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Robot Round-Up
Robots are always a big crowd-pleaser at CES, and this year’s no exception. WowWee, known for its innovative but affordable ‘bots, just announced four new products that uphold its reputation. And Erector (yup, of Erector sets) brought out three follow-ups to last year’s popular Spykee, a build-it-yourself Wi-Fi robot that acts like a roving webcam. Go with WowWee if you want your artificial friend to run right out of the box, or with the Erector DIY kits if you like to work for your robot love.
Continue reading below to see the best new robotic products to hit CES this week.
The robot business is getting serious. Toyota just announced plans to move several advanced robots into the marketplace by 2010, hoping these machines will help people in homes, factories and health-care facilities. The automaker revealed two new robots, a violin-playing humanoid and a kind of futuristic wheelchair called a "mobility robot." Additionally, Toyota says it will double the number of engineers it has working on these projects, and build a new research facility dedicated to the field. By 2020, the company hopes that robotics will be one of its core businesses.—Gregory Mone
Before they start mixing us drinks and folding our laundry, robots are going to do some seriously important work, like helping stroke victims.
Rice university engineers are launching a two-year program to test a new joystick-based device designed to help stroke victims recover faster. Patients use the joystick to try to move objects around on a screen, and the joystick pushes back when the patients err. The technology effectively tries to get things back in sync, teaching the hand to do what the brain is asking of it.
Several other labs are using robots for stroke-rehab, too, including an ankle-focused device like the one picture here. One MIT scientist envisions an entire gym stocked with robo-assistants.-Gregory Mone
This past weekend, Tokyo's 12th Robo-One Grand Championship featured 25 two-legged robots trying to punch and jab their way to victory. One of them even sang a Christmas carol, only to get knocked over by a punch form a penguin-headed robot. The winning warrior, which earns the title of world's strongest two-legged fighting robot, has to throw and dodge punches and pull Rocky-Balboa-like feats of getting back on its legs after a devastating blow. No lasers or missiles allowed.—Gregory Mone
In Tokyo yesterday, engineers showed off a range of advanced machines at the 2007 International Robot Exhibition, the nation's top robotics showcase.
On display were a Rubik's Cube-solving machine, a panda-like bot designed to relieve stress in the people it interacts with, and a new dental training robot, Simroid, that features a realistic mouth and false teeth embedded with sensors. (And sort of looks like it's been struck by Jack Nicholson's Joker.) If an aspiring dentist drills in the wrong spot, Simroid emits a protest, letting the student know he or she has erred. The robot is not ready for production just yet, so young dentists will continue practicing on cash-strapped grad students.—Gregory Mone
Military engineers have taken another step in the march toward robotic warfare. During recent tests, a manned Navy attack submarine launched an unmanned undersea vehicle from one of its torpedo tubes. The Boeing-built AN/BLQ-11 robotic sub then returned to the mother sub, which hauled it aboard using a 60-foot-long robotic arm.
It was the first demonstration of a robot recovery by a submerged sub while under way, according to the Navy and Boeing. During similar tests in January 2006, the robotic arm docked with the sub but did not successfully retrieve it.
Unmanned vehicles are designed to do work that is too dirty, dangerous or dull for humans. For example, robot subs could be used to detect and detonate enemy mines. In the recent tests, the robotic sub performed "shadow submarine" maneuvers in which it operated alongside the larger sub.
As its name indicates, the AN/BLQ-11 is 11 inches in diameter. That makes it a perfect fit for a torpedo tube. The robotic arm used to grab the mini-sub and stuff it back into its launch tube is deployed from a second torpedo tube. The same technology may be used for larger-diameter robot subs in the future.—Dawn Stover
Sure, they're a little funny-looking, and wider than the rest, and they've got these weird little lights, but none of that seemed to matter to the cockroaches enlisted in a group behavior experiment with tiny robots.
Scientists dropped the robo-insects into a controlled environment with natural cockroaches to determine whether the machines, acting without intervention from the researchers, could influence the real thing. In these games of follow-the-leader, the robots managed to lead the cockroaches to inappropriate shelters. Since these weren't the kind of spots the roaches would've normally picked, the behavior indicated that the robots had some sway. They actually fit in.
The goal of the research, which is published in the current issue of Science, is to someday use these smart, independent robots to study the behavioral patterns of group-friendly animals.—Gregory Mone
The Looj, iRobot's gutter-cleaning robot, won a Best of Innovations Design and Engineering award at this year's Consumer Electronics Showcase. Controlled via wireless remote, the Looj makes gutter-cleaning a safer enterprise, as you don't have to keep moving the ladder down the length of the gutter. You let the robot do the traveling instead, and an auger spinning at 500 RPM flings pinecones, leaves and sludge right over the edge.
