Robots that help people

Could Robots Replace Humans in Mines?

2007-08-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

A mining robot, called Groundhog, in action at a Pennsylvania coal mine

The Cave Crawler mining robot, the latest prototype developed by Carnegie-Mellon University. Why do human beings still risk their lives burrowing miles under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the world?
A small corps of engineers and robotics experts envision a day in the not-too-distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work, and even help rescue trapped miners.

One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie-Mellon University's Robotics Institute. It was called Groundhog and it looked like a golf cart on steroids. It used lasers to "see" in dark tunnels and map abandoned mines — some of the most dangerous work in the business. Researchers sent Groundhog into an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania where it slogged deep into the orange muck, successfully navigating with its laser rangefinders.

The latest prototype is called Cave Crawler. It's a bit smaller than Groundhog, and even more advanced. It can take photos and video and has sensors mounted that can detect the presence of dangerous gases. Cave Crawler is entirely self-contained— no tethers connecting it to the surface — and "learns" as it roams a mine by mapping its environment in three dimensions then following the map it has just created.

Those who have seen Cave Crawler in action are impressed. "It's fascinating to watch," says Paul Myles, director of sponsored programs at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, which took part in the robotics study. "The robot has a real sense of logic. If it encounters an obstacle it gets momentarily confused. It has to think through the process and where to go next, and sometimes it throws a fit just like a real person."

Using robots in rescue operations, though, is problematic. The lasers that guide the robots don't work in smoky environments so the engineers at Carnegie Mellon have experimented with sonar and radar guidance systems, and with some success.

The biggest obstacle, though, is cost. The original research project was federally funded, but that money has dried up, and it's not clear where future funding will come from. Robots need to be certified by the federal government, and that is a costly and time-consuming process.

Some experts predict that robots in mines will serve much of the same function that they do in the automotive industry. The robots do the most repetitive and dangerous jobs, but don't eliminate the need for human workers.

Robots shorten patient stays

2007-08-07T02:42:00.000-07:00

Recovering surgery patients whose doctors used robots for bedside visits were released from the hospital earlier than patients who received only traditional visits, a new study shows.

Sinai Hospital of Baltimore reviewed charts of 376 patients who had laparoscopic gastric bypass for morbid obesity from January 2004 to July 2006. Of those patients, 284 received postoperative visits from a surgeon. The other 92 were assessed by the surgeon's bedside visits and robot rounds that allowed the doctor to see and interact with patients from afar through cameras and microphones on the device.

Researchers found that 77% of patients who had the robot rounds were discharged from the hospital the day after surgery. The study said 77% of patients who had only doctor bedside visits were discharged the second postoperative day.

The mean length of stay was 1.26 days for the group assessed with robotic telerounding compared with 2.33 days for patients with only physician bedside visits, according to the study in the July Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

"It drops a whole day off. It's a benefit for health care. It's a benefit for the patient," said lead study author Alex Gandsas, MD, head of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at Sinai Hospital.

The hospital had a financial gain of about $220,000 through the early discharges, freeing up beds for new patients, the study said.

"We're trying to create more empty beds so more patients can be accommodated," Dr. Gandsas said.

Sinai is among a growing number of hospitals using robots to hook up physicians to patients. With a joystick and computer connection, physicians log on to a robot that displays the doctor's face on a screen and rolls into a hospital room to check on patients.

More than 100 robots are being used at about 60 hospitals nationwide, said InTouch Health, a Santa Barbara, Calif., company that makes the robots.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 2003 began trying a robot on rounds, enabling a physician to visit patients and answer questions while away from the hospital. A 2004 study of 30 patient visits found that half of patients preferred seeing their own physician by robot rather than a different doctor.

Dr. Gandsas also has used the machine to mentor surgeons in Argentina after sending software that let them connect computers to Sinai's robot and watch procedures from its screen. He also helps fellow surgeons in the operating room by robot when he can't be there in person.

Flying robots spy for militaries

2007-08-01T03:24:00.000-07:00

Before the robot hordes rise up and kill us all, we best get them to do our bidding for a while longer. Instead of going gigantic, scientists have been working to bring automatons down to size, and the researchers at Harvard think they have something perfect for the military.

Professor Robert Wood has developed a life-sized robotic fly for use in military surveillance. The robot fly can beat its wings at 110 beats per minute without breaking off thanks to carbon fiber joints. With a wingspan of just over an inch, paint this thing black and you'd be hard pressed to tell this from the real thing. Well, except it doesn't have those weird eyes or legs, and it keeps wanting to look at your top secret documents instead of that candy bar on your desk.

PC World to start selling robots

2007-07-13T00:57:00.000-07:00

No longer just toys, domestic robots are the shape of things to come, according to the retailer

A robot with a webcam for a head which can be driven around the home remotely and transmit what it sees via wi-fi is among a fleet of 'intelligent devices' to go on sale at PC World.

The 1ft-tall robot, which has caterpillar track wheels and can record images and sound from its surrounds – effectively enabling it to become a remote-controlled spy – will go on sale in autumn as part of a wider push by the retailer into robotics.

