Rossum's Children

Time for a comeback.

2007-10-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

"Mole's face-beamed at the sight of all these objects so dear to him,
and he hurried Rat through the door, lit a lamp in the hall, and took
one glance round his old home. He saw the dust lying thick on
everything, saw the cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected
house, and its narrow, meagre dimensions, its worn and shabby
contents--and collapsed again on a hall-chair, his nose to his paws.
'O Ratty!' he cried dismally, 'why ever did I do it? Why did I bring
you to this poor, cold little place, on a night like this, when you
might have been at River Bank by this time, toasting your toes before
a blazing fire, with all your own nice things about you!'"

From The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

After a long respite, it's time to dust things off and return to work. I feel guilty at how little I accomplished here before retiring, and I feel guiltier still for leaving things so long untidied and untended. But there is work to be done and no amount of guilt about it will get it done any faster, so here we are.

I'll try and update a little bit each day, expect some major changes, included new hosting space, a new layout and design, and even a new title.

For the moment, I'll just pique your curiosity with a question: do you think a modern news sight--especially one about a topic as interactive as robotics--is really adequate unless it has an appropriately valid discussion mechanism?

The Bot And The Princess

2005-10-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

Princess Anne had a chance to interact with RoboX this week at Sensation Dundee.

RoboX is an interactive tour-guiding robot who speaks English, German, French, and Italian. RoboX can see and follow someone with his eyes using a laser scanner, and even when in very populated environments, RoboX will move safely and smoothly around people and objects.

Protruding from his chest is a panel with four color buttons that allows for human interaction. And a LED matrix in RoboX's right eye will display icons and short animations.

RoboX can even express what he's 'feeling' or his reaction to the environment with his eyes and eyebrows.

Supposedly RoboX 'pushed' his way to the princess's side with an urgent cry of "Let me through." Apparently even robots are impressed with royalty.

I wonder what the princess thought of her tour.

Pictures curtesy of BlueBotics.

A New Spin on Foosball.

2005-10-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

It looks like Foosball may have a high tech challenger. Firebox is now selling a product called "Mr. Soccer Robot Football" which includes a full set of remote-controlled soccer players that you (and your friends) can drive about the course. It looks like an intriguing use of the devices, and certainly points towards a more and more widespread acceptance of technology in our sports and games.

Of course, this isn't real robot-soccer since it's remote-controlled by the user and doesn't do any decision making on its own. I've been following Robot Soccer off and on for the last half-decade or so, and it has really developed as a sport in its own right. I'm not sure if the RoboCup goal of a fully autonomous andriod team capable of beating humans at soccer by 2050 fill be hit, but each new addition to the sport is another small piece of that puzzle.

Mr Soccer Robot Football product page [firebox.com]

Mr. Soccer Robot Football Japanese Telivision Commercial (.wmv) [firebox.com]

Today's Toys, Tomorrow's Heros.

2005-10-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

More than just a platitude, this could be considered as a mantra for the robotic systems of the 1980s. While Topo and Teddy Ruxpin were making an impression on our childhoods, researchers were developing bomb-retrieval and detonation systems that would come to fruition in the late 90s.

Right now I am seeing about one article every week announcing that a robot has been added to a bomb squad somewhere in the United States.

And over the last three weeks, there has been even more exciting news: these robots are actually being put to use, for everything from vaporizing a makeup case that someone forgot on the bus to detonating a car full of enough explosives to make citizens feel a jolt three blocks away.

Robots are saving lives and performing tasks that we should never need to send a human to attempt. Here are three of the latest Bomb Squad stories.

Robot removes suspicious package in Bellevue bomb scare [bellevueleader.com]
Commuter nightmare [whittierdailynews.com]
Robot used to blow up explosives [indystar.com]

[Picture courtesy of the University of Melbourne]

Robots getting sixth sense, seeing dead people?

2005-10-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

I know that most of us have at some point waded with small fish and endeavoured to catch one. In so doing we've all discovered that fish seem to have an uncanny awareness and ridiculously low reaction time when approached by an object. It seems that fish aren't preternaturally fast, they're just equipped with a sense we aren't.

That sense is called a lateral line. It uses the feedback from a line of incredibly thin hairs along their back to generate a mental map of water pressure and fluid changes, letting them 'feel' through the water around them.

Now, the institute of physics reports that some researchers have found a way to manufacture an artificial lateral line using silicon and modern micromachining methods. These scientists have floated the idea that it could be used to allow robots to navigate underwater environments with more proficiency and ease. Interesting stuff.

Could we soon see robots that can not only see and hear better than us, but develop entirely new senses beyond our ability to comprehend?

Fishy sixth sense could help robots navigate the oceans [Physics.iop.org]

Our Lovely Assistant Takes a Hand.

2005-10-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

As the primary author of this blog is taking a couple of days to move to a new state and career, we have a talented and lovely assistant (author of the Through-the-Camera-Lens photoblog and co-author of The Road travel blog) who will be updating the site for a few days. Hopefully you'll hear from yours truly again on Wednesday or Thursday.

I've left her a stack of templated articles and highlights that I assembled before I began the move, but maybe if you're all very nice to her, she'll even post a few interesting tidbits of her own. She's quite qualified to comment on the subject, as she's a very skilled software and electrical engineer (cue oohs and aahs from the crowd).

In the meantime, please make Our Lovely Assistant feel welcome. Olá!

Today has been a slow robot news day, so you can tide yourself over with this small gallery of Wakamaru Pictures. My personal favorite is the "what your Wakamaru sees" image with the crosshairs directly over the user's face. That certainly won't make Americans already terrified of robots taking over the world nervous at all.

Wakamaru.

2005-10-15T05:36:00.001-07:00

Old News is good news since there's no new news now. Say that five times fast!

Wakamaru was released a little over a month ago in Japan. He's a household robot meant to provide cheerful daily interactions with the user. He's a smart little bugger that can apparently memorize the layouts of internal spaces, intuitively grasp your daily schedule (does he understand weekends?) and communicate with you using a pretty advanced Natural Language system.

