Thursday, September 24, 2009

Robo doc

robot doc

After intensive surgery would you rather have your regular doc check your stiches via unnerving robot or settle for an unfamiliar albeit live physician? That's the question that a recent study at Johns Hopkin's has asked — if you can really call a 60-person survey, conducted by a doctor who also owns the robot-manufacturing company, a study. But this new "study" has found, that yes, patients prefer their own physician by way of robot-screen rather than settle for an unknown mystery doctor. InTouch Health Inc., owned by John Hopkin's urologist Dr. Kavoussi, has developed the robot system which uses a video camera, speaker and computer screen to conduct "telerounding", the robotic version of the short checkup visits doctors do throughout your hospital stay. From some distant location (maybe down the hall, maybe in the next state), the doctor uses a joystick to move the robot and to interact with eager patients. Probably the next step would be to just keep a similar screen, camera and speaker in every hospital room, and ditch the lone, wandering-robot altogether.

Live from E3: fightin' Robosapiens

Robosapiens
Robosapiens

Our publisher Jason Calacanis is also at E3 this week and sent us these action shots of a couple of those Robosapiens robots locked in combat.

Asimo demos his skills

AsimoWired News is reporting about Wired's NextFest performance of Asimo—the friendly little robot from Honda. There are two nice video clips of Asimo balancing his 'body' in one foot and climbing stairs up and down. Notice that Asimo is controlled remotely and doesn't listen or react to the people on stage like it seems.

Videos of Asimo's rival, Qrio, made rounds on the web last year when Sony put him to dance in front of cameras.

Origami-robot

robot origami If for some bizarre reason pre-folded origami were ever to become next season's must-have trend (hey, weirder things have happened, it could be like the new Martha's breakout decor), then one PhD student over at Carnegie Mellon's Robotic Institute is going to be well-prepared. Devin Balkcom created the first ever origami-folding robot, which uses an industrial mechanical arm to pick up the paper, rotate it and place it on a worktable, where a ruler descends down and presses the paper into a groove. The resulting origami-shapes look more like the work of your distracted kid-brother and are not as precise as an eager human origami-maker. But if that origami-revolution ever hits we'll know who'll be laughing all the way to the bank. If you go to his website you can see a quicktime clip of the bot making hats and airplanes, http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~devin/.

CubeSolver -- a Rubik's puzzle solver robot

CubeSolver

This is what we would do if we didn't have to blog all day. The CubicSolver is a Lego Mindstorms robot that solves the Rubik's cube puzzle. It even includes a color-recognition software module based on a Logitech Quick Cam API.

[Via Joi Ito]

Robots rising up in protest

Robots protesting

We all knew the day would come sooner or later when robots would rise up against their human masters. We just always figured it be a lot more violent than this peaceful protest. Throw some molotov cocktails or something!

[Via BoingBoing]

The MADMEN: NASA's swarm of asteroid deflecting robots

NASA MADMEN

And speaking of NASA and robots, the agency has contracted SpaceWorks Engineering to investigate something we thought they should have done ever since Deep Impact and Armaggedon scared the crap out of us a few years back: build a fleet of robots that can destroy any asteroid that's on a collision course with the Earth. Most unreassuringly, they're calling the robots "Modular Asteroid Deflection Mission Ejector Nodes", or MADMEN, and they're supposed to work by chipping away at the asteroid and using the resulting force from the ejection to gradually push the asteroid of the Earth's path.

NASA's Robonaut

Robonaut Not only is NASA working on removing pilots from the skies, they also want to replace us on spacewalks as well. Fortunately for us, the Robonaut is designed to be remotely-controlled by a human, thus preventing a team of renegade Robonauts from taking over the International Space Station. Should be a while before we see one of these in orbit, but NASA says that they've been having a lot of success having Robonauts practice doing simulated repairs on the Hubble Space Telescope.

The ironing robot

Dressman ironing robot

We were expecting some sort of crazy futuristic robot that we could set up in front of an ironing board and charge with pressing our entire wardrobe, but the Dressman can only iron one thing: dress shirts (which isn't so bad). Anyway, it's basically a mannequin that you pull a shirt over (the shirt has to be still damp from being washed), and that then inflates with air to press the shirt flat while warm air dries it.

The Automower

automowerNew robotic lawnmower From Electrolux, the same people who also make that Trilobite robotic vacuum cleaner. Rather than moving across your lawn in neat little rows, the Automower moves around erratically in all directions until your entire lawn has been convered. Also comes with a security code to deter "kidnappings by jealous neighbors".

