Artificial Intelligence and Robotics blog
Robotics
EMILY robot lifeguard to patrol the beaches
Jul 1st
The Zuma Beach in Malibu has stepped it up when it comes to protecting its visitors by employing the help of EMILY, a lifeguard robot, to help it save lives.
The EMergency Integrated Lifesaving lanYard (E.M.I.L.Y) may not be as cute as a dolphin, but it can save drowning people in much in the same way. Designed by Hydronalix, the robot is like a mini rescue-boat that can reach 28 mph, and locate a person in trouble out in water. It does so by using sonar detection to sense distressing movements in the water, after which it approaches the person, allowing him or her to grasp onto its torso and be ferried back to shore.
As EMILY is remote-control operated for now, lifeguards on the beach can give instructions to the victim through the speakers installed in the robot. In the future, hopes are that it can switch to an autonomous system and dive after swimmers on its own, which will decrease response time and hopefully save even more lives.
EMILY won’t be replacing real lifeguards anytime soon, though, as you still need a great deal of human intelligence and practicality when dealing with such crucial matters. It may be faster, but the robot can’t reach down and drag the people out of the water itself. It can’t help unconscious divers much, and lifeguards on jet-skis are still the most effective rescue method.
But with more than 8 hours of endurance, EMILY will still make for a great assistance tool, especially in stormy weather where visibility is bad and lifeguards face a challenge getting to the drowning person. Confidence in its abilities is high, and plans are for the robot to be used at 25 other beaches besides Malibu before the end of the year.
Video of EMILY in action below.
Robotic lizard to search for buried survivors
Jun 29th
Natural disasters like earthquakes have always plagued human civilization, causing massive amounts of damage, destroying entire cities, and killing tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. While we are still helpless when it comes to preventing such disasters, researchers have found a way that can help search for survivors – with robotic lizards.
Taking another leaf out of nature’s book, a team from the Georgia Institute of Technology is working on a locomotion robot that can swim through hard, yet fluid substances, such as sand or rubble. The 35 centimeter-robot in spandex-covered aluminium segments is powered by six linked motors. It borrows its design from the sandfish, a skink species resembling a lizard, which can dive deep into the sand to escape the heat.
The Georgia Tech robot, however, won’t be diving into its environment to escape the sun, but to search for people trapped under rubble and in other disaster sites. This has the potential to save many lives, as finding buried survivors is one of the toughest jobs when dealing with natural disasters, requiring countless of volunteers and workers to dig through a location. The robotic lizard will be able to wiggle through the rubble and locate the trapped people, telling rescuers where to dig.
As with many robots, it still lacks the energy and quickness of its biological counterpart, but the team is hoping they can improve on this problem too. The video shows an interesting comparison between the real animal and the robot, and you can definitely say the bot has the basics down. It can delve and wiggle almost as freely as the lizard.
The project, along with several others, will officially be presented at the upcoming Robotics: Science and Systems conference in Zaragoza, Spain.
The video of the robot below is courtesy of New Scientist.
Robots go to work at Scotland hospital
Jun 24th
One often thinks of South Korea or Japan when hearing stories about robot medical-care workers, but a hospital in Scotland has become the first in the UK and one of the only in the world to get serious about employing robots in its day-to-day operations.
The construction of the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Stirlingshire, cost a hefty sum of £300m British pounds, but its new method of patient-care promises to lead the way towards a brighter future. The hospital will use a number of worker robots to clean the facilities, bring fresh linen and food to patients, as well as dispense drugs and remove clinical waste. The machines will be set up to follow specific routs to make sure they don’t bump into obstacles or each other, and will move through corridors underneath the hospital. They will also have the ability to open doors and locate their exact position with the laser beams mounted on top of their forklift-like frames. And to minimize errors and problems, there will always be a human on stand-by.
Besides making the lives of nurses easier, one of the most important aspects of their application will be controlling infection. When dealing with disease, tasks are often separated between “dirty and clean”, and one person doing both jobs increases the risk of spreading the sickness. The robots, however, will be immune to such threats, and will make the hospital a safer place both for staff and patients.
The hospital workers will not have to worry about their jobs, however, as the primary mission of these robots will be to make sure staff have more time to spend with patients, while the machines do the manual work. The hospital opens in August, and it will be interesting to see how well this innovative method will work.
BBC has more details and a sort video here.
Military robots taking action in the Middle East
Jun 22nd
The US military has long been looking at different ways of improving its operations in the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one avenue that was explored was creating a balancing 2-wheel robot that could maneuver through inner city buildings.
Such a robot was needed, since tanks and armored cars were too large to squeeze through the tight streets, while the dangers soldiers can face are well documented. The military funded research at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) to design Tbot, the solution to these problems.