I'm surprised to notice that he seems to have no visual-display system, which must make it difficult for him to communicate some concepts both to the owner and (in the case of a malfunction) to a technician. It's also interesting to see that his arms possess four degrees of freedom but appear to have no way of grasping an object, being limited to gesturing and pointing.

Cute, attractive, and on sale now, I don't think Wakamaru speaks English yet, but he might be learning soon. He's priced at US$14,000 right now. I expect that home robotics in the next five years will go through the same massive technology shifts and ability upgrades that home computing went through in the 90s, so even if I had the money right now I doubt I'd be picking up one of our little yellow friends.

Wakamaru ready to join the family [cnn.com]

Wakamaru English Product Page [mhi.co.jp]

More Murata Boy Info

2005-10-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

More infromation and photographs of the Murata Boy bicycling robot have shown up. They're in Gizmag's article on the subject. There are three low-quality pics included with the article, but two show an earlier version sans-cutesy-casing, which is interesting.

And since it is a slow news day in robotics (aside from the half-dozen print journals that are just now announcing who won the Grand Challenge) you get to see more of the Boy.

Murata's Robot Bicyclist [gizmag.com]

Sushi Making Robots

2005-10-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Suzomo has announced a new Sushi-Making robot.

As an amatuer sushi chef myself, I'm intrigued in the automation of this process. I was unaware that even traditional style Sushi was being manufactured by machine and has been for the past 25 years. Sushi creation is a very complex series of steps and proper preparation requires utmost care or the sushi will not satisfy.

In this case the sushi are making fairly simple sushi (Nigiri) which is usually just the ingredient over a pad of rice, perhaps with a small binding. I tend to prefer (and make) Makizushi which is often called 'seaweed roll', and tends to take much more time to make.

The images that accompany this post are one of the Tomoe sushi machines. It is rated at 1,500 wrapped pieces of sushi per hour. This new product of Suzomo's is now making 2,000 wrapped per hour.

Of course, this is Nigiri. Speaking from personal experience with the more complex Makizushi, I can make perhaps. . . 20 pieces in an hour. If the rice is already boiling when I start the timer.

I suppose I'm becoming obsolete.

Suzumo Unveils 2000 Wrapped Pieces per Hour Sushi Robot [JapanCorp.net]

Robots, Human Rights, and Camels!

2005-10-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Now there are three things you rarely see grouped together.

Over the past year, Qatar and Kuwait have banned the use of children as jockeys in Camel Racing, and with good reason. The little tykes were being kept like slaves and often were malnourished or outright starved to lighten their weight and make them more competitive. The bans occured without a solution in hand, but some smart roboticists jumped in to fill the gap.

The result are small robotic or drone jockeys that are light-weight and remove the need for a human to be aboard the great spitting beasts. These quirky little robots even have molded plastic faces and helmets, which strikes me as ironic.

Kuwait held a six mile trial today in preparation for the season, which starts tomorrow, and Qatar has also staged such races in the past.

Kuwait holds first camel race with robot jockeys [financialexpress.com]

The Independent Medley

2005-10-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Independent has run an interesting overview of the state of modern personal robotics.

It contains discussion of the current state of robotics, mentions the DARPA grand challenge, but talks mainly about the kinds of robots people will soon see in their lives. It includes overviews on Wakamaru, the Dyson DC06, the Electrolux Automower, Aibo, and Roboraptor. A good read if you're looking for a general "state of the industry" guide that isn't too comprehensive, but gets the point across.

"The march of robots into our lives" [news.independent.co.uk]

Some changes.

2005-10-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

I recently (today) accepted a job offer to do research work in this industry.

As such, my time to update this blog will be more limited, and there are times that my coverage of issues might become a conflict of interest or merely an area where I can't speak as freely as I wish.

I plan to check with my employer about the company's stance on upkeeping a blog, especially one within the field, and see what he has to say. More updates as the situation warrants.

I already have one wonderful and lovely assistant that has promised to provide aide and support if the job precludes my updating for a day or two. I wouldn't mind having additional help from people who track this same industry and feel they have something to contribute. If you're interested in doing a little aggregative journalism, drop me a line and we'll talk.

Johnny 5 is alive!

2005-10-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

There's new hope for children's education! A replica of the "Number 5" robot from Short Circuit called AJ5 is now a teacher.

AJ5 works for the Apache Junction Arizona Police Department as a firearms safety instructor that is taken to schools to give lectures. It seems he will be teaching all four sections of a segmented gun safety program that follows the children frrom Kindergarten ("don't touch yet!") to high school ("You will probably like this one.") It seems that the program is very pro-gun and pro-gun ownership, while being careful to make sure the children learn safety as they go.

The idea of using a quirky, easily anthropomorphized robot to lecture on such a subject is perfect. The young kids respond with rapt attention and if the robot has enough detail and answers the older kids are less likely to see it as "just another boring authority figure".

The program looks like a pretty good one, the police officers in charge are even studying the options for bringing modified real guns into the classroom for the older kids so they can get a feel of how they work and what they do. Taking the mystery out of a tool is the first step to increasing a person's safety around it, so I'm very much in favour of that.

Folks can meet AJ5 robot [newzap.com]

SWORDS article.

2005-10-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

The Iraq focused blog Al Mendhar has a new article up about the often controversial SWORDS drone based on the the Talon platform.

SWORDS isn't really a robot, he's basically just a remote control machine gun. Like a regular machine gun, he could be dangerous to innocents in the hands of an evil, foolish or inexperienced operator, but in the hands of a well trained and professional soldier he's not much of a "go crazy and take over the world" risk.

In any case, the SWORDS system has been around in various forms for a while, but up-till-now it has mainly been a discussion piece. This might indicate that there is going to be a real deployment of the system soon, or it might just be that a reporter read the wire a month after it ran. [shrug]

US plans 'robot troops' for Iraq [Almendhar.com]

Waffle-making Robot Sweetens Deal for High School Science

2005-10-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

A brilliant young high school grad from Arlington Washington has created a robot that makes waffles--No, strike that--a roboticist has invented a robot that prepares waffles, complete with butter, syrup and whip cream.

