Groonk's Newsmine 2.0

Posted by Groonk at 07:13 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Only in Japan, Robots, Versus, Video

November 19, 2007

Aiko has a Mean(Slow) Right Hook

(via geekologie, pervert scientist youtube)

Posted by Groonk at 08:59 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

October 23, 2007

The Celebrated Jumping Frog Bot of Tokyo University

There's been a lack of robot research in the Newsmine lately. Let's remedy that.

(via geekologie, crazy legs frogbot youtube)

Posted by Groonk at 06:15 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

August 02, 2007

Sexy Robot Women Collected on One Poster

Ain't It Cool ran a Robot Poster contest and the winner was this:

supersized here

And a mighty fine winner indeed.

I can name about half of them. The rest, well even *I* am not that geeky.

(via ain't it cool and some random search i was doing)

Posted by Groonk at 09:40 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, Robots, Sex

July 27, 2007

Suicide Bot Takes One for the Team

Another instant of robots taking jobs from hard working mammals.

"It's a kamikaze vehicle, a suicidal robot," said Mathieu Kemp, a scientist with Durham, N.C.-based Nekton Research, LCC, which created the Transphibian.

The 3-foot-long device, which will some day carry 14 pounds of plastic explosives and attach itself to an underwater bomb before igniting, can be maneuvered by a joystick, which Kemp demonstrated last month at the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Fest, an annual two-week gathering of researchers who design robots for military use.

Experts with the Panama City Beach-based Naval Surface Warfare Center say such robots eventually will replace minesweeping ships and perform dangerous jobs now done by specialized divers.

By "specialized divers" you just know he means K-Dog. Come to think of it, I'm sure K-Dog will be grateful Suicide Bots will blow stuff up.

(via myway and 7d)

Posted by Groonk at 06:45 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, War

June 06, 2007

BLIND CLICK 11: Robo Reconaissance

(via rocketboom)

Posted by Groonk at 05:48 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Research, Robots, Video

June 01, 2007

LOLBOTS Pleases My Funnybone

R Stevens broke out this meme dealing with macro-ing robots. It took off like a shuttle launch*.

"robots are the new kittens"

I don't get why meme pages rule the internets. Some of them are hilarious like LOLBOTS and icanhascheeseburger. And some, well, we just won't mention them. Ever.

(*Meaning it was a hit)

(via diesel sweeties)

Posted by Groonk at 04:43 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Robots

April 22, 2007

Cee Gee's Nazi War Mecha Completely Blows My Mind

If the greatest generation were going to fight WWII with giant warbots, I know it'd play out just like this.

(via medicmike and cee gee and emotional design)

Posted by Groonk at 05:00 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Movies, Robots, Video, WorldWarII

March 22, 2007

Robotics Students Know How to Keep their Fuel Cells Charged

In other news, Carnegie Mellon robotics students Phil and Marek(the Keepon robot guy) have a side project of brewing beers. Robot themed beers, of course.

(via dirtyrobotbrews)

Posted by Groonk at 09:43 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Robots

Keepon: The Blobby Little Robot that Dances

It's a project meant to revolutionize human-robot interaction. It has robot eyes and a mic to hear.

It looks like a peep(downgrade) and dances better than I ever considered(tragic upgrade).

A robot blob that dances "soulfully" to different tunes could pave the way for machines that interact more naturally with human beings, researchers claim.

Marek Michalowski of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, and Hideki Kozima of the National Institute of Communications Technology (NICT) in Kyoto, Japan, programmed the squishy, yellow robot, called "Keepon", to pick out the beat in a piece of music and move along in time. It can also track the rhythmic motion of a person or another object and move in time to that.

Inside the hollow robot's silicone body are motors, wires and a mechanical device called a gimbal that tugs it like a reversed marionette. Keepon responds by nodding, bobbing, twisting and shaking in time to audio or visual stimulation. "The robot can dance either to sound or video," says Michalowski. A video produced by the researchers shows the uncannily cute Keepon bopping to a track by US rock band Spoon.

» Keepon tracks your every move

» Keepon dances its blobby little body off

» Keepon stares a puppy down

(via new scientist and all the other links above)

Posted by Groonk at 08:51 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

March 17, 2007

Jeffbots has a Gallery of Silver Screen Robots

"sadly, we knew she was a robot all along."

I went looking for web mentions on the SATURN 3 movie robot, Hector. I was making comparisons to Dexter looking just as murderous as the fictional Hector.

What I found was some fellow's quaint collection of robots in film. He mentions robots from Judge Dredd to Buck Rogers penis-head stutter bot to Vincnet and Bob from Disney's BLACK HOLE, this guy has logged them all on the intertubes.

(via www.jeffbots.com)

Posted by Groonk at 01:54 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Movies, Robots

Future Pipe: Dexter Doesn't Take Guff from any Other Robot

Dexter here is a robot that has had to learn to walk like humans do. No preset stances or what not. It learned how to balance and everything and it can't be pushed down by other robots:

Does anyone remember a slightly boring little 1980s scifi film called SATURN 3?

