Wheeled Robot Hops Over Walls in a Single Bound

September 16, 2009

If you could combine a miniature HumVee with a pogo stick, you might get the Precision Urban Hopper, a military vehicle that can roll over bumpy terrain and, in the blink of an eye, spring vertically over obstacles as tall as 25 feet. The shoebox-sized, GPS-guided, unmanned robot was developed by the folks at Boston Dynamics, the same ones who brought us the creepily lifelike Big Dog robot.

The hopping is kind of cute. But it's also five times more fuel efficient than hovering if the object to be overcome is shorter than 30 feet feet tall. You can read more about it here, or just watch the video below.

Present-Day Terminators Roam

May 18, 2009

Terminator Salvation opens this week, and I couldn't resist the cyborg angle. The movie conjures up human-machine hybrids and robotic armies doing soldiers' jobs. I know what these mean in Hollywood, but what do they mean in the research labs around the country that are developing ways to meld electronic components with living tissue? And what does the future of war hold when robots will be charged with combat? It's all about as freaky and as scary as the movie. We explore it all on this week's Wide Angle: Present-Day Terminators.

• IM Interview: Upgrading Humans
  Tracy Staedter chats with Desney Tan, who finds ways to upgrade humans by augmenting them with technology.

• Quiz: Is It A Robot Or A Cyborg?
  Robots are made from metal and wires. Cyborgs have that but more -- living tissue. (Think Bladerunner or Terminator). If you met one on the street, would you be able to tell the difference? Test your wits with this quiz.

• News: Ethical Guide for Robot Warriors in the Works
  Ronald Arkin, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is in the first stages of developing an "ethical governor," a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire.

• Puzzle: Wearable Robots
  Robotic hands to help people overcome motor problems to full body exoskeletons that help soldiers carry 200 pounds. Wearable robots are our future. Which one will you sport?

• Feature: Cyborg Moth Gets New Radio
  Electrodes and a control chip are inserted into a moth during its pupal stage. When the moth emerges, the electrodes stimulate its muscles to control its flight. The animal-machine hybrid will transmit data from mounted sensors, which might include low-grade video and microphones for surveillance or gas sensors for natural-disaster reconnaissance.

• Blog: Recycle Bots Take Over
  MIT's 2.007 mechanical engineering design class held its annual competition recently, pitting robot against robot. This year it had an environmental theme: construct robots that can pick up and drop off recycling.

• Podcast: SixthSense Project Bridges the Gap between Real and Virtual Worlds
  If you're one of those people who has watched one too many Terminator films and doesn't want to see the real and virtual worlds melded any further, then by all means do not go the Fluid Interfaces Group website.

• HowStuffWorks: How Robot Armies Will Work
  The Terminator movies demonstrate a future where battalions of sentient, humanoid robots wage war on mankind. While that vision is still well within the realm of science fiction, many countries are looking into creating robot soldiers, including the United States.

• HowStuffWorks: How Biomechatronics Works
  Biomechatronics is the merging of man with machine -- like the cyborg of science fiction. Scientists attempt to make devices that interact with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems with the goals of assisting or enhancing human motor control that can be lost or impaired by trauma, disease or birth defects.

MORE DISCOVERY TECH WIDE ANGLES

Rock Out to Snake Robot Vid

August 15, 2008

Every once in a while, a snake robot video with a techno beat background is in order. For more see Howie Choset's snake video page at Carnegie Mellon University.

The Week of Tech (According to Me)

July 25, 2008

July 18 / New Scientist
People Power is New Weapon Against Olympic Terrorism
Q: How many people does it take to protect the Olympics from a terrorist attack? A: 15 million. Well, that's probably overkill. But if you can heighten the awareness of millions of people, you may get more leads on possible terrorists. Or you may just work up a big crowd into a paranoid frenzy.