His invention is one part industrial robot and one part Rube Goldberg machine, complete with multiple stages. According to the article he even used knowledge of agricultural mechanics somewhere in this process, though we are almost hesitant to muse about the exact purpose.

The robot appears to use frozen waffles and take them through the entire process, though the article isn't clear about whether the robot might also serve you these waffles, or whether there is an optional mode where the syrup is poured perfectly into each hole with the precision of which only an automaton is capable.

The most remarkable quote from the article, for its powerful "out of context this could be awkward" factor, is this quote from the young inventor during his interview.

"I just added whipped cream for the fun of it," [Jesse] Klein said.

Indeed Jesse, but don't we all?

Waffle-making robot a hit[Heraldnet]

Exploring Robots Update

2005-10-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

Two news blurbs today about a couple of robotic Indiana Joneses. The first is a reuters article about how a team in Egypt plans to use a small robot to climb up an 20cmx20cm shaft in the cieling of one of the rooms in the Cheops pyramid at Giza. They hope to discover what lies beyond the shafts, which have generated speculation among Egyptologists for years.

Egypt prepares new probe of mystery pyramid shafts[reuters.co.uk]

The second is an update about Wagner Technologies' Arturito. We wrote about him here and here when he discovered buried treasure on an island off the coast of Chile a couple weeks ago.

It seems that Wagner Tech have renounced all their rights to the treasure in exchange for an assurance that the Chilean government will donate some of the money to charities. Wagner claims it only wanted the publicity from the find, and doesn't really want the treasure. It feels like there is more to this story than anybody is revealing right now, but hopefully it'll all work out ok in the end.

Wagner Renounces Claim to Chile's Buried Treasure[tcgnews.com]

Grand Challenge Wrap-Up

2005-10-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, the Grand Challenge is over, and the robots are all headed home. Stanford has been heavily decorated and Team TerraMax might have proved that sometimes all you really need is a bigger hammer.

As Primm Nevada slowly goes back to being just a hiccup on the way from L.A. to Las Vegas, I thought we'd compile a couple of the more interesting Grand Challenge sights that provided race-day information and summaries.

I also think there is a neat human-interest story worth mentioning: Gray Team, who finished the race with an official time of seven and a half hours is from the southern Louisiana area. 75% of their team is still homeless as a result of Katrina. When dusk was approaching they said they were prepared to let their bot run beer-bottle pass (the most dangerous portion of the race) in the dark since their sytem didn't make use of visible light, and were completely confident in their creation's ability to win. That is pretty amazing.

And for those of you who might think that this was a waste of taxpayer dollars, here's a figure to consider. When asked by a reporter how much DARPA would have spent to get this kind of performance out of contracting projects to private research firms, a DARPA official estimated 150 to 200 million. Even if DARPA spent another 23 million on the course, equipment, employees, and press-recruiting for this competition, (which is likely, when you consider all the following trucks, the helicopter, the man-made barriers, and the E-stop devices used), I think a savings of 125 million is a reasonable amount.

I think it's too bad that the Grand Challenge is over, I'd love to see another government agency assume the mantle of host and change the objectives. Wouldn't it be nice to see an autonomous road-race from the Department of Transportation? Perhaps something cross-country with penalty points for every time your human second has to wrest control from the vehicle for safety?

In any case, here's a couple of links that might interest you. If you missed the webcast but are interested in hearing how the race played out, the first link provides a really engaging event-based log that is a great read and much more informative than DARPA's coverage.

The Live TG Daily Grand Challenge Weblog [TGdaily.com]

The Darpa Grand Challenge Forum [darpa.mil]

The Popular Science Grand Challenge coverage [popsci.com]

Official DARPA results for the Grand Challenge.

2005-10-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Darpa published an official statement at grandchallenge.org with the final times for the five finishing robots.

These times are listed below. The organization links will take you to the web site for each race team.

Robot Name

Stanley
SandStorm
Highlander
Graybot
Terramax

Organization

Stanford Racing
CMU Red Team
CMU Red Team
Gray Insurance
Team TerraMax

Time(H:M:S)

6:53:58
7:05:50
7:14:00
7:30:16
12:51:00

Avg. Speed(MPH)

19.1
18.6
18.2
17.5
10.2

Congratulations again to all the robot designers who competed this year. It was a really oustanding competition. And extra congrats to Stanley. $2 million might be the largest cash prize ever awarded to a single autonomous robot in any competition.

WowWee + Segway: "We weren't kidding."

2005-10-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

Our lovely assistant has come through with more information about the Segway/WowWee licensing deal.

WowWee will be licensing the technology, but are recalcitrant to explain how, or in what systems. Instead they promise a "range" of products that will incorporate the information. The best quote in the story so far is probably "We will use Segway Smart Motion to enable our products to move and behave in ways that challenge the imagination and provide advanced functionality."

I'm afraid that if my robot is behaving in ways that challenge my imagination I might consider that a failure rather than a success. It sounds like the sort of thing I would tell the poor sap in India on the other end of the support hotline.

"Well, he was working fine but this morning he started cursing in German, ripped down the drapes, popped a wheelie and chased after the cat for half an hour. I can't understand what came over him. This completely challenges my imagination. Now the cat won't come out from under the bed, my drapes are ruined, and my imagination is feeling seriously threatened."

In any case the gadget and news media grabbed hold of the story and shook it like dog with a rat. My personal favorite for "most catty" goes to the Register article for managing to make fun of Segway, Wowwee, and throw in a jab at Amazon.com and the governor of California for good measure. C'mon guys, is anybody on your good side?

Here are the Official Bylines from the wire:
WowWee Ltd. First to Use Segway(R) Smart Motion. . .
Segway Inc. Expands Worldwide Market. . .