No?

Well Dexter here reminds me of that film's robot Hector. And Hector was not a very good bot at all.

I'd rather have the pushy wheelie-bot. It's like a "thinking" Sedgeway that could give you piggy back rides and best the meanest bullies on your block. Kid Nerds would unite and roam the streets on there pushy wheelie-bot enforcers.

(via push that bot down YouTube; geekologie)

Posted by Groonk at 01:36 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

January 11, 2007

RoboPanda Likes the Good Touch

video after the jump

(via chip chick and non-video sharing engadget)

Posted by Groonk at 04:16 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, Robots, Video

January 04, 2007

The HAL5 is a Walking Mac Powersuit

I said powerSUIT.

It's the selective glowy bits that give this contraption its Mac-ness. There would be viewable video but the sucker's embed function is disabled at the source. You can still look at the thing. Just not on my noise.

(via rocketboom and cyborg enhanced youtube)

Posted by Groonk at 08:09 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Robots

November 06, 2006

Robots Like it Kinky

My first sex and robots in a movie mashup post. I'm so proud.

then ride the metallic pony

(via warren ellis and tribeca film festival)

Posted by Groonk at 04:55 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Movies, Robots, Sex, Trailers

July 06, 2006

Daft Punk's "Electroma" is a Little Weird

To anyone who has not seen "Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5olar 5ystem" this Daft Punk movie teaser might seem a tad strange. Interstella 5555 was an anime movie done in the style of "Captain Harlock" himself, Leiji Matsumoto. It was set entirely to Daft Punk's album Discovery and had no dialogue. I own it and think the damn thing's brilliant.

So I watched Electroma's trailer figuring that DP was up to similar tricks.

WTF? Robot marriage? Robots on a rip roarin' road trip? Robot's clad in black leather? I don't know what this movie's about but I'm sort of intrigued by it.

Clips from Interstella 5555 can be found on "God's loving heart" here, here, and here.

(via I Watch Stuff who gets gracious kudos from me for naming YouTube "God's loving heart")

Posted by Groonk at 12:45 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Movies, Music, On the French, Robots, Trailers, Video

June 26, 2006

"The Turk" Totally Owned Napoleon in Chess

Yes. The Napoleon Bonaparte. The same French ruler that fought Russians in the dead of winter on their own land.

For being a famous hoax, I sure never heard of The Turk. Not until I did some reading up on a favorite recent Doctor Who episode by the name of "The Girl in the Fireplace." Writer Steven Moffat, your skills are too awesome for words. Which is a feat in itself since your skills are words.

And Sophia Myles, my god, woman, call me. I can't give you Paris but I can give you a quaint little eatery by name of Cheeburger Cheeburger. You haven't lived until you've had one of those.

Posted by Groonk at 02:47 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Robots

June 19, 2006

Multi-Servo Realistic Animal Suits for Rent

First animal flavor up is a panda suit. Who in fuck rents high-tech animal suits? Outside of Big Hollywood movie types. What man or woman wakes in the morning and thinks, "Gee, It'd be nifty to have a fully realized and motorized Panda suit to frolic about the woods all mamby pamby-like."

On second thought, I don't wanna know.

Japanese multimedia production company Buildup Co., Ltd. has announced that it will begin renting high-quality animatronic suits this month. The first suit they will rent is a panda suit that contains various technological features to help it achieve a more realistic look. The panda's face contains 14 remote control servo motors, which let the panda make facial expressions ranging from "pleasant smiles to angry grimaces" at the will of its controller. The suit contains a CCD camera system and a pair of video goggles for the person inside, removing the need for an unsightly peephole on the suit and increasing the range of vision for the wearer. The suit also comes equipped with a system that will set the suit on fire if it detects that it's being used for perverse sexual desires. Okay, it probably doesn't, but it should.

I watched the video. That has to be the most retarded idea ever.

It's days like these I weep for humanity.

(via geekologie)

Posted by Groonk at 02:31 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, Only in Japan, Robots

June 13, 2006

BabyBot Learns its ABCs

A robot that learns to interact with the world in a similar way to a human baby could provide researchers with fresh insights into biological intelligence.

Created by roboticists from Italy, France and Switzerland, "Babybot" automatically experiments with objects nearby and learns how best to make use of them. This gives the robot an ability to develop motor skills in the same way as a human infant.

The robot consists of a one-armed torso with a pair of cameras for eyes and a grasping hand. It has an in-built desire to physically experiment with objects on the table in front of it and an ability to assess different forms of interaction and learn from mistakes. If the robot fails to grasp an object securely, for example, it remembers and tries a differently strategy next time. One unbidden skill developed by Babybot was the ability to roll a bottle across its table.

Curiously, it would not eat its Gold Eggs and Meat.
It's you whom it would like to eat.

