vancouver, Washington. Jackie is the only one that shoots free throws.

So, how does a pallette stacking robot become a basketball star? In just one day, an engineer at Beck’s wrote a program that gave Jackie his gift. He was even given arms with round hands.

A basketball sits at the end of a black tube. Every 5 seconds the arms grab one, then the robot moves the ball into shooting position, before being catapulted by a release plate and shot toward the 7-foot-tall basket. All the while, the Harlem Globetrotters theme song plays.

Next year they want to make him continually shoot the balls or play catch. Jackie may want to get an agent.

[Indystar]

Toyota has music-playing robots. One of them, DJ Robot, entered the public eye at the 2005 Aichi World Expo, where he played in a band alongside other musician bots. DJ Robot’s only DJing skill was the ability to rap (no turntables), which made him perfectly suited to be the MC in a band where the other robots were able to play brass instruments and percussion with an impressive degree of skill. Since the expo, DJ Robot has been working on his communication skills with humans, which may have contributed to his recent decision to quit the high-flying life of rock stardom, and settle for the markedly quieter life as a receptionist. Either that, or he got the bump because of Toyota’s decision to bring out a virtuoso violin-playing bot in the fall.

Whatever the case, the 1-meter tall robot (who gets around on Segway-like wheels) will initially work at the Toyota Kaikan Exhibition Hall at company headquarters in Toyota City, where he’ll use his new skills to “provide information, answer questions and show visitors around offices and exhibitions.”

We wish him the best.

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

By Evan Ackerman

Okay, so it’s a total cliche, but you’ve gotta admit that it’s about time for a better wheel, and the Airtrax omni-directional drive system is headed in the right direction, whatever that might be. The Airtrax wheels are Mecanum wheels, a design developed in 1973 and picked up by the US Navy for a while. Each wheel is comprised of a series of rollers, mounted so that their axis of rotation is 45° to the axis of the main wheel. As the wheels rotate in sync, the vehicle moves forwards or backwards normally, but by spinning pairs of wheels in opposite directions, the rollers enable sideways movement. Put it all together, and you can move laterally, diagonally, or spin in a circle.

Beyond the critical consumer benefits promised by the total elimination of parallel parking, Airtrax would be ideal for robots. Autonomous path-finding and obstacle avoidance is a tricky thing, but lateral freedom of movement would make things much simpler. It would also be ideal for robots that need to make quick changes of direction. Robots that feature controllability like this are called holonomic, and they’ve been quite successful at RoboCup events.

[ Airtrax ] VIA [ Funl ]