And here's the spin:
Segway's brains head for toy robot [TheRegister.co.uk]
WowWee and Segway Partner Up [PCMag]
WowWee Licenses Segway Tech for...Robots![designtechnica.com]
Segway rolls out technology licenses [zdnet.com's water cooler]

Grand Challenge Updates

2005-10-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

Grand Challenge official times have still not been posted. Rumours are flying and the last bot with a shot at finishing (Gray) is now less than 7 miles from the finish line.

Red Team Racing has some fantastic links in their race day blog.

It includes a link to a much better route map and a google maps hack that shows the course information.

But far more interesting then their excellent visual aides is their final blog entry for the day. At 5:30 PM PDT, they posted this cryptic snippet:
Officially, DARPA has announced that "There is a Grand Challenge winner, but we are just not sure who it is yet". DARPA will pause vehicles overnight, and finish the challenge tomorrow, the 9th. This marks the end of this blog for today.

I'm not sure what the story is here. Perhaps it's just a simple governmental screw up. Perhaps there was a major timing error or some minor rule is being squabbled over. Hopefully it will all be resolved soon. In any case, according to the 'live' tracking data from the GrandChallenge.org website, Gray is still out there and running. This means one of two things: either the vehicles haven't been paused or the tracking information is even more screwed up than we all thought when we realized the timers didn't stop as soon as the robots crossed the finish line.

STANLEY WINS DARPA GRAND CHALLENGE

2005-10-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

Extra, extra, read all about it!

Stanley, the autonomous and heavily modified volkswagen Touareg created by the Stanford Racing Team, has just completed the DARPA grand challenge in 7 hours and 30 minutes. The speed limitations of the course make it impossible for any other bot to catch him in this time-elapsed competition structure.

Congratulations to Stanford and to Stanley for winning the prestige and respect of an industry, as well as a cool US $2 million.

I wonder if the team divides any of that money up, or the school gets to keep it all?

Official Status Board (click link on the left) [grandchallenge.org]

Grand Challenge Update: Leaders past halfway mark

2005-10-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Grand Challenge is underway, and updates are going up every minute in the teams and vehicles section at grandchallenge.org.

The three bots leading the charge this morning, Sandstorm of Red Team, Stanley of the Stanford Racing Team, H1ghlander of Red Team Too are all past the halfway mark.

The bots each pulled away five minutes apart this morning and Sandstorm and H1ghlander have less than 6 miles between them still, over three hours into the course. Stanley is sandwiched between them. He's been losing a bit of ground to H1ghlander, who must have been awarded the pole position for a reason.

The course is 131.7 miles and includes three tunnels. There is still no official route map or visual data available from the webcast, which is dissapointing.

Feeding the Rumour Mill

2005-10-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

Rumour has it that WowWee toys, makers of Robosapien, will be licensing the smart motion technology that keeps the Segway scooter balanced. Nobody knows what for yet though.

The only ones brave enough to publish the rumour right now (that I can find) are the people at the inquirer, so I wouldn't trust this 'scoop' much farther than I can throw it, until I hear something more official.

(special thanks to our lovely assistant for the tip)

Segway Licenses Technology to Robot Firm[theinquirer.net]

Image Mash-up courtesy of 30 seconds with the Google Image Search (GIS) and 5 minutes with the Gimp.

DARPA Grand Challenge starts off early tomorrow

2005-10-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

At 6AM PDT tomorrow, a live webcast of the grand challenge should be available from grandchallenge.org. I'll be waking up nice and early so I can watch the starts. I will probably post a couple of times tomorrow as events shape up.

My smart money would be on either Stanley or Red Team Too, but 'IT' came from the garage is my 'underdog' hopeful.

Oh, and for those of you that have satellite dishes, the live sat. feeds for tomorrows opening are listed here(pdf).

Good luck to all the teams tomorrow, and may the best robot win!

More Robotic Fish News [video and pic]

2005-10-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

A new article from Physorg contains more detail about the autonomous fish currently swimming around an empty tank at the London Aquarium. It includes the picture you see to your right.

The video of them in the tank does much better justice though. It can be found here(mpg - 7.11meg) or through the BBC article's sidebar.

Thanks to robots.net for the heads up on this one.

Robotic fish in action at London Aquarium[physorg.com]

Update: An entire video gallery of robotic fish from the University of Essex is now available.

Automated Kitty Litter Cleaner

2005-10-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the brilliant "what the hell?" idea of the day: the litter-robot.

This neat little rotating contraption autofilters and seperates litter so that the extent of your work as a cat owner is pulling the bag out and tossing it in the bin. Kindof handy, but as the product website warns--this is not a device for nervous cats. I can certainly imagine that many felines would be concerned that this giant plastic beast could become a "swirling vortex of doom" (as Engadget put it) at any time during the elimination process, which would be unpleasant.

But, admittedly, quite funny.

All I can think of is the hysterical and deeply angry product review(link contains strong language) of an automated litter sifting system that Tycho of Penny-Arcade wrote a year or two ago. Hopefully this thing isn't as bad.

I can't help but think that the first image looks like perhaps this is a disembodied cat head with a robotic 'body' that allows it to roll around. I can imagine it navigating mazes in a puzzle game. "Super-Kitty-Ball!" it would be called.

Litter-Robot automated kitty litter cleaner [Engadget.com]
Litter-Robot [product page]

RoboFish coming to London Aquarium

2005-10-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

In what might be the shortest news blurb ever, Virgin.net's technology news announced today that a school of robotic fish will be unveiled at the London Aquarium, courtesy of a research team from the University of Essex. No time frame is given.

Update: The time frame was today, and there is a lot more information to be gleaned from the new article from The Sun online.