(via new scientist)

Posted by Groonk at 10:30 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

May 21, 2006

They Call Her Flipper, Flipper, Faster Than Lightning?

A new robot is shedding light on the locomotion of modern aquatic animals, and may also provide insight on how prehistoric giants such as the plesiosaur swam.

The biologically-inspired Madeleine robot, announced this month in the debut issue of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, is an autonomous vehicle with four flippers designed to pitch up and down.

By experimenting with different combinations of flipper motion, biologist John Long of Vassar College and his team compared the efficiency two-flippered and four-flippered motion.

"What Madeleine has shown is that there are distinct differences and advantages to using just two. This has relevance to looking at the evolution of mammals themselves," said Frank Fish, professor of biology at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. Fish, an expert in the biomechanics of swimming animals, is not associated with the research.

(via discovery channel)

Posted by Groonk at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

May 05, 2006

Ass-powered robots are our future

the WL-16RIII is stair capable

It's really joystick controlled. Imagine if it were ass controlled. J-Lo would be like a duck in water with that thing. Worse yet, she'd be unstoppable with her ass-powered robot legs.

(via warren ellis)

Posted by Groonk at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 06, 2006

RunBot created...Guess what it does.

(via slashdot)

Posted by Groonk at 02:30 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, Video

March 06, 2006

WATCH: The Robo Pack Mule really has to pee

This is the damn oddest thing. It's an instantly viewable video of the military's new Robo Pack Mule.

It's like two headless drunks doing the pee-pee dance while carrying a TV across hot coals.

It also trips the hell outta my uncanny valley. The first viewing did.

Now I'm cool with perpetually needing to pee four-legged animal/bot things.

Posted by Groonk at 12:50 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, Video, War

March 04, 2006

Sharkborgs, kids. I shit you not.

Another fine bit of science brought to you by DARPA.

(via warrenellis)

Posted by Groonk at 12:46 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, Robots

The amazing, flexible Robo Pack Mule

Another robotic pack mule. This time, it can take a boot-to-the head and keep on walking.

A nimble, four-legged robot is so surefooted it can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick. The machine, which moves like a cross between a goat and a pantomime horse, is being developed as a robotic pack mule for the US military.

BigDog is described by its developers Boston Dynamics as “the most advanced quadruped robot on Earth”. The company have released a new video of the robot negotiating steep slopes, crossing rocky ground and dealing with the sharp kick.

Yes, there is video(28meg).

(via newscientist)

Posted by Groonk at 12:31 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, Video, War

February 19, 2006

REPOST: R/C Steam-bots & Beer-pouring Fridge-bots

I have seen the future and it is bot-licious.

Ronald Arkin of Georgia Institute of Technology, US, says the new contraption is a poor advertisement for home robots - which can be more sophisticated. "Home robots are already present," he told New Scientist. "Roomba and Aibo are two good examples - the former for cleaning, the latter for entertainment."

(via boingboing)

A bot that rolls around my floor picking up dust bunnies is nice. A dog-shaped bot that dances and beeps and such is amusing.

But a bot that can keep my beer cold, bring it to me, and pour-up a frosty mug on command is a wonder that makes the gods themselves tremble.

Get your head on right, Arkin.

I-Wei Huang builds gorgeous, live-steam powered radio-controlled vehicles -- steampunk walkers, crabs, centipedes, rowboats, tanks and hotrods. His site is full of photos and videos of the toys in action

(via boingboing)

The steampunk revolution may now begin... again.

Posted by Groonk at 11:29 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

December 15, 2005

Spider bots to weave solar sails

A mission to determine whether spider-like robots could construct complex structures in space is set to launch in January 2006. The spider bots could build large structures by crawling over a "web" released from a larger spacecraft.

The engineers behind the project hope the robots will eventually be used to construct colossal solar panels for satellites that will transmit solar energy back to Earth. The satellites could reflect and concentrate the Sun's rays to a receiving station on Earth or perhaps beam energy down in the form of microwaves.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch a satellite called Furoshiki on 18 January 2006, which will conduct three experiments to test the idea. The satellite will be deployed from a rocket on a sub-orbital trajectory. This means scientists will have only 10 minutes of microgravity in which to perform their tests before the craft starts its descent back to Earth and eventually burns up in the atmosphere.

The first experiment will see three small satellites detach from the mother ship and stretch out to form two corners of a triangular net with their mother craft forming the other. Onboard cameras will be used to verify that the net, which measures 40 metres on each side, remains as steady as possible and that the daughter satellites do not get tangled in the web.

(via newscientistspace)

Posted by Groonk at 08:23 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

December 13, 2005

Robots ready to rule humans...gets job as receptionist

The world's first walking humanoid robot is set to make its office debut in 2006 as a receptionist, Honda announced on Tuesday. The latest version of Honda’s Asimo robot will be starting its new job in April at a Honda office in Wako in Saitama prefecture north of Tokyo.

