Robots | Futurismic

I, for one, welcome our new modular robotic overlords

Paul Raven @ 28-04-2008

OK, hold everything - and take the three short minutes required to watch this video of a modular robot reassembling itself after being kicked apart:

There’s a hundred science fictional thoughts in my head right now - one of which is the twinge of guilt I felt when they kicked the thing in the first place.

What was the first thing that flashed into your head when you were watching that video? [Tip o' the bowler to m1k3y the grinder - cheers, man!]

NASA tests giant robot that could pick up and move a Moon base

Edward Willett @ 04-04-2008

My last couple of posts have been about nanotechnology, so naturally this time around it was an item on something very large that caught my eye (Via NewScientist Space):

NASA engineers are testing out a giant, six-legged robot that could pick up and move a future Moon base thousands of kilometres across the lunar surface, allowing astronauts to explore much more than just the area around their landing site.

ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer–is there, like a whole department at NASA dedicated just to coming up with acronyms?) would be about 7.5 metres wide, with legs more than 6 metres long. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, are now testing two small-scale prototype.

Check out the video of ATHLETE lowering itself, video of ATHLETE walking and driving, and video of two ATHLETE robots lifting a mock lunar module off its mount).

(Image: NASA/JPL)

Incredible walking robot ‘Big Dog’

Tomas Martin @ 04-04-2008

Check out this incredible video of Boston Dynamics’ robot ‘Big Dog’. The quadruped robot stumbles on ice, maneuvers through snow, climbs over blocks and recovers after being kicked. ‘Big Dog’ is being developed in association with DARPA for use as an Army pack horse that doesn’t tire.

The robot has a certain ‘AT-AT’ quality, doesn’t it? It’s amazing how creepily lifelike its movements are. If you had to trek across the desert or Antarctic, would you like a ‘Big Dog’ around carrying your gear?

[via Futurist.com and Open The Future, Youtube video by Boston Dynamics]

Why not build your own robot?

Tomas Martin @ 28-03-2008

With people starting to talk about the rights of robots, I thought it’d be a good time to link to the fun site ‘Let’s Make Robots’, which has a pretty comprehensive set of blog entries and guides to building your own cybertronic friend. Start at the post advising you the best way to build your own robot and work your way through some of the variety of constructions made by the team.

Of course, if you’re not in the mood for a bit of android DIY, there’s plenty of other places you can watch other people’s creations. Try the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, or the hovering Drone soon to be working for Miami Police . Alternatively, if you don’t care about robot rights and just want to watch them take each other apart, try some of the Robot Wars sites like Roaming Robots or the homesite of Tornado, the winner of the 6th UK wars. There’s even recent highlights from Japan’s ROBO-ONE, which pits bipedal robots against each other in the ring. After all, one of the Robot Wars judges thinks that we’ll be watching real battles of robots ‘within ten years’. A British group is already campaigning against autonomous robots capable of killing humans.

[picture via Let's Make Robots of a robot by Fredrik Andersson]

Won’t somebody think of the robots?

Paul Raven @ 28-03-2008

Jamais Cascio is a sensitive soul; he doesn’t like seeing beasts of burden being abused and pushed around. Even robotic ones:

“My reaction to seeing this robot kicked paralleled what I would have had if I’d seen a video of a pack mule or a real big dog being kicked like that, and (from anecdotal conversations) I know I’m not the only one with that kind of immediate response. True, it wasn’t nearly as strong a shocked feeling for me as it would have been with a real animal, but it was definitely of the same character. It simply felt wrong.”

This throws an interesting light on the “robot rights” debates that keep surfacing. While I think we can all agree that a non-sentient machine doesn’t require the vote or union-mandated coffee breaks, this sort of psychological reaction to machines with a visual semblance of life may cause problems in early-adopter workplaces. [image by TwoBlueDay]

After all, even battle-hardened US Army colonels have been known to balk at sending machines to their doom.

Asimov’s Three Laws of Weigh-Ins

Edward Willett @ 04-03-2008

Isaac Asimov’s robot stories were based around his famous Three Laws of Robotics, the first of which states that a robot may not injure a human being.