July 18 / Wired
The Dark Knight: 'Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?'
Batman is a gadget freakazoid. He's got every high-tech gizmo you could ever hope to by on E-Bay. I'm gonna wait until the prices comes down.

July 19 / The New York Times
Sweeping Panoramas, Courtesy of a Robot
This robot repeatedly clicks a camera shutter in order to take hundreds of overlapping images from a variety of different angles. When combined into one big panoramic image, the high-res result is a one gigapixel shot. The benefit? Useful detail without the finger cramps.

July 21 / Discovery News
Could A Contact Lens Save Your Vision?
Now contact lenses correct eyesight. But soon, they fix medical problems such as glaucoma by administering medication.

July 21 / Guardian
Solve It
How to chat to people with different instant messaging applications.

July 21 / Xconomy
30 Startup Ideas from Y Combinator
From the category of "tech that hasn't been invented yet," here's a list of technologies that fill a need. If only they existed.

July 22 / The New York Times
If You Have a Problem, Ask Everyone
This web site capitalizes on the human nature to give advice. Only this place pays dividends.

July 22 / IEEE Specturm
Why Microwave Auditory Effect Crowd-Control Gun Won't Work
Well, now here's a way to control a big crowd (maybe those paranoid Olympic attendees?): fry 'em with a microwave auditory gun.

July 22 / Technology Trends
First Paper-Based Transistors
Portuguese researchers have created the first paper-based transistors. The advance could lead to disposable electronics devices, such as paper displays, smart labels and RFID tags.

July 23 / Guardian
Solar Power from Saharan Sun Could Provide Europe's Electricity, Says EU
Africa has so many natural resources: gold, diamonds, oil. And now scientist are saying that just a small part of the continent could generate enough solar energy to supply Europe with electricity.

July 23 / Technology Review
A Concrete Fix to Global Warming
A new process stores carbon dioxide in precast concrete.

July 23 / Wired
Intel CEO Calls for 10 Million Plug-In Conversions within Four Years
Andy Grove's called for 10 million vehicles to be converted to plug-in hybrids within four years and laid out some ideas to help get us there.

July 24 / Discovery News
Power From Poop: Putting Manure to Use
Methane from manure could supply more than 2 percent of the country's electricity needs.

Atom-Fusing Laser, Robotic Jellyfish, Invisibility Carpet, A Pregnancy Gene and More

July 18, 2008

These are the coolest tech stories I discovered this past week.

July 12 / The New York Times
Can’t Find a Parking Spot? Check Smartphone
If you live a big city, then you know what it's like to drive around and around looking for that elusive parking spot. But starting this fall, San Franciscans will be in for a treat. The city is testing the use of wireless sensors that will communicate to street signs or a smartphone the availability of free spaces. Now just don't run anyone over trying to get the spot first.

July 13 / Guardian
Doctors Rage At Being Rated Online
As a big fan of AngiesList and Yelp, I'm all for a Web site that will allow patients to rate their doctors online. Isn't it all about referrals anyway? And health care is a service for which we pay big bucks. So suck it up, GPs, and get with the times.

July 15 / Discovery News
Giant Laser in the Works to Achieve Fusion
Wouldn't Dr. Evil love this "laser?" It can't blow up the planet, but at 10 stories tall and 400 feet long, it will create enough heat and pressure to fuse atoms and create helium. The reaction will release massive amounts of environmentally friendly energy and enough helium to keep us all talking about it with high squeaky voices.

July 15 / New Scientist
Dirt-Repelling Tube Promises Cheap, Pure Water
Man, we've really messed up the world's water supply. Most of it can't be consumed without being purified first, and that's not good for people living in developing worlds. But a a new way of purifying water could offer a simple solution. The technique uses a material that naturally attracts water while at the same time repelling impurities.

July 15 / BBC
The Importance of Being There
You have to really not like your surroundings (or yourself?) to prefer a virtual world over reality. But even still, VR environments have a long way to go before they will supplant this world, says regular columnist Bill Thompson.