The prototype, unveiled in Tokyo, can guide guests to a meeting room, serve coffee on a tray and push a cart with a load of up to 10 kilograms, says Honda.

[...]

"The level of Asimo's capability was just good enough to entertain people on the stage in the past, but the new Asimo can work at places closer to us," says Satoshi Shigemi, the Honda official in charge of the robot's development.

"The new Asimo can perform the task of a receptionist or information guide automatically," Shigemi told a news conference. "Honda is aiming to create a humanoid robot that can help people and live together with people."

(via new scientist)

Posted by Groonk at 05:10 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Robots

November 20, 2005

'Albert Hubo' Robot Shakes Hands with its Own

this seriously freaks my shit

(via boing boing and yahoonews)

Posted by Groonk at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

November 17, 2005

Mini Cooper Robot?!

I should be sleeping.

this can't be real?!

Can it?

The video looks a bit dodgy. Maybe.

Dr. Colin Mayhew interviews and talks like he knows his stuff.

But I just don't know.

(via rocketboom)

Posted by Groonk at 01:37 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, Video

November 10, 2005

Fan Dancing Robots, Go!

I like it when robots do the sexy, sexy fan dance.

They're more amusing than ANYTHING on MTV or VH1.

Oddly enough, they didn't do "the robot".

Posted by Groonk at 08:08 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

November 08, 2005

Robot has 20k brain cells!

Posted by Groonk at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

October 26, 2005

Ready Mechs

Tiny-ish boxes of death that you download, print out on 8.5"x11" sheets, and fold into creation:

 
behold the skeletron

(via Fwis)

Posted by Groonk at 10:45 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, Holiday, Robots

October 17, 2005

This Week in Robotology

GI robot "mules"

apparently not wireless

MIT Media Lab's Counter Intelligence Group, which develops innovative kitchen designs, has created a machine that makes dishes on demand and recycles them after diners have finished a meal. The dishes are made from food-grade, nontoxic acrylic wafers, which are shaped into cups, bowls and plates when heated, then resume their original wafer shape when they are reheated and pressed.

[...]

The process has a couple of glitches, though. The cups require less material than plates, but instead of cutting away the leftover acrylic, the machine currently forms it into a large, flat lip on top of the cup that makes drinking difficult.

The other problem concerns cleaning the dishes. The heating process gets rid of some food and sterilizes the dishes, but doesn't solve the problem of food grease, which tends to settle into the plastic.

"We can obviously just stick a dishwasher on the machine, but we're still investigating ways that would wash dishes without water," Bonanni says. "That would be a real breakthrough for us."

One big advantage the DishMaker offers is the production energy it saves.

"If you made and recycled one of our plates three times a day for a year, the energy that goes into that is comparable to the energy required to make one ceramic plate (in a factory) because the ceramic is fired at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit," says Bonanni.

(via wired news)

Posted by Groonk at 02:30 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, War

October 14, 2005

And the DARPA robot winners are...

The race is long over:

(via new scientist)

Posted by Groonk at 02:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

October 08, 2005

The DARPA Grand Challenge is back!

Remember last year's?

PRIMM, Nev. (AP) - Let the robot race begin - again. Twenty-three souped-up, driverless vehicles were poised to battle Saturday in a $2 million Pentagon-sponsored race by endeavoring to trek across at least 150 miles of rugged desert and mountains in less than 10 hours.

The feat has proved elusive so far. Last year's much-hyped robot race in the Mojave Desert ended without a winner after all the self-navigating vehicles broke down soon after leaving the starting gate.

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, doubled the taxpayer-funded prize this year to spur innovation and development of remote control-free robots that could be used in the battlefield.

The unmanned vehicles, ranging from a military Humvee to a behemoth six-wheel truck, must use their computer brains and sensing devices to follow a programmed route and avoid hitting obstacles that may doom their chances.

And there's a webcast!

(via 7d)

Posted by Groonk at 12:42 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

October 05, 2005

When Bots Ride Bikes

bicycle! BICYCLE!

(via medicmike)

Posted by Groonk at 03:44 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Research, Robots

September 29, 2005

More Robots

This robot rocks the cradle rather than rob it:

four feet to dreamland

This robot finds buried treasures.

arrrgh.

(via boing boing)

Posted by Groonk at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

September 16, 2005

Tiniest Controllable Robot Made

The tiniest mobile robot ever has been created by US researchers. It is a sliver of silicon one hundredth of a millimetre thick that can be precisely steered like a remote-control car to move in any direction across the surface of a special plate.

Powered by a grid of electrodes underneath a surface layer and steered by its tiny silicon paddle, the bot crawls around at a speed of about 200 micrometres per second and can push specks of dust, or other “dead” robots.

Yes, there is a video.

(via new scientist)

Posted by Groonk at 04:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, Video

August 01, 2005

Repliee!

Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.

Repliee Q1 is not like any robot you will have seen before, at least outside of science-fiction movies.

