In building the uBot-5, the team decided to go with Microsoft Robotics Studio.
Additional Resources:
Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics
Archive for the 'Robotics' Category Page 2 of 2
In building the uBot-5, the team decided to go with Microsoft Robotics Studio.
Additional Resources:
Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics
In this video from RoboDevelopment 2007, we see the CoroBot in action.
CoroBot was created to minimize the complexity of robot development. By combining a powerful PC-class platform with a robust, object-oriented software development system, the CoroBot empowers you to rapidly deploy and develop robotics solutions. The CoroBot also assists the hardware developer with additional physical mounting space, ports, sensors and communication devices.
Kenneth Salisbury, a professor of Computer Science and of Surgery leads the Personal Robotics Program at Stanford with CS Assistant Professor Andrew Ng in coordination with the department’s STAIR project. After about 18 months of work, they have developed a first prototype. It is remotely controlled now (eventually it will become more autonomous) but it is an early milestone on the way to releasing a practical, affordable and complete robotics platform.
See also: CNET Article
We the Robots is a new comic strip about a robot nation by cartoonist Chris Harding. I love it!
Quote:
Early focus-group testing among Chris Harding’s retarded friends has revealed a bit of confusion about the simple, three-word title: “WE THE ROBOTS.”
To clarify…
CORRECT: “We The Robots“
INCORRECT: “We Are The Robots” or “We Are Robots”The comic is not named after the lyric by Kraftwerk. (though we are huge fans)
An easy way to remember it:
“WE THE ROBOTS,” as in “WE THE PEOPLE…” from the preamble to the United States Constitution. Why? Because this comic strip is about a nation of robots… and the URL was available.(note: Despite this reference, We The Robots is NOT to be taken as social or political commentary. It is purely fictional. It is about robots– not people. Please do not write us angry letters disagreeing with the point of view of these make-believe characters… who do not even exist!)
Quicktime
Karl Muecke was at the Robo Development conference 2007 showing of DARwIn. DARwIn stands for Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence. Karl was visiting from RoMeLa, the robotics and mechanisms laboratory at Virginia Tech. RoMeLa does a lot of research into robotics locomotion strategies.
The development of DARwIn started back in 2005 with version 1 and the current incarnation is at version 2b. DARwIn runs LabVIEW Real Time on a PC104 board and RoMeLa has decided to standardize on this platform for all their robots.
LabVIEW controls DARwIn’s motion over RS-485 and can read joint positions on the same serial network from the servo motors’ built-in potentiometers. While the robot is walking or moving, a rate gyro with acceleration and orientation information communicates with LabVIEW over an RS-232 serial connection so that the program modifies the walking gait to effectively balance the robot in real time.
Karl told VI Shots that RoMeLa is planning on evolving DARwIn hardware so it can be sold at the consumer level at a lower cost. I think this would be very cool.
View video in Quicktime format
Hanson Robotics has done some incredible work in the area of robotic human facial expression emulation. Check out their website which has several videos of their handiwork. David Hanson is a true pioneer and visionary in this field. With the invention of Frubber and special AI interaction algorithms, he is helping build the future of robots that can interact with the human population in a more natural fashion. I can’t help but compare him to doctor Noonien Soong who designed Data from Star Trek the next generation. A bit of a stretch, I admit, but listening to him speak in an interview at the 2007 Robo Development conference about robots that can “truly love” makes me wonder.
Hanson robotics is now getting into the consumer market with a creation they call Zeno. Zeno will be available in 2009 for the price range of $200-$300. Zeno is a robotic companion that can interact with you on an entirely new level that has not been seen before. It’s considered a toy targeting kids but I can see this being purchased by gadget craving adults as well.
Hanson Robotics is collaborating with Massive Software on this one. Massive has built their business on artificial intelligence algorithms used in computer animation for simulating crowds. They started off by developing the computer animation for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings battle sequences.
The vision and decision making components in Massive Software give Zeno the ability to navigate, make facial expressions, and move his body based on what he sees in his physical environment. The video coming in from Zeno’s eye camera is fed into the Massive part of his brain so that he can move appropriately and respond emotionally to what is going on around him.
View video in Quicktime format
Interview with the president of Allmotion Inc. AllMotion manufactures Stepper Drives, Stepper Controllers, Servo Drives and Servo Controllers. These are the most compact Intelligent Stepper Motor Drives and Stepper Motor Controllers on the market today.
Just came back from an exciting day at the first RoboDevelopment Conference in San Jose. From their website:
Join the international robotics community at RoboDevelopment Conference and Exposition, the first robotics industry event focused on the design and development of commercially viable personal, service and intelligent mobile robotics products - products that are to be used outside of laboratory environments and sold at a profit.
Ok, so if there are ever going to be robots interacting with us in our daily lives, then the first place to see these would be at this conference. It wasn’t about industrial robotics but about how we can bring robots into the homes and interact with them. Not only that, but how we can do this for under $200. I saw a lot of cool stuff. I took a lot of video and in general, came away with a lot of hope for the future.
Up until now there hasn’t been a conference of this kind. The location of the conference is telling to the goals of the organizer, Dana Kara, the president of Robotics Trends. In the past, most robotics conferences have been held in cities such as Boston or Pittsburgh because they are close to certain universities or military research in the field. But now, Robotics Trends is hoping to bring the field of robotics development for commercial products closure to venture capitalists looking for new entrepreneurial fields to invest in.
I will be presenting video in the upcoming weeks but for now, here are some highlights.
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Evolution Robotics announced a new partnership with WowWee.
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Anybots came out of stealth mode and made their first public appearance, presenting Dexter and Monty.
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Hanson Robotics presented Zeno. The coolest toy robot yet.
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RoMeLa was on hand to show off DARwIn which runs on LabVIEW Real-Time.
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Willow Garage was there to announce their plan for a new personal robotics platform.
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Microsoft was there presenting information on their Robotics Studio platform. University of Massachusetts Amherst was sharing a booth with them and was giving a cool demo of Ubot-5.
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Ray Almgren from National Instruments presented at the keynote and gave an overview of his company’s involvement in the robotics industry. One example was the partnership with Lego in helping develop the Mindstorms NXT product.
As you can appreciate. There is a lot of stuff to see. Unfortunately I only had time for one day (out of a 2-day conference), plus I had to do all the video interviews so I didn’t get a chance to see any of the presentations. There were several tracks with many in-depth sessions where the technology experts were presenting the tools of the trade to allow more companies to develop lower cost robots.
In the end, If it ever happened again, I would definitely be back. This time with more time to spare.
I’m going to inaugurate this blog with a post about an amazing man, Dean Kamen. The first time I had a chance to see him speak in person was at the 2006 NIWeek conference. He spoke of the process of invention and the ideas of some in upper management that think that invention and creativity is something that can be “managed” and has a predictable life cycle.
I found his talk enlightening because it gave some insight into the mind of a man that is truly an innovator of our times. Here are just two of the many slides he presented.
It’s possible that at the same time he gave this presentation, Dean was already working on his next innovation. Dean spoke at the TED conference and presented this preview of an extraordinary prosthetic arm at the request of the US Department of Defense.
This video clip taken at TED shows Dean explaining how he came around to eventually accepting the DOD challenge. It shows how empathetic Dean is to the human spirit and how he’s trying to help ease some of the suffering these soldiers are going through. In the world of robotics, the requirements imposed on the development of this prosthetic arm were an extreme challenge. The final demonstration in this video makes it look so easy.
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