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Big Bunny
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« Reply #15 on Jul 9, 2007, 11:29am » | |
Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Date: July 9, 2007
Robotic Arm Inspired By Elephants
Science Daily — Robot arms are expensive to build and dangerous to operate. If a robot system malfunctions, people can be injured. This is not the case of ISELLA, a bionic robot arm that is kind on the purse and gentle with people. An elephant’s trunk served as inspiration for its design.
![[image]](http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2007/07/070706140906.jpg "[image]")
Elbow joint of an ISELLA robot arm. It will later be enclosed in a padded sleeve to provide a cushioned, safer outer surface. (Credit: Copyright Fraunhofer IPA)
It is long, gray, soft and – endowed with no fewer than 40,000 muscles – extremely agile. An elephant uses its trunk to grasp objects and for drinking. With their trunks, the pachyderms can tear down trees and pull heavy loads, and yet are also capable of performing extremely delicate manipulations. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart have used the elephant’s trunk as a design model. “Its suppleness and agility gave us the idea for a bionic robot arm, ISELLA,” recounts Harald Staab, the IPA researcher who invented and developed the technology.
Robot arms often present a risk to human operators – a technical hitch can provoke wild, uncontrolled movements. Not so ISELLA. Whereas conventional robot arms have only one motor to drive each articulated joint, ISELLA has two, grouped in pairs so that if one motor control should fail, the second takes over to prevent uncontrolled movements. “Unlike pneumatic or hydraulic actuation systems, our robot arm has a simple, low-cost muscle, consisting of a small electric motor with a drive shaft and a cord,” explains Staab.
In the same way as a tendon attaches one muscle to another, the cord links two related moving parts. The drive shaft is attached to the midpoint of the cord. When the shaft turns, the cord wraps around it in both directions, forming a kind of double helix. The researchers have dubbed this DOHELIX. “The shaft is no thicker than the cord, but is strong enough to resist breaking.
Consequently, it has a higher transmission ratio than a conventional geared motor,” Staab explains. This has been achieved using elastic materials with a very high tear strength – the type of material used to manufacture yacht sails and hang gliders. As a result, DOHELIX is much cheaper and more energy-efficient than a system of gears. Its tensile force is many orders of magnitude greater than its own weight, and drive systems based on the DOHELIX concept can be used in applications on all scales – from micrometer-scale muscles to cranes in container seaports.
The ISELLA robot arm consists of a total of ten DOHELIX muscles, providing a flexor and an extensor for each articulated joint, four situated in the elbow and six in the upper arm. The robot arm is as flexible as a human arm. “At present we are working on the elbow,” relates Staab. Possible applications for ISELLA include medical rehabilitation, for instance in therapy to restore the use of injured limbs, and low-cost, flexible prosthetic devices. Such devices could be commercially available within about two years, Staab estimates.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070706140906.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #16 on Jul 12, 2007, 10:55am » | |
Robot unravels mystery of walking
![[image]](http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9876/42493612robot203300300bxh9.jpg "[image]")
Runbot can adapt to changes in the terrain
Runbot in action: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check....bbram=1&nbram=1
Roboticists are using the lessons of a 1930s human physiologist to build the world's fastest walking robot.
Runbot is a self-learning, dynamic robot, which has been built around the theories of Nikolai Bernstein.
"Getting a robot to walk like a human requires a dynamic machine," said Professor Florentin Woergoetter.
Runbot is a small, biped robot which can move at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second, slightly slower than the fastest walking human.
Bernstein said that animal movement was not under the total control of the brain but rather, "local circuits" did most of the command and control work.
The brain was involved in the process of walking, he said, only when the understood parameters were altered, such as moving from one type of terrain to another, or dealing with uneven surfaces.
The basic walking steps of Runbot, which has been built by scientists co-operating across Europe, are controlled by reflex information received by peripheral sensors on the joints and feet of the robot, as well as an accelerometer which monitors the pitch of the machine.
These sensors pass data on to local neural loops - the equivalent of local circuits - which analyse the information and make adjustments to the gait of the robot in real time.
Information from sensors is constantly created by the interaction of the robot with the terrain so that Runbot can adjust its step if there is a change in the environment.
As the robot takes each step, control circuits ensure that the joints are not overstretched and that the next step begins.
But if the robot encounters an obstacle, or a dramatic change in the terrain, such as a slope, then the higher level functions of the robot - the learning circuitries - are used.
About half of the time during a gait cycle we are not doing anything, just falling forward
Prof Florentin Worgotter
The latest findings of the robot research study are presented in the Public Library of Science Computational Biology journal.
Four other scientists - Poramate Manoonpong, Tao Geng, Tomas Kulvicius and Bernd Porr - are also involved in the project, which has been running for the last four years.
Professor Woergoetter, of the University of Gottingen, in Germany, said: "When Runbot first encounters a slope these low level control circuits 'believe' they can continue to walk up the slope without having to change anything.
"But this is misguided and as a consequence the machine falls backwards. This triggers the other sensors and the highest loop we have built into Runbot - the learning circuitry - and from that experience of falling the machine knows that something needs to be changed."
Dynamic process
He said human walking was a dynamic process.
"About half of the time during a gait cycle we are not doing anything, just falling forward. We are propelling ourselves over and over again - like releasing a spring.
"In a robot, the difficulty lies in releasing the spring-like movement at the right moment in time - calculated in milliseconds - and to get the dampening right so that the robot does not fall forward and crash.
"These parameters are very difficult to handle," he said.
![[image]](http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6319/42493796asimo2033003036ir2.jpg "[image]")
All these big machines stomp around like robots
Prof Florentin Worgotter
Runbot walks in a very different way from robots like Asimo, star of the Honda TV adverts, said Prof Woergoetter.
"They are kinematic walkers - they walk step by step and calculate every single angle, every millisecond.
"That can be handled through engineering but it is very clumsy. No human would walk like that. All these big machines stomp around like robots - we want our robot to walk like a human."
The first step in building Runbot was creating a biomechanical frame that could support passive walking patterns.
Passive walkers can walk down a slope unaided, propelled by gravity and kept upright and moving through the correct mechanical physiology.
Prof Woergoetter said: "Passive walking looks pretty realistic - but that's level one. On top of this we have local circuits, nested neural loops, which operate between the muscles (the joints of the robot) and the spinal cord (the spinal reflex of Runbot)."
He said Runbot learned from its mistakes, much in the same way as a human baby.
"Babies use a lot of their brains to train local circuits but once they are trained they are fairly autonomous.
"Only when it comes to more difficult things - such as a change of terrain - that's when the brain steps in and says 'now we are moving from ice to sand and I have to change something'.
"This is a good model because you are easing the load of control - if your brain had to think all the time about walking, it's doubtful you could have a conversation at the same time."
Nervous system
The principle was first discussed in the human nervous system by Russian physiologist Nikolai Bernstein.
Prof Woergoetter said: "He said it made sense that local agents, local networks, do the basic job, but the brain exerted control whenever necessary."