Asimov got lots of stories out of the many unanticipated behaviours his three laws might provoke in robots under various scenarios. His robots, though, were high-tech sentient creatures with “positronic brains.” I don’t think he ever contemplated applying his laws to everyday household products.

Designer Alice Wang has, though, and regarding Asimov’s First Law, wonders, “Are there existing domestic objects that already break this law?”, and comes up with a surprising answer–bathroom scales:

Scales, although don’t perform physical harm, have been subtly damaging us psychologically. Should objects like these exist in a complex society like ours where people are more emotionally fragile?

She has therefore designed three scales that might reduce the emotional harm caused by the mean old scale. The first, called white lies, allows the person being weighed to lie to him or herself: the further back you stand on it, the lighter you become. “The user can gradually move closer and closer to reality,” she notes. (Via Gizmodo.)

The second, called half-truth, can only be read by a person who is not on the scale: its readout is at the front edge, perpendicular to the floor. “Suitable for cohabiting partners,” notes Wang.

Finally, there’s open secrets, which doesn’t show you your weight at all: it sends a text message to a specified mobile phone, instead. The recipient of the message can then decide whether to share your weight with you immediately, the next time you meet–or not at all. “Suitable for pre-cohabiting couples,” says Wang.

Up next: the Heinleinian Starship Troopers scale, which will only consent to weigh you if you first serve two years in the military.

(Photo: Alice Wang.)

A soft spot for hardware - the future of human/robot intercourse

Paul Raven @ 14-02-2008

The robotic love-slave- it’s a science fiction trope as old as the hills, but that doesn’t stop it getting dragged out of retirement by the occasional academic … not to mention science and technology websites looking for a humorous Valentines Day item. Ahem. [Image by kaibara87]

Cosmos Magazine talks to David Levy, a professor of gender studies and artificial intelligence, about what he sees as the inevitability of robot lovers:

“[He] is convinced the demand is there and that market forces will provide the financial drive to overcome any technical – or psychological – obstacles. “It is only a matter of time before someone in the adult entertainment industry, which is awash in money, thinks, ‘Gee, I could make a pile of money’,” he says.”

The less charitable might possibly conclude that a similar line of thought may have given rise to Levy’s book …

I’m particularly fond of The Holy Machine by Chris Beckett, a science fiction novel that deals with a man falling in love with an android prostitute; it also has a whole lot to say about the conflict between science and religion, and a redemptive ending with zero schmaltz.

Any robot romance reading recommendations from the audience?

Robots evolve ability to lie…and be heroes

Edward Willett @ 18-01-2008

There’s been lots of discussion here about how we should treat robots; maybe we need to consider how robots will treat each other–and, potentially, us. (Via Gizmodo.)

Discover Magazine reminds us, in its review of the Top 100 Science Stories of 2007, that Dario Floreano and colleagues at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology created robots with light sensors, rings of blue light and wheels, placed them in habitats containing both glowing “food patches” that recharged their batteries and patches of “poison” that drained them, and gave them software genes that determined how much they sensed light and how they responded. The first batch were programmed to light up randomly and move randomly when they sensed light. The “genes” of the most successful first-generation robots were then recombined and given to the next generation, with a little random “mutation” thrown in. By the 50th generation, they had robots that would light up to alert other robots when they found food or poison…and in one of the four colonies of robots they created, they had “cheater” robots that would lie and tell other robots that poison was food, while they rolled over to a food patch themselves without signalling at all. Other robots, though, were heroes: they would signal danger when they found the poison and die so other robots could safely obtain food.

Liars and heroes in just 50 generations with just 30 genes. Maybe we really will soon need a robot psychologist a la Isaac Asimov’s character Susan Calvin to figure out why our robots do what they do.

The original research paper, published in Current Biology, is here, and there’s even a movie.

(Image: Laboratory of Intelligent Systems.)

Robotic luggage follows you around, doesn’t eat annoying people…yet

Edward Willett @ 13-11-2007

No, it doesn’t have little feet, and it doesn’t occasionally eat annoying people, but otherwise this Russian-invented luggage that follows its owner around sure sounds like the luggage belonging to Rincewind the Wizzard in Terry Pratchett’s novels: (Via Sci Fi Tech.)