In all 12 robots, ranging in price from £200 to £2,000, will be sold by PC World in the run-up to Christmas. A spokesman for the store said that robotics will play "an increasingly important role in the field of consumer technology in the year ahead."

Spyke – as the £200 spy robot is called – will be able to transmit messages from its owners via wireless broadband, "so, for instance, you can pass on a video message to your nanny, having seen something in the house," the spokesman said.

The device can store and play MP3s, and can also be programmed to send a picture via e-mail when objects in its view – a sleeping child, perhaps – move. It will also be able to find its base station when it runs out of batteries.

Among the other robots in the Robo-shop range will be a £2,000 scale model of R2D2 which can project DVDs and console games onto a wall or screen, and a companion-type robot which was described by a PC World spokesman as "a Tamagotchi for adolescents".

"Hardly a day goes by without a development in robotics," the spokesman said. "In the past it was just child's play – dinosaurs that walked and the like – but these things have real utility and are the shape of things to come."

World Cup for robots kicks off

2007-07-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

They can run all day, they never complain and if they demand a pay rise you can just remove their batteries: many Premiership managers must dream of having a robotic football player.

In fact, robotics researchers believe that by 2050 a robotic football team will take to the field that will be able to defeat the current human world champions.

It's an ambitious goal which sounds more like science fiction than reality - but the plan to develop the robotic equivalent of Brazil is already well on its way. This week teams of robots from all over the world are taking part in Robocup 2007 - the robotic football World Cup.

This year the event is taking place at Georgia Tech university in the US for the biggest ever demonstration of robotic footballing prowess.

While they might not have the guile or pace of Wayne Rooney just yet, scorelines that stretched into double figures proves that these robo-soccer stars certainly have a grasp of the game's fundamentals.

The groups ranged from the 'Humanoid League' right through to robots so small they can only be seen with a microscope in the inaugural 'Nano-Cup'.

For robots to play football, various technologies have be developed including artificial intelligence so the robots know who to pass to and how best to defeat an opponent as well as sophisticated robotics and sensors. After the fun and games of the RoboCup is over, the technologies developed for scoring winning goals is then transferred to a number of other more useful applications such as developing robots that can be used in search and rescue in large scale disaster.

Even better news for Premiership managers - the robo-WAGS were nowhere to be seen.

'Transformers' More Than Meets The Eye

2007-07-04T02:36:00.001-07:00

If it's action you're looking for, it's action you'll get with "Transformers." Get ready for some big wows while watching the big-budget action flick based on the icon toys of the '80s.

There's a lot to digest in the 144-minute film, such as who are the Autobots (good guys from Cybertron) and who are the bad guys (the Decepticons)? What are they after? (A cube known as the Allspark). Why did they attack a military camp in Qatar blowing it to smithereens? And why does a nerdy teenager with a name that no one can pronounce, Sam Whitwicky, possess a pair of glasses that the good guys and the bad guys want?

Whew! Probably the best thing to do is not to try to figure out the complicated plot, which is just window dressing for the real action. It's best just to ooh and aw each time the robots shape shift into cars, semi trucks, and fighting planes.

Director Michael Bay, who is no stranger to massive action pictures ("Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor"), and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, have the daunting task of making a film that has human actors and metallic robots co-existing on Earth.

What they do to make this duo work is pepper the film with fish-out-of-water scenarios, humans having a heart for the 'bots, teenage angst situations, and quirky cameos.

And these provide some of the best scenes. My personal favorite is when Sam brings the oversized Autobots home, they destroy his father's perfect lawn, but somehow manage to hide behind light poles and trees so as not to be recognized. By infusing the robots with human characteristics, moviegoers will root for the good guys.

Great cameos also give the human element of this movie some muscle. Bernie Mac is a shady used car salesman who can't wait for Sam to take a beat-up Camaro off his hands after it wreaks havoc on his lot. John Turturro is smarmy as an operative of the secret Sector Seven group. And Anthony Anderson is his usual self as a doughnut-eating computer warlock whose help is sought to decode strange messages for the Pentagon.

Shia LaBeouf carries most of the human part of the picture as the teenager in the middle of the fight for the cube. Being a male-centric toy as well as a movie, the girls in the film are posted for their hot chick factor, Mikaela (Megan Fox) as Sam's new hottie (frankly, even if it was the end of the world I doubt these two would manage a hook up), and Maggie Madsen (Rachael Taylor), who we're supposed to believe is one of the smartest systems analysts the Pentagon has. It doesn't hurt that she's blonde and has a killer Australian accent. Females are supposed to get their hunk boost from Josh Duhamel.

On the heavy metal side, there wasn't a better choice out there for the voice of Autobot leader Optimus Prime than Peter Cullen from the 1980s "Transformers" cartoon.

Of course, all of this is just penny candy because the real action sequences are what's worth the price of admission. The robot showdown is a veritable feast of CGI action, with background scenes shot on the streets of Los Angeles and Detroit.