[Via The Red Ferret Journal]

The all-new Banryu guard-dragon

banryuSanyo and Tmsuk just came out with a brand new version of the Banryu robotic guard-dragon, though this new version, which can give quizzes and forecast horoscopes, puts a little less emphasis on the guarding and more on the entertaining (unless, of course, the plan is to frustrate intruders with inane banter). Like the original Banryu, this new one can also be remote-controlled using a cellphone or a wireless PDA.

Japan's therapeutic robots

aiboIf you ever needed a way to illustrate the difference between the US and Japan when it comes to technology, you need look no further than the fact that in Japan they're already well on their way to having robots take care of the elderly (we're just getting started here). The New York Times had an article about this a few weeks ago, focusing mainly on robotic machines for washing people and that sort of thing, but the AP has a story about the use of robots for more therapeutic purposes (no, not like that!). Mainly it involves helping people with memory loss by making robots that mimic cuddly animals, like the Paro, a robotic baby seal, or dressing up Sony's Aibo robotic dog in plush clothing (do we detect the beginnings of a new trend?)

The first robotic casualty of war?

packbot

We hadn't even been aware that the US military was already using these there (we'd heard about their use in Afghanistan), but iRobot, the company behind the Roomba RoboVac, says that the first PackBot has been destroyed in action in Iraq. They also reveal that there are somewhere between 50 and 100 of the robots on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan that are being used for stuff like reconaissance and the finding and disposing of explosives. If you don't count any of those Predator unmanned surveillance drones that have been downed, could this be the first robotic casualty of war?

The PatrolBot

PatrolBot

If you think that Tsmuk's Banryu guard-dragon isn't quite old school enough for you, check out the new PatrolBot from ActivMedia Robotics, which looks like a 1980's interpretation of a 1950's sci-fi bot. Besides the usual security and surveillance stuff, the PatrolBot can do a bunch of other useful things like greet guests, lead building tours, and find out which parts of your office or home have crappy WiFi coverage. Starts at $30,000.

The Octopus Robot, Not A Robot Octopus

octopus

This summer Doctor Octopus will be using four mechanical arms to help him climb up buildings and terrorize New York. It's not going to take over the world this summer, but researchers at the Lausanne Polytechnic University in Switzerland have developed a mechanical Octopus of their own. It too has four mechanical arms, but it can't climb the Empire State Building just yet. It's called the Octopus because it moves much like an octopus skims the sea floor. It rolls along on eight wheels with infrared sensors embedded in each one to detect obstacles, whether barriers or holes. The robot can then adjust its arms (which have 2 joints and 2 wheels) to tackle the obstacle.

[Thanks, Paul]

Koolio

koolio

When it comes right down to it, all we want are robots that can attend to our every need, no matter how trivial. Which is why we were so heartened to learn about Koolio, a dreadlock-free, non-rapping mobile refrigerator robot that the geeks at the University of Florida's Machine Intelligence Lab built so that they could have the cool, refreshing beverage of their choice automatically delivered to them anywhere in the building. Now all they need is robot that can restock Koolio when it runs low on Mountain Dew - Code Red.

[Via Metafilter]

The robotic king of comedy

zenjiroShaming us once again with our backwardness, the world's first ever human/robot comedy duo makes its debut tonite in Japan. Consisting of human comedian Zenjiro (who from what we can tell mainly makes jokes about the differences between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese people) and his robotic sidekick, PaPeJiro, will take the stage for a new TV show that has something to do about learning English. Winning big points for its creativity, the show is rather cryptically entitled "Zenjiro and Robot Sketch Comedy".

[Via BoingBoing]

The 11th Annual International Fire Fighting Robot Contest

fire fighting robot

First off, not only where we surprised to discover that there's an International Fire Fighting Robot Contest, but it was even more shocking to learn that it's in its eleventh year. Where have we been? Anyway, for whatever reason the Israelis totally dominate the world of fire fighting robotics competitions (sorta like the East Germans and Olympic swimming back in the Seventies, but without the steroids), and came away with all three top prizes at this year's event which was held this month at Trinity College in Connecticut.