July 16 / Wired
Obama Wages Cyberwar
Even though the Bush administration has initiated a $30 billion effort to beef up cyber security, Obama says its too little too late.

July 16 / Popular Science
Robotic Jellyfish Just Like the Real Thing, But Without the Sting
Sure, it's great that the AquaJelly has sensors, a short-range radio system, LEDs for illumination and communication and is coated with conductive metal paint that helps it connect with a nearby charging station, but I think they're dern pretty and I sure wish I had one. Hint hint.

July 16 / Wired
Army Wants 'Psychologically Inspired' Robot Vision
Robots score a big "duh" when it comes to vision. They just can't see the world we do. That's why the Army has put out an APB for a "psychologically inspired object recognition system." But do we really want robots seeing the world through our eyes? What if they notice what a bunch of doofuses we are?

July 17 / Discovery News
Invisible Carpet Idea Close to Actual Invisibility
Invisibility cloaks are great for hiding giant spaceships, but an invisibility carpet is just way more practical. Scientists have created a material that can hide objects in visible light. My question: If we can't see it, how will we know it's working? (See what I mean about being a doofus.)

July 17 / Popular Science
A Gene for Baby Makin’
This could put an end to birth control pills, foams and devices and eliminate the need for testicle snipping. Scientists have located the gene that both regulates and blocks ovulation.

July 17 / Wired
Why China's Olympian Efforts to Clean Up Beijing's Air Won't Work.
China is doing a bunch of stuff to clean up the air in time for the Olympics. Smoking bans, traffic bans and turning off power plants to name of few. But it might not make any difference.

Photo: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The Week (According to Me)

June 27, 2008

I've read and scanned hundreds of articles this week from some of the big technology mags and papers. Here are the stories that stood out for me. Let me know if I missed anything.

June 20 / The Engineer
Matching Tatoos
Researchers have created a system that could allow police to identify individuals by matching marks on their body with those stored in a computer database.

June 21 / Guardian
Boss Hu Avoids Tricky Questions In Online Chat
Chinese president, Hu Jintao, made his mark with a four-minute online debut in front of the world's biggest population of Internet users.

June 23 / Guardian
Contraceptive Pill Goes On Sale Online
Women will be able to order the contraceptive pill online from today without having to visit a doctor or clinic.

June 23 / Discovery News
Flying Saucer Craft Set to Fly
A new wingless, saucer-shaped aircraft is scheduled to take to the skies. Just don't call it a UFO.

June 23 / Guardian
Hydrogen Cars and Hot Air
The new breed of hydrogen fuel cell-powered auto isn't as environmentally friendly as you think

June 23 / New Scientist
PC Population Reaches a Billion as E-Waste Piles Up
The number of personal computers in use around the world has surpassed one billion, research firm Gartner reports.

June 23 / Technology Review
Curating Yourself Online
In the old days, the issue was keeping your data secret. Now, the challenge is making sure your data isn't mixed up with someone else's, and controlling it as it spreads out over the Web. This means managing and curating it.

June 24 / Wired
Greener Jet Engine Could Reduce Aviation's Carbon Footprint
One of the biggest names in aviation has developed a jet engine that is more efficient, less polluting and cheaper to use than almost everything else in the sky, and it could revolutionize an industry facing skyrocketing fuel prices and mounting pressure to clean up its act.

June 24 / The Engineer
100 miles per gallon
A experimental version of a 2006 Toyota Prius sedan modified by U.S. researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has achieved a record 100 miles per gallon.

June 24 / The New York Times
The High-Tech Job Capital Is…The Big Apple?
If you’re looking for a tech job in the United States, the best place to go is not Silicon Valley. It’s New York.

June 24 / Popular Science
Oscillate Wildly
Metronomes generally keep their own beat -- that's why we love them -- but when several get together, a compromise is hammered out.