Don't expect rocket science in "Transformers." It's definitely not a think film, but it most likely will be the blockbuster of the summer that will stick in moviegoers' minds long after the beach towels have been put away.

Taser-armed robots are mini RoboCops

2007-07-02T01:17:00.000-07:00

The Taser, used by thousands of law enforcement agencies, is an electric stun gun designed to help officers subdue violent suspects without nightsticks or guns.

BOSTON -- RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled 'bots for the police and the Pentagon.

By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give soldiers and law enforcement a defensive, non-lethal tool.

But some observers fear such developments could ultimately lead to robots capable of deciding on their own when to shoot and kill.

"It's one more step in that direction," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va.-based military research organization.

Jim Rymarcsuk, vice president for business development at Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot, said notions of armed robots acting on their own are far beyond what the company envisions for the partnership announced Thursday with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International Inc.

"Right now, we have no plans to take any robot with a lethal-weapon approach to the market," Rymarcsuk said. "For this system, and all systems we have looked at, there is a human in the loop making the decisions. This in no way is giving the robot the capability to use force on its own."

There's no word when the system will be offered for sale, or for how much.
However, some critics contend the weapon can be deadly, particularly on suspects who use drugs or suffer from heart problems. Taser International and police counter that no weapon is risk-free, and that Tasers actually save lives by helping officers avoid more dangerous weapons.

Robot workman gunning for our jobs

2007-06-22T02:25:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of ways to spend £154,000, such as paying a top Premiership footballer for a week, picking up a flashy sports car or even securing 362 PlayStation 3 consoles plus a few games, but Japan's science institute has used the cash to develop a humanoid robot that will one day steal all our jobs.

The HRP-3 Promet Mk-II robot cost ¥38 million to create - a cost shared by Kawada Industries , Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology . For that outlay, the collaborators have built a 1.6m-tall, 68kg bipedal 'bot that can operate in some pretty harsh conditions.
Go-anywhere 'bot

HRP-3, or Maa-kun as his creators refer to him for some reason, is intended to work either autonomously or under remote control in dangerous areas, such as in the presence of extreme heat, radiation or - more likely - after natural disasters.

With five cameras for vision, laser sensors, total waterproofing and the abilities to balance and walk on slippery surfaces and to use tools, HRP-3 looks a good bet to realise the team's goal of creating a robot that will one day be able to work alongside - or instead of - humans

RoboGames 2007 Best Humanoid Hits

2007-06-21T01:12:00.000-07:00

Robogames don't stop wonder.
Matt Bauer of Bauer Independents has posted a video compilation of memorable 'hits' from the android/humanoid competitions during RoboGames 2007.

RoboGames 2007 - Day Three

2007-06-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

It's been three wonderful, excitement packed days - four if you include setting up the afternoon before RoboGames opened to the public. We're really glad we came, and have a boatload of new memories to take back to Japan with us, and share with all our robot fans there as well. Of course, the competitions were great - and even sometimes amazing. But the best part was being able to meet, develop, and strengthen friendships with all the great people involved in RoboGames - both as participants, organizers, and fans.

We'll write more about specific happenings and experiences, and posting some great video clips over the next week or so. For now, here are all the photos taken by the Robots Dreams Team today in the RoboGames 2007 Day Three photo gallery. Enjoy!

Robot to explore world's deepest sinkhole

2007-05-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

Scientists will try to chart one of the world's deepest oceanic sinkholes this week by deploying a robotic submarine in a mission that if successful, could one day be helpful in exploring other planets.

The NASA-funded robot, called the Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX), will be deployed Tuesday on a two-week mission into Mexico's El Zacaton geothermal sinkhole, or cenote, which is more than 282 meters deep and pitch black. No human has ever reached its bottom, but one diver has died in the process. Scientists hope that the expedition will produce greater understanding of the sinkhole's dimensions, geothermal activity and ecosystem.

About 2.5 meters in diameter, the submarine runs autonomously in uncharted and mapped terrain by relying on an array of 56 sonar sensors, including depth, velocity and inertial sensors. Software developed by a team at Carnegie Mellon University controls the sub's movement and creates maps of its surroundings. "DEPTHX is unique among autonomous underwater vehicles in its ability to navigate untethered in complicated, sometimes closely confined underwater spaces," according to Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute.

The mission will be to explore the sinkhole's uncharted territory and get 3D maps of its caverns and mines. The robot will also extract water samples and earth samples from its walls.

The Mexico mission will be the third test of DEPTHX, which was designed and built by Stone Aerospace. Other researchers working on the project include scientists from the Southwest Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Colorado School of Mines, and NASA Ames Research Center. Carnegie Mellon developed the navigation and guidance software for the robot.

The scientists ultimately hope that the technologies behind DEPTHX will be used in other underwater missions, as well as to explore oceans hidden under the icy crust of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

Transformers Hi-Res Robot Images

2007-05-11T01:46:00.000-07:00

Directory Michael Bay, on his official website, has posted eight high-resolution images of the robots featured in Transformers, which arrives in theatres on July 4.

Each photo has a large file size, however it is worth the download wait, as there is plenty of detail to see for each robot!