She is designed to look human and although she can only sit at present, she has 31 actuators in her upper body, powered by a nearby air compressor, programmed to allow her to move like a human.

The article goes onto say that right now she could fool a person intothinking she's human for about 5-10 seconds. But that they want to raise that believability scale to 10 minutes.

Why is it when I look at her, all I can think is, "Take a chance"?
(via bbcnews)

Posted by Groonk at 03:34 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Robots

April 27, 2005

Robot Trifecta

Three tales from the robot nation:

Run Rabbit, Run

the Rabbit walks

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (CNN) -- A team of French scientists working with collaborators at the University of Michigan (U-M) and Ohio State University have created a robot that walks and balances just as a human does.

They say it is the first of its kind, and can catch its balance without having to rely on big, clunky feet to do so.

Physical Therapy Bots

strength through repetition

ARLINGTON, Va., April 25, 2005 -- A robotic arm that can be worn at home is being developed to help stroke survivors regain the ability to reach and grasp objects and perform basic tasks such as feed themselves.

Building an Android head: $600

it professes love for Xev

It is possible to build a computer-driven, life-size, android robot head (Figure 1) for cost of materials of about $600.00. The android head will have two color video-camera eyes with the video going both into a window on the PC and into an image processing Java application. The robot will have six servo motors controlling: (1) base of the head spins, (2,3) each eye moves left/right, (4) both eyes move up/down, (5,6) each eye-lid opens/closes. All servo motors are controlled via a Java application. The user supplies the computer (PC).

Posted by Groonk at 03:22 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 23, 2005

Sushi Bot

It's alive!

IT'S ALIVE!

It makes 50pcs/minute!!

chop'em up. roll'em out.

(via boingboing)

Posted by Groonk at 01:17 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 17, 2005

Wireless Broadband Bots

geo-stationary "air-whales"

A Stratellite� is a high-altitude airship that when in place in the stratosphere will provide a stationary platform for transmitting various types of wireless communications services currently transmitted from cell towers and satellites. It is not a balloon or a blimp. It is a high-altitude airship.

Made of Spectra and powered by solar powered electrical engines, each Stratellite will reach its final altitude by utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology. Once in place at 65,000 feet (approx. 13 miles) and safely above the jet stream, each Stratellite will remain in one GPS coordinate, providing the ideal wireless transmission platform. The Stratellites are unmanned airships and will be monitored from the Company�s Operation Centers on the ground.

A Stratellite will have a payload capacity of several thousand pounds and clear line-of-sight to approximately 300,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Texas. However, the Company�s initial plan is to use one Stratellite for each major metropolitan area.

(via The Register)

Posted by Groonk at 07:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 12, 2005

Jockey Bots

I swear I had this prepped yesterday. First stages of senility, I'm sure.

replacing forced child labor

Camel racing is to be transformed as a spectator sport in the United Arab Emirates with robot riders taking the place of child jockeys.

The remotely operated riders were developed following a ban on the use of jockeys under 16 years of age, imposed by the UAE Camel Racing Association in March 2004.

Camel racing is a lucrative sport with a long tradition among Bedouin Arabs. But human rights groups have linked it to the kidnap and mistreatment of children as young as four years old. Riders have traditionally been younger than 16 years-old and weighed less than 45 kg (7 stone).

(via new scientist)

Posted by Groonk at 07:33 PM | Comments (2) | Ministry of Robots

April 11, 2005

DARPA Watch: Robot Replacement Limbs on the Way

Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research division, now wants to ratchet that work up about ten notches, by developing a "neurally controlled artificial limb that will restore full motor and sensory capability to upper extremity amputee patients. This revolutionary prosthesis will be controlled, feel, look and perform like the native limb."

[...]

Darpa wants the robo-arm stat -- in four years or less.

So when some military madman chases you down like a rabbit, beats you down like a dog, cuts your arm off, and then announces that he's your dad, you'll have a way to replace what was lost.

Plus: No more lonely nights.

(via gizmodo)

Posted by Groonk at 06:11 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

HAL 3: Become Cyberized

I am the M.A.N.T.I.S.

Two control systems interact to help the wearer stand, walk and climb stairs. A "bio-cybernic" system uses bioelectric sensors attached to the skin on the legs to monitor signals transmitted from the brain to the muscles. It can do this because when someone intends to stand or walk, the nerve signal to the muscles generates a detectable electric current on the skin's surface. These currents are picked up by the sensors and sent to the computer, which translates the nerve signals into signals of its own for controlling electric motors at the hips and knees of the exoskeleton. It takes a fraction of a second for the motors to respond accordingly, and in fact they respond fractionally faster to the original signal from the brain than the wearer's muscles do.

Also, I posted on this back in '03.

(via warreneillis )

Posted by Groonk at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 10, 2005

Androids Big and Small

An inspired Rocketboom Casual Friday set to The Shat's "Common People"gave me a chuckle.