June 24, 2008 / ScienceDaily
Building Giant 'Nanoassemblies' That Sense Their Environment
Researchers in Texas are reporting the design, construction, and assembly of nano-size building blocks into the first giant structures that can sense and respond to changes in environmental conditions.

June 25 / The New York Times
U.S. High Tech Said to Slip
The United States may be synonymous with the high-tech revolution, but it is in danger of losing its high-tech edge, according to Cybercities 2008, a report released Tuesday by AeA, a technology industry trade association.

June 26 / Guardian
Website Domain Names: Any Suffixes Could Be Possible After Landmark Vote
Icann, the organisation that regulates the internet domain name system, has passed a landmark vote to relax rules limiting web addresses to "top-level" suffixes, such as .com and .uk, a move that could see people and companies register almost anything they want.

June 26, 2008 / ScienceDaily
Cooperative System Could Wipe Out Car Alarm Noise
The persistent, annoying blare of an ignored car alarm may become a sound of the past if a cooperative, mutable and silent network of monitors proposed by Penn State researchers is deployed in automobiles and parking lots.

June 26 / Technology Review
Want to Enhance Your Brain Power?
Research hints that electrically stimulating the brain can speed learning.

The Week (According to Me)

June 20, 2008

Don't spend all that time scanning your RSS feed reader. Just read my list.

13 June 08 / The Atlantic
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Nick Carr writes about how the Internet is changing the way we think.

June 13 / Tech Crunch
Quillpill: A Twitter For Cell-Phone Novelists
Even if they could, few people have the time to write a book. But what if they could Twitter one? For all those aspiring novelists out there, Quillpill might be the app to get them started.

13 June 08 / Guardian
Where Are All the Older Female Geeks?
Since starting her blog, Natalie d'Arbeloff has found that she is not the only older woman in the cybervillage. But they are still in the minority. Come on, she says, what are you waiting for?

June 13 / Wired
Potential New Weapon Against TB: Free Cell Minutes
Researchers at MIT believe they've discovered a new weapon in the battle against tuberculosis: Free cell phone minutes. For years, doctors have struggled to get some TB patients to take all their medication, which generally involves a six-month regimen of multiple drugs. Now a student-led group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a way to use cell phones to let patients test themselves. And if the tests show patients are following doctor's orders, they get rewarded with free minutes.

June 13 / Wired
IBM's Drumming Car Reads Your Lips. Seriously
The people at IBM are hard at work developing technology we never knew we don't need -- a steering wheel that reads your lips, responds to your facial expressions and turns into a drum machine. Tapping out a beat on the steering wheel while jamming to your favorite tunes will never be the same again.

June 13 / Technology Review
Doubling Laptop Battery Life
Intel's new integrated power management could dramatically reduce power consumption in your laptop by shutting down operations not being used.

June 13 / Technology Review
You've Had a Genetic Test. Now What?
A new project aims to incorporate the results of genetic screening into medicine.

June 16 / Discovery
Robots to Become Lovers, Predict Researchers
Romantic human-robot relationships are no longer the stuff of science fiction -- researchers expect them to become reality within four decades.

June 16 / Science Daily
Using Brainwaves To Chat And Stroll Through Second Life: World's First
On 7th June 2008, Keio University succeeded in the world’s first demonstration experiment with the help of a disabled person to use brainwave to chat and stroll through the virtual world.

June 16 / Nanowerk
NASA nanotechnology research into shape-shifting airplanes
Aircraft of the future will not be built of traditional, multiple, mechanically connected parts and systems. Instead, aircraft wing construction will employ fully integrated, nanotechnology enabled embedded 'smart' materials and actuators that will enable aircraft wings with unprecedented levels of aerodynamic efficiencies and aircraft control.

June 17 / BBC News
Victim of Its Own Success
Life without the internet is unimaginable for the millions who use it every day. But one of the world's leading academics on the impact of the net warns we could be facing its destruction.

