Hi everyone, I’m Angelina and I’ve just jumped on board with GoRobotics as of late. I’m particularly inclined towards social cases and human-robot interaction, so I hope to bring you a lot of interesting stories on that front. I have a background in artificial intelligence (cognitive science) and so another thing I hope to do is to bring some of the interesting scientific developments into the public eye. Academic papers can be overwhelming even if you know the jargon necessary, so I hope to act as a translator and give you some tidbits of what’s going on in university robotics research.

In what has been an ongoing controversial move in the United Kingdom, police forces all over the nation will be able to draw on unmanned air drone robots for surveillance support. The units are remote-controlled and equipped with thermal imaging units, and they’ll set you back about $30,500. So far there is only one unit seeing action in the UK, and it’s already getting publicity for helping the police do their job.

The Merseyside police who happened to be lucky enough to have one of these $30,500 drones flicked on the thermal imaging on a tip that a suspected car thief was somewhere in the neighborhood. They managed to pinpoint the suspect from about three hundred meters away, and their actions also eventually led to the arrest of a second suspect shortly thereafter. Sky News has the coverage over here.

A young man was caught and arrested for breaking a law, which makes this a good day for robotics, and a good case for robots in a pragmatic, practical role. Still, speculation considers the increased use of robots within the police and military to be walking a rather fine line for safety, especially if future units are armed and are expected to operate with any sense of autonomy. Wired has an interesting article detailing the possible ways that police drones could be armed in the future.

Watch CBS Videos Online

The video above is worth watching for two reasons. One, the amount of engineering and hard work put into these arms and legs is astounding. It should make any engineer applaud. Second, and more importantly, it shows people trying to fix a huge problem and pay back a debt we owe to the soldiers that defend our country.

The video is a segment from the US show “60 Minutes” that describes DARPA’s work into developing a prosthetic arm. It closely profiles the work done by Dean Kamen’s DEKA company in creating the world’s most sophisticated (and useful) arm, dubbed the “Luke” arm after the famous scene from Star Wars. Also shown is some cutting edge work at Duke University (just down the road from me!) on creating an arm that is controlled via electrical signals from the brain to the now missing arm. Pretty amazing stuff. It’s well worth watching. The point where Fred Downs describes what it was like to have a hand after 26 years is very moving. You can also read an accompanying article here.

I’m constantly reminded of my shortcomings as a blogger, especially with this story, as I don’t think I’ve ever posted about Vecna’s BEAR, or Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot. Regardless, the BEAR is a “humanoid” (well, it has a face and arms) robot that is designed to lift, carry, and extract humans from battlefield situations. It can carry up to 500 lbs with it’s hydraulic actuated arms, and either roll or walk via it’s unique independent tracks.

Robot Magazine posted a great article on the BEAR a while back, with lots of nice pictures of the early development of the system. CNet News has more details on the current status of The BEAR. Vecna is currently working on improving the BEAR’s ability to work alongside soldiers and navigate various environments. There’s video of the BEAR in action after the jump.

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Cornell University has won the 12th annual AUVSI Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. And, according to Cornell’s tweet, second place goes to University of Victoria and 3rd to University of Rhode Island. Interestingly, these three teams weren’t even in the top 5 of last year’s compeitors (pdf), so they seem to have put in a lot of work. You can read all of the team’s technical papers here. Cornell’s, U.Vic. and URI’s papers will make interesting reading for all the 2010 competitors with an ax to grind.

Congratulations to Nova, Aerius, and Ram-Boat ‘09 and all the engineers behind them on a job well done.

After the jump are two recap videos from the 1st and 2nd days competition.

If you like this story, will you please Digg it? Thanks!