Since current technology is still incapable to creating a bipedal robot soldier, and a 4-wheeled robot would face difficulties carrying a gun at eye-level, a 2-wheeled robot like Tbot made the most sense. The idea was that it could balance itself up on 2 wheels and perform specific operations, but at the same time it would be mobile enough the obstacles it would encounter in the streets of Baghdad or the treacherous terrain of Afghanistan. It’s ability to quickly reassemble itself into a low-lying 4-wheeled vehicle and operate as a tiny car was also crucial. The Tbot was basically built like a tiny Transformer, and Michael Bay showed us what these things can do.
Some problems that researchers faced was getting the robot to keep its balance and minimize damage when it falls. Climbing stairs, an important part of any operation, was also a challenge, and a better control system with bigger tires was needed. An R/C radio controller was used to remotely operate Tbot, but its motors often caused electrical noise interference, which also had to be addressed.
The Tbot is yet to be used in an on-field mission, but the video shows some of the basic movements this future soldier can do.
Robot babies crawl into action
Jun 17th
The fields of neuroscience and psychology stepped into the spotlight at the JST Erato Asada Project symposium in Japan, as two baby robots emerged to “teach us about the complexities of life”. The “Noby“, or nine-month old baby, models a baby at that stage of development, measuring 2 feet 3 inches in height, and weighting 17 pounds. The 60-pound M3-Kindy is a bit older and tests the 5-year stage of a child’s development.
The baby Noby has no less than 600 tactile sensors, and just like a human, has two eyes with cameras and two ears with microphones with which it experiences its surroundings. It also designed with soft tactile skin, which scientists at Tokyo University’s JSK Lab hope will bring about new innovations in humanoid robot skin. Teachers will study how this robot reacts to stimulation to try and develop a new cognitive teaching method to help real babies.
The M3-Kindy has only 109 sensors, but it can express a large number of emotions through its face and communicate with users. This will test how parent interaction affects the mind of a 5 year-old kid. It is also able to crawl and stand up to walk on its own, though it is a bit clumsy and requires a landing hand, as can be seen in the video.
The project, headed by Osaka University professor Minoru Asada, will serve not only to test the different stages of child development, but also to improve the interaction between humans and robots. As the number of A.I. machines increases in society, we need a better way to understand them and for them to understand us. Creating smarter robots that have a comprehension of the complex human thought process will be beneficial to all parties.
Video demonstration follows.
Anybots telepresence robot heading for the boardroom
Jun 10th
California-based company Anybots continues work on a telepresence robot that can take communication to a whole new level by eliminating the need for people to actually be present at board meetings or conferences. Because God knows executives work hard enough.
The idea behind QA, the robot, is to interact with people, such as clients or partners, from anywhere in the world, which will save a lot of money on travel costs and different remote-communications equipment. Designed not unlike a sophisticated Skype program, QA relies on a Wi-Fi connection to allow users to interact through video, sound and diagrams projected from and onto the robot’s interface.
With a sleek white exterior design, the armless 5-foot robot looks just about how you would expect a robot tailored for the boardroom to look. His rectangular-shaped face with two big eyes reminds a bit of Steven Spielberg’s E.T., so people should warm up to it fairly quickly.
Its list of impressive features include a 7-inch LCD screen mounted on its chest, which users can draw diagrams on or send information to the recipient through Wi-Fi. The navigation technology is based on the 5.5 yard range Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), which relies on light waves instead of radio waves. The eyes, unsurprisingly, serve as cameras, which are able to send back high-quality color images and sound. When not in operation, the screen can change to an image of a business suit, giving QA quite the distinguished appearance.
The video is aptly informative, giving a clear picture of the robot’s abilities and potential uses, though we never really see it step into an office and take action. There is also the question of whether most people would be ready to lose that human touch when dealing with important business deals, but it’s clear that these robots will take their time before becoming the status quo.
Robot fish leader
Jun 8th
Humans have been coming up with innovative ways with which to plunder the Earth and its resources for as long as we have existed, so perhaps its time we give back a little. Leading aquatic animals, such as fish, away from underwater power plant turbines seems like a good place to begin, and a researcher at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University has designed a robot that will help just with that.
Assistant professor Maurizio Porfiri studied the characteristics of small schools of fish to learn what exactly they look for in a leader, and he designed a palm-sized robot that possesses these traits. By taking command, this leader can be programmed to guide the fish away from danger, but the tricky part is getting the animals to accept the robot as one of their own.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the physical appearance that fools other animals, but the behavior and mannerism. The assistant professor’s robot prototype looks very little like the fish it is supposed to be leading, but it makes up for that by mimicking the exact qualities that allow one fish to stand out from the rest. The robot beats its artificial tail faster, circles around the group, and accelerates at a great speed (for a fish), compelling the others to follow it. Besides being designed to be very quiet, to robot was also built from ionic polymers, which produce natural muscle movements when voltage runs through them. For now, the cyberfish has operated on batteries, but in the future it will have to switch to electromagnetic waves for better performance.