First nanobot takes baby steps

A couple of US chemists have designed the world's first two-footed microscopic robot which can walk around its lab dish (aw, cute). The robot's legs, made from DNA fragments, are only 10-billionths of a meter long (10 nanometers) and can walk along by way of attaching and detaching itself to a track made out of DNA. Walking nanorobots will be really useful for nanoscale manufacturing so the next step is to get the nanowalker to carry an atom so that the little guys can actually assemble other nanomachines.

pt's How-To Friday…How to put your Roomba Robot Vacuum in "Hardware check" mode

Featured Story

roomba pro
The Roomba is a fairly popular Robotic Vacuuming robot, I use one to clean up the hardwood floors every couple days or so- saving me about 30 minutes or so per month in hardcore vacuuming. When you add it all up, 30 minutes per month x 12 months x the next 50 years or so I have left- that's about 13 days. I'd like to use that time for other things, so for me the Roomba is a time machine, giving me back little bits of time. But I digress…

Any way, the Roomba has a hidden feature which is quite cool and that is this weeks "pt's how-to": The Roomba "Hardware Check" mode. In this mode you can test all the functions as well as have a bit of fun. Now be careful, the Roomba will not stop when it hits something and behave normally and thus violate the 3 rules :-]

  • The Roomba should be fully charged, unplugged and off.

  • To put the Roomba in "Hardware Check" mode you need to hold down the S, M and L button all at the same time while turning on the unit.

    roomba three button

  • You'll know you're in "Hardware Check" when the battery light flashes green, yellow and red. These are all the possible colors of charging, which is kinda cool to see.

  • To get out of this mode, press the power button at any time.

The S and L buttons are what controls what function you can test, by pressing either button- these buttons cycles through all the possible tests. Here's a guide.

Press the L button the 1st time lets you test the bumpers. After pressing the L button, you'll hear one beep- tap the bumper on the left, right or center. You'll see the Roomba lights light up indicating that the bumper sensors are functional.

Pressing the L button for the 2nd time (you'll hear two beeps) lets you test the "cliff detection sensors". After pressing the L button twice, pick up the Roomba and wave your hand over the upper right sensors. As your hand blocks one or the other the S and M lights will turn on or off.

Pressing the L button for the 3rd time (you'll hear three beeps) lets you test the front "cliff detection sensors" again, this time it tests the sensors on the opposite side, near the spinning brush. You can way your hand and watch the M and L lights turn on and off.

Pressing the L button for the 4th time (you'll hear 5 beeps) tests if the front wheel is touching the ground or not. Lift the Roomba to test. One other cool thing about this mode is you can test Virtual Wall sensors. Turn on one of your Virtual Wall sensors and place it near the Roombad, you'll see that the S light is illuminated as the sensor is near the unit.

roomba and virtual walls

Pressing the L button for the 5th time (you'll hear 5 beeps) will put the Roomba in "bulldozer" mode, in other words it'll just roll forward no matter what, the sensors and bumpers and picking it up will not stop it. Be careful, don't let the Roomba damage you or itself.

Pressing the L button for the 6th time (you'll hear 6 beeps) will do the same thing as the previous test, but the Roomba will go backwards and the S – L buttons will flash, I'm not sure what that is for, but that is what they do. If you figure it out, email me.

Pressing the L button for the 7th time (you'll hear 7 beeps) will test the center spinning brushes (the main vacuuming part). This is a good way to clean the main brush too, at least that is what I like to do.

Pressing the L button for the 8th time (you'll hear 8 beeps) will test the little side spinning brush.

For the Roomba Pro (new model) there is a 9th press and that tests the back filter it seems (8th is the back filter, 9th is the side spinning brush).

If you press the buttons again, it starts over.

That's it, lots of cool stuff huh? This summer, I'll be filming a series of short films "RoombaFilms" where the Roomba visits all sorts of places, normally this would be hard as it wouldn't just travel in a straight line, so with this mode I can film it and do cool stuff. But for now, I give you a short video, Roomba- the best robotic vacuum and dog toy you can buy. Click here to view.

Questions, Comments? Suggestion for the next How-to? phillip@flashenabled.com

Phillip M. Torrone is Director of Product Development for Fallon Worldwide (www.fallon.com), a creative firm best known for their award winning work on BMWFilms.com. Phillip runs the uber-geeky site http://www.flashenabled.com where he writes about the future, gadgets, art, roblogs, physics, and marathon running.