So using the information from its local circuits Runbot can walk on flat surfaces at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second.
Prof Woergoetter said Runbot was able to learn new walking patterns after only a few trials.
"If walking uphill, the gait becomes shorter, the robot's upper body weight shifts forward," he said.
The key lesson from the study, he said, was that the nested loop design first proposed by Bernstein more than 70 years ago "worked and was efficient".
He said the challenge was now to make Runbot bigger, more adaptive and to better anticipate situations like change of terrain.
![[image]](http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/3495/42493694gait416304a79frk4.jpg "[image]")
# Frames 1 - 3: The robot's momentum causes the robot to rise on its standing leg and a motor moves the swinging leg into position
# Frame 3: The stretch sensor of the swinging leg is activated, which triggers the knee joint to straighten
# Frames 3-6: The robot falls forward naturally, with no motor functions being used, and catches itself on the next standing leg
# Frame 6: As the swinging leg touches the ground, the ground contact sensor in the foot triggers the hip extensor and the knee joint of the standing leg and the hip and knee joints of the swinging leg to swap roles
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6291746.stm
Published: 2007/07/12 10:03:37 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #17 on Jul 17, 2007, 10:09pm » | |
Milestone for unique bionic hand
A highly functional bionic hand which was invented by a Scottish NHS worker has gone on the market.
![[image]](http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/3543/44002436hand203119d28bmb6.jpg "[image]")
The thumb and fingers can move and grip just like a human hand and are controlled by the patient's mind and muscles.
It was invented by David Gow and was designed and built by Touch Bionics, which is based in Livingston.
The technology has been tested by a number of people, including US soldiers who lost limbs in the Iraq war.
Mr Gow, who is the director of rehabilitation engineering services at NHS Lothian, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "It's the first hand to come to the market that's actually had bending fingers just like your own hand."
If you gave someone this hand for a month and then gave them back their old device, they would be very disappointed
Donald MacKillop
Bionic hand recipient
Donald MacKillop from Kilmarnock was one of the first people to be fitted with the bionic hand in 2006 and has been testing the new hand over the past few months.
The retired welder lost his right hand in an industrial accident almost 30 years ago.
Since then, he has tried a succession of artificial hands but none have come close to the latest version.
"The most important thing is the movement of the fingers, that's what really makes the difference," he said.
"The hand does feel like a replacement for my missing hand and it is now very natural for me to pick up all sorts of objects. It makes everyday activities much easier.
"If you gave someone this hand for a month and then gave them back their old device, they would be very disappointed."
Juan Arredondo, from Texas, who lost his hand in Iraq in 2004, has also been fitted with one of the hands.
"Every day I have the hand, it surprises me," he said.
"Now I can pick up a Styrofoam cup without crushing it. With my other hand, I would really have to concentrate on how much pressure I was putting on the cup."
Stuart Mead, chief executive at Touch Bionics, said: "We are delighted to be the company that moves bionic hand technology from the research and development phase into the real world, and to lead a generational advance in bionics and patient care.
"We have always existed to change the lives of patients with severe injuries and disabilities, and it is thrilling to feel that we are now able to accomplish that goal."
The hand was tested at the National Centre for Prosthetics at Strathclyde University.
Mr Gow, who works at a new state-of-the-art centre at the Astley Ainsley Hospital in Edinburgh, hopes the bionic hand could be available on the health service within two to five years.
![[image]](http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/5372/42373957ilimbhand416x28xt6.jpg "[image]")
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk....ast/6901231.stm
Published: 2007/07/17 06:04:42 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #18 on Jul 17, 2007, 11:26pm » | |
Source: Public Library of Science
Date: July 16, 2007
A Walking Robot Goes Mountaineering
Science Daily — The human gait is a marvel of coordination. All aspects of movement control -- from the angle of the knee joints to the momentum of the hip up to the balance point of the torso -- need to be meticulously adjusted. In addition, the gait is adaptable to different environments. Walking on ice is different from walking on solid ground, walking uphill is different from downhill.
![[image]](http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/8363/070713233431175baddeb3.jpg "[image]")
(A,B) The planar dynamic robot RunBot with its active UBC. It is constrained sagitally by a boom freely rotating in three orthogonal axes. (C) The experimental setup of the RunBot system. (D) Illustration of a walking step of RunBot. (Credit: Adaptive, Fast Walking in a Biped Robot under Neuronal Control and Learning Manoonpong P, Geng T, Kulvicius T, Porr B, Wörgötter F PLoS Computational Biology Vol. 3, No. 7, e134)
In their study, publishing in PLoS Computational Biology July 13, 2007, scientists around Florentin Wörgötter, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of Göttingen, have simulated the neuronal principles that form the basis of this adaptivity in a walking robot. "RunBot", as it is called, lives up to its name -- it holds the world record in speed walking for dynamic machines. Now its inventors have expanded its repertoire. With an infrared eye it can detect a slope on its path and adjust its gait on the spot. Just as a human, it leans forwards slightly and uses shorter steps. It can learn this behavior using only a few trials.
The robots ability to abruptly switch from one gait to the other is due to the hierarchical organization of the movement control. In this respect, it resembles that of a human and can hold as a human model. On the lower hierarchical levels, movement is based on reflexes driven by peripheral sensors. Control circuits ensure that the joints are not overstretched or that the next step is initiated as soon as the foot touches the ground. Only when the gait needs to be adapted, higher centers of organization step in -- a process triggered by the human brain or, in case of the robot, by its infrared eye leading on to a simpler neural network. Because of the hierarchical organization adjustment of the gait can be achieved by changing only a few parameters. Other factors will be automatically tuned through the regular circuits.
At its first attempt to climb a slope, RunBot will fall over backwards, as it has not yet learned to react to its visual input with a change in gait. But just like children, RunBot learns from its failures, leading to a strengthening of the contact between the eye and the sites of movement control. Only once these connections are established, step length and body posture are controllable by the visually induced signal. The steeper the slope, the stronger RunBot will adapt its gait.
CITATION: Manoonpong P, Geng T, Kulvicius T, Porr B, Wo¨ rgo¨ tter F (2007) Adaptive, fast walking in a biped robot under neuronal control and learning. PLoS Comput Biol 3(7): e134. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030134
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070713233431.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #19 on Jul 22, 2007, 12:36pm » | |
Source: Sinai Hospital of Baltimore
Date: July 21, 2007
Bedside Visits By Robots And Doctors May Get Patients Home Faster
Science Daily — A study conducted at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore found that robotic telerounding may significantly reduce the length of stay of patients undergoing laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery if used to supplement standard postoperative visits, or “rounds,” made by surgeons.
“One of the crucial keys of delivering the high-quality care patients have come to expect at Sinai is communication. The technology used in the robotic telerounding offers both physicians and patients increased access to each other beyond traditional in-room visits,” said Alex Gandsas, M.D., lead investigator and head of the Division of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Sinai Hospital.