The very basic video below shows the robot guiding along a small school of golden shiners in a shallow tank, but everything must have its first step. Each fish species seeks different qualities in a leader, however, so the design will have to be modified when dealing with other animals. Hopes are that one day these robots will be able to save a lot of wildlife, both on land and under the sea.
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Qbo bringing the fun to your home
May 26th
It’s easy to forget that not all household robot companions serve as cleaners or personal assistants, but the new Qbo robot, designed by the Corpora S.L. company, is here to remind us they can provide some good entertainment as well.
What’s cool about this robot is that it runs on the Linux operating system, meaning it has an open source code and can be modified in various ways. Some of its features include both omnidirectional and unidirectional microphones installed in its head, as well as high-def webcams that serve as eyes. The eyelids don’t do anything special, but they add a bit of that human touch.
The round little thing has an LED mouth and nose, and can connect to a wireless network through its integrated Wi-Fi with Bluetooth technology. This means you can use it to watch videos or browse the internet much in the same way as on your laptop – if, you know, your laptop could run on wheels. Like many other portable robots today, Qbo comes with a number of ultrasound sensors that allow it to detect obstacles in its way and stay clear of stairs and other dangerous places. It can also recognize and interact with its users with its Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis systems.
Another useful feature it borrows is from the vacuum-like Roombas, where it can head over to an auto-charging dock whenever it starts running low on power. Think of how many other pieces of technology could be improved if only they learned how to recharge themselves and spare you the trouble.
The list of specs reveals other interesting details about Qbo, including its exact weight and size, but there is still no word on how much it would cost to employ this cute A.I. entertainment system in your home.
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Robot Fairy marries a Japanese couple
May 18th
This headline would look weird anywhere else in the world, but not Japan. The robot I-Fairy conducted its first ever marriage, joining together Tomohiro Shibata and Satoko Inoue in holy matrimony at a Tokyo restaurant. The kid-sized pig-tailed robot recited its lines perfectly and made everyone smile – simple, but what more could you ask for?
The I-Fairy stands for “Intelligent”, “Information” and “Icon” and is (sort-of) designed like a fairy, with perky movements and a sing-song voice. It is not really the most advanced of robots, but it does its job of repeating pre-recorded or real-time response audio messages. Its gestures come from its movement generating software, which is programmed from a computer. The audio works the same way, except that it can also ad-lib from a person speaking on a microphone backstage.
It’s a performance robot that seeks to engage its audience, who often happen to be children. It’s gestures are also quite expressive, and can show different emotions by the way it moves it head and eyes. Besides performing on stage, it can also greet people and provide audio guidance to visitors.
Marrying people is perhaps not exactly what the developers had in mind when they first designed it, but just goes to show you how adaptive robots can be. The Japanese couple also weren’t chosen at random for an experiment, but specifically wanted a robot to perform the marriage rights, as their love for robotics is what brought them together in the first place.
The video shows the I-Fairy wearing a crown of flowers and literally flashing its eyes with joy. The ceremony looks a bit awkward, and I’m not sure how cool this will look years down the line, but more power to them. Seems like teachers won’t be the only professionals fearing for their jobs.
Wedding video courtesy of AP follows.
Household Robot Killers?
May 13th
It seems like everyone these days is working on household robots that will be able to assist the elderly or people in need, but you never hear too much about any safety tests being conducted. It’s a fundamental step you feel to have these walking-talking machines tested before giving them the keys to your house, and that’s just what the researchers from the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German aerospace agency did.
The results were not very reassuring, to say the least. The scientists equipped a robot arm with different tools and programmed it to strike objects, like silicone lumps or limbs from a dead pig, in order to simulate damage on a human body. The “weapons” were common, yet dangerous tools, like kitchen knives, screwdrivers and scissors – you know, things you’d need any helper to learn how to use around the house. The first series of tests were conducted without any safety devices, and the robot arm, which weighted 14kg (30 pounds), not only made a number of mistakes, it even dealt some lethal blows.
It serves to show the dangers of working alongside these not-so-gentle assistants, and that very serious accidents can happen quite easily. Although the level of danger depends on each specific prototype, researchers are convinced all robots need a safety system installed which would improve precision and tell the robot when to stop. Such a system was also tested out, which uses torque sensors to detect when the robot is coming close to striking the wrong object, and the rate of accidents was greatly reduced.
Having said all that, perhaps a bit of common sense would also help. Standing next to anyone wielding a knife is rarely a good idea, let alone a robot. But you never can be too careful.
If you ever wanted to watch a robot stabbing (or at least trying to) a human, watch the below video.
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