Introduced in 1984, the Transformers brand took the world by storm with its compelling saga of the Autobots versus the Decepticons. The innovative "Robots in Disguise" resulted in a tremendously successful toy line from Hasbro and Takara, comic book series, television program and an animated feature film. More than 20 years later, a new generation has discovered the excitement of the Transformers brand and its legendary characters, including the two leaders of the opposing sides: Optimus Prime and Megatron. Today, the franchise features a popular toy line, an animated series on the Cartoon Network and a chart-topping comic book series from IDW Publishing.

Israeli Military Robot Is Built to Kill (Mini-Uzi Included)

2007-05-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

The VIPeR can climb stairs (right) and open fire on targets with a submachine gun. At left, the 9-in.-tall drone is fitted with a bomb-disarming water gun.

Very few drones are built to kill. Even the missile-firing Predator UAV was originally designed for aerial reconnaissance, with some units later modified for combat duty. But for the Israeli-manufactured VIPeR (Versatile, Intelligent, Portable Robot), delivering firepower isn’t an afterthought — it’s practically job one.

Designed to act as a partner to dismounted troops in urban environments, the 9-in.-tall, 25-pound VIPeR can accept various sensor packages, including infrared cameras and software that maps buildings as the drone moves through them, as well as an explosives sniffer and a device that shoots jets of water to disarm bombs. But it also can open fire with a mini-Uzi submachine gun or release grenades from a 4-ft.-long robotic arm.

At just 18 in. wide, and equipped with innovative treads that change shape to help boost it over obstacles, the tiny drone can navigate cramped hallways and climb stairs to seek out targets. It can’t open fire autonomously, like South Korea’s Intelligent Surveillance & Security Guard Robot, essentially an armed guard tower that can target potential intruders.

VIPeR is remotely controlled via a harness and helmet-mounted display, with a human operator ultimately deciding whether to pull the trigger. According to its manufacturer, Elbit Systems, VIPeR will be deployed by Israel Defense Forces infantry after field testing.

Termibot robot exterminator kills termites, heralds terrifying future

2007-05-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

Termites be warned: Australian outfit Termicam is bringing the noise Predator-style with the Termibot, a dual-tread thermal imaging robot designed to eliminate insects. The bot scoots around inside walls and under houses relaying information from its thermal camera and moisture sensors back to an operator, and when termite (or other insect) activity is detected, it uses a probe to smash the nest and inject pesticides directly where they're needed. While we're not certain we need to help robots perfect the techniques they'll use to ferret out the last remnants of the human resistance, we're not too worried yet -- the Termibot is currently tethered to its operator with a long cable. The designer says a fully wireless version is in the works and will be brought to market later this year, however -- it's being held up while the business experiences some growing pains. Termicam also says they're also looking to expand the uses for the bot to other applications where that thermal camera might come in handy, like bomb disposal and search and rescue

Actroid DER2 fembot loves Hello Kitty

2007-05-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Kokoro, a Sanrio Group company specializing in the design and manufacture of robots, unveiled its new Actroid DER2 feminine guide robot at Sanrio headquarters in Tokyo.

Actroid DER2 is an upgraded version of Kokoro’s previous fembot, Actroid DER, who has made quite a name for herself by providing services at a number of events, including the 2005 World Expo. Compared to the previous model, DER2 has thinner arms and a wider repertoire of expressions. The smoothness of her movement has also been improved, making it now even more likely for the uninitiated to confuse her with an actual human being.

Actroid’s limbs, torso and facial expressions are controlled by a system of actuators powered by pneumatic pressure. Once programmed, she is able to choreograph her motions and gestures with her voice.

Kokoro intends to rent Actroid DER2 to companies and events. The basic rental fee is expected to be 400,000 yen (US$3,500) for 5 days, plus extra fees for technical support, delivery and choreography changes. For those who can’t cope with a sayonara after 5 days, there is a late fee of 80,000 yen per day

New RoboSoccer Stars

2007-05-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

meet PaPeRo-mini

2007-05-08T03:43:00.000-07:00

NEC developed a smaller version of their PaPeRo robot dubbed PaPeRo-mini.

NEC introduced the conversational robot PaPeRo back in 2004. The new smaller version features also speech recognition and speech synthesis as the large PaPeRo.

PaPeRo measures 385x248x245mm. The new PaPeRo-mini has measurements of 250×170x179mm.

NEC's aim with the PaPeRo-mini was to miniaturize the conversation module.
PaPeRo is still a research project and not yet ready for commercial release.
NEC will introduce the PaPeRo-mini at the robotics ROBOMEC 2007 conference in Japan (May 10th to the 12th).

Toyota Robot Can Play A Trumpet In His Spare Time

2007-05-08T01:22:00.001-07:00

Military will use robots to sniff out bombs

2007-05-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

DAYTON, Ohio — As it increases its use of robots in war zones, the military will begin using an explosive-sniffing version that will allow soldiers to better detect roadside bombs, which account for more than 70% of U.S. casualties in Iraq.

