Automaton

QinetiQ's Sentry unmanned surveillance craft

Sally Adee over at our neighbor blog Tech Talk discusses the recent wave of war drones:

This Week’s Theme: Unmanned

UAVs are branching out. We now have:

The Robo-Copter (via Danger Room)

The flying robo-ethernet hub

Various Robo-Peppered Moths
“Swarms of mini unmanned aircraft infiltrate ventilation systems, perch somewhere or morph into the scenery and await the opportunity to personally deliver their one-pound explosive.”

and a Robo-jet-ski!
(An unmanned maritime reconnaissance vehicle, from QinetiQ, a "UK defense contractor with poor spelling.”)

But, you may ask yourself, how will I carry all my drones around?
Why, in the UXV Combatant Warship Made for Drone Battles, of course.

And let's not forget the Reaper aerial drone.

Photo: University of Pennsylvania / NSF

Over the past three summers, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have conducted an interesting educational experiment aimed at answering one question: Can robots get high school students interested in science and engineering in college?

The answer, as you probably guessed, is yes.

The researchers, led by professor Vijay Kumar at the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, organized a three-week robotics summer camp to teach the students what robots are capable of and how to build them.

The program included lectures, tours, and of course lots of hands-on activities (practice and applications first, teaching of fundamentals later -- a reverse of the traditional approach to engineering education. (Because, yes, engineering schools that tie theory and practice together have happier students.

But still, why use robots?

Paleo-Future, a wonderful blog that offers a "look into the future that never was," unearthed a 1986 article in The Futurist magazine about the future of personal robots. The future as envisioned in 1986, that is.

The Futurist article, which includes a photo of an Omnibot carrying snacks to a smiling couple [right], makes for an entertaining read, saying at one point that "future robots will be complete home-entertainment centers, able to sing and dance and tell jokes..."

Well, unfortunately a future of pervasive snack-fetching, dancing robots roaming around the house is is not quite here yet. It appears that one big obstacle has been making the darned machines autonomous, capable of doing things -- entertaining the kids, loading the dishwasher, or whatever -- all by themselves.

Maybe the way to go is using humans to control the robots? iRobot's new ConnectR "virtual visiting" robot is one example. It's a kind of mobile teleconference device to be remote controlled by that absent parent always on a business trip. Another example are Anybots humanoids, also designed to be operated remotely by a person (in this case an outsourced servant in a faraway country).

Check back in 20 years to see which personal robots made it to the living room.

PS: On a forecasting-the-future related note, Spectrum has its share of brilliant and embarrassing predictions, many of which you can see in the "Write & Wrong" article that appeared in our 40th anniversary special issue.

Thanks, SKM!

What conferences can professional roboticists attend? How can a high school student in Des Moines get involved with a robotics team? What engineering camps can a middle schooler attend? The just-launched RobotEvents.com has put together calendars and directories of all the events your inner robot geek could possibly want to see. Alternatively, those seeking to promote their robotics-related organizations, competitions, and off-season events can advertise them (for a fee) on the site. This is a really nice way to bring all the cool stuff together in one place -- and check out the neat fundraising plan they recommend to teams trying to raise money!

STriDER is a three-legged robot that walks by ... uh, well, the best way to understand its patent-pending "tripedal gait" is to watch the videos below. Basically the robot steps forward by swinging one leg between the other two while flipping over its top body and then doing the same with another leg and so forth. Wicked!

The robot generated quite some buzz at this year's ICAR in Korea [read the excellent paper here, in pdf] and more recently in the robotics blogosphere.

To learn more about the robot, Automaton went straight to the source: Dennis Hong [right], director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, who leads the team developing STriDER (if you're wondering, that's short for Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot).

Next, a Q&A with Hong on STriDER's development and applications, and also videos showing the robot's first step and hypotrochoid-based joint mechanism.

For anyone in the Boston, Mass area, you might be interested in this event at MIT tomorrow (Wednesday) night, a session called "Robots: The Next Wave of the Robot Revolution" that will "explore the advancing robot invasion across all of those sectors." There's a panel of speakers from a few robotics companies, networking receptions, and recruiting (I'll be there representing Bluefin). There's a small registration fee, though it's free for students.

