At CES last year, BotJunkie was among the first to introduce you to Anybots’ QA telepresence robot. We were a little bit skeptical, though, about how much of a market there was for a $30,000 robot that performs a similar function to some guy walking around holding a netbook running Skype, especially in this economy.

At the 2009 IEEE conference on Technologies for Practical Robot Applications (TePRA) conference, Anybots demonstrated their latest telepresence robot, QB, which looks like a simplified version of QA… A simplified version with an eating disorder, since it doesn’t have that slick body on it anymore. Among other things, it also doesn’t have the ability to bend at the waist, it doesn’t have a big screen for displaying ties, and it doesn’t have that friendly looking head with glowy eyes. The most important thing that QB is missing as compared to QA is the pricetag of $30k; QB is estimated to cost only $10,000 – $15,000. That’s a lot cheaper, to be sure, but is it going to be cheap enough for commercial viability? According to Anybots, here’s the key difference between a telepresence robot and Skype:

“You can communicate with people while they are in their element, such as an office, manufacturing floor, or home,” Rapacki explained. “It’s easier to drop in on people this way or inspect parts in a manufacturing plant.”

Granted, this is an ability that’s unique to a mobile telepresence platform, but I still have to question whether or not it’s commercially viable. As I said last year after meeting QA, I really really hope that I’m wrong, that there’s a huuuuuge market for robots like this, and that Anybots will go on to produce a robot that will do my dishes. Sort of.

[ Anybots ] VIA [ Technology Review ]

Could someone please explain to me why, exactly, roboticists seem to think that it’s such a good idea to give their creations swords? Like, I get that it’s a way to demonstrate grasping and dexterous movements, but if you start with robots demonstrating swords, you move on to robots fighting each other with swords, and this will be our terrifying future. And swordplay seems to be a bad idea for HUBO here more than most, since it repeatedly hits itself in the head with a sword that is thankfully not made out of anything dangerous.

HUBO is one of an elite group of humanoid robots able to perform complicated dynamic tasks like running. Also in this group are Toyota’s Partner robots, and Honda’s ASIMO (of course). I understand that these robots are very complicated and expensive and stuff, but I can’t imagine a better way to convince people whether they’d really rather buy a Toyota Prius or a Honda Insight than sticking a couple of these bots in a ring with some swords or tasers or something and just letting them go at it. Yeah, they’d get damaged, but you’d totally recoup all of that through ticket sales and car sales. Just trying to make a helpful suggestion… You know, for the good of the car companies.

[ Plastic Pals ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By which I mean, this is my brain, most of the time. Obviously I need more ventilation. And no, I don’t need your help with that, thanks.

VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Andrew Alter’s monstrous Mech Warrior “Hagetaka” that we previewed before RoboGames back in April ended up being just to monstrous for its own good. Andrew scaled things back a bit (but not too much) with Giger, a 5 kg, 24 servo (including 16 of those terrifying RX-64s), ten thousand dollar completely custom walking humanoid. The gait still needs a little bit of work, but remember, it’s being developed from scratch and there are a heck of a lot of servos (and other electronics) to coordinate. Besides being totally badass in its own right, Giger is going to get a weapons upgrade for Mech Warfare competitions, namely an arm or two replaced with airsoft guns.

Building a robot like this, or even a robot not nearly as complicated and/or expensive as this, takes a truly staggering amount of work and skill. Adrenalynn over on the Trossen Robotics forums has helpfully posted a series of 20 steps that will guarantee that you just might have a working Mech in time for RoboGames next April:

How To Win At Mechwarfare: 20 Simple Steps

1. Assemble a true walking ‘bot that can handle the payload
2. Teach it to walk
3. Teach it to walk untethered
4. Refine the walking
5. Integrate the camera and scoring system
6. Teach it to walk again
7. Teach it to walk untethered again
8. Increase the capacity of your batteries
9. Teach it to walk again
10. Teach it to walk untethered again
11. Add a turret and gun(s) – lighter the better
12. Teach it to shoot with some accuracy
13. Teach it to shoot with some accuracy untethered
14. Teach it to walk again
15. Teach it to walk untethered again
16. The night before/day of the event when it all blows up, start at step 1.
17. Discover that your wireless system doesn’t work for squat in the noisy RF environment. Tweak and Tune all day.
18. Finally get everything working the last day/couple matches
19. Burn up a servo (or three)
20. Rinse/Lather/Repeat

After about 100 hours of work, Giger is currently at step 4. But there’s nothing to worry about, ’cause there’s still plenty of time before step 16, where everything blows up at the last minute and you have to start over anyway. Yay robotics!