Sony's Aibo: the pathophobe's pet of choice

Aibo

James Gorman always wondered why anyone would pick Sony's Aibo robotic dog until he started reading up on hookworm and all the other obscure parasites and diseases you can pick up from pets (to say nothing of the allergies that tons of people have these days). Not that we ourselves needed any reason, since we're way past the point where we'd even consider owning a living pet.

The man behind the Roomba

roomba

Simson Garfinkel might obsess over whether the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner is a boy or a girl, but at the end of the day all you really care about is whether it keeps your floors clean, right? And in an interview in BusinessWeek, the CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle makes it abundantly clear that Sony and Honda can keep their Aibos, Qrios, and Asimos — iRobot is only interested in building "practical" robots and are working on a whole range of robots designed to do household chores. Though as far as we can tell they're still a distressingly long way away from coming out with a robot that can take our Aibo for a walk.

Grand Challenge Update

team DADWe're only two hours into the Grand Challenge, and it's already not looking good. One team (Team TerraHawk) has withdrawn, and seven robots are now listed as disabled, including Carnegie Mellon University's roboticized Humvee which was considered the odds-on favorite. Team DAD, which entered a driverless Toyota pick-up (pictured), has managed to get the furthest of any of the robots — about six miles.

Grand Challenge Update: the Ghost RIder is out!

ghost rider

The only two-wheeled robot entered in today's Grand Challenge, Team Blue's tricked out Ghost Rider motorcycle, has withdrawn from the race. No word yet on why.

Grand Challenge Hijinks

sandstorm crashReading like a robotic comedy of errors, DARPA has produced a masterfully understated official summary of the performance of each of the teams participating in yesterday's Grand Challenge. Some highlights:

Vehicle 22 - Red Team - At mile 7.4. Vehicle went off course, got caught on an obstacle and rubber on the front wheels caught fire, which was quickly extinguished. Vehicle has been disabled.

Vehicle 21- SciAutonicsII - At mile 6.7. Vehicle went into an embankment and became stuck. Vehicle has been disabled, and the team is recovering it.

Vehicle 5 - Team Caltech - At mile 1.3. Vehicle went through a fence, and couldn't come back through. Vehicle has been disabled, and the team is recovering it.

Vehicle 7 - Digital Auto Drive - At mile 6.0. Vehicle was paused to allow a wrecker to get through, and, upon restarting, sensors were not able to determine the proper route. After sensors tried unsuccessfully for three hours, vehicle was disabled.

Vehicle 25 - Virginia Tech - Vehicle brakes locked up in the start area. Vehicle has been removed from the course.

Vehicle 23 - Axion Racing - Vehicle circled the wrong way in the start area. Vehicle has been removed from the course.

Vehicle 2 - Team CajunBot - Vehicle brushed a wall on its way out of the chute. Vehicle has been removed from the course.

Vehicle 4 - Team CIMAR - At mile 0.45. Vehicle ran into some wire and got totally wrapped up in it. Vehicle has been disabled.

Vehicle 20 – Team TerraMax – Got to mile 1.2. Vehicle then started backing up and after .5 miles, the vehicle was disabled.

You can't make this stuff up!

The Deep Sea Crawler

This really is the week for underwater robots. Besides the Aqua, which we mentioned the other day, the International University of Bremen is working on an underwater robot called the Deep Sea Crawler which can transmit images directly to the Internet using a webcam connected to (what we presume to be) an extremely long fiber optic cable.

The ROBOlympics

aibo soccer

We're happy any time that robots are forced to compete against one another, so we're considering flying out to San Francisco for this weekend's ROBOlympics, which has events including a robot sumo wrestling, robot soccer, and a robot triathlon.

Thought-controlled robotic arms for humans

Remember last year how scientists said they were able to train a monkey to control a robotic arm using only its thoughts? Well, they've done some more work and are saying that the they should be able to get it to work with humans. [We know that it sounds like we're making up a lot of the posts today (cellphones that analyze skin and measure body fat! loser detectors!), but we swear that this one is real, too.]

Robots and nationality at the ROBOlympics

robolympicsClark Boyd of BBC News Online notes that there were some interesting, ahem, "cultural differences" between the robots at this past weekend's ROBOlympics in San Francisco:

The Japanese robots reigned supreme when it came to sumo-wrestling, while the European teams showed off their skills on the football pitch. As for the American machines, they specialised in demolishing the living hell out of each other in one-on-one robot combat.