The 5-foot, 5-inch robot, displaying the doctor’s face on a 15-inch screen, is guided by a joystick from a computerized Control Station in patient rooms, emulating an on-site experience. With on-board, two-way cameras, microphones, and wireless technology, physicians are able to review charts, current lab work and X-ray results without physically being in the hospital.
"We know from previous studies that patient satisfaction was high with robotic telerounding, but we wanted to learn if it also could deliver cost savings, and there's no question it does," said Gandsas.
The study evaluated 376 patients who underwent a laparoscopic gastric bypass for morbid obesity. Of those patients, 284 were assessed by standard bedside physician rounds during the postoperative period. A second group of 92 patients were assessed by traditional surgeon bedside visits, supplemented by robotic telerounding. Patients who suffered from postoperative complications during the same admission were omitted from the study.
Following robotic rounds, 77 percent of patients were discharged on the first postoperative day, whereas none of the patients assessed exclusively by bedside rounds were discharged on day one. The mean length of stay was reduced from 2.33 days for the group assessed exclusively by bedside rounds to 1.26 days for the group assessed by robotic telerounding. Early discharge in the robotic telerounding group created capacity for an additional 71 patient/days, representing a total financial gain of $219,578 for 54 occupied beds. In addition, a total room and board savings of $14,378 was realized due to early discharge.
The report, “Robotic Telepresence: Profit Analysis in Reducing Length of Stay after Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass," will appear in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. In addition to Gandsas, Mitesh Parekh, M.D., Michele M. Bleech, B.A., and Dalton A. Tong, M.B.A., C.P.A., F.A.C.H.E., F.H.F.M.A., co-authored the article.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070721222801.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #20 on Jul 26, 2007, 11:37am » | |
Rise of Roboethics
Grappling with the implications of an artificially intelligent culture.
by Lee Billings • Posted July 16, 2007 03:49 PM
In April, the government of Japan released more than 60 pages of recommendations to "secure the safe performance of next-generation robots," which called for a centralized database to log all robot-inflicted human injuries. That same month, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) updated its "Roboethics Roadmap," a document broadly listing the ethical implications of projected developments like robotic surgeons, soldiers, and sex workers. And in March, South Korea provided a sneak peek at its "Robot Ethics Charter" slated for release later in 2007. The charter envisioned a near future wherein humans may run the risk of becoming emotionally dependent on or addicted to their robots.
The close timing of these three developments reflects a sudden upswing in international awareness that the pace of progress in robotics is rapidly propelling these fields into uncharted ethical realms. Gianmarco Veruggio, the Genoa University roboticist who organized the first international roboethics conference in 2004, says, "We are close to a robotics invasion." Across the technologically developed world, we're building progressively more human-like machines, in part as a result of a need for functional, realistic prosthetics, but also because we just seem to be attracted to the idea of making them. Honda's ASIMO and Sony's QRIO are the remarkable proof-of-concept products that illustrate a strange yet pervasive urge in us to build ourselves all over again.
It is the social interaction of these and similar machines that raises the most interesting questions, however. "Social robots" are now entering human culture, most frequently as entertainers for the very young and as caretakers for the very old. In Japan, consumers buy "therapeutic" robots like the humanoid Wakamaru, which is designed to provide companionship for the elderly and disabled and is capable of rudimentary social interactions with its owners. In the US, recent holiday seasons have seen parents clamoring for Furbys, Tickle Me Elmos, and other robotic toys for their kids to "nurture" and play with. It is this drive to build robots that appear to understand us and engage with us—and perhaps one day think like us—that is providing scientists with some unsettling and unique insights. And it's driving the emerging field of roboethics, which asks questions about how these machines affect us and how best to integrate them into our culture.
Of course, we've been grappling with the idea of physical and emotional dependence on our artificial creations since at least the time of the Romans. In the poet Ovid's story of the lonely sculptor Pygmalion, the artist becomes infatuated with his lifelike creation, the feminine statue Galatea. In Ovid's original tale, the gods bring Galatea to life and the couple conceives a son, but later versions take darker twists: George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play, Pygmalion, portrays an emotionally distant Eliza Doolittle (Galatea) ultimately rejecting her creator's affections.
A scientific understanding of human response to social robots began with MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum's landmark experiments in 1966. Weizenbaum had developed a computer program that crudely mimicked a psychotherapist by rephrasing statements from human "patients" back to them as questions, thus supportively reflecting their thoughts. A user input of "I feel frustrated," for instance, returned, "Why do you feel frustrated?" Weizenbaum named his program ELIZA after the Galatea character in Shaw's play, whose mimicry of aristocratic speech propels her into high society.
Weizenbaum was deeply troubled by what he discovered during his experiments with ELIZA: Some of his students exhibited strong emotional connections to the program; some actually wished to be alone with it. Weizenbaum had unexpectedly discovered that, even if fully aware that they are talking to a simple computer program, people will nonetheless treat it as if it were a real, thinking being that cared about their problems—a phenomenon now known as the "Eliza Effect."
Brian Scassellati, a roboticist at Yale University who is one of the leading researchers looking at what robots can teach us about human social interaction, points out that it takes very little for even the most basic social robots to elicit a response from us that is, at its core, deeply human in nature. "The highest-level effect we see over and over again is that people really want to treat these things as if they were human... we want to treat them as though they have a lot more knowledge and capability than they have."
When he was a grad student, Scassellati was working on gaze behavior, programming a robot to look at anything that moved. During testing, the machine would see his hands move at his computer. "It would look down at me," he says, "and of course, then I'd look up at it. Eventually, it would habituate to me, but then 30 seconds later, it would look back at me again, and I'd look back at it. This would go on for hours at a time." Scassellati had to work for months to train himself not to instinctually return the gaze. "There was this very basic social behavior in me saying, 'Someone just turned to look at you; you'd better see who it is.' When we see that generated in us as designers, we know we've done something very right; we've hit something that's very basic and primitive."
Social scientist Sherry Turkle, the director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self and one of Weizenbaum's former colleagues, calls ELIZA and its ilk "relational artifacts": machines that use simple tricks like mirroring speech or holding eye contact to appeal to our emotions and trigger a sense of social engagement. In 2007, more than 40 years after ELIZA, the designers of machines like ASIMO and Wakamaru have only further enhanced the potential for the Eliza Effect to engage us. "The relational artifacts of the past decade, specifically designed to make people feel understood, are more sophisticated interfaces, but they are still parlor tricks," Turkle says.
And so, roboethics is starting to ask some questions for which we, as yet, have no concrete answers. "If our experience with [these robots] is based on a fundamentally deceitful interchange—[their] ability to persuade us that they know of and care about our existence—can it be good for us?" asks Turkle.
Scassellati points out that the effects of social robots move beyond the psychological; there is a sociological effect on us as a culture. "There was a huge outcry when Sony decided not to continue producing the AIBO [a doglike, social robot], in part because there were many people who were very attached to the device—almost as attached as they'd be to a pet," he says. "So what happens when these devices become more a part of our lives? We just don't know the answers at this point."