Fido is the first robot with an integrated explosives sensor. Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot is filling the military's first order of 100 in this southwest Ohio city and will ship the robots over the next few months.

There are nearly 5,000 robots in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from about 150 in 2004. Soldiers use them to search caves and buildings for insurgents, detect mines and ferret out roadside and car bombs.

As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, the federal government is spending more money on military robots and the two major U.S. robot makers have increased production.

Foster-Miller, of Waltham, Mass., recently delivered 1,000 new robots to the military. IRobot cranked out 385 robots last year, up from 252 in 2005.

The government will spend about $1.7 billion on ground-based military robots between fiscal 2006 and 2012, said Bill Thomasmeyer, head of the National Center for Defense Robotics, a congressionally funded consortium of 160 companies, universities and government labs. That's up from $100 million in fiscal 2004.

Fido, produced at a GEM City Manufacturing and Engineering plant, represents an improvement in bomb-detecting military robots, said Col. Terry Griffin, project manager of the Army/Marine Corps Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

The bomb-sniffing sensor is part of the robot, with its readings displayed on the controller along with camera images. Otherwise, a soldier would have to approach the suspect object with a sensor or try to attach it to a robot. The new robot has a 7-foot manipulator arm so it can use the sensor to scan the inside and undercarriage of vehicles for bombs.

Officials would not release details of how the sensors work because of security concerns.

"The sniffer robot is a very good idea because we need some way of understanding ambiguous situations like abandoned cars or suspicious trash piles without putting soldiers' lives on the line," said Loren Thompson, defense analyst with the Washington-based Lexington Institute.

Philip Coyle, senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information in Washington, said the robots could be helpful if they are used in cases where soldiers already suspect a bomb. But he said explosive-sniffing sensors are susceptible to false positives triggered by explosive residues elsewhere in the area, smoke and other contaminants.

"The soldiers can begin to lose faith in them, and they become more trouble than they're worth," he said.

Thompson said all military robots have limitations. Their every move must be dictated by an operator, they can be stopped by barriers or steep grades, they are not highly agile and they can break down or be damaged, he said.

Robots range in size from tiny — 1.5-pound ones carrying cameras are tossed into buildings to search for insurgents — to brute — 110-pound versions move rubble and lift debris.

Fido is an upgrade of PackBot, a 52-pound robot with rubber treads, lights, video cameras that zoom and swivel, obstacle-hurdling flippers and jointed manipulator arms with hand-like grippers designed to disable or destroy bombs. Each costs $165,000.

Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Baker, 26, of Olean, N.Y., has helped detect and disable roadside bombs during two tours in Iraq. Before the robots were available, he and fellow soldiers would stand back as far as possible with a rope and drag hooks over the suspect devices in hopes of disarming or detonating them.

Two soldiers were killed that way, Baker said. No one in his unit has been hurt or killed while disarming bombs since the robots arrived.

"The science and technology of this has been way out in front of the production side," Thomasmeyer said. "We're going to start to see a payoff for all the science and technology advancements."

IRobot posted $189 million in sales last year, up 33% from 2005. Its military business grew 60% to about $76 million. Bob Quinn, general manager of Foster-Miller, said his company has contracts of $320 million for military robots and that its business has doubled every year for the past four years.

NASA to test portable robot surgeon

2007-05-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

SEATTLE — Doctors and scientists from the University of Washington will get a glimpse of what it would be like to do remote surgery in space when a portable medical robot they created will be tested next month in an underwater environment designed by NASA to simulate zero gravity.

The portable robot, which can be controlled over the Internet by a human surgeon many miles away, is being developed with money from the U.S. Defense Department to be used to treat wounded soldiers on a battlefield, to perform complicated surgery on patients in remote areas of the developing world and to help sick astronauts in space.

The difference between the robot surgeon demonstrated at the University of Washington on Wednesday and others that are being used today in American hospitals involves portability and communications, said Professor Blake Hannaford, co-director of the UW BioRobotics Lab.

All the portable parts of this device weigh about 50 pounds and can be transported and reconstructed by non-engineers at remote sites. Robot surgeons currently being used in hospitals weigh several thousand pounds, are not portable and can't be easily broken down and reconstructed.

Current medical robots also were not designed to be controlled from miles away.

When the mobile surgical robot called Raven is in the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory off the coast of Florida, its robotic arms holding surgical instruments will be operated by doctors in Seattle sitting in front of a computer screen and holding onto moveable metal arms.

The experiment will involve sewing up a tear in a rubber tube that is being used as a simulated blood vessel. The surgeons will also do a skill test used to judge student doctors.

The surgeons' digital instructions will travel over a commercial Internet connection from Seattle to Key Largo, Fla., and then through a wireless connection to a buoy, which is connected by cable to the submarine-like research pod about 60 feet underwater. Two NASA astronauts and a NASA flight surgeon will be in the underwater pod with the robot.

Mitchell Lum, a research assistant and electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate, said an expected time delay of up to a second — between the surgeon's digital instructions and movement of the robot's arms — should be the most challenging part of the experiment.

