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You already have NASA to thank in part for everyday, Earthly wonders like memory foam and water filters, but a new one is coming to the list: powered exoskeletons. More »

Robots come in many flavors. There’s the subservient kind, the virtual representative, the odd one with an artistic bent, and even robo-cattle. But, typically, they all hit the same roadblock: they can only do what they are programmed to do. Of course, there are those that posses some AI smarts, too, but Georgia Tech wants to take this to the next level, and build a ‘bot that can interact with its environment on the fly. The project hopes to give machines deployed in disaster situations the ability to find objects in their environment for use as tools, such as placing a chair to reach something high, or building bridges from debris. The idea builds on previous work where robots learned to moved objects out of their way, and developing an algorithm that allows them to identify items, and asses its usefulness as a tool. This would be backed up by some programming, to give the droids a basic understanding of rigid body mechanics, and how to construct motion plans. The Office of Navy Research‘s interest comes from potential future applications, working side-by-side with military personnel out on missions, which along with iRobot 110, forms the early foundations for the cyber army of our childhood imaginations.

Filed under: Robots, Alt

Georgia Tech receives $900,000 grant from Office of Naval Research to develop ‘MacGyver’ robot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It takes years for a person to learn how to write Japanese or Chinese characters. There’s good news though. Robots can do it a lot quicker. A research group has developed a ‘bot that can identify and mimic detailed brush strokes that are required to write these kinds of characters.

The Motion Copy System was developed at Keio University by Seiichiro Katsura. It stores the gestures associated with traditional Japanese calligraphy, and copies them. All that one needs to do to train the system is to guide the robot’s arm with their hand, and it can precisely replicate their recorded brush strokes. Unlike traditional system, the robot can record and reproduce the force applied to the brush similarly to when people touch something.

The calligraphy replication ‘bot was presented at the 2012 Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies in Tokyo, Japan.

[via DigInfo.TV via designboom]

Folks who have reared fish in the past as pets know that it is not as simple as letting your finned friends swim in an aquarium without a care in the world. You have got to make sure that the PH levels are correct, with the right kind of temperature as well as oxygen levels being maintained at all times. Not only that, there is this thing that you need to do as well from time to time – cleaning the tank of its gunk, goo and slime. The Japanese might have stumbled upon something that lazy pet owners would love to have – the Zuru Robo Fish.

They will not die, at least not biologically, need no food to survive, and will be able to swim in both fresh and sea water conditions. Retailing for $14.99 a pop, the Zuru Robo Fish might be the last Nemo lookalike that you will ever need to purchase. At least it saves you the trouble of explaining the concept of death to a young kid, no?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Robots to assemble your IKEA furniture, Lunar robot Polaris intends to mine water,

One thing about bringing home IKEA furniture is this – you will need to do your bit to assemble the particular piece of furniture, and for folks who are not too great when it comes to the assembly instructions, there is help. It will most probably be far more expensive than paying a small fee to the IKEA man to assemble your furniture assuming this furniture assembling robot takes off, but it sure as heck is a novelty worth exploring. A group of researchers have managed to find a way to program robots so that they are able to convert a set of instructions into commands – followed by executing them, of course.

Niel Dantam, one of the researchers behind the project, said, “You want to somehow capture the important aspects of the human’s motion and transfer that to the robot. Think about how you’d tell someone how to make a cake. An adult might bend down over the counter to work while a child may stand on tiptoes.”

This algorithm speculated on robots assembling IKEA furniture on their own, as the IKEA furniture assembly system boasts of an extremely versatile architecture, making it ideal to test out such an algorithm which will definitely make full use of nearly all possible ways in delivering a robust and ideal mobile manipulation system. How much do you think such a robot is going to cost you?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Lunar robot Polaris intends to mine water, Robotherapist 3D Spanish stroke rehabilitation robot targets worldwide patent,