An article in today's WaPo discusses some odd dragonflies seen in New York City recently, which some of the witnesses say look "large for dragonflies" and suspiciously mechanical. Speculation is that they're robotic bugs spying for the US government -- of course, there's other speculation that they're just plain dragonflies, too. Don't be misled by the photo in the article (reproduced here); that's a picture from a lab at Harvard.

But after all the apparent warnings for the tinfoil hat brigade, the article does a nice of highlighting some of the ongoing research into robotic insects. Here's an interesting bit:

In one approach, researchers funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are inserting computer chips into moth pupae -- the intermediate stage between a caterpillar and a flying adult -- and hatching them into healthy "cyborg moths."

The Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems project aims to create literal shutterbugs -- camera-toting insects whose nerves have grown into their internal silicon chip so that wranglers can control their activities. DARPA researchers are also raising cyborg beetles with power for various instruments to be generated by their muscles.

"You might recall that Gandalf the friendly wizard in the recent classic 'Lord of the Rings' used a moth to call in air support," DARPA program manager Amit Lal said at a symposium in August. Today, he said, "this science fiction vision is within the realm of reality."

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts is the first and currently only college or university in the nation to offer an undergraduate robotics engineering degree. The school is kicking off the program tomorrow with a Symposium event called "Engineering the Revolution", where attendees will hear from industry superstars about the role roboticists will play in the near future. Registration is still open.

Even if you can't make it to the event, definitely check out the major itself. This is a really great new program built not only on what broad theoretical background roboticists will need to really make a difference, but on the practical, hands-on experience for students to prepare themselves for the workforce. (And both Erico and I are big fans of that!)

NASA today announced the recipients of their SBIR ("Small Business Innovation Research") grants, among which were quite a few robotics projects. Lots of them have to do with power sources or sensors, but one I found particularly interesting is the DC brushless motor that can withstand the harsh atmosphere of Venus. From the proposal:

Honeybee Robotics proposes development of high temperature scoop and joint; and continued development of an extreme temperature brushless DC motor and a resolver. All hardware will be demonstrated in simulated Venus surface conditions. During Phase I, a first-generation prototype BLDC motor and resolver were designed, built and tested in Venus-like conditions (460oC temperature, mostly CO2 gas environment). The Phase I tests demonstrated the feasibility of the design through verification that the motor and the resolver can operate at 460oC for an extended period of time. A further developed and optimized version of this motor and resolver could be used to actuate sample acquisition systems, robotic arms, and other devices outside of an environment-controlled landed platform on the surface of Venus.

460 deg C? For the non-metric among us, that's 860 deg F. Wow.

The rest of the robotics-related SBIR grants can be found here and here.

From Automaton correspondent Sally Adee:

New Scientist's blog has an interview with Johann Borenstein, the father of
the OmniTread serpentine robot. Borenstein thinks this could be a new way to find people in collapsed buildings or otherwise disaster areas. The snake configuration lets the robot slither through small holes as well as get over tall obstacles and across extreme terrain. Controlling one, however, requires more than a flute and a basket.

"We currently need three operators," Borenstein told New Scientist. "Each operator controls two joints of our six-joint OmniTread. Typically all joints need to be controlled at all times."

It always seems to surprise inventors when robot owners find themselves unusually attached to their 'bots. Here's a quick roundup of links on the subject...

Roombas fill an emotional vacuum for owners -- groan. The article talks about Roomba owners' relationships to their robots and how fond they become of them, a trend that "suggests there's a measure of public readiness to accept robots in the house" -- good news for any budding consumer roboticists out there.

PackBot on the front lines -- I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, and it is an older aticle, but I was reminded again at an event where Helen Greiner spoke earlier this week ... soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are considering their robots members of their teams, giving them names and wanting them fixed (even when obliterated by IEDs) instead of replaced.

And of course, Forecast: Sex and Marriage with Robots by 2050 -- this somewhat overplayed article is based on someone's PhD thesis, so take it with a grain of salt. I love the line that "the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," though as a resident of that fine state, I would like to believe that has less to do with our politics than it does with the incredibly high density of robotics companies and research institutions just in the area.

"If you don't dress up your Roomba, it's just a naked vacuum," quotes the website of MyRoomBud.com. MyRoomBud is a company run by a group of siblings that makes costumes for your Roomba and Scooba. I met two of the team at an MIT event two weeks ago and got the chance to ask Tyler, the CEO, some questions about their business.