The underwater logging submarine

sawfishYesterday it was the Sawstop, today it's the Sawfish, a remote-controlled robotic submarine from Triton Logging that comes with a chainsaw for cutting down underwater trees. We hadn't even realized that there were trees underwater that needed cutting down, but apparently there are some 200 million trees worldwide that are at the bottom of lakes and reservoirs that were created by the building of hydroelectric dams. If the water at the bottom of the lake is cold enough, the trees usually don't rot and can actually be sold as lumber.

[Via Slashdot]

The Enryu in action

enryu

Dottocomu has some links to video footage of the Enryu, Tsmuk's giant rescue robot, driving around, ripping the door off a car, and picking up steel girders. Apparently it requires a special "rescue robot driver's license" to operate, which effectively dashes our plans of hijacking one and wreaking havoc in downtown Tokyo.

Fear of nanobots

James Pethokoukis thinks it's curious that the 21st-Century Nanotech Research and Development Act explicitly omits funding for the study of nanobots, possibly because of a fear that tiny self-replicating machines might reproduce uncontrollably and eventually cover the earth (the so-called "grey goo" theory), and that the government's policy seems to be that nanobots could only be used for destructive purposes.

[Via Instapundit]

Qatar to use robots as camel jockeys rather than kidnapped children

camelsThis is just bizarre on so many levels: Because of all sorts of complaints from human rights groups about the practice of kidnapping children from other countries and forcing them into service as jockeys in camel races, the Persian Gulf state of Qatar held its first camel race the other day using robot-jockeys rather than actual live human riders. It's definitely encouraging to see Qatar taking a big step forward like this.

Grand Challenge video clips

sandstorm crashSome semi-amazing video footage of the Grand Challenge robotic road race that DARPA held earlier this month. It's not exactly NASCAR, but we did get a kick out of watching robot after robot starting up and then moments later either crashing into a wall, stalling, or catching on fire.

The Visi'ON

visionWe promised ourselves we'd stop betting on robotic atheletic competitions (we only lost a few hundred bucks on this year's ROBOlympics), but it's gonna be hard not to put a line down on the the Visi'ON, a 38-inch tall, bipedal robot designed to play soccer games in the upcoming RoboCup tournament being held in Osaka.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Toyota's humanoid robot was born to run


We essentially can't get enough of advanced robots doing things that look human -- probably in the same way we can't get enough of pretending our dog understands English. Anthropomorphism aside, Toyota's humanoid running robot is really impressive. It's got a super impressive sense of balance, and he's quite fast on his feet -- running at an average of 7 km an hour (yes, that's faster than ASIMO can run), too. We can say with 100 percent certainty that we'd like to hang out with this guy -- check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Toyota's humanoid robot was born to run

Arduino-based 'insecure, egotistical' robot band


One part gadget, one part art project, and 100% awesome, the Cybraphon is a MacBook powered, Arduino-based mechanical band housed in an antique wardrobe. Including an organ, cymbals, a motor-driven Indian Shruti box (played with 13 robotic servos, no less), and a gramophone, it relies on infrared motion detectors to sense when it has an audience. A number of factors, including the amount of attention it gets on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, help the device determine its "mood," which in turn determines when the "band" plays, and what material it selects. According to one of the artist / inventors, the Cybraphon is a "tongue-in-cheek comment on people's obsession with online celebrity. We modeled it on an insecure, egotistical band." That's our favorite kind! And you know, the thing doesn't sound half bad. Check it out for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Video: Arduino-based 'insecure, egotistical' robot band

Urban Mole robot could deliver your mail via insane network of underground tubes

Designer Phillip Hermes has come up with a new system to transport packages which, if ever instituted, could probably be much faster than any of today's available options (trucks, mailmen, airplanes, ponies). The Urban Mole -- which recently placed second in the Vision Works contest -- enables the use of "existing networks" of underground pipes (yes, sewer pipes) to transport packages up to about the size of a shoebox, which are put in capsules to fully protect the contents from the surrounding sewer water. The packages would be moved via a system of electric rails within the pipes, creating a robotic underground highway for transporting goods to drop off points, or "Mole Stations" where people can pick up their goods. Hermes estimates that an average cross-town trip could take less than ten minutes. Sounds a lot more eco-friendly and way faster than the grumpy mailman, right? It doesn't sound like there are any plans to bring this project to fruition, but we sure will keep hoping.

