Automaton

The National Underwater Robotics Challenge [warning: frames, marquees, and other non-standard HTML abound], sponsored by Honeywell Hometown Solutions, is held yearly at Chandler High School in Arizona. Teams of students of almost any age can work together to build a remotely operated vehicle capable of performing some sort of underwater mission -- the 2008 competition (to be held next June) requires the ROVs to work around a crashed plane carrying vials of an important medicine and perform a number of tasks.

In addition to a neat "how-to" page full of cheap ways to design and build subsystems for the ROVs, the organization now sells a complete ROV kit of parts, complete with instruction manual, for $250. Even if you're not part of the competition, this would be a neat thing to explore a backyard swimming pool or lake!

Check out some of the videos of the missions to see what the students have done.

German researchers are exploring a new dimension of human-robot interaction: the "interaction" that occurs when a 200-kilogram industrial robot accidentally strikes a 90-kilogram person in the head, torso, or pelvis.

Susanne Oberer and Rolf Dieter Schraft at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart are conducting human-robot "crash tests" to understand what kind of injuries result in such cases and how safety could be improved.

Meet Zeno, a humanoid robot built by the founder of Hanson Robotics. Hanson Robotics is famous for their robotic humanoid faces -- among them Albert Einstein -- but many folks (including yours truly) find them pretty darn creepy. Despite the amazing technological achievement of detailed facial expression, Zeno is no exception to the uncanny valley.

Zeno is modeled after AstroBoy and the inventor's goal is to eventually have it on the consumer market to consumers for a few hundred bucks. Zeno has his very own blog here to keep you updated on his progress.

And to add to the creepiness, a fun fact: the inventor named his newborn son after his robot.

Last month, Mexican engineering students gathered in Puebla to participate in the 4th Mexican Cleaning Robot Contest (Torneo Mexicano de Robots Limpiadores). The robots competed in two categories: the “Coke can fetching category” (photo above) and the "mine retrieving category". The goal was to investigate ways to collect garbage dumped in terrestrial and aquatic environments -- a problem that unfortunately is way too common not only in Mexico but in many other places. In fact, if these prototypes become products one day, I'd love to send one to my hometown, Sao Paulo, in Brazil, to help clean the ultrapolluted Pinheiros and Tiete rivers.

Here's a video and also a report from the organizers.

One of my coworkers, Mike Cimpher, built this little biped in 2001. He says it consists of "12 servos, 2 ICs and an accelerometer." Being an artist as well, his video does a really neat job of showing the transition of development -- from something that falls apart all the way to something that stands up and walks.

Photo: Engadget

Check this out: which is which? I mean, which is Zou Ren Ti, the human, and which is Zou Ren Ti, the android?

Wow, talk about uncanny valley!

The two Zou Ren Tis can be seen at the Wired NextFest in Los Angeles this weekend. Engadget took the photo above and if you want to find out which is which you can get some hints from these other photos by China's Xi'an Chaoren Sculpture Research Institute, from where the two Zou Ren Tis came, or from the video below.

The 13th International Conference on Advanced Robotics took place in South Korea last month. Above, clockwise from top left: opening talk by conference chair Prof. Sukhan Lee; best paper award winners; reception (engineers also need to eat); the Robotis booth and its new URIA humanoid. Below, a short report from Hiyan Min Kim, ICAR 2007 secretariat, and Hadi Moradi, ICAR 2007 publicity chair:

ICAR 2007 took place in Jeju island, South Korea from 21st to the 24th of August, chaired by Prof. Sukhan Lee. The conference theme was “Viable Robotic Service to Human,” with six plenary lectures by Prof. Rüdiger Dillmann, Prof. Henrik I Christensen, Prof. Shigeki Sugano, Dr. Michel R. Parent, Dr. Munsang Kim, and Dr. Antal K. Bejczy.Two hundred and twelve papers were presented in 42 sessions. Prof. Dennis Hong and his co-authors from Virginia Tech won the best paper award, accompanied with US $1000 cash prize, for their paper titled “Novel Tripedal Mobile Robot and Considerations for Gait Learning Strategies Based on Kinematics.” ICAR 2007 also offered an exhibition of service robots, exciting opportunities for business interaction and social networking, as well as cultural experience in a beautiful tropical island surrounding.

