No matter how capable you make a robot, its effectiveness is limited by how well you can control it. And until we’ve got this whole general autonomy thing nailed down (better not hold your breath), that means a lot of teleoperation. JPL has been working on a new gesture-based human interface called BioSleeve, which uses a [insert collective noun for sensors here] of EMG sensors, IMUs, and magnetometers to decode hand and arm gestures and map them to an intuitive robot control system.
Complex robots are like animals: They learn by doing. Future robots may even respond to reward systems: complete a task with aplomb, and a gain a “feeling” of satisfaction for a job well done.
A Jetstream aircraft became the first to fly “unmanned” across UK shared airspace last month.
IkeaBot: An Autonomous Multi-Robot Coordinated Furniture Assembly System
Conventional quadrotors are what’s called underactuated robots, which means that they can move in more ways than they have independent control over. For example, they can happily yaw around to any angle you want while otherwise stationary, but if you ask them to pitch or roll, they can’t do it without also changing their position: if you try to roll a quadrotor left, the whole robot is going to fly left, and if you try to fly a quadrotor left, the whole robot is going to roll left.
Robotics researchers unveiled an electronic housefly on Thursday, one that can hover in air, flapping its wings to steer in a first demonstration of controlled artificial-insect flight.
Robots probably won’t take over the world, but they probably will be given ever greater responsibility. Already, robots care for the elderly in Japan, and drones have dropped bombs on Afghanistan. Professor Noel Sharkey fell in love with artificial intelligence in the 1980s, celebrated when he programmed his first robot to move in a straight line down the corridor and , for many years, judged robot wars on TV. Now, he thinks AI is a dangerous dream. Jim al-Khalili hears how Noel left school at 15 to become an electrician’s apprentice and amateur rock musician before graduating as a Doctor of Psychology and world authority on robots, studying both their strengths and their limitations.
Consumer 3D printers, most notably those from Brooklyn-based MakerBot, are in large part limited only by the imagination technical inclination of their owners.
Take the little floating ball that gave Luke Skywalker so much trouble during lightsaber practice, slap a pair of huge welder’s goggles on it and you start to get a picture of NASA’s latest foray into flying robots. Currently being tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS), MIT Space Systems Laboratory’s SPHERES-VERTIGO system is a free-flying robot with stereoscopic vision that is part of a program to develop ways for small satellites to autonomously create 3D maps of objects such as asteroids or disabled satellites.
It’s the rare software startup where you find yourself standing in your underwear behind a curtain while the founder talks tech.
I should probably blame Jeff Bezos.
If not for him, the digital reckoning forced on the retail world by Amazon might not have happened, and radical re-imaginings of shopping like the store I’m in might not have been necessary. As it is, I’m at Hointer, as shop that possibly represents the most radical synthesis of offline and online retail yet. I’m trying on expensive jeans to find out what clothes-buying feels like when the shop is powered by Amazon-caliber algorithms and machines set in motion by the tap of an app. The short answer is that it feels like you’ve stepped physically into a shopping website, a sort of e-commerce sequel to Tron.
Noodle peelers should probably start looking for other things to do around the kitchen – there’s just no competing with these robots. Not only are they saving restaurants in China money in wages, they can work rapidly and tirelessly for hours.
Later this year, some of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots—and their human masters—will gather for the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), a competition where the robots will attempt to perform a series of complex tasks in a disaster response scenario. The highly anticipated event is still eight months away, but teams will also have to show that their robots can perform adequately in a computer simulation, which is coming up soon, in June. Teams are working frantically on their robots and simulations, and while some groups operate in total secrecy, others like Team DRC-Hubo are eager to show off their progress.
Mantis - Two Tonne Turbo Diesel Hexapod Walking Machine
Petman Tests Camo
Not since last year’s TacoCopter fiasco has there been such a vague and ominous potential use for multicopters to hit the web. Last week, the golf company Titleist tweeted a photo of a rather monstrous multicopter with a camera hovering over the shoulder of pro golfer Scott Stallings. It looks a bit makeshift and draws more similarity to War of the Worlds than intended, no doubt, but the point of it is clear: even more camera angles to watch golfers in action.
