Automaton

Automaton reader Ingo Lütkebohle is a PhD student at Bielefeld University in Germany studying how roboticists develop their software. His team has posted a survey for software developers to complete. An initial pilot study has already been done and those results will be presented at this year's IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation. This survey is part of the larger study, so they need a broader audience to respond to it.

You can take the survey here.

I recently had a chance to play with the LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit. I mentioned the Mindstorms in a previous post about robot kits, but this is the first time I've had free reign with one -- and the first time I've used one of the NXTs. Keep reading for the review.

Spectrum associate editor Josh Romero on his favorite robots from the Faire:

If there's one thing you can count on at Maker Faire, it's the presence of robots. They're everywhere in all shapes and sizes. Sure, it was impossible to miss the giant electric giraffe, but size isn't everything.

Take Herbie the Mousebot (a robot kit from Solarbotics) - if you judged just by the number of delighted smiles and giggles coming from children's faces, this had to be the winner. The little robot has a light sensor that it uses to follow around a beam of light from a flashlight. It also has whisker and tail sensors that make it turn around when it hits your foot or starts to go under the couch. Brilliant! It's smart, cute, and simple. Made solely of discrete components, it looked fun both to build and to play with:

This month's Full Spectrum video segment focuses on robot kits -- as seen recently at CES and Maker Faire -- and highlights my embarrassing prom date past. Check it out here.

In the US, the three big robotics centers are Boston, Pittsburgh, and Silicon Valley, all in large part thanks to the great universities in those areas that have spun their research out into industry (for that reason, Georgia Tech is growing the industry in Georgia). Yesterday Boston business news site Xconomy took a look at the Boston industry and gave an overview of all the robotics companies in the greater Boston area.

From the article:

What’s more, the greater Boston area has clearly established itself as one of the world’s leading centers for robotics. There are more than 150 companies, institutions, and research labs that deal in robots or robot components here. That adds up to more than 1,500 workers, $150 million in government contracts, and $250 million in annual sales[...]

Looking at the list, a few things leaped out at us. The majority of firms (at least 13 out of 24) get substantial support from defense contracts, while most others serve niche markets. Local companies are strong in mobile robots and vehicles, growing in medical robots, and not as strong in industrial applications.

That company list is a great resource and the industry overview is really interesting. I wonder if this kind of analysis and overview exists for the other major cities?

Thanks, Janet!

Spectrum associate editor Sally Adee on how researchers are looking for a way to connect prosthetics directly to the brain. [Click on the image below to go to the video player.]

Spectrum reports that Caltech researchers are developing a MEMS robotic device to insert and position electrodes in the brain. The system could enhance the performance of neural prosthetics, which have proved hard to implant accurately. The researchers haven't built the device yet, but they've devised control algorithms to guide the miniature robots to make good neural connections. From the article:

The Caltech team has designed a system that would make the procedure more predictable by attaching a tiny MEMS-based motor to each electrode on a multichannel electrode array and using an algorithm to direct the electrodes to individual neurons.

[...]

As the electrodes are driven into the tissue, the software starts taking sample recordings to detect spikes of electrical activity at the electrode tip. When the software detects spikes, it moves forward in small increments and tracks how the signals change. After determining whether the signal has improved or gotten worse, the algorithm moves the electrode to a new position and does more recording and comparing, driving the electrode in further if necessary until it finds the best signal. If the signal wanes, the algorithm will automatically adjust the electrode position to improve the signal.

Stanford's Stickybot, a wall-climbing robot that uses gecko-inspired directional adhesives on its feet. Photo: Stanford University

Spectrum correspondent Prachi Patel-Predd reports that engineers at the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2008), in Pasadena, Calif., are presenting "the latest takes on how to tackle a new frontier: vertical surfaces."

Read Patel-Predd's report or check out all the presentations at today's Climbing Robots track of the conference.

"Engineers are finally putting some practical exoskeletons through their paces outside of laboratories," Spectrum declared in 2005. Well, it was a slow but steady pace. Now it seems the bionic body suits are really ready to hit the market.

Sarcos/Raytheon have showed off their XOS full-body exo. And Japan's Cyberdyne has announced it will begin "mass-production" of its HAL powered suit.

Now Berkeley Bionics says it is "accepting orders for prototype HULC systems," one of its advanced lower-extremity exoskeletons.

The company, founded by researchers from the UC Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory, has recently released a video of its ExoHiker system, which lets a user carry loads of up to 200 lb, shadowing the wearer's maneuvers -- you can crawl, run, kick, climb stairs and the powered legs follow your moves.

We at Spectrum would love to borrow one of these ExoHiker legs to test them on the streets of New York as we, um, climb stairs of subway stations and fight off muggers.

UPDATE: After the jump, watch videos of Sarcos/Raytheon's XOS and Cyberdyne's HAL so you can compare all three exos ... and put in your order.

Spectrum's Josh Romero talked with R2-D2 builder Steve Simmons at Maker Faire to find out how this screen-accurate, home-built, VEX-brained replica works.

For more on how to build your own droid, check out http://www.artoo-detoo.net/.