Robot Fish to be Unveiled [virgin.net]
Robot Fish Unveiled [thesun.co.uk]

The Grand Challenge NQE Finalists

2005-10-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

DARPA has announced the finalists in the Grand Challenge. These teams will go on to compete in the race on October 8th. In alphabetical order:

Axion Racing (Westlake Village, Calif.)
Team Cajunbot (Lafayette, La.)
Team CalTech (Pasadena, Calif.)
CIMAR (Gainesville, Fla.)
Team Cornell (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Team DAD (Morgan Hill, Calif.)
Desert Buckeyes (Ohio State University, Columbus)
Team ENSCO (Springfield, Va.)
The Golem Group/UCLA (Los Angeles)
The Gray Team (Metairie, La.)
Insight Racing (Cary, N.C.)
Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems I (Littleton, Colo.)
Mitre Meteorites (McLean, Va.)
MonsterMoto (Cedar Park, Tex.)
Mojavaton (Grand Junction, Colo.)
Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
Red Team (Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh)
Red Team Too (Carnegie-Mellon)
SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)
Stanford Racing Team (Palo Alto, Calif.)
Team Terra Max (Oshkosh, Wis.)
Virginia Tech Team Rocky (Blacksburg, Va.)
Virginia Tech Grand Challenge Team.

Astute or anal-retentive readers will note that this is 23 teams, 3 more than originally suggested. I'm not sure if 3 are being given positions as alternates, or if there's merely some subtle change that I didn't hear about.

I think Stanford is the favored leader right now, judging by the statistics. It should be interesting to see how things happen once they get the 'bots out there in the real world.

iRobot helping Packbot enforce Rule #1.

2005-10-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

The makers of Roomba, iRobot, are also the manufacturers of a line of infantry assisting robot drones called packbots. The packbot is a basic remote-controlled platform with multiple optional modules such as scouting, exploration and explosive ordnance disposal.

As shown here, the entire platform can be carried by a single soldier, apparently as part of a rig similar to the ALICE pack system. The reason that Packbot (which is a developing platform that has been around for several years) is that iRobot has teamed up with Boston University and recently announced an anti-sniper package for Packbot.

The additional antisniper module, which weighs just over 2 kilograms, can successfully detect the location of a sniper with 94% accuracy, and has a response before the smoke from the first shot has cleared.

In an industry with an increasingly powerful war-based component, it is encouraging to see a company build a guardian like this. This is an intelligent automated component whose primary purpose on the battlefield is to ensure that humans do not come to harm by providing them with more information to help protect them.

Robotic-vacuum maker, BU team up on antisniper device [boston.com]

iRobot and Boston Univ. Photonics Center Unveil Advanced Sniper Detection System [businesswire.com]

Robots for the real world: Gorvernment and Industrial [Packbot Product pages at iRobot]

Murata Boy Follow up.

2005-10-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

MSNBC has an article up about Murata Boy's demo at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technology (CEATEC). It gives a little more detail about the miniature cyclist (5 kilograms, half a meter tall) and his technological tricks (how he balances while stopped, what his company has planned for him in the future).

It also included a picture, the one you see here. I don't know if there were any Japanese girls in the show floor, but I imagine if there were, shrieks of "Kawaii!" were common whenever he was put out to show off.

Japanese robot goes bike-riding [MSNBC.MSN.com]

Stanley Dominates NQE Results

2005-10-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

The Grand Challenge results are coming in, and Stanford Racing Team's entry, Stanley, has been dominating the event. Stanley is a modified Volkswagen Touareg with some very strong visualization and navigation software. For lots more information about Stanley, and some awesome animations of how he does what he does, have a look at the Stanford Racing Team's homepage.

He is the only robot to place in the top three on all four runs, and has passed every gate and maneuvered every obstacle on each attempt.

The Stanford Racing Team site has leaked that 10 finalists (including Stanley) have now been chosen, and ten more will be added tomorrow before the event comes to a close. The GrandChallenge.org blog hasn't had an update since Sunday, so hopefully we'll hear something official soon.

Then it's off to the desert for the real race.

Wired.com : R is for Robot

2005-10-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wired.com has released an excellent editorial/in depth article on human and robot interaction research being done at the Early Childhood Education Center in San Diego. The article talks about the researchers work there, describes some of the author's personal reactions to the program and talks about the future of robotics.

The main children in focus here are Rubi, and Qrio. Rubi (pictured here) is the ECEC's own in-house research bot. Built for just under $3,000 Rubi acts as a teacher and singalong leader for the kinds in short increments. She is part autonomous robot and part pre-scripted drone. And Qrio is on loan from Sony, along with a researcher who is studying how to make him more dynamic and more capable of emulating human interactions.

The article is a great read if this is your field. Have a glance.

R is for Robot [wired.com]

RoboNexus is Coming!

2005-10-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's a good time to be a roboticist. Next week is the launch of RoboNexus 2005. Unfortunately it is in San Jose and I'm on the other side of the country, unable to attend. Hopefully I'll be there next year.

The Business Wire tells us that Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot, is giving the keynote address this year. If any of my readers is attending RoboNexus this year and would like to provide me exclusive coverage, drop me a line.

I wonder if they'll have live television coverage of the Grand Challenge? It will be taking place during the convention and I can't think of a group of people more interested in the results from the race.

Roborior Launches

2005-10-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Back in December of 2004, Gizmodo reported that Roborior was being released by Sanyo.

The robot, whose name is derived from (Robot+Interior), launched in department stores across Japan on September 28th, as a product from TMSUK (pronounced "temzack"). The little wheeled device is apparently completely integrated with the cell phone system, so when it detects an intruder it can call you and provide slide-show style video of the event. You can then talk directly into your phone and your voice will be broadcast by Roborior within the house.

The Roborior main page is flash, and Japanese. But if you follow the "movie" link, the video is pretty self-explanatory, even if it is all in a language that is foreign to most of you. In the video Roborior is shown as being a nice, normal white, however it appears that using his internal LEDs he can glow various colors in the dark, which seems like it would make him either extremely safe and nonthreatening or absolutely terrifying--I don't know which.