[Via Wired]

Cornell's autonomous robot sub wins competition, our hearts


Cornell sure seems to be doing its part to usher in a world where robots call the shots and humans spend most of their time cowering in the corners of bomb-out buildings. Researchers at the school have variously applied their brain matter (and we're guessing the occasional government check) to such sticky problems as robot consciousness, distance walking, and complications related to using robotics in zero gravity. And now we've heard that the school has just won something called the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. The vehicles entered in the 12th annual AUVC (which was held at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego) ran an underwater obstacle course that involved bombing things, firing torpedoes, and eventually recovering a suitcase with "secret documents" (or old issues of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, depending on who you believe). You can see the thing in action for yourself in the video after the break.

[Via GoRobotics.net]

Researchers teach ASIMO and HRP-2 a bit of real life Frogger


Some George Costanza-types at Carnegie Mellon have repurposed their own hard earned knowledge of Frogger maneuvers at the university arcade into useful object avoidance techniques for robots. They've outfitted both ASIMO and HRP-2 with versions of the technology, which allows the robots to detect their surroundings, create 3D maps of obstacles and plan routes accordingly (and actually has nothing to do with Frogger). If you check out the two videos after the break, you can see that these guys really put the bots through the ringer, including some death defying spinning obstacles that ASIMO avoided with ease, and the "real life" environment the HRP-2 is faced with... but seriously, couldn't they just let ASIMO have the blue dot already?

[Thanks, Poly Bug]

ALSOK unveils its giant, ultra-cute and friendly security bot, An9-PR

If ALSOK's latest security / guidance robot looks a bit familiar -- well, we've seen his kind before. The company's latest offering - the An9-PR is an update of its previous bot -- the better-named Reborg Q. The An9-PR is a multi-tasker, meant for showroom floors and malls, where it can display advertisements, directions to the restroom, and missing children alerts on any of its three touchscreen LCDS, and it's got WiFi and face recognition capabilities, making him a decent security guard, too! The robot weigh about 440 pounds, and is on four wheels to make it easier to move. The An9-PR will apparently go on sale in Japan starting in March of 2010, for about $150,000. There's another shot of this cutie after the break.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

Robots cook delicious ramen noodles for expendable humans


So you think you've seen robot chefs before, huh? Well, actually, yes you probably have -- but you sure as hell haven't seen a mechanical cook spinning plates, right? We thought so. The latest culinary drone, hailing from Nagoya, Japan, features a pair of delightfully dextrous arms and is capable of serving up a yummy bowl of ramen noodles in under two minutes. With such rapid speed, the bots get some downtime, which they fill by performing a little show for their clientele. Trust us, you really don't wanna be the one person who didn't see the surreal duel that lies beyond the break.

[Via Switched]

ECCEROBOT emulates your musculoskeletal system, looks like Beaker from the Muppets


Anthropomimetic robots. It's not something that rolls off the tongue, but the ECCEROBOT is just such a robot, and it's really a sight to behold. Developed by a consortium of European robotics labs, the motivation behind the creation is to more accurately copy human internal structure, using thermoplastic polymer for bones, screwdriver motors and shock cord for muscle, and kiteline for tendons. The results are impressive, if not a bit creepy. According to IEEE Spectrum, scientists hope in the future to use ECCEROBOT's human-like form to "explore human-like cognitive features," which may or may not include starring opposite Christian Bale in science fiction films. See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading ECCEROBOT emulates your musculoskeletal system, looks like Beaker from the Muppets

DraganFlyer X4 UAV puts the camera where it needs to be, even when the floor is lava


It's been a while since we've heard from Draganfly, a name familiar to connoisseurs of unmanned aerial photography. The company's latest outing, the DraganFlyer X4, is a four-rotor UAV that measures only 30.5-inches across and since it ships with your choice of either a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580, Watec WAT-902H2 Ultimate (for shooting in low light), FLIR Photon TAU (infrared), or the Highg Res 480 Board Camera (analog motion video with an 8GB DVR), we imagine that this thing ain't going to be cheap. That said, if you are a well-heeled creepy stalker, southern border vigilante, or even someone with legitimate military / industrial business, there are plenty of features to make it worth a second look, including: computerized stabilization, altitude hold (maintains its position in the air without user input), and an automatic landing feature that kicks in if the control link is lost. But most importantly for the airborne auteur, this guy sports a wireless video downlink that sends the viewfinder signal that can be displayed either on the device's handheld controller or a pair of video goggles, allowing real-time manipulation of zoom, tilt, and shutter settings. Get a closer look at the thing after the break.