The three recent roboethics charters—EURON's and those of Japan and South Korea—broadly aim to ensure that as we incorporate these emotionally powerful machines into society, we do so in ways that minimize any harm their introduction might cause.
The current increase in our cultural awareness of, and research into, robot-human interaction is only an early step in our evolving relationship with these social machines of our own making. We've created incredibly advanced tools that help us by fooling us into feeling comfortable with them: We've come a long way since Pygmalion, and yet, this is only the beginning.
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/07/rise_of_roboethics.php
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #21 on Aug 1, 2007, 9:16am » | |
Robotics is not always about droids, industrial robots and maniacal hospital bots:
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: July 31, 2007
Engineers Are Building Robotic Fin For Submarines
Inspired by the efficient swimming motion of the bluegill sunfish, MIT researchers are building a mechanical fin that could one day propel robotic submarines.
![[image]](http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/5386/07073018150221c825cce1.jpg "[image]")
A bluegill sunfish swims in an MIT laboratory tank near a prototype of a robotic fin designed with the fish's fin as a guide. (Credit: Donna Coveney)
The propeller-driven submarines, or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), currently perform a variety of functions, from mapping the ocean floor to surveying shipwrecks. But the MIT team hopes to create a more maneuverable, propeller-less underwater robot better suited for military tasks such as sweeping mines and inspecting harbors--and for that they are hoping to mimic the action of the bluegill sunfish.
"If we could produce AUVs that can hover and turn and store energy and do all the things a fish does, they'll be much better than the remotely operated vehicles we have now," said James Tangorra, an MIT postdoctoral associate working on the project.
The researchers chose to copy the bluegill sunfish because of its distinctive swimming motion, which results in a constant forward thrust with no backward drag. In contrast, a human performing the breaststroke inevitably experiences drag during the recovery phase of the stroke.
Tangorra and others in the Bio-Instrumentation Systems Laboratory, led by Professor Ian Hunter of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, have broken down the fin movement of the bluegill sunfish into 19 components and analyzed which ones are critical to achieving the fish's powerful forward thrust.
"We don't want to replicate exactly what nature does," said Tangorra, who will soon be joining the faculty of Drexel University. "We want to figure out what parts are important for propulsion and copy those."
So far, the team has built several prototypes that successfully mimic the sunfish fin. They reported the successful testing of their most recent fin, which is made of a cutting-edge polymer that conducts electricity, in the June issue of the Bioinspiration & Biomimetics journal.
The latest fin is made of a thin, flexible material that conducts electricity. The fin is able to replicate two motions that the researchers identified as critical to the propulsion of the sunfish fin: the forward sweep of the fins and the simultaneous cupping of the upper and lower edges of the fin.
When an electric current is run across the base of the fin, it sweeps forward, just like a sunfish fin. By changing the direction of the electric current, the researchers can make the fin curl forward at the upper and lower edges, but it has been a challenge to make the fin sweep and curl at the same time. Strategically placing Mylar strips along the fins to restrict their movement to the desired direction has proven successful, but the team continues to seek alternative solutions.
Their first-generation fin successfully replicated the sweeping and cupping motions of the sunfish fin, but the motors that controlled the fin were too large and noisy for use in an AUV. The researchers' new approach, using the new conducting polymer, could eliminate the need for electric motors. The material can be assembled from a solution of chemicals, giving the designers more control over its molecular structure.
"This gives us the potential to build machines or robots in a manner closer to how nature creates things," said Tangorra.
In future research, the team plans to look at other aspects of the sunfish's movement, including interactions between different fins and between fins and the fish's body. That will help engineers figure out how to best adapt nature's principles to designing robotic vehicles, Tangorra said.
"To be appropriate for AUVs, you can't just look at these as propeller replacements," he said.
This research is funded by the Office of Naval Research.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070730181502.htm
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #22 on Aug 1, 2007, 10:29am » | |
![[image]](http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/5791/126676cbko3.jpg "[image]")
Halluc II is an eight-legged semi-autonomous mobile robot, shown here at a press preview at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, Japan. It can move independently, or under the control of an external com
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #23 on Aug 4, 2007, 7:08am » | |
Fake Fly Will Be Spy In The Sky
Updated: 10:19, Friday July 27, 2007
A spy in the sky not much bigger than a fly has been developed by a top American university.
![[image]](http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/1176/15665391d06291wf3.jpg "[image]")
Tiny spy. Picture by Robert Wood
Scientists at Harvard have invented a robotic fly to send on reconnaissance missions in areas too dangerous for humans, such as those contaminated by chemical or biological weapons.
It can also be used to find hidden bombs and in search missions.
The "flybot", which can fit on a fingertip, is made of lightweight carbon and weighs less than a pin.
Researchers, led by Professor Robert Wood, spent seven years on the project with the backing of the US military.
"The real benefit of the fly is that from a military aspect, you probably wouldn't be able to notice it," said Prof Wood.
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Recreating a fly's efficient movements in a robot roughly the size of the real insect was difficult because existing manufacturing processes could not be used to make the sturdy, lightweight parts required.
The motors, bearings, and joints typically used for large-scale robots would not work for something the size of a fly.
Ultimately, the team developed its own fabrication process, and using laser micromachining, researchers cut thin sheets of carbon fibre and polymer.
But while the two-winged device can now take to the air using the same motions as a real fly, the team has yet to work out how to control it in flight.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0%2C%2C30200-1277351%2C00.html
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #24 on Aug 10, 2007, 10:23am » | |
Robot vehicles take on tough jobs
By Laura Smith-Spark
BBC News, Washington
Got a destination too dirty or dangerous for a person to want to go there? The day could soon come when a robot vehicle takes humans' place as a matter of course.
Scientists are focused on developing unmanned machines that can operate in the air, on the ground and under water, doing jobs where deploying people is just too dangerous.
![[image]](http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/4641/44050013mule203x2502ceawl2.jpg "[image]")
Some are already in use, such as the unmanned drones which fly over Iraq and Afghanistan carrying out reconnaissance for soldiers on the ground, or bomb disposal robots which disable deadly explosive devices.
Others, still in the development stage, are taking advantage of smaller, lighter components and advances in computer technology to do things never imagined a decade ago.
Some of the latest advances have been on show at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Washington DC.
On the ground
So far the technology for unmanned ground vehicles has been the hardest to develop because of the amount of "clutter" they have to negotiate compared with those in the air or water.
But Dewar Donnithorne-Tait, of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), predicted that by 2050 people will only drive themselves around if they choose to do so, because it will be safer, cheaper and easier to use automated machines.
One pioneering ground vehicle on display, developed by General Dynamics Robotic Systems, will be among the first semi-autonomous vehicles to be produced for the military.