"We think they will take longer to complete the tasks but we don't think it's undoable," Lum said.

In zero gravity, both the robot and the patient will have to be immobilized, and doctors will have to deal with the different ways organs and bodily fluids move without gravity, explained Dr. Mika Sinanan, a professor in the department of surgery at the UW Medical Center who has been working closely with the project and demonstrated the robot for reporters on Wednesday.

The researchers said a major goal of the underwater experiment is to show that the robot can be dismantled, transported and set up by non-engineers in the zero gravity environment.

The co-director of the BioRobotics Lab, Associate Professor Jacob Rosen, said they needed the cooperation of doctors and every kind of engineer and computer scientist to make the robot work.

"We've all had to learn how to go into the different realms," Rosen said.

Sinanan said learning to use the robot was similar to learning a complex new surgical instrument, and comparable to the training for doing minimally invasive laproscopic surgery.

In addition to its applications on the battlefield, Sinanan expected the robot would be developed for surgery that requires very precise work in small spaces, such as coronary bypass operations or prostate surgery.

He said he was confident that robots would become standard in the operating room, but "it's going to be a slow evolution."

NASA is paying for the underwater experiment, scheduled for May 7-18, but the rest of the project is being paid for by the Defense Department. Two graduate students are scheduled to travel to Florida with Raven this Friday.

The robot was tested last summer in California's Simi Valley, using an unmanned aircraft with a wireless transmitter for communications.

Another robot being developed by SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif., will be tested in the underwater lab after the University of Washington project is tested. Neither robot has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on humans, Hannaford said.

New robot can identify wines, cheeses

2007-05-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

TSU, Japan — The ability to discern good wine from bad, name the specific brand from a tiny sip and recommend a complementary cheese would seem to be about as human a skill as there is. In Japan, robots are doing it.

Researchers at NEC System Technologies and Mie University have designed a robot that can taste — an electromechanical sommelier able to identify dozens of different wines, cheeses and hors d'oeuvres.

"There are all kinds of robots out there doing many different things," said Hideo Shimazu, director of the NEC System Technology Research Laboratory and a joint-leader of the robot project. "But we decided to focus on wine because that seemed like a real challenge."

Last month, they unveiled the fruits of their two-year effort — a green-and-white prototype with eyes, a head that swivels and a mouth that lights up whenever the robot talks.

The "tasting" is done elsewhere, however.

At the end of the robot's left arm is an infrared spectrometer. When objects are placed up against the sensor, the robot fires off a beam of infrared light. The reflected light is then analyzed in real time to determine the object's chemical composition.

"All foods have a unique fingerprint," Shimazu said. "The robot uses that data to identify what it is inspecting right there on the spot."

When it has identified a wine, the robot speaks up in a childlike voice. It names the brand and adds a comment or two on the taste, such as whether it is a buttery chardonnay or a full-bodied shiraz, and what kind of foods might go well on the side.

Shimazu said the robots could be "personalized," or programmed to recognize the kinds of wines its owner prefers and recommend new varieties to fit its owner's taste. Because it is analyzing the chemical composition of the wine or food placed before it, it can also alert its owner to possible health issues, gently warning against fatty or salty products.

That capability has other useful applications. Given three ripe, identical-looking apples to analyze, the robot was able without taking a bite to correctly single out one as sweet and the other two as a bit sour.

But sommeliers need not fear for their jobs just yet.

Of the thousands of wines on the market, the robot can be programmed to accurately identify only a few dozen at most. It also has more trouble with the task after the bottle has been opened and the wine begins to breathe and thus transform chemically.

"Wines are notoriously similar in their spectral fingerprints," Shimazu said. "The variation this robot detects is very subtle."

Some of the mistakes it makes would get a human sommelier fired — or worse.

When a reporter's hand was placed against the robot's taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon.

The 2-foot-tall robot also is expensive.

"Buying one of these would cost about as much as a new car," Shimazu said. "We'd like to bring that down to 100,000 yen ($1,000) or less for the tasting sensor if we were to put it on the market."

He said there is no plan yet to actually market the robot, though the sensor could be available as early as next year.

"We are getting a lot of business offers and a lot of interest," he said. "But we see this more as a symbol of our technological ability than as a profitable product right now."

Mie University engineering professor Atsushi Hashimoto, the project's other co-leader, acknowledged there is much room for improvement.

But he said the robot could be used in the near future at wineries to test the taste of each bottle without actually unscrewing any corks.

"It's still like a child," he said. "But not a completely ignorant one."

Industry experts note the shortcomings but agree on the robot's possibilities.

"I see the potential to analyze expensive and old wine to say whether it is authentic or not," said Philippe Bramaz of the Italian winemaker Calzaluga. "Auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's could use this technology to test wine without opening it."

A New Robot Project

2007-05-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

The Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) offer $ 652.000 to anyone is able to develop a new robot who can accomplish a series of commands in a very short period of time. Nowadays robots are controlled by remote control. The Agency want to create a robot who can walk by himself, climb stairs and who can use an elevator so it can pass from one floor to another without being controlled by satellite. This looks like science fiction to me and I'm not so sure if this is possible already.