Still, even with a starting price of $99, it seems a little over-the-top—the local handyman could probably do the job much faster, and, over time, for not that much more money. The Looj really makes you wonder if the folks at iRobot plan to design a machine for every household chore.—Gregory Mone
A new robotic pet manufactured by South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute has been modeled after the Australian koala bear. The researchers reportedly chose the koala because it's lazy—they wanted a robo-pet that wouldn't raise people's expectations too high. If they tried to build a dog, for example, people might expect a lot of running and jumping, and the researchers say the motors they use in their robots aren't good enough for those sorts of motions yet.
The pet, called Kobie, reacts to light, touch, sound and posture. All of its processing happens elsewhere, via a wireless connection with a nearby server or PC. And it never responds too dramatically. Senior researcher Sohn Joo-Chan was quoted as saying that slapping the pet once provokes little reaction, but after a few more strikes, it starts to signal that it's scared. OK, that sounds cool, but why is this guy slapping his robot?—Gregory Mone
The personal robot has a new benefactor. A Silicon Valley startup called Willow Garage is developing both the hardware and software for domestic robots and autonomous cars. But it's not making promises about Rosie the Robot rolling through your living room by 2030. The company, founded by an early Google employee, is focused on research, not profits.
As a result, Willow Garage sounds more like a university environment, but without the administrative and teaching responsibilities. In other words, every researcher's dream. The company is already working on self-driving boats (a section of which is pictured at left) and a Ford Hybrid that steers itself. Willow is also partnering with Stanford's Computer Science Lab and developing the PR2, the next generation of a Stanford-built personal assistance robot.
You've got to love that Google money.—Gregory Mone
Last year's crash of a $6.5 million Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, and the safety concerns it raised, is not going to stop Homeland-security from expanding the use of the drones for border patrol applications. The Arizona Republic is reporting that two Predator B robots, which have cameras and other sensors that help operators search for smugglers, are currently working the border with Mexico, but by next year that should increase to six. This week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ruled that human error caused the April 2006 crash. The operator at the time, who was trying to manipulate the camera, accidentally shut off the plane's engine. Yes, I'd call it human error. You really can't blame that one on the robot.
One NTSB official said the fact that the group came up with 22 suggestions for improving the safety of these UAV operations suggests that there are some real issues to deal with here. Clearly, training the handlers on the ground is one of them.—Gregory Mone
(Image credit: National Transportation Safety Board)
The Harvard Microbiotics Lab developed this tiny semi-autonomous inset robot, but it is currently incapable of flying without a tether
Now, this is pretty weird. Rumors have been floating around the Net for a while now speculating on whether or not tiny, dragonfly-like robots have been covertly monitoring recent political demonstrations and protests around Washington, D.C., and New York. Numerous protesters at multiple events have reported seeing the helicopter-like insectoid entities, fueling suspicion that something sneaky was afoot. Yesterday the Washington Post brought the story mainstream in the interests of solving the case. What did they discover?
Basically, if the claims are true, someone has made great (and secret) strides in the field of robots capable of mimicking insectoid flight—something that's currently incredibly difficult to do. Research teams at universities across the country including Caltech, Vanderbilt and Harvard, are all trying to reproduce insect-like flight in a man-made robot—some of them even for the intended purpose of surveillance. None, however, have gotten anywhere near the sophistication required to engineer the minuscule, agile critters described by the protesters.
The Post also mentioned one of Darpa's creepiest programs: the race to embed microchips in the brains of moths and butterflies in the pupal stage that will eventually fuse to the more developed adults' brains, enabling control over their actions. PopSci reported on this and other ways that bugs are being enlisted for defense earlier this year. Thankfully, said program is many, many years from realization.
As of now, no one has netted one of these mysterious creatures for study. Here's hoping a Homeland Security robo-bug pilot gets sleepy sometime soon and allows one to be captured. Until then, protesters, keep your eyes to the sky. —John Mahoney
One of Our Brilliant 10 is Now Officially a Genius
Just days after wrapping up our Brilliant Ten issue—in which we publish our annual roundup of the most impressive young scientists in the United States—PopSci learned that one of our picks (as well as one of our finalists) had become the recipient of a 2007 MacArthur "genius" grant. Yoky Matsuoka initially impressed our editors with the skill and finesse with which she handles one of the most challenging issues facing robotics today.