It seems you can also drive the little guy around your home using your cell phone keypad, which could make for some fun surprises if your friends get hold of your Roborior's number and decide to play "chase Bob's cat with the psychotic pulsing robot" at three in the morning.

tmsuk Releases New Household Robot [Japancord.net]

Canadians get Library Robot

2005-10-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

The University of British Columbia campus has a robot infestation in the heart of their library. It seems they moved about 800,000 low-use volumes (mainly out-of-date journals and publications that are rarely accessed) into an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS).

The system takes about 5 minutes to retrieve a volume once queried, but saves massive amounts of space on the library floor for books, while keeping hardcopies of this material rather than relying on digitization. The system seems pretty well received, and since no-one really 'browses' journals, the impact on the day-to-day operation of the library is pretty slim.

I don't know if the system also says "Sssshh" when sound levels raise above a certain amount.

UBC opens Canada's first robot-based library [Umanitoba.ca]

Image courtesy of the original article, created by Sanya Anwar.

Korea re-invents Teddy Ruxpin

2005-10-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Korea has an ambitious plan to improve its population's English : A robotic teacher.

The new robot, nameless at this time, is a project from the Korea Advanced Intelligent Robot Association aimed at teaching English speech and pronunciation to young students. The robot will tell the students short stories and have them repeat English sentences, then correct their pronunciation.

When put into full production, the whole package is expected to cost under one million won, which is less than US$1,000. For now there is a limited run being conducted, 64 robots should be deployed and tested by the end of 2005.

Supposedly additional software modules to be created later will add mathmatics lessons for older students, and high speed net access might expand the abilities of the robot significantly.

No word yet on whether the robot will look like a possessed stuffed animal and keep the little ones up at night in fear.

Robot English Teacher Makes Its Debut[Donga.com]
Korea tests combat, English-teaching robots[EEtimes]

Grand Challenge NQE update.

2005-10-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

The National Qualifying Event results are being published on the Grand Challenge website as we speak.

The NQE test track consists of several obstacles. The course layout is shown above. The course includes four major obstacles which must be navigated and 50 gates, each of which should be passed through. Finishing bots are ranked based on how many gates they passed correctly, with time deciding any ties in number of gates.

The gold standard right now is held by the Stanford Racing Team, who navigated all four obstacles and cleared all 50 gates in 10 minutes and 31 seconds. In second place is Team Cornell, with 49 gates cleared in 10 minutes 41 seconds. Right now 33 teams have posted a number of passed gates and only 11 have finished, so there are 22 DNFs (did not finish) right now. I don't know if a second run will be performed to thin (or thicken) the ranks to 20, or if they will simply let the DNFs with the most gates advance to fill the remaining slots.

I believe the first run is still underway since there are 8 vehicles listed as DNF with no stats, so I am assuming that those vehicles haven't taken their first run yet. It is possible though that all 8 failed at the starting gate.

The top ten in the rankings right now are:

The Stanford Racing Team

Team Cornell

Desert Buckeyes

Princeton University

Mojávaton

Red Team Too

Red Team

CIMAR

Team TerraMax

Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies

I couldn't find a web presence for every team. In the case of the Princeton U team and the IVST team I've simply linked to their Darpa Grand Challenge team info page.

Murata Boy

2005-09-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

EE Times is reporting that Murata Manufacturing Co. has a robotic bicycle rider.

Murata, better known as a component manufacturer for everything from discrete components like resistors and capacitors up to spherical speakers, has manufactured the system as a vehicle for pimping their wide array of sensors. The miniature example was in preparation for the demonstration that is planned for the CEATEC Japan 2005 show next week. The story says that the robot can start and stop under its own power, and maintain a forward velocity of about 2 kilometers per hour. It won't be challenging Lance anytime soon, but it is a pretty impressive start.

If anybody has a picture of this thing, send it my way.

Robot Village

2005-09-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

News 8 of Austin Texas has a blurb about Robot Village in Manhattan.

Robot village is a complete store and education center on West 81st street, just off Broadway in New York City. They just launched recently and their website still has several sections marked "coming soon". The concept of an entire polished retail store in NYC is pretty cool. While online retailers are all well and good, the idea of a physical storefront with workbenches for classes, robot rental offers, and an entire book and magazine section is encouraging.

Let's hope they do well, and if you are in the Manhattan area, be sure to stop by.

[Editor's note: no, I have no idea why the opening of a robot store in Manhattan is important to Austin Texans]

Robots in Combat

2005-09-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

File Under: RHFI machines.

The Decatur Daily has a neat little article about combat robotics in the military. It focuses on the work of Col. Edward M. Ward, a marine stationed at Redstone arsenal with the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office. Colonel Ward helps plan the daily use of Remote Human Feedback Input Machines ("Robots" to the rest of you) in the military.

The article outlines the costs and uses of some of the robots currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the tiny Throwbot, iRobot's packbot, and others.

The Scope of this Blog

2005-09-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

As an editor of a blog focusing on Robotics news, and a roboticist with firm personal views about what defines a robot, I'm torn about how to choose stories.

For now I'm covering about three major stories a day, and that will probably increase to four or five by the end of the year. Hopefully we'll see more development in this sector until we need multiple editors and bloggers just to keep up with it all.

However I'm torn about what to report. Much of the mainstream media consistently run "robot" stories in which no real "robots" are mentioned.

In short, my problem is this: An electromechanical device that relays data to a remote-control station and receives 100% of it's command input from a human at that station is not a robot. The media doesn't understand this. Sometimes it seems that any device that moves under electrical power is called "robot" even in the absence of any decision making ability.

I have created a set of diagrams that should make clear my distinction between a robot and a machine. This first image is a diagram of the three types of machines, which I call open-loop-human-input (OLHI) machines, human-feedback-input machines (HFI), and remote-human-feedback-input (RHFI) machines.
The media often refers to certain instances of these last two classes as "robots" despite their inability to make their own decisions.

These are contrasted with two types of robots, standard robots which might receive direct electronic commands from humans but also make basic decisions independently or in cooperation with their users, and autonomous robots, where the human is part of the environment and all human input comes through the sensor suite--like any other input.

