CORE:
These core are full time cores; they design the core courses and the program, the Ph.D. reading lists, write and grade comprehensive exam questions, and chair student robot committees.
A Wired
article describes the efforts of robotics researchers at Stanford
University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of
Genoa. All three groups are working or robots that learn to use their
arms and hands by trying and failing, much the way humans do. The
researchers are working with mobile robots that have attached arms and
grippers: Stair
1.0, Stair
2.0, UMan,
and RobotCub. The four robots are
making progress
and, more importantly, teaching the researchers a lot about how the
learning process works.
Pixar's Wall-E will hit the screens on June 27, 2008 and the teaser trailer is now available. Wall-E is the story of a robot left on Earth to clean up the mess made by human consumerism. According to the premise outlined at Wikipedia, the automated cleanup of the trash-covered Earth fails leaving a single robot who ultimately discovers his special purpose.
Motherboard Integration:
Please search our vast collection of motherboard and robot replacement parts customized for your every situation.
In the mailbox this week, we find links to a TFOT story on the OmniTread snake robot, as well as photos and video of KITT, the robot car used in a remake of the Knight Rider show from the 1980s. The Swirling Brain noticed a NetworkWorld article about CMU's $14 million grant to improve their robot tank, known as Crusher and a Gizmodo story on the new-and-improved Honda Asimo. Dave Wojcik sent us some nifty video of a Sarco exoskeleton. Need a moth brained robot? Chris Bruner sent a Computer World article on a robot guided by a moth brain. Roland Piquepaille let us know about his latest blog posts on a robot seaplane, a robot that helps stroke victims, and medical nanobots. Sergey Popov tells us about Skilligent's proprietary Robot Learning and Behavior Control software. The Trossen Robotics folks sent us a link to their latest tutorial on controlling DC motors from a computer. Trossen also announced the winners of their latest project contest, which Otto, an interesting-looking robot. Paul Foster has written another intersting tutorial over at IBM Developerworks, this making robots solving mazes using subsumption architecture developed in Java. Fiona Gatt of VIA sent us a link to an enclosure for Pico-ITX motherboards that fits in a 5.25" drive bay. Davide Faconti sent new video of REEM-B, a humanoid robot being developed in the UAE. Finally, roschler sent us video of his latest mad scientist effort: an i-SOBOT Humanoid Robot Controlled by Nintendo WiiMote. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please.
Power Plants:
These power plant resources will get your favorite bot up and running in no time flat. Nuclear facilities available on request.
Each year the founding editors of robots.net, steve, Rog-a-Matic, and The Swirling Brain, put their heads together and come up with their top 10 Robot Christmas gift ideas. There's no rhyme or reason to it. This is not the scientific result of a careful product comparisons. It's just a list of ideas that we collectively thought any robot builder would be very happy to receive as Christmas gifts. You may find it interesting to compare this year's list to the 2006 or 2005 lists. Some items have returned for another year while others have been replaced with the latest gadgets and toys. Read on for the complete list in our traditional countdown form. We've also included a few stocking stuffers and left-over ideas that didn't quite make our list this year.
Daniel Wilson, author of "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" has written a short essay for Wired titled "Everything I Need to Know About (Real) Robots I Learned From Transformers". Daniel thinks that real robots, like Transformers won't care about humans one way or the other. They won't be HAL 9000, out to kill us, or the infantile robots of Star Wars, ready to be our friendly companions. They'll transcend and ignore humans rather than imitate them. Daniel also points out a few modern robot projects he thinks may have been inspired by Autobot or Decepticons.
INSTRUCTORS:
We can teach your robot any task that you require for performance. Upgrades and special enhancements are available that will make your robot the most efficient and caring personage available with todays technology.
Ever since this Scientific American article we know that Microsoft has big plans for robotics - seeing the 80s PC industry mirrored in today's robotics industry. The latest Talking Robots episode interviews Tandy Trower, who has led his small team of 12 to develop the Microsoft Robotics Studio in less than two years. Launched in 2006, Microsoft's move into robotics has stayed true to the well-honed MS strategy of not releasing source code of key components and of patenting technology. As Tandy will tell you, MS does provide what they call an "open software promise", which basically amounts to a free license of the software, making it easy to distribute - a vital step in gaining a large user base. According to Tandy, the key to success is "accessibility of technology" - and I tend to agree. With an incredibly diverse field like robotics, spanning kid's toys to care-takers for the elderly and small-budget gimmicks to multi-million industrial machines, the user base can and should, but must be able to drive the development. Tandy hopes to unite this large and diverse user-base and enable it. He wants to catalyze the robotic revolution that - let's face it - we all know will happen. Microsoft as a key player in robotics - long awaited savior or worst nightmare? Listen to Tandy and judge for yourself.
Machines for Sale
NOTE: We are not totally responsible for any situation in which one of our robots seems to lose control. We have many models available and be sure to check out our special robots section for the very rich.
As a warm up for our annual robot gift story, here's a list of 16 tempting robot gift ideas that come in under $20. Perfect for the irritating coworker in cubical 13, or the little nephew who won't be ready for the expensive stuff until next year. Let's start with a T-Shirt sporting a glowing Decepticon logo since Transformers was such a hit this year. Continuing with the this theme - duke it out with these Autobot and Decepticon fighters, and watch this Megatron action figure wield his arm-mounted fusion cannon! If you're looking for a desktop gadget with a robotic twist, check out this plush robot tissue box, sum the universe with this 6-jointed robot calculator, and trim your fingernails with this retro-robot pencil sharpener. Construction-oriented gifts include Discovery's motorized robot kit with light and sound, Kool Toyz Build-Your-Own Robot Kit with 47 pieces and a remote control, this refreshingly low-tech 6-piece set of wooden stacking robots, and this semi-bizarre Cranium Robot/Bug/Alien Mega Mask creation kit. One of the more sophisticated robots in this price range is Wow Wee's Mini Roboquad, but other gadgets could also lead to some interesting brain fun including this radio controlled tarantula, and this sound-activated jungle robot that can walk along a cord. Finishing up the list is media including Bionicle Heroes for the XBox 360, a widescreen edition of the great Robots movie, and How to Survive a Robot Uprising by Daniel H. Wilson. Whoops, I almost left out everyone's favorite, the 1966 classic Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots by Mattel - make it 17.
Scientists at NASA's Near Earth Object Program updated the odds of asteroid 2007 WD5 impacting on Mars from 1 in 350 to 1 in 75. If the asteroid hits, the impact will likely be in the area that Mars rover Opportunity is in. The robot is believed to be outside the immediate impact zone so it should be able to safely observe the explosion that would result from the asteroid hitting at 13.5 km/s, releasing the equivalent of 3 MT of TNT. The resulting crater could be a half a mile wide. Impacts of this size are estimated to occur only once every one thousand years. The impact would occur near the end of January 2008. Data from additional observatories is being gathered now and scientists hope to calculate an updated trajectory that will tell them whether or not the asteroid will hit Mars. For more details see the NEO report or the JPL orbital diagram for 2007 WD5
L I N K S
Windup Gallery
Robots Inc.biz
Gallery
Time Tunnel
Damon Soule
www.thesneeze.com
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www.strenco.de
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www.wotartist.com
www.RobotsInc.biz
www.windupgallery.com
www.trifectagallery.com
www.happytrailsanimation.com
www.millergallery.com
www.visualbabel.blogspot.com
www.d-six.org/cartoon_drawing/index.asp
www.dwellingspaces
www.home.comcast.net/~caia.com