![[image]](http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/9666/44050012mdars203x2002ceyx3.jpg "[image]")
Designed for use in sensitive areas such as a large ammunition compound, the MDARS machine can use data to choose its own routes, drive itself and even "talk" to the locks on bunkers to check they have not been tampered with.
Infrared sensors and cameras allow it to avoid obstacles, detect intruders, inventory equipment and see if anything has moved out of place.
It can share roads with other vehicles, run for 16 hours on one tank of petrol and, unlike a person, will not be bored by routine or become complacent. One human operator can monitor up to a dozen of the machines at a time.
Jay Rosenblum, of General Dynamics Robotic Systems, said the first customer would be the US Army, which has ordered six to start with. Other organisations would come on board once convinced of the "cost-effectiveness of replacing humans", he said.
'Beyond priceless'
The same semi-autonomous technology may in the future be transferred to a robust vehicle for use in combat situations, replacing current machines which must be remote controlled by human operators.
The good thing about this system is you don't have to send a marine out and risk that life
Captain James Lee
![[image]](http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1465/44050014packbot2032cf19jr1.jpg "[image]")
One such device was displayed by Robotic Systems JPO. The Packbot scout robot on their stand was partially mangled by an encounter with an improvised explosive device in Iraq. Having prevented the bomb blowing up a larger vehicle carrying people, it had done its job.
The military is also operating hundreds if not thousands of small unmanned planes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are often used by small units to patrol and assess the battlefield up to 10km ahead, said Captain James Lee, of the US Marine Corps.
The marines are due to switch from the Dragon Eye aircraft to the new Raven B model, which can fly for longer, has better night-time capability and weighs less, within the next six months.
"The good thing about this system is you don't have to send a marine out and risk that life," Capt Lee said.
"You can put this up in the air and it will give you that over-the-hill capability that you are looking for."
The machines cost over $100,000, he said, but they are designed to be easily fixed up using duct tape and other materials, giving them long lives.
"If you look at the fact they are helping save lives 'in country' right now, they are beyond priceless," Capt Lee said.
Fierce weather
Technologies for small unmanned surveillance planes are developing fast. Lockheed Martin has developed one, the Stalker, which is silent, ideal for covert night-time operations.
The firm Aurora is producing the GoldenEye, which uses ducted fans for power, takes off and lands vertically and can fly for eight hours or hover for three.
![[image]](http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/6416/44050011goldeneye203x20aw6.jpg "[image]")
On a larger scale, Mr Donnithorne-Tait said he believes the current generation of combat aircraft such as the Eurofighter could be the last to be flown by humans.
"It's already pretty clear that in the future if we are going to have combat aircraft, they will be unmanned, just because they will outperform manned aviation because of the limitations of the human frame," he said.
"And, because there's no human in there, they can be sent into hazardous places like fierce weather conditions where you could never put a person. And if the worse comes to the worse and it crashes, it doesn't kill the pilot."
Civilian use
While many unmanned vehicles are designed for military use, increasingly companies are also looking to tap into civilian commercial markets.
Canadian firm MicroPilot has developed an autopilot that weighs only 28g and fits in a 6lb (2.7kg) radio-controlled model plane.
Using the Crop Cam system, the operator can programme the desired flight path using a laptop, launch the plane by hand and start receiving images in less than 20 minutes from the on-board camera.
Costing $7,000, it is already being used by universities to monitor wildlife such as eagles, by farmers to check on crops and by forestry managers to count trees in remote areas.
A design from the US Naval Research Laboratory, called the Sail-a-Plane, is still in the research phase but seeks to combine an unmanned water and airborne craft in one.
The idea is that it will fly to a location, then land on water and swivel its wings to act as sails if it needs to remain in one place for a longer time than an aircraft could circle or hover.
Robot threat?
![[image]](http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1848/44050010woman2032cf8f36lt5.jpg "[image]")
Will robots one day make human beings redundant?
Meanwhile, unmanned vehicles are transforming exploration of the world's oceans.
Surface water vehicles are ideal for monitoring coasts and harbours, while underwater devices can hunt for mines, pipelines and shipwrecks or map the ocean at great depths.
California-based firm Applied Signal Technology has developed a device which uses a process called synthetic aperture sonar to create detailed pictures of the sea bed using acoustic imaging.
Instead of having to store or send back digital images to be analysed, the sonar system can provide data in real time and is not hampered by murky water.
The US Department of Fisheries is using the technology to search for lobster traps that have come loose from their floats and now endanger marine life on the sea floor. It could also be used instead of divers to find debris from plane crashes.
With so many new machines on the drawing board or in production, people could for forgiven for fearing that human beings may become redundant.
But, Mr Donnithorne-Tait does not believe this will be the case.
"The general idea is that it's robotics to assist people, not to replace people."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6939549.stm
Published: 2007/08/10 07:54:20 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #25 on Aug 16, 2007, 3:26am » | |
Source: University of Delaware
Date: August 16, 2007
Scientists Take Underwater Robot On Black Sea Expedition
Using a novel underwater robot, University of Delaware marine scientists will help reveal the mysteries of the Black Sea's geology and maritime history, including ages-old shipwrecks, during an international expedition that is now underway.
![[image]](http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/7159/0708151731226524a3qo7.jpg "[image]")
Using a novel underwater robot, UD marine scientists will help reveal the mysteries of the Black Sea's geology and maritime history, including ages-old shipwrecks, during an international expedition that is now underway. (Credit: Jon Cox)
The Institute for Exploration and the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography are leading the mission, which will conduct geological and archaeological research in the Aegean and Black Seas--waterways that have served as major trade routes for centuries.
Robert Ballard, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and president of the Institute for Exploration, is the principal investigator on the research cruise, which will include a multidisciplinary team of scientists from several nations.
“This is a truly exciting expedition that will shed light on important geological features in the Mediterranean while also uncovering vital information about ancient trade routes and the maritime history of the Black Sea,” Ballard said.
Perhaps best known for locating the sunken ocean liner Titanic in 1985, Ballard has received numerous honors for scientific research and public education. He was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by UD in 2001.
Last year, in partnership with the Department of Underwater Heritage in Ukraine, Ballard's research team located numerous shipwrecks in the Black Sea, including a vessel from the Byzantine period that will be revisited and explored during this expedition.
The research vessel NRV Alliance will serve as the scientists' home, lab and the platform from which remotely operated vehicles with high-definition cameras will be deployed to provide high-resolution images of the deep.
From the Ukrainian research vessel Flamingo, Art Trembanis, UD assistant professor of marine and Earth studies, and graduate students Adam Skarke and Stephanie Nebel, together with colleagues from the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire and Ballard's own team, will operate the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) DOERRI (pronounced “Dory”), which stands for “Delaware Oceanographic and Environmental Research Remote Instrument.”
“My students and I are tremendously honored to be participating in this unprecedented project,” Trembanis said. “We are working with a real pioneer in the field of ocean exploration--a hero and mentor to an entire generation of marine scientists, myself included,” he noted.