Vacuum robot wins ‘Robot of the Year’

2007-05-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the 2006 Robot of the Year! The cleaning machine was given the award by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, due to its ability to carry out the cleaning work usually undertaken by two real live human people. Sucking an area of 3000 square metres in 4 hours on a single charge, the vacuum robot also has the ability to use elevators to move from floor to floor with ease. The happy winners, co-creators Fuji Heavy Industries and Sumitomo, sell the robot with a custom cleaning program for 20 million yen, which they claim actually saves the buyer money within ten years. Assuming they own a skyscraper that is, and not a one-bedroom flat.

Robot nose given keen smell sense

2007-05-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

A layer of artificial mucus has been found to improve the ability of an "electronic nose" to precisely sniff out aromas in foods and perfumes.

Coating the accurate sensors with a mixture of polymers allowed the nose to pick out a diverse range of smells.

The synthetic mucus mimics that found in human noses and controls the rate at which different odours bombard sensors.

Electronic noses have been used for many years in the food and beverage industry for quality control.

The new enhanced nose had found smells such as bananas and milk challenging but it is now able to tell them apart.

"Our artificial mucus not only offers improved odour discrimination for electronic noses it also offers much shorter analysis times than conventional techniques," said Professor Julian Gardner of the University of Warwick and one of the team behind the work.

Smell control

Electronic noses have started to be used for a number of different applications.

The US space agency Nasa has also developed an electronic nose to detect pollutants inside space craft to prevent the build up of potentially lethal concentrations.
Doctors have also started to trial the sensors to detect odours specific to diseases.

Artificial noses function in a similar way to the human olfactory but are much less sensitive and able to detect far fewer smells.

"Compared to the olfactory system, they neither mimic the complexity or the structure," said Dr James Covington of the University of Warwick.

Smells consist of a number of molecules, each of which has a specific size and shape.

The human nose contains more than 100 million receptors which are able to dock with these molecules.

A layer of mucus dissolves the arriving scents and separates out different odour molecules so that they arrive at the receptors at different speeds and times.

The brain is able to interpret this pattern to distinguish a diverse range of smells.

Mucus challenge

In contrast, an artificial nose consists of a much smaller array of chemical sensors, typically between six and 12, connected to a computer or neural network capable of recognising patterns of molecules.

A neural network is a collection of computer processors that function in a similar way to a simple animal brain.

As artificial noses have fewer sensors and, until now, no mucus to sieve the arriving molecules they were able to discern far fewer smells.

But the new work at the University of Warwick and Leicester University has found that applying a 10 micron (one thousandth of a centimetre) layer of a polymer inside the sensor significantly improves the performance of the nose.

"We can separate milk from cream, for example," said Dr Covington.

The team believe the enhanced electronic nose could be on sale in two years .

"We're thinking about healthcare applications to diagnose eye infections, skin diseases and urinary infections," he said.

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Little robot can worm its way into your heart

2007-05-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

Someday soon thousands of little robots will be crawling on patients' hearts delivering treatments that currently can only be done with massively invasive operations, if at all.

Riviere, an associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, isn't trying to remake the submarine from Fantastic Voyage. His inch-long HeartLander isn't small enough to navigate blood vessels.

Still, there are echoes of the science-fiction classic in Riviere's HeartLander robot, which is designed to crawl like an inchworm on the outer surface of a patient's heart. Prototypes have successfully delivered injections and even attached pacemaker leads in living pigs.

The device is inserted through a small incision in the chest and controlled with a wire tether by an external operator. Two suction-pad feet and a flexible midsection enable the device to move at about half a foot a minute.

"It is not completely independent or detached, but can freely move with the beating heart," Riviere said.

Just 6 millimeters high and 8 wide, the robot can squeeze into the space between the heart and its outer lining. Tiny holes on the feet create a vacuum that ensures HeartLander remains attached.

Riviere said he expected the device would be particularly useful for delivering medications under development that require precisely placed injections not now possible because of the movement of a beating heart.

"Since you have this suction that is holding onto the heart, it is actually beating with the heart" and can make precise injections, he said.

Robot Teams Handle Hazardous Jobs

2007-05-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Searching buildings for weapons of mass destruction and supply routes for improvised bombs are extremely dangerous but important jobs. That's why Scott DeLoach is working to create robots and robot teams to handle these and other tasks. DeLoach, associate professor of computing and information sciences at Kansas State University, has received a $219,140 grant for "Test-bed for Intelligent, Mobile Sensors" from the Department of Defense.

The funding will support DeLoach's projects on intelligent sensor networks, with equipment including robots, sensors, laptops and servers.

"The equipment will significantly enhance the quality of projects by providing a flexible infrastructure to execute large-scale demonstrations," he said. "In addition, the projects will aid in training students in intelligent, mobile sensor systems research and create a stronger graduate student base for completing large projects."