How old are you guys? How long have you been in business?
myRoomBud is a company that my brother, Niles (13) and I (16) started about two and a half years ago, a few weeks before Christmas. We first began to sell the covers on eBay to earn some extra money in order to pay for Christmas gifts, particularly a pair of cowboy boots for our mother. After Christmas, however, we found that we had made so much money that we decided to continue the myRoomBud business. We employed the help of your younger siblings, Isabelle (10 years old) and Griffin (8 years old).

Do you all have different jobs?
Niles and I used to cut the cloth to be sewn by our parents into the RoomBud covers. Isabelle and Griffin helped sorting the cloth that we had cut into different piles so we would always know where everything was. Niles and I were also in charge of shipping the RoomBuds. Nowadays, we all cut and ship. We have also hired students from my high school to do the sewing of our costumes. The longer we continue the company, the less physical work we end up doing. Now, we mainly focus on running our company and finding new ways of lessening the work that needs to be done.

I see you do costumes for both Roomba and Scooba -- do you have any plans to expand to other robots, either that iRobot makes (like the new Looj or ConnectR) or from other companies (the Aibo, Robosapien, etc)?
Although we have considered making costume covers for the iRobot Looj and ConnectR, we have not actually put these ideas into production. We try to stay away from other companies.

What got you interested in dressing up your Roomba?
We originally got the idea of dressing up the Roomba while we were watching my youngest brother, Griffin, follow the Roomba around as it cleaned the floors. At first we just taped paper ears to the vacuum, but soon the paper became felt, and the next thing we knew we were going to Joanne Fabrics to buy cloth that had animal print on it for the sole purpose of making a RoomBud cover.

Why do you think people like to dress up their Roombas and Scoobas, but not their normal vacuums or mops?
Niles and I both agree that what probably causes people to dress up their Roombas, and not their normal vacuums, is the lifelike way that the Roomba feels its way around a room cleaning the floor. It is the same thing that first enthralled Griffin when he first saw the Roomba at work. And of course, there's the obvious answer, our company motto: If you don't dress up your Roomba, it's just a naked vacuum!

Photos courtesy myRoomBud

Ever wonder how big is the world’s robot population? Well, exactly how many robots are around is hard to know, but here’s an educated guess: 4.5 million.

If all those bots were to congregate and form a nation, its population would be larger than Costa Rica's but smaller than Croatia's, whatever that means. RoboNation would be No. 116 in the country population rank, with 0.0096 percent of the world population, if you're wondering.

This robot population estimate is based on data released last week by the International Federation of Robotics in its 2007 World Robotics survey. For those into robots, it’s a marvelous source of statistics, forecasts, case studies, and more.

Source: IFR Statistical Department

The study divides robots in two categories: industrial robots and service robots. The first category includes welding systems, assembly manipulators, silicon wafer handlers—you know, that kind of heavy, expensive, several-degrees-of-freedom stuff. The second category includes professional service robots (bomb-disposal bots, surgical systems, milking robots) and household service robots (vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, all sorts of robotics toys and kits, and that Sony robot dog).

According to the study, there were 951,000 industrial robots in operation all over the world in 2006. As for service robots, it estimates that almost 40,000 professional units and about 3,500,000 household units were sold up to 2006. So 951,000 + 40,000 + 3,500,000 = 4,491,000. Round that to 4.5 million.

And now to the forecasts. By 2010, according to the study, the number of industrial robots should increase to 1.173 million and the number of service robots to 7.2 million. That puts the world robot population at 8.3 million, which is bigger than Austria's (again, whatever that means).

Note that the study counts industrial robot and service robots differently. The 951,000 estimate is for the “worldwide operational stock of industrial robots,” and that’s the robots actually toiling around these days. On the other hand, the 40,000 and 3,500,000 estimates are for service robots sold up to 2006, which means it includes robots no longer in use like that 2002 first-generation Roomba you destroyed trying to transform into a personal servant.

In the next post we’ll include other highlights from the World Robotics study, including statistics by industry and region of the world.

PS: We thank Gudrun Litzenberger, director of the IFR Statistical Department, for helping us sort things out.