[ Let's Make Robots ] and [ Trossen ] VIA [ MAKE ]

Sometimes, I feel like there just isn’t quite enough computer generated robot violence in the world. And then I see something like this, directed by Fede Alvarez. And it makes me happy.

There’s also a music video.

VIA [ Robots Dreams ]

Author (and screenwriter) and robot professional Daniel Wilson got a chance to test out the HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier) exoskeleton while filming a show for the History Channel. He wrote an article about the experience for Gizmodo, a few bits of which I’ve excerpted here for you:

My first impression: The straps are too big. The HULC was built with military money and it is designed to fit army guys. And soldiers have big thighs, apparently. I yank the Velcro straps as tight as possible, then strap my shoes into its open-toed boots. I shrug on the backpack and clasp the chest strap. I am now wearing an exoskeleton. Turned off, the device is heavy; it’s like wearing a scuba tank on dry land. But once the researchers switch it on, HULC stands up on its own, with me inside.

Like a video game that breaks the human face down into just a few polygons, my new exo-walk consists of just a few gross movements. Knee lift, foot out, foot down. Repeat. It lacks the fluidity of my normal walk, but I don’t fall. And oh yeah, every movement is accompanied by the loud whine of electric motors. Each step sounds like reeee (that’s the motor) followed by ker-thump, as my foot touches down.

After the practice run, it’s time to hit the hallway. I immediately notice that my gait is becoming more fluid. I can even balance on one leg. This is because the machine is learning to anticipate my every move. The HULC is no dumb brute. It is constantly sensing the force of my movements and forming a model of how I walk. It’s getting to know me, exoskeleton-style.

Read the whole thing over at Gizmodo.

[ Gizmodo ]
[ HULC ]

So yeah, robot cars are getting smarter, but they’re not quite yet ready to take over the driving duties from us human. The European Union is about to start funding a research project to investigate the feasibility of vehicles traveling on highways in “platoons,” where the lead vehicle is driven by a professional and the rest of the cars just play follow the leader while their drivers “take their hands off the wheel, read a book or watch TV.” It’s better than just being able to relax, though: if the lead vehicle is a truck, the cars following along in its wake are about 20% more efficient (although the Mythbusters showed that close drafting can improve that to 40%).

If you think about what type of hardware and software is necessary to do this type of thing, it’s all pretty much already available. The car doesn’t really have to be intelligent… It needs adaptive cruise control, which you can find everywhere, plus some way of following the car in front of it during gradual highway turns, which is as easy as cake. The only tricky part is entering and exiting the platoons. Cars entering just have to pull up behind the platoon, but for exiting, the platoon will space out to let a car in the middle leave and the driver will need to resume control, which potentially gets into liability issues.

Even if there are some things to work out, this is a seriously brilliant idea. I mean, how much would you pay (say, per hour) to not have to drive? Or looking at it another way, what if the money you saved in fuel went to the professional driver at the front of the train? It’s a win for them, a win for you, and a win for the environment. Yay!

The research project will run for three years, including on-road trials in Spain.

[ BBC ]

While this is probably meant as more of a general expression of sentiment, the way I choose to interpret this shirt is the implied “…And Robots Are Awesome” that belongs on the back. If you like that sort of idea make sure to check out a couple other of ThinkGeek’s shirts, including ‘I Failed The Turing Test‘ and ‘Vitruvian Voltron.’

[ ThinkGeek ]

Robot Watch attended ASIMO’s 9th birthday party last September, and took a bunch of pictures of the precursors to the capable little robot that we’re familiar with today. Check out pics of the whole series, after the jump. (Read more…)

There isn’t much information on this, but the mental image it conjures (and the resulting crappy photoshop) was a good enough excuse to post about it. .. The US military is now using MQ-9 Reaper drones to track suspected pirate ships in the Indian ocean. That’s track, not attack, but the MQ-9 is specifically designed to carry weaponry, so it’s the logical next step. Throw some ninjas and zombies in there somehow, and we’ve got the greatest movie ever made.

[ East African ] VIA [ AUVSI ]