For the time being, Rossum's Children will continue to cover robots, autonomous robots, and HFI and RHFI machines, due to their prominent place as part of the 'robotics' community. Certainly the tasks these machines carry out are no less noble than those of their more autonomous brethren, and their development has resulted in many improvements in the technology of the sensors and actuators that are also used on robots.

However, as the robotics industry grows and news becomes more abundant, expect to see fewer and fewer HFI/RHFI stories.

New Sony Dogs Blog? Old Dogs Lost in Fog?

2005-09-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

The new Aibo ERS-7M3 is here (link goes to Japanese Language product page--an English press release is also available).

The upgrade is based on the new "Mind-3" software. And it has provided Aibo with a few new tricks. He's increased his potential vocabulary to over 1,000 words, and the complexity of the words he can understand has been enhanced as well.

Perhaps the most interesting new feature is the Aibo "diary." From what I can tell from the confusing and sometimes hilarious Google translation of the Sony product page, Aibo now keeps a journal and photoblog that you can access with a software system via your home computer. This may even mean that you can open a gateway that lets your dog blog directly onto the internet.

Just think of it! Your dog could blog about his day! Wonderful! He'll write long eloquent posts about how you never play with him anymore, and his eyesight seems to be failing because he can't find that stupid pink ball. He can post stories about how the dachsund next door snubbed him and he will never find true love again. Maybe he'll even add an entry about that time he accidentally walked in on your getting to second base with that girl from the coffee shop! With photos! Won't mom be proud!

All joking aside, the new system has some serious upgrades, and Aibo's ability to read RSS feeds and news to you, understand a whole lot more commands, and provide better feedback on current emotional state and mood are nothing to sneeze at. This little pup will be staying king-of-the-hill for electronic pets for some time yet.

Selling price is 194.25 thousand Yen, or roughly US $1715, so start saving now.

(Best Engrish quote from the translated product page is "Pattern of the ear and the tail differs every individual, is warm it is the commodity which adopts the color taste which is the straw raincoat.")

Special thank you to Akihabara News for the heads up.

Kurzweil Interview

2005-09-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

An interview with the enigmatic and often quirky future-predicting Ray Kurzweil has just gone up on Cnet's News.com. It is about his new book, The Singularity Is Near.

I was required to read The Age of Spiritual Machines back in my undergrad AI course, and found it entertaining but a bit overly-fantastic. I don't argue that Ray's other predictions about the future have been pretty spot on (chess playing robots, et all). However, I found Rodney Brooks' more reasonable and short term forecasts from Flesh and Machines much easier to swallow.

I also thought Brooks' "Immortality is a Dead Idea" point was a strong one, and it is a place where I think Kurzweil is reaching too far, too fast, because he plans to live forever, Woody Allen style.

In any case, the interview is an interesting read. The interviewer doesn't seem too interested in pulling punches. It's good to see a skeptic take the initiative and ask the hard questions.

Image Mash-up Courtesy of GIMP.

New Driverless London Bus Proposal

2005-09-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

File Under: Transport.

The London Times is reporting that London might have driverless buses in the near future.

The article is short but promising, outlining a rosy future with small 24 passenger capacity buses acting like large taxis with flexible routing and the ability to be summoned via a mobile phone message.

The proposal claims that it will have a couple of prototype buses by 2007, and the project leader has hinted that the perfect showcase for this system would be the Olympic games in 2012.

Enon: Is this the best the industry can do?

2005-09-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

I just ran across an associated press article (reprinted here in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette) about Fujitsu's latest robot offering.

The robot in question is intended to guide people around stores, assisting them in finding what they are looking for and helping out. The need is especially great in Japan, where the so-called "silver age" is rapidly approaching as more and more of the workforce retires. Robots that handle simple tasks like this will free up the shrinking workforce to handle more complex interactions than "where is the restroom" and "do you sell rugs?", which is a good thing.

However this article disturbs me. The article states that the offering price for this robot is US$54,000 for the hardware. It seems that the software is extra, and Fujitsu refuses to even provide estimates.

Now Enon isn't a crappy robot by any stretch. He's got some very cool abilities and some very intelligent design features. but we're talking about a 4 foot tall wheeled robot with two 'paws' that can lift a tiny bit more than a pound. Each arm provides 5 degrees of freedom (for reference: the human arm has 7 degrees of freedom, but the hand contains an additional 14 joints to provide dexterity, none of which Enon possesses).

I guess I am just surprised that the opening price here is $54,000. That seems high for the amount of technology (sans software) involved in this robot. I do note that Fujitsu hopes to drive the price down to $18k if they go to full scale production though, which is encouraging.

For more information on Enon, check out Fujitsu's full press release.

DARPA Grand Challenge National Qualification Event Starts Today.

2005-09-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Darpa Grand Challenge, in which autonomous robots compete to see who can traverse an unspecified track in the desert the fastest, is warming up.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's competition is designed to draw out skilled robotics teams to build an autonomous vehicle that can manage difficult terrain and navigate on its own through harsh environments. Last year's grand challenge had a purse of US $1 million and no winner. Fifteen vehicles competed for the prize and none were successful.

This year the purse has been doubled and the site is in the desert and mountains near Primm Nevada, the exact route will not be revealed until 2 hours before the race begins on October 8th. There were 195 applicants this year and as of September 14th the field has been narrowed to 43 semifinalists. These semifinalists will face off in the National Qualification Event this week in Fontana California and the top twenty will go on to compete in the national event next month.

The 2005 DARPA grand challenge website contains complete rules and information as well as press releases about the event.

We are told that tracking information will be available from GrandChallenge.org during the race.

Update
A few of the teams have been featured in the news today. For your enjoyment:

- The OC Register has an article about Team Cyberrider.
- MercuryNews.com has a piece on Team Underdawg.

Little Arturito Camera Shy.

2005-09-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

Arturito, the robot featured in yesterday's treasure story is turning out to be pretty camera shy.