To send robot - or remote sensing - teams into the field to perform work such as detecting bombs requires the robots and their controllers to have certain capabilities. DeLoach is working to make these teams feasible.

His projects look at how robot teams can respond to changing environments and team capabilities when performing a task, for example. To do this, the robots must have knowledge of the team's organizational structure, individual team member capabilities, the environment and the team goals, along with appropriate reasoning mechanisms.

"The goal is to establish 'organizational reasoning' as a key component in a new approach to building highly robust cooperative robot teams," DeLoach said. "So far, we have developed a model of autonomous teams that allows teams to reason about organizing and reorganizing, and a goal model for dynamic systems that allows us to capture the dynamics of the environment in which such teams operate. We have also developed a high-level simulator that allows us to test the team reasoning algorithms to determine if they actually allow the team to adapt to their environment and the problem-solving process."

DeLoach's research also has created a search application for weapons of mass destruction for use within the simulator; a similar improvised bomb search application is in the works.

In addition, DeLoach's work seeks to allow a small number - one or more - of operators to control multiple teams of robots rather than multiple operators controlling a small number of robots.

In addition to bomb sensing, DeLoach's robot technology could be applied to uninhabited air and ground-based vehicles for reconnaissance, surveillance, weapons deployment and mine detection; search and rescue operations; border patrol; response to chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosive events; and fire warning and detection systems.

"These applications include any situation where teams of robots can be used with or without human control," he said. "The goal of our projects is to develop mechanisms that integrate human and semiautonomous agents into teams for use in constantly changing environments."

DeLoach's co-primary investigators are Gurdip Singh, David Gustafson and John Hatcliff, all professors of computing and information sciences at K-State.

Meet ASIMO the robot

2007-05-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

THE island has this week welcomed a special guest to its shores. Standing at four feet, three inches in height and weighing in at 54 kilos, ASIMO has been descibed as an ambassador of technology.

The advanced humanoid robot, created by the Honda Motor Company, was yesterday unveiled at the University of Cyprus on the occasion of Demstar Automotive’s 40-year anniversary in Cyprus.

The robot resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack, and can walk and run on two feet in a manner resembling human locomotion at up to 6km/h.

ASIMO was created at Honda’s Research & Development Wako Fundamental Technical Research Centre in Japan and is the current model in a line that began in 1986.

Officially, the name is an acronym for ‘Advanced Step in Innovative MObility.’

Honda’s official statements indicate that the robot’s name is not a homage to science fiction writer and inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics, Isaac Asimov.

Honda’s engineers set out to develop a humanoid robot aiming to achieve advanced mobility functions and intelligence technology. ASIMO was conceived ultimately to be able to function in the real human living environment and will eventually serve people as another set of ears, hands or legs.

Honda Europe’s corporate PR Manager William De Braekeleer yesterday told the Mail that the project was an ongoing one. “The ultimate aim is to benefit society whether that be in the home or elsewhere. In the future, the robot will be used to perform tasks that humans cannot undertake, such as cleaning polluted areas,” he said.

Managing Director of Demstar, Alexis Demetriou, explained that Honda’s philosophy is to use technology for a better life. “The company’s engineers did not attempt to create just a robot, they attempted to create the future assistant of mankind,” he said.
There are currently 46 ASIMO units in existence. Each one is believed to cost approximately one million dollars to manufacture.

They tour many prestigious scientific and robotics events and are used extensively to inspire young people about science and engineering.

The general public will have the opportunity to see ASIMO over the course of the weekend during a number of special presentations at the ceremony hall of the University campus.

So, what can ASIMO actually do? In order for the robot to interact better with humans, Honda has incorporated five main features in its design.

ASIMO is able to recognise moving objects. Using the visual information captured by the camera mounted in its head, ASIMO can detect the movements of multiple objects, assessing distance and direction. Common applications of this feature would include the ability to follow the movements of people with its camera, to follow a person, or greet a person when he or she approaches.

ASIMO can also interpret the positioning and movement of a hand, recognising postures and gestures. Because of this ASIMO can react to and be directed by not only voice commands, but also to the natural movements of human beings. This enables it to, for example, recognise when a handshake is offered or when a person waves and respond accordingly. It can also recognise movement directions such as pointing.

ASIMO can also recognise the objects and terrain of its environment and act in a way that is safe for both itself and nearby humans. For example, recognising potential hazards such as stairs, and by stopping and starting to avoid hitting humans or other moving objects.

ASIMO’s ability to identify the source of sounds has been improved, and it can distinguish between voices and other sounds. It can respond to its name, face people when being spoken to, and recognise sudden, unusual sounds such as that of a falling object or a collision, and face in that direction.

ASIMO has the ability to recognise faces, even when ASIMO or the human being is moving. Once they are registered it can address them by name. To me, the voice actually sounded like that of a young boy.

However, the road to intelligent behaviour remains a long one. The model for intelligence, the brain, must first be better understood before similar principles of processing can be applied to humanoid robots. While Honda continues to make progress in this area of research, it is anticipated that it will be at least 10-15 years before ASIMO’s intelligence matches its existing high level of mobility.