Russian specialists intend to become first in the world to launch mass production of robots-suitcases that are able to follow their owner in footsteps. In order to make the mechanism follow its owner, it is enough for the person to put a sensor-card into a pocket and the suitcase will dutifully roll after the owner.

A gyroscope, light sensitive detectors, ultrasound and infrared sensors help the smart suitcase bypass obstacles, to roll in conditions of an inclined surface, and to stop when stumbling upon the edges of staircases and balconies. The robot-suitcase’s accumulator charge is said to be enough for non-stop operation during 2 hours.

The suitcase developers (Robotronic.ru) have given the mechanism a human name – Tony.

The plan is for the suitcase to be available in 2009 for around $1,960 U.S. (Image from Robotronic.ru.)

Rise of the giggling robots: toddlers accept robot as a peer

Edward Willett @ 06-11-2007

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have discovered that it doesn’t take much to get toddlers to accept a robot as just another kid. (Via New Scientist.)

They put a 60 cm-tall robot called QRIO (pronounced “curio”) into a classroom with a dozen toddlers (video here) and programmed it to giggle when its head was touched, to occasionally sit down, and to lie down when its batteries dies. A human operator could also make it look at a child, or wave as one went away. Over several weeks, the toddlers began interacting with QRIO pretty much the same way they did with other toddlers. They’d even help it up when it fell, and when its batteries died and it lay down, they’d cover it with a blanket and say “night, night.” (Awwww….)

There’s been a lot of recent research on trying to make the robot-human interaction better. Researchers have also taught a robot to dance to a beat, or to a partner’s movement, and are working on giving robots a sense of humor. Add in the martial-arts robots of a few years ago and that robot that conducted a Beethoven symphony, and you’ve got to think a true pass-for-human android a la Blade Runner may not be all that far away.

Whether you think that’s a good idea may depend on how much you took Terminator to heart.

(By the way, this is also the topic of my newspaper science column this week.) (Photo: J. Movellan et al., UCSD.)

Robot and human surgeons compare micro-gravity operating skills

Edward Willett @ 24-09-2007

Good news for future space travelers: the world’s first demonstration of robotic surgery in a simulated micro-gravity environment takes place this week, in a collaborative effort between SRI International and the University of Cincinnati.

On four parabolic flights September 25 to 28 aboard a NASA C-9 aircraft (nicknamed the "Weightless Wonder"), a human surgeon will match suturing and similar skills with a robot surgeon tele-operated from thousands of miles away. The robot surgeon is equipped with special software that is designed to help it compensate for "errors in movement" (what you might call those pesky "oops!" moments that surgeons–and patients–just hate) due to turbulence or lack of gravity. The human surgeon is equipped with an airsickness bag.

The remote-surgery robot has already been tested on the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, 60 feet under the water off the coast of Key Largo, where SRI demonstrated the robot could operate successfully even with a two-second latency, similar to that an Earth-based surgeon would experience if operating such a robot on the moon. Future beneficiaries of such tele-operated surgery could include not only astronauts and military casualties but anyone who needs attention by a surgeon when the hospital is a long way away.

Those who believe they’ve been abducted by aliens and subjected to medical testing, however, might wish to ask for a sedative or a blindfold before a knife-wielding robot is positioned above them.

(Via MedGadget.)

(Photo from NASA via SRI International.)

Mechanical mole robots to the rescue!

Edward Willett @ 18-09-2007

Inspired by the European mole, Robin Scott and Robert Richardson of the University of Manchester hope to develop a digging robot that could "swim" through debris to rescue people trapped under rubble after a disaster. Here’s a video of their new digging mechanism undergoing tests with a range of materials, and here’s an animation that shows how the mechanism works. A search-and-rescue robot based on the design could be ready in as little as two years.

That’s probably longer than you want to wait if you’re trapped under rubble right now, but if you’re planning on being trapped in the future, it’s good to know improved options are on the way.

Other researchers are experimenting with rescue robots that roll, walk or slither.

And then there’s the human-eating firefighter rescue robot. You have to admit, a mechanical mole sounds downright friendly next to that one.

(Via NewScientistTech.)