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Robotic Technology Inc. is working on a robot that is powered by biomass – grass, wood, or even dead bodies. The steam powered robot, which is being developed for the Pentagon under a Phase II SBIR grant, is designed for fuel itself off materials in its environment. While the title, “… could feed on dead bodies”, is quite sensational, the ability to power a vehicle using naturally occurring sources of fuel would be a big boon to military vehicles. The “Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot”, or EATR,

… will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an “external combustion chamber” burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

All that said, in Skynet’s view, what’s the difference between a dead and a live body? Questions to ponder.

Update: Ah ha! I feel vindicated now. RTI and Cyclone Power have issued a press release to combat the roumors that EATR will feed off of dead bodies. Interestingly enough, descriation of the war dead is a crime under the Geneva Convention.

AeroVironment, maker of several important military UAVs like the Wasp, Raven, and Dragon Eye , has received a Phase II SBIR grant from DARPA to continue work on it’s hummingbird-like nano UAV (NAV), which propels itself with flapping wings. In the video shown above, the vehicles stability control is shown, including take-offs from a standstill.

“The goals of the NAV program — namely to develop an approximately 10 gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5 meter per second wind gusts, can operate inside buildings, and have up to a kilometer command and control range — will stretch our understanding of flight at these small sizes and require novel technology development.”

The Phase II contract is worth $2.1 million USD and will continue through the summer of 2010.

[Via Slashdot]

Honda recently had a media extravaganza in which they demoed their recently announced “Stride/Bodyweight Assist Machine”, an experimental device that aids human walking by reducing stress on joins and muscles. It’s a cross between an exoskeleton and a chair – the former because it’s powered and aids your movement, and the latter because you sit on it, and it doesn’t require cumbersome straps and fixtures to stay attached to your body. The smaller “Stride Assist” weighs 6 lbs and the larger “Bodyweight Assist” weighs 14. The former, after getting used to it, seems to quite natural.

Honestly, the first few steps felt awkward and a bit otherworldly. However, the prototype is designed to learn how you walk, at the same time as you’re learning how to walk with it. Within a few moments, I was walking quickly down a hall and then even running back through it. All of my actions felt natural, but improved, compared to my normal gait and running style.

The device anticipates your walking motion and aids you. It aids muscle activity and is designed for people with limited mobility – those than can stand, but have trouble walking.

The larger cousin of the Stride Assist, the “ Bodyweight Support Assist”, wasn’t nearly as “transparent” but still would allow a great many impaired people have a greater range of mobility.

Video of the Stride and Bodyweight Assist below.

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General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has unveiled it’s latest version of the wildly popular Predator Drone – the Predator C Avenger. The Avenger, which made its first flight tests earlier this month, is expected to be a viable product within 10 – 12 months, and could be patrolling the unfriendly skys shortly thereafter.

The Avenger has landing gear from the F-5 aircraft, approximately a 66″ wingspan, and can carry up to 3,000 lbs of weapons or surveillance equipment. The new Predator also has many design modifications to achieve a higher level of stealth, including a, “vertically-oriented V-tail [that] both deflects radar and shields the 4,800-lb. thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PW545B engine exhaust’s infrared signature”, and stealth techniques from planes like the B-22 and B-2.

It really doesn’t pay to be a Bad Guy these days.

Jon Stewart and his crew tackle the difficult ethical questions of involving robots in war. Hidden behind the humor, there’s some decent points.

[Via The Robot Report]

Boeing reported today that it has successfully destroyed several flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using a laser weapon mounted on a truck. The weapon was mounted to an Avenger Air Defense vehicle, which normally uses surface-to-air missiles for attacks. The successful test involved the Laser Avenger tracking and destroying three UAVs in flight, which set a milestone for, “the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV”.

Boeing was a little reserved when addressing the question of how exactly the UAVs were destroyed, only saying, “A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable.” As for how long it took to do this, what “critical flight control element” it was, or if such a system is truly viable in a combat situation, that is left to the reader’s imagination. It should also be noted that Boeing has apparently made significant progress with this system, as only about 1 year ago they were proclaiming the destruction of IEDs by the Laser Avenger.