June 17 / New York Times
Philadelphia Revives Citywide Wi-Fi Project
Philadelphia revived an effort on Tuesday to provide free citywide wireless Internet access in a project to be run by a new group of investors. The city aims to provide free-of-charge outdoor Web access throughout its 135 square miles, which would be the largest area covered by public Wi-fi of any U.S. city.

June 17 / Webmonkey
Clock Browser Speeds with Webmonkey’s Stopwatch
With Firefox 3, Opera 9.5 and Safari all claiming “faster than ever” speeds with its latest versions, we started wondering which one is really the fastest. After loading some pages and scratching our heads, we hacked together a small JavaScript stopwatch to find out.

June 17 / Discovery
Talking Robofish to Swim in Puget Sound
Marine creatures have communicated with each other for millions of years. Now swimming robots can too.

June 18 / Scientific American
Hands On Computing: How Multi-touch Screens Could Change The Way We Interact With Computers and Each Other
Multi-touch computing could one day free us from the mouse as our primary computer interface, the way the mouse freed us from keyboards.

June 18 / Scientific American
Wi-Maxing That Wireless Internet Connection
A wireless technology called Wi-Max has a much bigger range than Wi-Fi, making it possible to supply wireless internet accessibility to large areas with a few base stations. Christopher Intagliata reports.

June 19 / Etherized
Snail (And We Do Mean Snail) Mail
A group of artists, whose URL reads "boredomresearch," have created Real Snail Mail, the world's first web mail service using live snails. Yep. Three snails (Cecil, Austin and Muriel) have been fitted with RFID chips and antennae that can pick up data from hardware located in their enclosure. You fill out an email form, hit send and they take things from there.

June 19 / Technovelgy
Never-Stop Rail Transit System Proposed
Taiwanese inventor Peng Yu-lun imagines a main track with a large commuter train that does not stop. The train is serviced by smaller train cars that drop off new passengers while picking up those who wish to leave the train.

June 19 / The Engineer
Solar System
A team from MIT has tested a prototype of a new solar power system that consists of a 12ft-wide dish made from a frame of thin, aluminium tubing and strips of mirror.

June 19 / Discovery
New 'Terminator' Robots Go in Harm's Way
IRobot, best known for their cute Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, has teamed up with Metal Storm, purveyors of the million-rounds-per-minute electric gun, to create a slick, Terminator-like war robot for the U.S. military.

June 19 / New Scientist
Scrapping MPG Could Boost Sales of Greener Cars
What sounds like an arithmetic brain teaser could in fact hold the key to reducing the amount of gas consumed by Americans – and by extension their CO2 emissions. Richard Larrick and Jack Soll of Duke University in the US say that a simple switch from expressing a car's fuel efficiency in miles per gallon (mpg) to gallons per 100 miles makes it much easier for people to assess how much money they could save on fuel.

Jumping Robot a Grasshopper Contender

May 21, 2008

Yesterday I wrote about a dragonfly-inspired robot. Today I'm pointing you toward one inspired by grasshoppers. While it doesn't look like the insect, it does have long legs and a spring in its step. Literally. This guy weighs just 7 grams, and can jump ten times farther for its size and weight than any existing jumping robot. Like all mobile robots, this one could be used to explore terrain otherwise inaccessible to humans. And because it's tiny, it could be released in a cloud of compatriots, ala locusts, to swarm an area for inspection. The lil jumpers are fun to watch, too.

Photo: EPFL

Why Robots Are So Cool?

May 15, 2008

Back in March, I posted a blog about the numerous ways animals, bugs and other lifeforms inspire the design of robots. And earlier this week, I posted a blog about an exoskeleton that could give a person superhuman strength. I'm slowly realizing that I'm simultaneously fascinated and little freaked out by the lifelike abilities of some of these devices.