Kinda freaky how Amanda Congdon has a striking similarity to the Beck, Batman, and Eva androids.

No offense Ms Congdon. I got nothing but love for ya.

(via rocketboom)

Posted by Groonk at 02:20 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Blogged, Funny, Robots, Video

Water Bots

Spray, one of these new autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, left Bermuda in late March. It will head to New England to explore the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic before returning to Bermuda sometime in July. The voyage will be the first long-distance round-trip mission undertaken by the 6-foot-long craft.

Looking like an orange torpedo with stubby wings, Spray contains no moving parts. It can run silently at 3,300 feet underwater taking temperature, salinity and biomass measurements.

(via wirednews)

Posted by Groonk at 02:04 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 06, 2005

Learning Aide Bot

...this is the first time it's being used in science classes as part of the official school curriculum, Honda said.

In a demonstration for reporters at a Tokyo museum Wednesday, a teacher explained to students how the robot has sensors inside its body to maintain balance, and the robot displayed how it can keep its balance by tilting its body while standing on a swaying platform. A wooden figure standing next to it collapsed.

The teacher also explained to students that weight is transferred from the heel to the toe when a person walks, and moved the robot in slow motion to demonstrate.

Asimo, which is similar to the Japanese word for "foot," will help teach thousands of students at elementary and junior high schools who visit science centers in two Japanese cities as part of their education, Honda and city officials said.

(via mywaynews)

Posted by Groonk at 02:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

April 05, 2005

Full Metal Land Walker!

Sakakibara Kikai created a mecha-like contraption and dubbed it a Land Walker. There's a video of it "walking". More like sliding actually.

beware ewoks

But it does have gun pods. Now if it could only master "death from above".

(via gizmodo)

Posted by Groonk at 06:20 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

The Blind will See

US scientists have designed a bionic eye to allow blind people to see again.

It comprises a computer chip that sits in the back of the individual's eye, linked up to a mini video camera built into glasses that they wear.

Images captured by the camera are beamed to the chip, which translates them into impulses that the brain can interpret.

The device has been designed by Professor Gislin Dagnelie at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

(via warrenellis)

Posted by Groonk at 04:46 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

March 29, 2005

Military Medic Bots

The Pentagon has awarded $12m (�6.4m) to researchers to build a robot to perform surgery in the battlefield.

"The result will be a major step forward in saving lives," said Scott Seaton, who works for the lead US contractor, SRI International.

The "trauma pod" will be based on the concept of the existing Da Vinci Surgical system in use since 2000.

There is growing concern in the US about rising US troop casualties in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

(via bbc news)

Posted by Groonk at 02:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, War

March 16, 2005

Ice-bots

Nomad, one of Carnegie Mellon University's most accomplished robotic rovers, is at it again. This time the rover that trekked 220 kilometers through Chile's Atacama Desert and explored Antarctica for meteorites is being groomed for a potential return to the frozen continent to search for signs of living microorganisms near the top of its icy surface.

Carnegie Mellon robotics researchers recently deployed Nomad on the frozen surface of Lake Mascoma in Hanover, New Hampshire, as part of the LORAX Project (Life on Ice, Robotic Antarctic Explorer), which seeks to measure the distribution of surviving microorganisms in the near-surface ice on the Antarctic plateau.

(via gizmodo)

Posted by Groonk at 05:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

March 12, 2005

Tripping My Uncanny Valley

This Actroid lady definitely falls in my "not quite right" category.

The humanoid can put on facial expressions suitable for the more than 2,000 types of answers it can give, but it may refuse to answer to some questions for "privacy reasons," making an X with her arms and bowing. She also has a sense of irony. When asked if she is a robot, she says, "Y.e.s, I. a.m. a. r.o.b.o.t" in a disconnected voice and moves about clumsily. A moment later, she says "Just kidding" and starts a natural flow of movements.

(via boingboing)

Posted by Groonk at 03:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

February 24, 2005

In Other Elderly Companion News

Meet the Snuggling Ifbot:

Measuring at just under 2-feet tall, the Snuggling Ifbot is designed to provide hours of companionship to lonely elderly folks who don't have a loved one to speak with (or could be your infant's new best friend). The Ifbot is pre-programmed with millions of word phrase patterns, that when spoken to, can come across as a 5 year-old child. This level of communication can help elderly folks from becoming forgetful and keep their minds sharp.

Posted by Groonk at 06:31 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Robots

Japan makes dolls for the Elderly

Japanese toymakers are shifting their focus from the shrinking children's market to the ever growing senoir citizen market, by making talking dolls for their elderly

"I feel so good, g-o-o-d n-i-g-h-t," the doll says before falling asleep if the owner pats it on the chest gently.

(via boingboing)

Posted by Groonk at 06:23 PM | Comments (2) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Robots

February 17, 2005

Baby-Bots

My robot section is getting huuuuge!