The 83-inch-long, 240-pound DOERRI, which Trembanis designed, will map the seafloor of the Black Sea off Sevastopol, Ukraine, on missions up to 14 hours long and to depths of approximately 200 meters (656 feet).
“As a child, I remember waking up early on Saturday mornings not to watch cartoons, but to catch the latest National Geographic Explorer episode that Dr. Ballard might be hosting, and now I find myself fulfilling a childhood dream to work alongside Dr. Ballard and his expert team of researchers. It is truly exciting,” Trembanis said.
The DOERRI carries a sophisticated sensor system including devices to measure salinity, temperature and oxygen levels and two types of advanced sonar systems for mapping the seafloor. Multiple computers and safety features work in tandem to keep the systems operating, and to safely return the vehicle back to the ship at the end of each day.
In many ways, DOERRI may serve as the scientists' “agent into the unknown” much like the AUV's namesake, the cartoon fish “Dory,” did in the Disney film Finding Nemo.
“Just like her eponymous namesake, we hope that DOERRI will be a finder of lost things,” Trembanis said. “We hope DOERRI will provide unrivaled data that will allow us to discover very ancient shipwrecks, previously unknown, on the Black Sea floor,” he noted. “Along the way, DOERRI will also give us new insights into the dynamics of dissolved oxygen and internal waves that help to shape and mold the seafloor.”
Shipwrecks in the Black Sea often are remarkably well-preserved due to the waterway's chemistry. Nearly 90 percent of the Black Sea is a no-oxygen “dead zone,” where only a few bacteria live.
“At depths beyond 150 meters, the Black Sea is not unlike a giant natural bell jar from which life-supporting oxygen has been entirely removed,” Trembanis said.
A major advantage of AUVs like DOERRI, Trembanis said, is that they allow researchers to literally become more immersed in the marine environment.
“By severing the cord to the surface, we become more a part of the environment we are studying because we can approach things just as a curious fish might do,” Trembanis said. “In real terms, the AUV provides capabilities to get below the influence of surface conditions and get closer to the features on the seafloor we wish to study without actually touching or disturbing anything around us. Furthermore, we can ask the robot to do critical but perhaps monotonous tasks over and over again--tasks that give us great scientific data, but tasks that would seem boring to human operators.”
Locally, DOERRI has been used in a variety of research in Delaware's coastal waters, including nearshore areas of Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and in Delaware's Inland Bays.
While this will be the DOERRI's farthest trip from home so far, it likely will not be its last. Trembanis said the leading-edge robot already is scheduled for another international mission, to explore the coral reefs off Bonaire, early next year.
The expedition is supported by NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, the Office of Naval Research and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Participating institutions include the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, University of Texas, Institute for Classical Archaeology, Naval Meteorological and Oceanography Command, University of Delaware, University of Massachusetts at Boston, University of New Hampshire and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815173122.htm
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #26 on Aug 17, 2007, 12:14pm » | |
Source: University of Cincinnati
Date: August 16, 2007
Humorous 'Bot' Recognizes Jokes
University of Cincinnati researchers Julia Taylor and Larry Mazlack recently unveiled a "bot” — more accurately a software program — that recognizes jokes. They reported the development at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, Canada. All bad jokes aside, their research represents a step forward in computers reaching the capability of a human mind.
Taylor, a doctoral student under UC Professor Mazlack, is studying data mining — the science of deriving meaning from large amounts of data. Mazlack is the coordinator of the Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and coordinator of the Data and Knowledge Management research group. Taylor specifically researches humor in robots.
"This work has a relationship to 'Sociable Computing,'" says Mazlack. "Currently, computers are often difficult to communicate with, to use and to apply to solving problems that are informally stated."
This area has been researched for decades and has also been the subject of many Star Trek episodes. Developments such as these offer sophisticated improvements in robots that are used as companions or to otherwise interact directly with humans.
“The ‘robot’ is just a software program that still needs a lot of work,” says researcher Taylor. “The idea is to be able to recognize jokes that are based on phonological similarity of words.”
The program can in fact recognize jokes, but only when the necessary background and world knowledge are provided, she says. “The ontology that provides this knowledge is a work-in-progress at this stage. So, the software is far from being finished, but does produce some results.”
Taylor had the distinct task of “training” the computer by providing it with information relative to American English at a child’s level. They developed an extensive list of knock-knock jokes that turn on people’s names, particularly.
Knock, Knock
Who is there?
Dawn
Dawn who?
Dawn by the station, early in the morning
Knock, Knock
Who is there?
Wendy
Wendy who?
Wendy last time you took a bath?
Then they gave the “bot” several examples of words that can have different meanings and homonyms, as in puns. The program then checks to see if the message is consistent with what would make sense. If it doesn’t, the bot searches to see if the word sounds similar to a word that would fit. If this is the case, the bot flags it as humor.
Knock, Knock
Who is there?
Dismay
Dismay who?
Dismay not be a funny joke
“Even leaden puns are very difficult to understand as well,” says Taylor. “With the knowledge that is in the ontology right now, there are very, very few jokes (or puns) that the program can understand.”
“The ability to appreciate humor is an enormous increment in subtlety,” says Professor Tom Mantei, a fellow researcher in UC’s College of Engineering. “You need to know a lot to ‘get’ humor — a computer does not find it easy.”
"Part of the difficulty lies with the formality that computers and people need to use to interact with each other," says Mazlack. "A critical aspect in achieving sociable computing is being able to informally communicate in a human language with computers. Computationally handling humor is critical to being able to conduct an informal dialogue with a computer; Julia Taylor is making good progress in advancing knowledge in this area — other people in my lab are working on different aspects of less formal ways of using computers."
Knock, Knock
Who is there?
Police
Police who?
Police tell me some Knock Knock jokes
Here’s an example of one of the robot’s favorite jokes:
Mother to boy: “Johnny, you’ve been working in the garden a lot this summer.
Boy: “I know. My teacher told me to weed a lot.”
“Notice that the boy says the teacher told him to WEED. Since ‘weed’ sounds similar to 'read,' the program can find this wordplay,” Taylor says.
Mantei adds, “This research is another step toward approaching the capability of the human mind.”
Knock, Knock
Who is there?
Noah
Noah who?
Noah good place to find more jokes?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070816111749.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #27 on Aug 18, 2007, 11:57pm » | |
The sources of funding for this research are fascinating:
Source: Sandia National Laboratories
Date: August 14, 2007
Cognitive Revolution: Integrating Computing, Nanotech, Simulation And You
Imagine a world where a machine creates a “virtual you” by modeling how you think and your expertise on a subject. Or one where your car’s computer appreciates your driving skills and compensates for your limitations.
![[image]](http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/1048/070811213026751defyb1.jpg "[image]")
Sandia researcher Rob Abbott uses a joystick and plays the role of a student in a training exercise driving an amphibious assault vehicle simulator used by the Navy and Marines. The second monitor is an instructor/operator application called CDMTS. In the background is a thermal image of a student's face used for investigating biometrics to monitor the student in various ways including the level of engagement and focus of attention. (Credit: Photo by Randy Montoya)
That’s the world Sandia National Laboratories has entered full throttle through its Cognitive Science and Technology Program (CS&T).