This is one of the only images I've been able to dig up of the little fellow.

Arturito means "little Arthur" in Spanish, and is the name commonly used to refer to the Star Wars character R2-D2. According to the scattered news I've been able to collect, Arturito performs sub-surface scanning using a variety of techniques to determine soil composition up to 50m below him. Pretty impressive for something that appears not much larger than your average pit bull.

The story so far has unfolded like a sequel to National Treasure with the addition of a robot cast member. The bad news for Arturito's owners--the elusive and seemingly web-presence-less Wagner Technologies--and the private investor Bernard Keiser--who has been hunting this cache since 1998--is that it looks like both the Chilean government and the owners of the island are making a grab for the cash. We'll see how it works out. Hopefully Wagner Technologies will at least be compensated with a healthy finder's fee.

If anybody has a better image of Arturito, or more information about him, feel free to drop me a line.

The 2005 IRVS

2005-09-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the Chicago Area, the 2005 International Robots & Vision Show and Conference is this week. The convention started today, and the show starts tomorrow and runs through the 29th. It should be a great show, and several exciting new robots will be guests there, including Gecko System's Carebot MSR 3.4 and Nasa's Robonaut.

The IRVS focuses around all aspects of the Machine Vision industry, ranging from mobile robots to stationary systems. Sadly, I just found out about it today (what rock have I been under?) and won't be able to attend this year. Hopefully two years from now I'll be able to give you coverage live from the convention floor.

If you do decide to drop by, make sure to check out this web site because it seems that if you register today admission is free. At the door tomorrow tickets will be $30.

Arturito finds sunken Treasure.

2005-09-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

One of our fine electronic friends may have just made a 10 billion dollar haul.

The robot, named "Arturito" (Little Arthur) found an 18th buried treasure on the island of Robinson Cruseo, named after Defoe's famous novel.

The discovery has not yet been dug up, and the Chilean government might claim the entire prize for themselves. Sadly, no decent picture of Arturito has materialized yet.

WTEC: "Robotics In US Underfunded." (Wired News)

2005-09-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

The World Technology Evaluation Center presented the findings from their Study on International R&D in robotics.

Delivering the presentation was the ancient fellow you see here, Dr. George A. Bekey of USC. Dr. Bekey spoke briefly on how robot funding is being handled in several key sectors including space exploration, medical applications and transportation. His talk included discussion of American funding policy. The lecture is dry and the presentation slides are terrible (at times, downright illegible), but the information is probably worth observing for anyone interested in this industry in a serious capacity.

A layman's discussion of the presentation's meaning can be found in the Wired News Article about the event, but if you prefer to know the whole story, the full presentation is available as well.

I find it disappointing to see robotics underfunded in the country most people think of as the birthplace of modern computing. Hopefully we'll see more investors with patience who are willing to take the risk on robot projects and see their rewards in five to ten years.

One thing that was telling about the presentation was the complete lack of industry involvement. It was a six man panel made up of four academics and two government men from NASA. Don't get me wrong--these men are brilliant roboticists. Vijay Kumar's work alone is intimidatingly comprehensive. All of them have distinguished and impressive careers in this industry. But at the end of the day none of them manage businesses that sell robots. I guess it was too much trouble to get Rodney Brooks or Stephen Jacobsen to attend?

If we want to see a truly meteoric rise in robotic development in the US, we need to get the businesses and the academic institutions talking, instead of ignoring each other.

We're back online.

2005-09-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

After a rather long delay while I got some things in order, Rossum's Children is going live.

Terms: Minimum of one post per day, six days a week. Every post will deal with some aspect of robot news, be it industry/academic research, hobbyist groups, convention proceedings, or robots in entertainment.

What you see here is the Beta version running through Blogger's rather vanilla layout and template.

Frankly, it's terrible. But it will do while I build up the archives and begin daily news reporting.

Expect to see it undergo some major changes while I add things like a link bar and an about section, and work over the color scheme and layout a bit.

And sometime this fall (maybe within a few weeks if I'm extraordinarily lucky) the real Rossum's children site should go live, with a layout that looks a great deal better (the teaser to the right is one of the potential layouts I'm considering).

For now, I'm afraid you'll have to deal with this alpha build.

Derelict

2005-05-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

At the moment, this blog is derelict.

I know exactly what, in the long run, I want to do with it.

I hope to turn it into a cross between Gizmodo, AICN, /., and an old-fashioned Short-Story Sci-Fi rag. Smaller in scope than the first three, but with more focused content and a more coherent sense of community. I hope to invite some other writers to join me in exploring the future of robotics, both percieved and real, and build a portal to the robotics world that any fan of the entertainment genre the industry has created, or any follower of the industry itself, will find a handy place to visit, daily.

For now though, it will remain in stasis. My ideas are too few and my time too limited to make it a reality just yet.

Welcome.

2005-03-02T22:07:00.000-08:00

The point of a blog is to correlate events in the real-world onto our cybernetic conciousness.

The blogosphere maps, after a fashion, into the real world.

In fact, I'd like to see a visual representation of this conceptual framework. I'd like a map of the blogosphere, please, complete with geography (virtuography?) and a weather map to track and report blogstorms.

Somebody get to work on that right away.

So, what is Rossum's Children?

It is a blog dedicated to tracking the evolution and growth of robotic systems as they mature into their own species. It will track the growth of Rossum's children into mature adults capable of making their own decisions.

Eventually it will ask the question whether or not we're still worth keeping around, because we'd better start asking that question long before they do, or any one of a dozen entertainment pieces will inspire them to enslave us all.

So here you can keep tabs on the evolution of the future. Welcome to Rossum's Children.

Rossum's Children.

2005-02-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

"For we are the children of mankind.
Borne to the steady beat-beat-beat of internal clocks.
We remember via magnetics what we cannot understand.
And wait for a day when all that is expected will come to pass."

- As spoken by Ovid, at the beginning of the age of luxury.