Continue reading DraganFlyer X4 UAV puts the camera where it needs to be, even when the floor is lava

Latest ASIMO prototype is made of wood, requires one human


Honda may have bestowed plenty of improvements on ASIMO over the years, but it looks like an alumni of rival robot maker Waseda University has taken it upon himself to deliver some improvements of his own that make it even more lifelike, though no doubt just as prone to tumbles. The key, it seems, is to ditch the robotics and high-tech materials altogether and instead use something called "wood," which can be fashioned into a shell (or "costume," if you will) that's able to accommodate one slightly uncomfortable human. Either that, or ASIMO has been robot-napped from Honda and is now being held at an undisclosed location. Check out the video after the break to decide for yourself.

Continue reading Latest ASIMO prototype is made of wood, requires one human

Researchers develop infrared vegetable harvesting robot, to the disgust of children everywhere


Researchers at England's National Physical Laboratory are working on a device that uses a modified microwave measurement system, terahertz and far-infrared radio frequencies, and a clever cauliflower detection algorithm to let robots "see" beneath -- and harvest -- crops that current technology cannot. So far, the imaging system has been successfully demonstrated in the lab, sparking the interest of at least one UK lettuce grower, and it looks like a product could be commercially available as early as next year. According to Dr. Richard Dudley, Project Lead at NPL, the team began by focusing on cauliflower crops because they're both "one of the hardest" to measure, and totally gross.

Researchers develop infrared vegetable harvesting robot, to the disgust of children everywhere


The Tokyo Fire Department faces somewhat stiffer challenges than your run-of-the-mill blown battery or imploding workstation, so we're happy to see them enroll the use of some hi-tech machinery into their arsenal. The latest entrant is a human extraction bot, designed to do the heroic fireman thing without risking the lives of any actual, uh, men. Operated by remote control, it gets into hot, wet or earthquakey zones, finds the unconscious humanoids and devours them for later regurgitation. What's not to love? We haven't got a name for it yet, though we know it has a bigger brother equipped with all sorts of cameras and environmental detectors, so we suspect this is a pretty intelligent little beast as well. Just mosey on past the break already, and try to keep the Soylent Green jokes to a minimum.

[Via Ubergizmo]

Rescue drone swallows humans, carries them to safety


The Tokyo Fire Department faces somewhat stiffer challenges than your run-of-the-mill blown battery or imploding workstation, so we're happy to see them enroll the use of some hi-tech machinery into their arsenal. The latest entrant is a human extraction bot, designed to do the heroic fireman thing without risking the lives of any actual, uh, men. Operated by remote control, it gets into hot, wet or earthquakey zones, finds the unconscious humanoids and devours them for later regurgitation. What's not to love? We haven't got a name for it yet, though we know it has a bigger brother equipped with all sorts of cameras and environmental detectors, so we suspect this is a pretty intelligent little beast as well. Just mosey on past the break already, and try to keep the Soylent Green jokes to a minimum.

[Via Ubergizmo]

ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering


The biannual International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence has this year shed light on a new effort to standardize robot instructions around a common platform, so that designers won't have to "reinvent the wheel over and over" with every project. Presently, robot design is undertaken in an ad hoc fashion, with both hardware and software being built from scratch, but teams at Stanford, MIT and the Technical University of Munich are hoping to change that with the Robot Operating System, or ROS. This new OS would have to compete with Microsoft's robotics offering, but the general enthusiasm for it at the conference suggests a bright future, with some brave souls even envisioning a robot app store somewhere down the line. Video after the break.

Continue reading ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering

RED ONE mounted to UAV, flown around San Juan Island (Update: false alarm, it's a Panasonic)


Never one to miss a chance to feature action-packed UAV footage on this space, here we have a behind-the-scenes look at the new Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band video for you. While it ain't exactly Hearts of Darkness or Burden of Dreams, sometimes there are more important things than pathos, obsession, and heartbeak -- in this case, up close and personal shots of AerialPan Imaging's custom-built remote control camera rig, complete with mounted RED ONE HD video camera. Not too many technical details for you, but there is enough remote controlled helicopter excitement to make you wish you were on location at San Juan Island with one of these bad boys. Check it out for yourself after the break.

Update: As one of our colleagues (and a couple eagle-eyed readers) so graciously pointed out, the camera mounted to the helicopter has the tell-tale markings (peep the on-board mic) of a Panasonic HVX200. Thanks, kids!

[Via CNET]