My company is pretty firmly entrenched in the defense industry. In fact, many robotics companies are -- defense contracting is a good way to pay the bills while growing other areas of research and development. But while robots are really amazing things to work on in and of themselves, the technology is slowly advancing toward greater capability and autonomy -- and for those of us working defense contracts, this has some uncomfortable implications.

Bluefin's AUVs aren't weapons (when people I ask, I remind them that there is already a word for an autonomous submarine that explodes -- "torpedo") and most other companies aren't actively weaponizing their robots. To date the bulk of military robotics has been oriented toward surveillance, security, and disposal of mines and IEDs -- situations where most everyone can agree that it's a good idea to keep a human out of the way.

But things are changing. Even if companies aren't putting on guns, they're at least putting on gun mounts. Early last month Wired reported on the newly weaponized ground robots. Other companies are building in weapons payload options: recently a Reaper aerial drone made history as the first Army unmanned military vehicle to kill (thank you for the correction, Kevin); its remote operators used it to locate two men suspected of placing an IED and dropped its "precision munitions" on the targets.

What do the users of these robots think? At the OceanTech Expo in early September, I attended an AUV panel; one of the panelists, Bill Schopfel, is the event manager at the Office of Naval Research. He spoke specifically to the role of robotic vehicles in underwater mine countermeasures -- he says for the forseeable future, the decision to engage and neutralize mines will not be autonomous; even if the vehicle is capable of performing neutralization measures, there will still be a person in the loop who is making the decision to engage. With respect to autonomous vehicles that operate without a human's control, a DoD proposal from last year discusses the idea that humans target humans and machines target machines -- though that proposal has not yet passed legal review.

The Army's Future Combat Systems initiative is becoming a reality, but it really demands thought and careful consideration of the ways we're deciding to employ technology -- though our military needs demand immediate technological solutions. How can we make sure ethics and technology develop at the same pace?

And speaking of robots on the battlefield, Wired's Danger Room points to a Defense News story about a U.S. Army $280 million contract to buy 3000 Negotiator robots from Robotic FX. The Negotiator tactical robot [photo above] is a "45-pound bomb detector with infrared cameras used by hundreds of state, local and federal law enforcement agencies around the U.S.," Defense News reports, adding that an "initial delivery order will be for 101 Robotic FX Negotiators, marking their first use with the U.S. military on the battlefield," where they will be used to clear caves and search for explosives.

MIT grad student Conor Walsh and the leg exoskeleton he and other researchers have developed. [Photo: Samuel Au / MIT News]

MIT researchers have created a wearable robotic exoskeleton to help soldiers carry heavier loads on their backpacks. Powered legs like those could one day help elderly and disabled people gain more mobility and carry things around more easily, but since this is DARPA funded work soldiers have priority. Sorry, grandma.

The MIT exoskeleton consists of a pair of mechanical legs with a mounted backpack frame. The mechanical legs strap to the user's own legs and support much of the pack's weight by transferring it to the ground. The MIT researchers, led by Hugh Herr at Media Lab's Biomechatronics Group, report in the September issue of the International Journal of Humanoid Robotics that their prototype can take on 80 percent of an 36-kg load carried on a person's back.

And how does it work?

I've had it in my mind for some time that my grandparents could really benefit from a robotic companion -- someone to let them know when one of the grandkids has emailed, to remind them to take their meds (even to go get the pills for them), to keep an eye on their health and safety, and so on. And I knew Japan, among other Asian countries, has really been at the forefront of this research.

But I wasn't expecting to learn today that robots seem to be less exciting to the elderly than expected. Apparently, the Ifbot in question spent a month entertaining the residents of a nursing home before they got bored with it. What has been successful, however, are lower-tech products like the i-pot send an update to family every time someone makes tea with it, to show that Grandma or Grandpa is up and around. Really interesting reading for anyone considering the elder care market.