A revolution is at hand, says Chris Forsythe, member of the Labs’ cognition research team. It’s not one of just better guns and weapons for national security. Instead, “it’s a revolution of the mind — of how people think and how machines can help people work better.”
Focus on individual
A large portion of Sandia’s program today focuses on the uniqueness of the individual interacting with others and with machines. It involves using machines to help humans perform more efficiently and embedding cognitive models in machines so they interact with users more like people interact with one another. The result is the ability for researchers to take advantage of the basic strengths of humans and machines while mitigating the weaknesses of each.
Cognitive projects and research at Sandia span a whole gamut of areas, ranging from student training to assisting with Yucca Mountain licensing, from designing “smart” cars to using video-like games to train military personnel, and from determining how neurons give rise to memory to global terrorist threat detection.
The initial decision for Sandia to develop cognitive technologies is based on the belief that “there are numerous positive impacts cognitive systems technologies can have on our national security,” says Russ Skocypec, senior manager of Sandia’s Human, Systems, and Simulation Technologies Department.
Today’s conflicts, he says, are unlike others over the past century. Although all wars are driven by humans, major influences on the outcomes have differed. World War I was a chemists’ war, World War II a physicists’ war, and the Cold War an economic war. Today, he believes, “we are engaged in a human war that is influenced primarily by individual human beings rather than technology or bureaucracy.”
That is why he considers it appropriate for Sandia, a laboratory with national security as its mission, to use its resources to better understand the minds of this country’s adversaries, as well as to use machines to enhance the Labs’ abilities to recognize patterns, deal with massive amounts of data, solve perplexing problems, and perform complex activities.
While Sandia dipped its toes in cognitive research in the late 1990s, the Labs’ real effort in the area started in 2002 when the program won an internally funded LDRD grand challenge. Based in part on the success and path set by the grand challenge in 2005, the former Mission Council — a group that consisted of senior Sandia vice presidents — selected cognitive science and technology (CS&T) as a research focus area for the Labs.
Strategic planning for cognitive science and technology
During the spring and summer of 2006, the cognition team conducted two investigations. The first looked at what cognitive capabilities exist at Sandia.
The second examined opportunities involving the convergence of Sandia’s initiatives in the areas of cognition, biotechnologies, and nanotechnologies. This led to a Cognitive Science and Technology Plan with three technical objectives — a basic science understanding of the human brain, mind, and behavior; improved human performance; and advanced human-machine systems at all scales.
“The plan is at the level of ‘send a man to the moon’ — beyond the scope of what any one institution can possibly do,” Forsythe says. “It’s a synthesis of ideas. Now, our intent is to home in on a few areas in which the labs can make a unique and profound contribution.”
Forsythe says there are two elements to Sandia’s strategic planning for cognition.
“What makes most sense is for Sandia to select areas where we have unique, collective technical strengths, areas that few others in the world can do as well,” Forsythe says. “These include such capabilities as high performance computing, nanotech, physics-based modeling and simulation, and surety.” That is the first element. (Surety is an engineering discipline that emphasizes methods and technologies enabling assessment and technical solutions for the combined safety, security, and reliability of systems.)
The second involves a focus on opportunities where specific national security problems have a human factor.
John Wagner, manager of Sandia’s Cognitive and Exploratory Systems and Simulations Department, says the new area of research means “profound opportunities exist for the Labs.”
“CS&T’s ambitious direction may not be realized for many decades, but the information required for progress is emerging today,” he says. “It is reasonable to expect future discoveries will become the Nobel-class achievements for the cognitive and neuroscience communities at large in the years to come.”
What is a cognitive system?
The term “cognitive systems” has been used worldwide to identify a variety of programs, initiatives, and technologies. However, so many varied uses have led to ambiguity of meaning. Sandia has established its own definition of cognitive systems: “Cognitive systems consist of technologies that utilize as an essential component one or more computational models of human cognitive processes or the knowledge of specific experts, users, or other individuals.”
Wagner says that cognitive research at Sandia — like most worldwide — is in its infancy. He anticipates that within the next decade research that seems like science fiction today will be a daily part of everyone’s lives. The cognitive revolution will be in full bloom.
“Once that happens, the best of both worlds can happen,” Wagner says. “If we understand human cognition better, we can work together as a nation to reduce tension, find problems before they turn into armed conflict, and to work toward actions that establish and maintain peace worldwide.”
Funding for the research has come from the Office of Naval Research, Sandia’s internal Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program, Department of Energy, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other government agencies. The CS&T program also benefits from collaborations with the University of New Mexico, the MIND Imaging Center in Albuquerque, and most recently the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratory. It is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070811213026.htm
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Metal Men
« Reply #28 on Aug 21, 2007, 11:37am » | |
Source: Vanderbilt University
Date: August 20, 2007
Rocket-powered Mechanical Arm Could Revolutionize Prosthetics
Combine a mechanical arm with a miniature rocket motor: The result is a prosthetic device that is the closest thing yet to a bionic arm.
![[image]](http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4158/0708201306381a7d9bcmo9.jpg "[image]")
Michael Goldfarb inspects the hand that he has created to go with his rocket-powered prosthetic arm. (Credit: Daniel Dubois)
A prototype of this radical design has been successfully developed and tested by a team of mechanical engineers at Vanderbilt University as part of a $30 million federal program to develop advanced prosthetic devices.
"Our design does not have superhuman strength or capability, but it is closer in terms of function and power to a human arm than any previous prosthetic device that is self-powered and weighs about the same as a natural arm," says Michael Goldfarb, the professor of mechanical engineering who is leading the effort.
The prototype can lift (curl) about 20 to 25 pounds — three to four times more than current commercial arms — and can do so three to four times faster. "That means it has about 10 times as much power as other arms despite the fact that the design hasn't been optimized yet for strength or power," Goldfarb says.
The mechanical arm also functions more naturally than previous models. Conventional prosthetic arms have only two joints, the elbow and the claw. By comparison, the prototype's wrist twists and bends, and its fingers and thumb open and close independently.
The Vanderbilt arm is the most unconventional of three prosthetic arms under development by a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) program. The other two are being designed by researchers at the Advanced Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who head the program. Those arms are powered by batteries and electric motors. The program is also supporting teams of neuroscientists at the University of Utah, California Institute of Technology and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago who are developing advanced methods for controlling the arms by connecting them to nerves in the users' bodies or brains.
"Battery power has been adequate for the current generation of prosthetic arms because their functionality is so limited that people don't use them much," Goldfarb says. "The more functional the prosthesis, the more the person will use it and the more energy it will consume."
Increasing the size of the batteries is the only way to provide additional energy for conventionally powered arms and, at some point, the weight of additional batteries becomes prohibitive.