"Not only does she build advanced robots, she tackles the more difficult problem: making them work with us," says Executive Editor, Michael Moyer. "Her work on direct control of robotic limbs via brain waves is pushing robotics into a new generation of complexity and power." Below is an excerpt from our forthcoming article—learn more about Matsuoka and the rest of the Brilliant Ten when the issue hits newsstands next month.
Yesterday, iRobot Corp., the manufacturer of the Roomba and PackBots, went to a federal court in Boston and asked a judge to issue an order halting the production of a rival robot builder's machines. iRobot alleges that a former employee of the company, Jameel Ahed, designed the bots for his new firm, Robotic FX, using iRobot trade secrets. No, that's not a PackBot pictured on the left.
There's more than pride at stake here. Robotic FX just won a $280 million contract from the military last week. It looks like production at Robotic FX won't shut down, but this should be an interesting case to follow. Personally, I think they should just let the robots fight it out.—Gregory Mone
MIT engineers have developed a robotic exoskeleton that transfers most of the weight of a backpack straight to the ground. The add-on carries 80 percent of the load, and could prove beneficial for soldiers carrying heavy packs.
In the long run, Hugh Herr, the leader of the research group, also hopes the technology could evolve into assistive devices that could help anyone. Someone with a disability could use them to walk normally, for example. This sort of work has been done before, but the MIT team managed to develop a device that swallows much less power, and is therefore much closer to being practical. For now, they're focused in part on engineering it to allow for a more natural gait. —Gregory Mone
Robots are very good at doing the same thing over and over again, with ridiculous precision. They don't get bored and, as long as you keep the power on, they don't get tired, either. Still, it's pretty startling to watch the industrial arm in this clip toss in mid-range jump shots with such ease.
The arm, manufactured by a company called ABB and normally used on auto assembly lines, has been touring the country's science museums for more than ten years. Modified and programmed by a group at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA, the robotic arm scoops up each basketball with two long metal rods, or tines. Then it executes one of a few pre-programmed motions—a scoop shot, a hook and a standard jumper—rolling the ball off those artificial fingers and tossing it skillfully through the rim.
But Tom Flaherty, the Director of Exhibits, Facilities and Operations at the Carnegie Center, spearheaded the development, says the robot isn't 100 percent accurate. Not because of a mechanical or software glitch. The robot runs through the same steps with each shot, but the ball itself can change. The robot is programmed to sink shots using a ball with certain specifications. If one of the balls is deflated slightly, its flight pattern might be different, and it might not slip through the net. Which really doesn't seem all that different than those NBA players complaining about the league's new basketballs at the start of last season.
Apparently all good shooters, men or machines, are picky.—Gregory Mone
David Hanson, the artist-engineer who builds life-like artificial faces, has now created a 17-inch-tall robot with a cartoon version of a child's face. Popular Scienceprofiled Hanson when he was first starting out, and had created an expressive robotic head modeled after his girlfriend.
This latest marvel, Zeno, has the same name as his 18-month-old son, and can also communicate a range of emotions by twisting its mouth, eyes and various facial features. Hanson has built a range of very real-looking robots in the past, including dead ringers for Einstein and Philip K. Dick. His ultimate goal is to cross the so-called Uncanny Valley, and create robotic faces that draw people in rather than freaking them out.
The coolest part? He hopes to be selling Zenos for $200 to $300 within a few years.—Gregory Mone
Asimov's Three Laws just aren't going to cut it. A British artificial intelligence expert says we need to get serious about establishing a code of ethics for autonomous battlefield robots. Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield is concerned that the research focus on more capable, autonomous machines - especially in the U.S. - could lead to robots that kill indiscriminately.