(Image from Newsline 36, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)

Robot rapper quits the music business

Paul Raven @ 14-08-2007

Toyota's DJ Robot - sick of the scene Looks like there’s now a little less competition in the robot musician scene - Toyota’s “DJ Robot” (who, despite its name, prefers spitting mad lyrics to grappling with the wheels of steel) has turned its back on the music business for a new career as a receptionist. Give it five years, though, and I’m sure there’ll be a cash-in come-back tour. Musicians can never resist a fast buck.

Robot rock and roll

Paul Raven @ 08-08-2007

GTRBOT666 I love my rock music, and I love robots, and I’ve been heard to remark once or twice that the two spheres of interest simply don’t converge often enough. I need never do so again, however, for thanks to Wired I have now discovered Captured! By Robots - a band that consists of one human guy in a gimp mask and a stage-full of freaky foul-mouthed automatons. Be warned - the video clips beyond the link feature synthesized swear-words and the sort of music that doesn’t make it onto daytime radio. Amen to that.

Armed robots roam Iraq

Paul Raven @ 03-08-2007

Battlefield robots have been around for a few years now, but only now are fully-armed ~~autonomous~~ machines patrolling danger zones in the Middle East. They apparently have yet to actually open fire on anything (or anyone), but that’s a mere technicality. So, repeat after me: “I, for one, welcome our new …” [SlashDot]

Robots play drums and perform heart ops

Paul Raven @ 23-07-2007

Yaskawa Electric's taiko-drumming Motoman robot Pretty soon we won’t have to do anything for ourselves. Well, OK, that’s an exaggeration, but the list of tasks that robots can now perform as well as a human grows longer by the week. At the more mundane end of the scale (except in cultural terms, perhaps) Yaskawa Electric have fixed up one of their Motoman industrial robots to play taiko drums at a Japanese festival. Arguably more beneficial to the well-being of our species is the Sensei robotic arm at London’s St Mary’s Hospital, which is performing joystick-controlled heart surgery - with developers confident that a fully automated version is not far off.

Spying bugs take wing

Paul Raven @ 19-07-2007

Robot insect from Harvard University

The bugs used by spies and spooks have just taken a step closer to resembling their namesakes. Harvard University engineers have produced a life-size robotic fly that uses the same mechanical principles as living insects to get around. Its potential utility as a surveillance platform is obvious enough, and as the article notes, it might make a useful mobile sensor for hazardous or inaccessible locations … but I wonder what uses the street will find for this sort of technology once they can be fabbed cheaply en masse? I’m thinking advertising. [Gizmodo]

JACK’S GIFT by Jason Stoddard

Jeremy Lyon @ 06-12-2006

Jason Stoddard (whose “Changing The Tune” appeared here just over a year ago) brings us December’s short story; “Jack’s Gift” is our first honest-to-God holiday piece. Think Metropolis meets Miracle On 34th Street; grit with a lot of heart. Enjoy!

Jack’s Gift

by Jason Stoddard

When Sandra was six, she asked the question for the first time.

“Daddy, is there a Santa Claus?”

And, like all first times, the answer was easy.

“You email him your list, and he sends you presents, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“So there must be a Santa Claus.”

“Oh, okay.” And she drifted off into the perfect sleep of children who have had the world sorted to their satisfaction.

When Sandra was eight, she asked something harder. Continue reading “JACK’S GIFT by Jason Stoddard”

Swarms, Not Flocks

Paul Raven @ 08-08-2006

Here’s an interesting round-up of info about the work being done on developing UAVs that fly in swarms. The swarm is a great model of operations for flying robots, as it allows for complex behaviours without centralised control of the individuals, by using a form of communication referred to as ’stigmergy’. Not convinced? Think of a flock of birds at dusk, and the way they can all move with a uniform fluidity, never crashing into one another, and seemingly thinking as one. We’ll probably see military apps first, but this technique could be applied to planetary exploration too.

You The Man Now, Dog

Paul Raven @ 28-06-2006

Everybody wants to get on that robot bandwagon, and the military are no exception. They’ve been investing in the development of a robotic pack-animal called the BigDog, which looks kind of like a headless metal dog/horse hybrid. Ugly as it may be, it can apparently tote 120lbs over a variety of terrains.

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