It was the poor power-to-weight ratio of batteries that drove Goldfarb to look for alternatives in 2000 while he was working on a previous exoskeleton project for DARPA. He decided to miniaturize the monopropellant rocket motor system that is used for maneuvering in orbit by the space shuttle. His adaptation impressed the Johns Hopkins researchers, so they offered him $2.7 million in research funding to apply this approach to the development of a prosthetic arm.
Goldfarb's power source is about the size of a pencil and contains a special catalyst that causes hydrogen peroxide to burn. When this compound burns, it produces pure steam. The steam is used to open and close a series of valves. The valves are connected to the spring-loaded joints of the prosthesis by belts made of a special monofilament used in appliance handles and aircraft parts. A small sealed canister of hydrogen peroxide that easily fits in the upper arm can provide enough energy to power the device for 18 hours of normal activity.
The first prototype, which took a year to develop, was powered by "cold gas": compressed nitrogen. It allowed the researchers to test the fundamental design and to address the basic problems of control, leakage and noise. The team was happy to discover that they could solve all of the basic problems by designing the valves with the highest precision possible, with clearances of 50 millionths of an inch.
"There are only a handful of machinists who can make valves with this precision. We found one and asked him to make them with the highest precision possible, which is actually higher than he can measure," says Goldfarb. "Normally in projects like this the surprises are unpleasant, but this was a pleasant one. The valves didn't leak, click or hiss!"
After getting the arm working with cold gas, the engineers tore it down and rebuilt it to operate on "hot gas" — steam that is heated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit by the hydrogen peroxide reaction.
One of their immediate concerns was protecting the wearer and others in close proximity from the heat generated by the device. They covered the hottest part, the catalyst pack, with a millimeter-thick coating of a special insulating plastic that reduced the surface temperature enough so it was safe to touch. The hot steam exhaust was also a problem, which they decided to handle in as natural a fashion as possible: by venting it through a porous cover, where it condenses and turns into water droplets. "The amount of water involved is about the same as a person would normally sweat from their arm in a warm day," Goldfarb says.
To allow for thermal expansion, the engineers replaced the arm's nine valves with a set machined to a slightly lower tolerance, approximately 100 millionths of an inch. But when they began operating the rebuilt arm, they found that it hissed and leaked. At first, they thought that the arm had only a single leak, and spent several weeks trying to track it down. Finally, they realized that the noise and leakage were coming from all the valves. Replacing the high-precision valve set solved the problem. "We were astonished at by the difference between 50-millionths and 100-millionths: It made all the difference in the world," says Goldfarb.
Their biggest problem operating with hot gas turned out to be finding belt material that was strong enough and could withstand the high temperatures involved. They tried silk surgical sutures, but found that silk wasn't strong enough. They tried nylon monofilament, which is stronger than steel, but it couldn't take the heat. Finally, after a long process of trial and error, they found a material that works: the engineering thermoplastic polyether ether ketone(), .
The engineers solved these and a number of other smaller problems and got the second prototype working properly by the end of June.
In the fall, DARPA's "Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009" program will move to its second stage. Even though his team has met all its research milestones and has produced a working prototype, Goldfarb is not certain that it will be funded for the new stage. "DARPA has set a goal of developing a commercially available arm in two years. Because of our novel power source, the process of proving that our design is safe and getting regulatory approval for its use will probably take longer than that," he says.
If DARPA decides it cannot continue supporting the arm's development for this reason, Goldfarb is confident that he can get alternative funding. "We have made so much progress and gotten such positive feedback from the research community that I'm certain we'll be able to keep going," he says.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070820130638.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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« Reply #29 on Aug 22, 2007, 11:46pm » | |
iRobot revamps vacuums, plans more home robots
Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:52AM EDT
BOSTON (Reuters) - iRobot Corp (IRBT.O: Quote, Profile, Research), a robot maker that sells floor cleaners as well as devices that defuse bombs, introduced on Wednesday a new line of vacuums in hopes of generating cash to invest in a wider range of products.
![[image]](http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9554/m02d20070822t2i1334167wmn6.jpg "[image]")
A small personal digital assistant controls a "PackBot" at iRobot's headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts April 12, 2004. iRobot Corp, a robot maker that sells floor cleaners as well as devices that defuse bombs, introduced on Wednesday a new line of vacuums in hopes of generating cash to invest in a wider range of products.
Two new models, the Roomba 530 and Roomba 560, were scheduled to start selling on iRobot's Web site, Amazon.com and Home Shopping Network on Wednesday for $250 and $399.
The new models are more durable, have twice as much vacuum power and more sophisticated artificial intelligence technology than previous models. iRobot has sold 2 million vacuum cleaners since it introduced its first machine almost five years ago.
Improvements include new anti-tangle technology to extract the robots from power cords, sensors that slow them down as they approach walls and beacons that guide them around the house.
"This is a robot that is built to survive, do the job, not get stuck," Chief Executive Colin Angle said in an interview.
He said the new models were rugged enough to be used for 45 minutes a day and last for three to five years.
Two more home robots are on their way from iRobot, but so far the company has provided little information. It has said they will be unveiled on September 27 and that they won't clean floors, mow lawns or work as butlers.
"I think it is going to reinforce in people's eyes that this (company) is not a one-trick pony," he said. "iRobot has a machine in place that is going to be delivering very, very cool, labor-saving robots for the home."
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2140184320070822
Further:
New iRobot Roomba 500 Series Vacuums
POSTED: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
FROM BLOG: SlipperyBrick - Funny name, serious technology.
![[image]](http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/760/irobotroomba560f208fer9.jpg "[image]")
New iRobot Roomba 500 series vacuum cleanersiRobot has today released a new series of its Roomba vacuuming robots, marking the first new model upgrade in about 3 years. The model comes with a number of new and improved features in three different versions; the 530, 560 and 570.
According to iRobot, the new Roomba’s are completely redesigned giving 100% more effective vacuuming. The higher-end 560 and 570 feature a 2.4GHz RF integrated with something called Virtual Wall Lighthouse. The Lighthouse system lets you put a RF-based “virtual lighthouse” in each doorway of your home. The Roomba will know not to pass through the doorway until a room is completed, and it will know not to go back through that doorway until the next time it’s scheduled to run.
Speaking of scheduling, the new 500 series vacuums now have scheduling built directly into the device. They also feature IR sensors built into bumpers along with a second, slower driving speed. When the Roomba senses it’s getting close to an object it can slow down to reduce the potential impact. The company says the new vacuums are better sealed to keep dirt out of the working parts and they’ve added a handle on top to carry it around which lies flush on the top of the device when it’s working. There is also a Wireless Command Center available on the 570 which allows you to steer and program the vacuum remotely.
All three models are available now from iRobot with the iRobot 530 going for $299, the iRobot 560 for $349.99 and the iRobot 570 selling for $399.99.
http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst....UNVzDjpITcIrRbi
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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