Thanks for the tip, Gui!

Each year I get a handful of family members and acquaintances asking if I know about any robot kits their kids or grandkids might like for [insert winter holiday of choice here]. Since I know the question is coming from one of my uncles this year (howdy, Uncle Jim!), I figured I'd head it off at the pass and write it all down now for anyone else who's asking the same question.

So after the jump, ladies and gents -- the Automaton Guide to Robot Kits, Version 1.0!

Great robotics article this month in Spectrum. Senior editor Jean Kumagai and photo editor Randi Silberman traveled to a cactus-studded ranch in Mexico to find out how a research group is using an underwater robot to explore deep sinkholes.

The researchers, led by Bill Stone [above], best known for his daring cave diving expeditions, were field-testing DEPTHX, a 1.3‑metric-ton autonomous underwater machine that can draw 3D maps of its surroundings and also collect solid and liquid samples. (And as Kumagai notes in the article, the robot, encased in pebbly orange syntactic foam, "looks kind of like a giant tangerine.")

From the article:

There’s never been an aqueous robot quite like DEPTHX. Most autonomous underwater vehicles look the same, Stone says. “Some have fat midsections, some are more elongated, but they pretty much all look like weird torpedoes.” [...] “Their design is dictated by their mission: traveling in straight lines at relatively high speed to survey the ocean floor or gather bathymetry data,” he continues. But for exploring uncharted territory, that shape can get you in trouble. You can back yourself into a tight spot where you can’t turn around. [...] DEPTHX, by contrast, is designed not for high speed but for complicated maneuvering in unfamiliar environments. Hence its shape: a squashed sphere with no protruding parts to catch on things.

Read the full article, titled "Swimming to Europa," to learn how DEPTHX performed in Mexico. Oh, and don't miss the intrepid Spectrum correspondents' account of their encounter with Toilet Frog.

How cool would it be to show up at a Halloween party wearing one of this?

Guess what? You can. The trick top hat was created by automatier Dug North and its design is available in MAKE magazine's special Halloween edition. Dug on the hat:

The project requires two costume "coachman's" hats, plywood, some small pieces of wood, two L-brackets, two springs, a brake cable and lever, a cable crimp, some washers and screws, and...brace yourself...a rubber finger puppet. Terrifying!

PS: The description above is from Dug's Automata/Automaton Blog, a great blog with, yes!, a great name (although his automata are of the mechanical figure/object variety and this blog's are of the robotic variety).

iRobot announced two new products today, adding to their already pioneering line of home robots.

First up is the Looj, a gutter-cleaning bot. It's remote-controlled; that is, a user puts it up in a gutter, steps down the ladder, and from there directs its movement along a gutter, moving both forward and backward. From the website:

iRobot Looj uses a powerful 3-stage auger, spinning at 500 RPM, to break up sludge and clogs, lift out debris and brush your gutters clean. The hard plastic disruptors break apart clogs, while natural rubber ejectors lift and throw the debris from your gutters, finally, sturdy polypropylene bristles brush your gutters clean.

Gutter cleaners are all well and good, but I am REALLY excited about this next one: ConnectR, the Virtual Visiting robot. Thus spake iRobot:

ConnectR enables real-time virtual visits over the Internet. Equipped with high-quality audio and a video camera, the robot is located on-site in the home of the “host” party. Using a computer keyboard, mouse or joystick, the remote (“visiting”) party can drive the robot around and interact with those on-site, virtually participating in activities at home or wherever the device is located (for example, in the home of your grandchildren). The on-site host party can also direct the robot’s movements with a remote control.

The Looj is available now, but ConnectR isn't out yet -- and robot aficionados have the opportunity to be part of a pilot program this year. They'll choose pilot users from a pool of applicants here -- sign up!

Looj currently sells from $99 to $169, depending on the accessories. ConnectR will be $200 for those involved with the pilot program, and "just under $500" once it's on the market.

Images from irobot.com