“We doubled the laser power; added sophisticated acquisition, tracking and pointing capability; and simplified and ruggedized the design,” said Lee Gutheinz, Boeing program director for High-Energy Laser/Electro-Optical Systems. “Boeing developed and integrated these upgrades in less than a year, underscoring our ability to rapidly respond to warfighters’ needs.”

An interesting point is that Boeing seems to be trying to sell the Military on the idea of destroying UAV threats to our soldiers, while, to my knowledge, there haven’t been any such threats to date. In fact, robotic air authority seems to be solidly on the USA’s side. Do they know something we don’t, or are they just being pessimistic?

Regardless, while we mourn for our robotic bretheren, I say this is pretty darn cool.

 

If anyone doubted the US Air Force’s commitment to unmanned (read: robots) aircraft, you won’t after you hear this: The Air Force plans on acquiring more unmanned than manned aircraft next year. That’s a pretty amazing statistic, and amounts to billions of dollars of potential new business for companies in that market. The USAF currently maintains about 27 unmanned vehcles in the air above Afghanistan and Iraq at all times, and plans to double that number over the next 3 years. But, in order to do that, they need to train hundreds of new pilots to help fly them. They might also considering training more counselors to help the pilots deal with the trauma.

We’ve reported on such matter before, but once again a US Military drone (robot) has successfully fired on and killed at least 5 militants (terrorists) on the Pakistani border. It’s great to hear that the “bad guys” are getting the due, and that US soldiers are being kept from harm by our robotic pals. Unfortunately, simply using an unmanned system to do your dirty work doesn’t eliminate all of the risks of combat. While the robot may be one the one carrying and firing the missile, humans are still ultimately giving the command and stuck with the consequences of taking a human life.

With great (robotic) power, comes great (robotic) responsibility. Shoot wisely.

A couple interesting submarine launched UAVs, one by Raytheon and another, VOLANS, built by a German company, are featured in this Register article. The Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities, or SOTHOC, built by Raytheon, is launched out of the waste disposal lock of a submarine. SOTHOC then decents to a preset depth where it rises to the surface and launches a unmanned flying vehicle to gather data. The UAV can relay the data back to the sub via antenna, or if the sub whishes to remain anonymous the data can be relayed via satellite back to the US. This system allows a submarine to lauch an UAV while remaining submerged, in contrast to the VOLANS, which launches via a mast attached to the robot. The VOLANS functions as a mobile periscope for the sub.

The US Army has decided to move it’s Robotics Systems Joint Project Office to Warren, MI, outside of Detroit. In response to this, many large robotics companies are following suit and opening offices in the area. The office is currently hiring engineers and designers to create robots to do “dull, dirty or dangerous” jobs.

Robot ground vehicles are said to be the main focus and officials say that should produce about 100 new jobs by next year and maybe double that in the future. Which future is still in question, though. Already, money is flowing into local universities for robotics research and iRobot, Foster Miller, and QuinetiQ are looking to open local branches.

So, is robotics the hot new industry for Southern Michigan? It sure looks like they could use a few new ideas.

 

In what is pretty stunning news to me, iRobot has purchased Nekton Research for $10 million USD. The reason this is so stunning, is because Nekton is 30min down the road from me, and I’ve interviewed there! Nekton is a small business located in Durham North Carolina and specializes in underwater robots. You can see one of their robots, the Transphibian, operating after the jump. Up till this point Nekton has based it’s business on government research contracts and hasn’t done any large scale product sales – this looks to change. iRobot says they plan on moving their “Maritime Programs office” to the Raleigh-Durham area. Eventually iRobot plans to have all their underwater research and development happen at this location. This will be where the Seaglider program eventually moves to.

iRobot has updated their website to reflect the new acquisition and features the Seaglider, Ranger, Transphibian, and “High Speed UUV“. I’m looking forward to see what exciting things will pop out of the water, so to speak.

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