First, just let me say that this group of cooking robots (collectively named “Cooky”) is totally coo. As you can kinda see from the video, their development environment is completely open and simple to use, allowing you to coordinate multiple robots performing different tasks with different ingredients. And that’s great.

Thing is, this is such a good example of why robots don’t really work in the home yet. Yes, it’s true that while the robots are making your soup, you can go do other things… But you still have to do all of the prep work and spend a bunch of time setting up the system. And then you have to clean up. And of course, there’s all the programming (although hypothetically you can just download the soup you want). Most household robots are sort of at this stage, with the possible exception of the Roomba, although even the Roomba (in my experience) is just barely above the break even threshold when it comes to time spent futzing with the robot and prepping the floor versus time that would be spent doing the vacuuming yourself.

[ Cooky ] VIA [ GetRobo ]

Remember this cute little “need power” animation of Willow Garage’s PR2? It’s part of a series of simulations that Willow Garage has put together to try and figure out which behaviors work best (i.e. are most intuitively understandable) when it comes to interacting with humans, and they need you to help them do the figuring. There are a series of eight different concept animations of PR2 interacting with people that they’d like you to watch and describe, and the data will be used to help make PR2 more human-readable… It’s online, it only takes 10 or 20 minutes, and it’s kinda fun. Click here to participate in the study.

[ Willow Garage ]

Lonely? Narcissistic? If you stop by a department store in Japan between January 1st and 3rd, you can place an order for your very own android that looks exactly like you. Built by the Japanese robotics firm Kokoro (who also built the Actroid in the picture above), the custom android will be designed to duplicate your face, body, eyes, hair, upper body movements, expressions, and its voice will be based on samples of yours too.

My question is, does it have to be exactly like me, or can it be a new and improved version of me? Like, with hair that isn’t reddish and wavy. And huuuuge muscles.

And an off switch.

Oh, that comes standard? Awesome! $223,000 you say? Hmm… Do you accept checks from Nigerian princes?

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

A couple years ago, Robovie and its horribly creepy eyes was stationed at a shopping center in Osaka, Japan to assist lost shoppers . Although Robovie hasn’t exactly climbed up the corporate ladder since then, it does have new eyeballs, and it’s now able to help you with your grocery shopping:

There’s actually a lot going on here. Robovie is part of an integrated system that starts at home and involves other robots and devices (like ApriPoko, for example). Specifically, the system is designed for the elderly, and includes health monitoring equipment. At home, you can make a shopping list with the assistance of ApriPoko, who might recommend dishes based on your health. The list is stored on your mobile device, and when you get to the supermarket, a Robovie will help you shop for what you need, autonomously following you with a shopping basket, reminding you what to buy and offering suggestions. Robovie can tell when you put something in its basket, and the robot will also make a little bit of conversation.

This experiment is part of a six month trial to determine how effectively a network of different robots can cooperate to assist the elderly with independent living, something that Japan specifically (but most of Asia in general) is very focused on due to their aging population.

VIA [ Robot Watch (Translated) ]

Getting a humanoid robot to jump is no easy task <... You need to have very powerful servos capable of very high acceleration, something that until recently wasn't readily available to hobbyists. Not in a small package and relatively reasonable price, anyway. This robot is able to jump some 3cm into the air using the new (as of August 2009) Kondo KRS-2552HV in its legs; these servos put out 14kg*cm of torque and can rotate 60 degrees in 0.14 second. They're no RX-64, but they only cost about $80 each as opposed to $300.

The upshot of all this is that servos are getting faster, stronger, and cheaper, which means that we’ll be seeing more robots capable of feats like running and jumping.

VIA [ Robots-Dreams ]

Even if you’ve got a micro air vehicle that provides its own power for thrust, like a Rhinoceros beetle with an implanted optical lobe stimulation controller, you still need power for the communication system itself. One ideal solution is to try and harvest electricity from the insect, but a more realistic approach (at the moment) might be a dependable long-life battery, and nothing is more dependable and long-life and potentially dangerous than a nuclear battery.

Don’t worry, it’s not at all dangerous. The nuclear battery in question is powered by nickel-63, a “mildly radioactive” isotope with a half-life of about 12 years, meaning that the battery could easily provide power for a decade or two or even as long as a century. Funded by DARPA and developed at Cornell, the battery generates enough power to emit a high-power RF communication pulse once every 3 minutes or so. Here’s how it works:

The RFID transmitter converts the energy of radioactive decay into mechanical movement in a MEMS device. A tiny silicon and piezoelectric cantilever, 40 micrometers thick and 4 to 8 millimeters long, is suspended on a chip over the radioactive thin film like a diving board over a pool. Electrons ejected from the radioisotope accumulate on the cantilever, giving it a negative charge. Now the cantilever is attracted to the (relatively) positive Ni-63 thin film and begins to bend toward it. As soon as it bends enough to touch the Ni-63, the charges jump back onto the thin film, and the cantilever, freed of the accreted electrons, springs back to its starting position. The power is generated when the cantilever snaps back to its original position. It continues this way until the isotope’s radioactivity is depleted.

The entire system, which is just a prototype and has not been optimized for either size or power output, is just 1 square centimeter in size. Besides nuclear powered remote control cyborg insects, researchers suggest that the batteries could be used in a variety of long-term sensing and monitoring applications.

VIA [ IEEE ]

There’s an entire blog dedicated to concept robot artwork. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, should I? Here’s a few samples:

by Goro Fujita (we like his art!)

More, after the jump. (Read more…)

A Google image search for “Roomba spoiler” turned up nothing. Maybe these guys can whip up something that is also somehow useful… Or not useful. I’d still buy one.

[ Questionable Content ]

Last year, the fastest micromouse we saw made it through a maze in 6.4 seconds. This year, they’ve gotten even faster. Apparently there was some question as to whether a micromouse could break the 5 second barrier when it comes to getting through an expert class maze (which I think are somehow standardized in turns/length), and although it didn’t pull it off in official competition, a mouse called Tetra managed to make it through the maze in a seriously scant 4.7 seconds in a demonstration:

Nobody is quite sure how or why this mouse is so fast, but some experienced people have some ideas… David Otten, a 22 year veteran of micromouse competitions, after the jump. (Read more…)

This is just great. .. Daniela Rus’s laboratory at MIT is in a Frank Gehry-designed building that’s covered with giant windows and shiny metal, which is a bad combination when it’s sunny out and you’re trying to see your computer monitor. Custom window shades would have been too expensive, so instead, in 2007 members of the lab just built themselves a robot called Shady:

Directed via Bluetooth, Shady autonomously climbs up the truss system supporting the windows and unfolds a shade to block just that little spot of sun that it needs to. Researchers suggest that robots using Shady’s movement technique might be good for clambering around construction scaffolding or power line towers, and they’ve started simulating MultiShady, which combines a bunch of cooperating Shady bots with passive bars. Couple enough of these together, and you can make all kinds of self assembling and dynamically reconfigurable structures, and even GIANT ROBOT TRUSS PEOPLE:

Watch it dance by clicking here.

[ Shady ] and [ MultiShady ] VIA [ IEEE ]