Archive for the ‘robotics’ Category
Robots to build Korean skyscrapers by 2010 and the Japanese are close behind
By 2010 it looks like robots will take over some of the work of building high-rise towers. This new building technology is expected to bring down the number of injuries at high-rise construction sites and also cut down on the time spent on building them. It may only be a matter of years before robots take over such death-defying work. So says the Construction and Transportation Ministry, which announced that it now has the core technology for building high-rises without human workers. [ read more Robots to build high rises by 2010]
Not to be outdone the Japanese also have manual labor robots coming…
Japanese developers have produced a robot intended for manual labouring, which they reckon will be ready to sell to the construction industry by 2010.
In a press event yesterday, the new HRP-3 Promet Mk II from Kawada Industries walked on a slippery floor, shrugged off a drenching under a shower and “used a screwdriver just as a human would.” . . .
There was no word on the droid’s ability to whistle or shout jocular sexual commentary at passing human females or perhaps receptionist-bots, diggers, cement mixers etc. The back of the Promet’s “cantilevered crotch joint” certainly doesn’t show the traditional inch or two of sweaty cleavage customarily flaunted by the true construction professional. [ read more Japanese firm exhibits droid construction worker]
TUG robot makes the rounds
The TUG robotic indoor transport system pioneered by Aethon Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) is a uniquely automated courier system making the rounds in an increasing number of hospitals nationwide. The robot can deliver and track instruments, medications, meals, and lab specimens anywhere in a facility (even traveling from floor to floor via an elevator). Paired with a suitably equipped distribution cart, TUG works around the clock and navigates autonomously to help eliminate repetitive and mundane tasks, reduce costs, and improve staff productivity. . .Even with payloads as heavy as 500 lbs., TUG must be able to stop appropriately should a route be temporarily blocked. A unique Light Matrix sensor system engages a series of infrared and ultrasonic “whiskers” to detect objects such as beds, doors, IV poles, and people in TUG’s path. Upon sensing any obstacles, the robot slows and then stops. TUG announces “waiting to proceed” and nimbly navigates around the object or person. . . .
[ read more Pittman gearmotors help TUG robot make hospital rounds]
More information:
Aethon, Inc
Video: TUG mobile robot in action
Are swarms chaotic and why should you care?
The zoologist and his colleagues discovered that when a swarm contains between 25 and 74 locusts per square metre, the locusts are almost always aligned but exhibit rapid and spontaneous changes in direction. There were almost no directional changes above that range of densities. [read more Sychronising the swarm]
So what does this mean for software and robotic swarms? Are there densities of particles in the swarm that will drastically change the behavior? Are swarm systems chaotic and if so what does that mean for designers of swarms? Many of the same simple rules we are using to program our swarms are based on insect swarms. So it isn’t a far reach to think that perhaps some of the odder previously thought to be unexplained behavior of insect swarms may show up in our software and our robot swarms at specific densities.
Swarms are being used in more real world applications. What happens if the swarm balancing network traffic on your server all aligns and sends all the traffic to one machine? Or more troubling what happens when US Military swarm based robots suddenly evolve new unexpected behaviors?
This is clearly an area that needs serious research in the very near future.
All is not bad, we can also use studies like this to predict crowd behavior in crowded situations using swarm models. Knowing at what crowd density the behavior changes can help us better design buildings and infrastructure preventing tragedies like the Rhode Island night club fire a few years back.
More information:
Boids ( Flocks, Herds and Schools: a Distributed Behavior Model )
The Application of Computational Models for the Simulation of Large-Scale Evacuations following Infrastructure Failures and Terrorists Events
Swarm-bots project
Why Locusts Abandon a Solitary Life for the Swarm
Just how real is that dinosaur you are carrying?
Sure, you know how adorable Pleo is when you’re being all cute and cuddly with him. But what’s going to happen when someone’s Ritalin-addicted nephew is left alone with the hapless dinosaur for even a few minutes? While waiting to conduct our full, hands-on review, we decided to answer that question with a series of unauthorized — and let’s be honest — somewhat cruel tests. Be forewarned, in the video you’ll see Pleo: beaten and abused [ watch the video Pleo is here! But how much punishment can a robot dinosaur take? ]
Anthropomorphizing of computers has been going on since real bugs were ruining computer code. As people spend more time with technology and technology gets more user friendly the line between flesh and blood creatures and silicon creatures will get thinner.
One of my favorite books The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul
One of the more interesting things we’ve learned about anthropomorphizing is that people are very forgiving of the flaws in robots and computers that do not closely mimic live beings in appearance or in action. In the 1990s robots and software began to more closely resemble actual living beings. Instead of finding the flaws cute, people were put off by them and creeped out. Who could forget Microsofts ‘Clippy’? By making the robots and bots look and behave more like humans, we raised the bar on what we expected from them. When they failed people found it troubling. Pleo seems to elicit strong responses by being cute, not realistic and having a range of responses.
More information:
Killing a Pleo robotic dinosaur
More robots on the sea
Flying fish were the inspiration for an unmanned seaplane with a 7-foot wingspan developed at the University of Michigan. The autonomous craft is believed to be the first seaplane that can initiate and perform its own takeoffs and landings on water. Funded by the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), it is designed to advance the agency’s “persistent ocean surveillance” program. [ read more Flying Fish Unmanned Aircraft Takes off and Lands on the Water]
For this robot size matters. Researchers at the lab found that most sea birds were about 20 pounds with a 2 meter wingspan. That’s the sweet spot and what they used for their sea plane. The plane floats until its GPS tells it is too far from home. Then it goes airborne until GPS settings tell it to land.
More Information:
Flying Fish Unmanned Aircraft takes off and lands on water
University of Michigan Hydrodynamics Laboratory
Flying Fish ( home page )
See also:
The terminator for pirates has arrived