The machines use what the researchers called a "passive-dynamic design" that closely mimics the way humans walk. Earlier robots required powerful machines to stroll, with each leg, knee and ankle requiring motorized assistance. The effort requires a lot of energy.

The passive dynamic design uses gravity, along with muscle-like springs and motors. The energy required is just a fraction of that needed by other walking robots, said Andy Ruina, a Cornell University researcher.

Ruina said the walking robots move like humans, falling and catching themselves as they move forward. This essentially is the same movement people use, a motion toddlers must master to walk.

"We let the machines take care of a lot of the motion," he said. In contrast, most walking robots, such as Asimo, developed by the Honda Motor Co., require a motor to power every motion.

(via 7d)

Posted by Groonk at 08:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

February 10, 2005

HollerBot 1.0

Zach Smith is building a robot out of commodity hardware and free software:

I am bored, tired of waiting for a future filled with robots that never appears, so I decided to create a robot and help advance the technology to the point where robots may one day become commonplace in our everyday lives. My goals are to create a general purpose robot that i can control via the internet and communicate with the real world. it will most definitely run linux and will be pretty small. the requirements are for it to be able to drive pretty much anywhere @ ISU. this includes sidewalks, buildings, grass and such. since it is going to be controlled via the internets, it will have to have some way of recording what its going on around it. a webcam would be perfect for this. additionally, it will have to be able to send messages to the people around it. this will require either speakers or a display. speakers would be the easiest and least power hungry.

Good on you, Zach.

(via boingboing)

Posted by Groonk at 12:46 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

February 04, 2005

Robot Vision

Computer-generated scenery can be realistically added to live video footage, using a machine vision system developed at Oxford University, UK.

Researchers Andrew Davison and Ian Reid say the augmented-reality system could also in the longer term enable robots to navigate more effectively. Or it could be used to virtually decorate a real house or plan engineering work. It allows a computer to build an accurate three dimensional model of the world using only a video camera feed. It can also keep track of the camera's movement within its environment - all in real time.

I watched the video and I only have one thing to say. Washing a cup with your finger, does not make that sucker clean. Oh, and good job onthat augmented-reality thing.

(via newscientist)

Posted by Groonk at 03:19 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

February 01, 2005

Mobile Phone-Bot

7d sent a story via ananova about a mobile phone remote controlled robot. I'm not a fan of ananova so I found other references to the Bluetoothed automaton.

KDDI Corporation and Tokyo-based I Bee K.K., an affiliate of the "KDDI Mobile Solutions Partner" (KDDI-MSP) [1] program, have developed the "au Mobile Phone Robot Controller", an au mobile phone-based EZ-Appli ("Brew�" [2]), Bluetooth� controller for the bi-pedal walking "Bluetooth� Robot".

Posted by Groonk at 04:53 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Only in Japan, Robots

Gas-Powered Mecha, Go!

This article says CNET was all over this guy last December.

How did I miss a guy building a mecha?

He is blogging his progess, btw.

He plans to start testing the project in spring for a debut this summer at a Butte racetrack in a show-stopper featuring flame throwers, bullets and sledge-hammer fists for crushing cars.

He seems nonplussed by the fact that he's trying to succeed where industrial giants like General Electric have failed. And that he's doing it from his parents' back yard on Scheelite Drive.

"I'm just going to build it and get it done," Owens said, a welding helmet pushed back on his head as he looked up at his creation. "I'll question myself later."

[...]

Here's how Owens says his own "mech" will work: Viewing the world through an LCD screen, he will operate the giant steel suit from a foam-padded compartment in the mecha's body.

Twenty-three levers inside control forty-six possible movements. Rather than pull each lever individually, Owens will rig a system of cable lines to the levers that control larger motions. When he moves an arm, the mecha's arm will move. He moves a leg, a leg moves.

Owens says he couldn't afford high-tech equipment. An 18-horsepower gas engine should provide more than enough juice to operate the 1 �-ton suit, provided the human inside doesn't try to move more than one limb at a time. A hydraulic system powers the joints.

I hope he succeeds where the big companies have failed. And when he puts this sucker on the market, I will be the first freak in line to buy it, or at least test drive it.

(heads up via 7d)

Posted by Groonk at 03:47 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Blogged, Robots

January 10, 2005

The Smart Bot with No Name

It can become wiser through learning because unlike other robots, the device is linked with an outside computer through a high-speed wireless telecom network, and is able to exchange information with the server and respond quickly to real-life environments.

"This is the first network-based humanoid in the world," said You Bum-Jae of the state-financed Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), introducing the 150-centimeter (60 inches)-high robot weighing 67 kilogrammes (147 pounds).

Unlike already-developed humanoids whose intelligence capabilities are largely fixed with built-in circuits, the network-based humanoid relies on its outside server whose capacity can be expanded easily.

Equipped with visual and force sensors, the new robot detects movements and speech, then sends the data to the server for processing and receives directions allowing it to interact with people and the environment.