He worries that the emphasis on developing independent battle-focused machines could be a way of passing the buck for fatal errors in the vein of, "Hey, it wasn't our fault, the robot did it." You could argue that Sharkey's starting this fight a bit early in the game, since we're not exactly up to the Optimus Prime vs. Megatron phase yet, but the advances that have come out of the DARPA Grand Challenges alone suggest that it might not be too long before we have mechanized grunts. While they might be mechanically capable, Sharkey doesn't think these robots will be smart enough to make the right calls. "We are going to give decisions on human fatality to machines that are not bright enough to be called stupid."—Gregory Mone
Transformers, the toy-line turned film about a race of warring robots who bring their high-tech battle to Earth, has already earned more than $152 million since its Monday night premiere. According to reports, that's the highest non-sequel opening ever, and the movie has already earned back production and marketing costs. Producer Paramount says it expected to lure in boys and young men, especially the hordes of now supposedly grown-up adults who spent so many hours of their youth - OK, our youth - cheering for good guy Optimus Prime, but in a surprise, the movie also played well with mothers. There's no explanation for this phenomenon just yet, but it would be nice if a few psychologists set to work trying to make sense of it. And the best news to come out of this monster opening? There's sure to be another Transformers, with a few added robot cast-members, before too long.—Gregory Mone
One law down, two to go? iRobot, manufacturer of the Roomba vacuum, has teamed up with Taser to arm its Packbot robots with stun guns. But it’s hard to say whether this is actually a violation of the first of science fiction author Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” Clearly, arming a robot with a stun gun is the first step towards breaking that rule. But the Packbots, currently used as bomb inspectors in Iraq, are remote-controlled. If there’s a human operator standing at a distance with his finger on the Taser trigger, is it really the robot that’s doing the harm? Yeah, probably. But please discuss.—Gregory Mone
This has got to be the best excuse for a failed space mission ever. The European Space Agency’s Beagle 2, which was set to explore the surface of Mars around the same time as NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity, never managed to dispatch a byte of data from the Red Planet. The probe was last seen a week before its planned landing in December, 2003 – unless we’re to believe a preview of the new film Transformers. What really happened, according to Hollywood? Why, poor little Beagle was crushed by a giant alien robot, of course. Its last transmission, sent from the surface, shows one of the enormous Transformers punching the helpless robot into scrap metal.
While we love this fictional scenario, we doubt ESA would have been able to keep details of such a transmission classified. Not while Spirit and Opportunity were grabbing headlines worldwide in their search for signs of water and life. With the folks at NASA boasting about sulfates, one of the Brits surely would have been tempted to counter, “Yes, but we found intelligent life forms that assume the shape of popular American vehicles.” Top that, NASA.—Gregory Mone
This month, a new kind of "zoo" debuts in Alverca, Portugal: the world's first robot habitat. The Robotarium X, designed by robotics artist Leonel Moura, is a steel-and-glass structure that houses 45 robots representing 14 different "species" with unique behaviors and body types. Some, like the Araneax and Zoid 'bots, are insect-like and creepy. Some resemble snails or land-dwelling coral and others are fanciful moving pods that, well, don't look like anything on earth. The experience of visiting the zoo is meant to be a commentary on the human act of capturing and watching other life forms, and on the way living creatures interact with one another. For instance, if you put 14 different species in one enclosure at the Bronx Zoo, you'd probably have an interesting show, indeed (King of the Cage, anyone?). But as Moura charmingly says on his Web site, at the Robotarium, "there are no fights or aggression... the only competition is to assure a place under the sunlight." Not going to be in Portugal anytime soon? Watch the video below. —Megan Miller
The autonomous underwater robot known as DepthX has completed its exploration of one of the world’s deepest sinkholes, Mexico’s Sistema Zacatón. Diving almost 1,100 feet into this massive, water-filled network of caves, DepthX penetrated far deeper than human divers have ever reached. It brought back samples of water and slime coating the cave walls.
Initially DepthX descended on a cable tether, which relayed commands and data back to human handlers on the surface. But in dives conducted in late May, the robot swam off-leash for up to eight hours at a time. As it explored the cave, DepthX automatically updated three-dimensional digital maps of its surroundings.
DepthX (short for Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer) was built to test sensors, thrusters and other equipment that may eventually be deployed to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, where scientists hope to find an ocean hidden beneath a sheet of ice. In preparation for such a mission, NASA researchers plan to test DepthX in Antarctica’s chilly Lake Bonney in late 2008.
Scientists hope that DepthX, or a robot modeled after it, will be able to retrieve biological samples that will answer the question of whether life exists on other worlds. Here on Earth, such robots might be used to discover new types of microbial life that hold the key to novel medical therapies or biotechnologies.
DepthX is the brainchild of inventor and cave diver Bill Stone, profiled in PopSci’s February issue. The project is funded by NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets program.
Robots are always a big crowd-pleaser at CES, and this year’s no exception. WowWee, known for its innovative but affordable ‘bots, just announced four new products that uphold its reputation. And Erector (yup, of Erector sets) brought out three follow-ups to last year’s popular Spykee, a build-it-yourself Wi-Fi robot that acts like a roving webcam. Go with WowWee if you want your artificial friend to run right out of the box, or with the Erector DIY kits if you like to work for your robot love.