When asked about its name, it said: "I am sorry. I don't have a name yet. Please give me one."

(via warrenellis)

Posted by Groonk at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

January 05, 2005

Tiny Robot Replicas for only $100

Marked as "Sophisticated Science Kit Series for Adults," these little suckers are too cool for school!

As boingboing describes:

The Karakuri puppets they sell are scale reproductions of actual historical Japanese automatons, and the videos are stunning.

Posted by Groonk at 02:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

December 16, 2004

That damn bot can run now

The latest version of Honda's humanoid robot Asimo can perform several new tricks thanks to a hardware overhaul. In a demonstration in Japan, the robot impressed onlookers by showing off the ability to run for the first time.

A short video released by the Japanese car manufacturer shows Asimov jogging along. Its gait is rather comical and resembles that of a person trying to creep up quietly.

The robot can be said to be running because during each stride both its feet are in the air at the same time. Asimov would not be able to match a human in a sprint, however. The robot is only capable of a restrained 3 km per hour.

I watched the vid. I say it looks more like a sneaking manuver. Tripping around like a kid up to mischief.

Posted by Groonk at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

December 14, 2004

$7.2 Billion Dollar Bionic Beginning

Here's to real science:

An MIT professor and colleagues from Brown University and the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center have begun a five-year, multidisciplinary research project to restore arm and leg function to amputees.

The work will receive $7.2 million in funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). At the end of the project, the scientists hope to have created "biohybrid" limbs that will use regenerated tissue, lengthened bone, titanium prosthetics and implantable sensors that allow an amputee to use nerves and brain signals to move the arm or leg.

So when these bionic people run, will there be a "slow-down effect"? Will there be odd sound FX genereated from some dark place within their cyborg shells? Will they have to move their hair away from their ears to hear because bionic ears can hear through every fucking thing under the sun but a clutch of human hair?

boingboinged

Posted by Groonk at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

December 13, 2004

Personal Robot Cars

A new breed of wearable robotic vehicles that envelop drivers are being developed by Japanese car giant Toyota.

The company's vision for the single passenger in the 21st Century involves the driver cruising by in a four-wheeled leaf-like device or strolling along encased in an egg-shaped cocoon that walks upright on two feet.

The single carrier:

The stair-walker:

I'd take the stairwalker if it had one laser-sighted chainsaw arm and a fully rotatable grapple arm. It'd also need a bulletproof chasis and covering.

Thanks to gizmodo for the photos.

Posted by Groonk at 05:40 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

November 18, 2004

ATRON: More than meets the eye

The prototype robot - called ATRON - demonstrated its various metamorphoses in Tokyo on Wednesday. For example, reconfiguring its many individual modules allows the robot to change its mode of locomotion on command.

"We can envision it being used to inspect hazardous environments or in space exploration where they could replace devices such as the Mars rovers," says Henrik Hautop Lund, who leads the research project at the Maersk Institute in Denmark.

Transformable robots, exploring space and making first contact with alien civilizations.

What could go wrong?

Posted by Groonk at 08:00 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

Powered by a Roach

Cockroach powered robots.

The system uses a living Madagascan hissing cockroach atop a modified trackball to control a three-wheeled robot. Infrared sensors also provide navigation feedback to create a semi-intelligent system, with the cockroach as the CPU.

boingboinged

Posted by Groonk at 07:20 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

November 08, 2004

Robot Tech at its Finest

Introducing... the Robospanker!

I can see it now..mass production Robospanking websites and far as the mouse can click.

That sucker's going for $845 USD. If you're really into spanking, I say expend some damn effort and do it yourself.

link via Fleshbot

Posted by Groonk at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots, Sex

October 22, 2004

Bots for 2007

Robots are set to become increasingly familiar companions in homes by 2007, says a United Nations survey.

Seven times more robots will helping us out with the cleaning, security and entertainment in three years' time, as their price falls and they get smarter.

It is not quite the humanoid vision of blockbuster film I, Robot as many of them will be vacuum bots.

As long as my robot isn't a hedonism-bot, sign me up. Hedonism-bots are good for fuckall.

Posted by Groonk at 02:47 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

October 13, 2004

Biomimetic Robots or Bot Lobster!

Biomimetics is a general description for engineering a process or system that mimics biology. The term emerged from biochemistry and applies to an infinite range of chemical and mechanical phenomena, from cellular processes to whole-organism functions.

[...]

Cutkosky says two forces are driving the "new wave" of robotics. First, biological research has exposed a huge amount of biological process data that roboticists can apply to their work. Second, advances in low-cost, power-efficient computing systems allow researchers to create robots that work outside laboratories. Cutkosky says that roboticists can "really put some of the lessons we're learning from biology to practice. Ten years ago, even if I had understood exactly what materials and mechanical principles underlie the cockroach's robust dynamic locomotion, I would have been unable to build a robot that embodied them."

boingboinged

Posted by Groonk at 02:44 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Robots

July 29, 2004