So I wondered, what do researchers who build these machines as part of their daily job think about robots? Do they think robots are cool? And if so, why? Here's what some of them said:

Josh Bongard
Assistant Professor, Computer Science

"I think one of the reasons people find robots so cool is that we are surrounded every day of our lives by walking, talking, seemingly intelligent machines--other people. Granted, people are biological machines, and extremely sophisticated ones at that, but, in many people's opinions, we are all still machines in all the ways that matter. So, given our power to build ever more sophisticated machines (consider the International Space Station), how come we cannot build machines that walk, talk, and do all the intelligent things (and perhaps not so intelligent things) that we do?"

Howie Choset
Associate Professor of Robotics

"There are many reasons why robots are cool. I just think their motions are elegant and never get bored of watching my own robots move around (see snakerobot or modsnake for videos). Sometimes, if I blur my eyes just a little bit, the robots seem to have a life or intention on their own. I would say the reasons why we build robots is either to mimic nature or build a machine to effect a task."

Lena Ting
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

"I think that people are fascinated by robots because they are machines with qualities we typically attribute to humans and animals. When robots appear to exhibit traits such as decision-making, humor, or stumbling, they tap into neural mechanisms that mediate human interactions."

Evangelos Papadopoulos
Professor, Mechanical Engineering

"1. In robotics, you design a machine from scratch, you build it and you make sure it will do what you designed it for. You are becoming a small god, or a "mother" (important to men who -as we all know- cannot give birth :-) ).
2. Robotics can help humans avoid hazardous environments, work in very different scales (satellites to enzymes), avoid boring jobs, complete tasks impossible otherwise.
3. They can become as smart as we are, perhaps even better than this. This is a great challenge to many."

Dennis Hong
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

"Mankind has been fascinated by mechanical automata since as far as history goes. From hundreds of years B.C. we know that the ancient Greeks built moving statues of animals and humans. Nowadays, with humanoid robots that walk and mimic complex human motion like playing soccer (RoboCup) to autonomous vehicles that drive themselves in the urban environment (DARPA Urban Challenge) our efforts to develop robots continue, at an accelerated path. However, not only the sophistication of the technology, but also the reasons for our fascinations with robots may have been changing with time as well. In the ancient times, these moving automata were created mostly for religious ceremonial or entertainment purposes. Nowadays, the robots we research and develop have more practical application areas - the three D's: Dirty, Dull and Dangerous applications, which humans want to avoid. For most robotisists, this fascination may be driven by the need of such robots as 'tools', but also another side of this may be the psychology of humans wanting be as a creator (a 'god'?)? Also, as an interesting specific case, based on my many conversations with robotics researchers from Japan, they all say that Japanese robotics engineers have a special fascination with humanoid robots as they have grown up watching Japanese anime such as 'Astro Boy', etc. that depict robots having humanoid form."

Alan Bowling
Assistant Professor, Robotics and Dynamic Systems Laboratory

"There are many practical reasons for the interest in robots that are associated with developing systems that can perform tasks that humans do not want to do.  However, I think the more compelling reason is that we have the ability to build a mechanical system in our own image. In my opinion, investigating the development of robots allows us to ponder, examine, and understand our own capabilities. Furthermore, they spark our imaginations concerning the possibilities of what humanity can become and accomplish on its own, and in conjunction with a cool tool like a robot; humans are great at making tools."

Chew On This: A Robotic Mouth

May 13, 2008

Appropriately nick-named Munch-O-Matic, a robo chomper has been built to mimic the first and necessary steps of human digestion: chewing, saliva release and the initial breakdown of food.

It seems like a lot of trouble to go to in order to figure out what's going on during mastication, so I asked Gaëlle Arvisenet, the lead researcher from ENITIAA "what up?"

She told me the team is trying to "explain the link between the composition of food and perception." Perception involves volatile (read: aromatic) compounds that are released when a person bites into a piece of food, say, an apple.

There are ways to understand this process without an artificial mouth, she said. Here's what they are:

• Extracting and separating volatile compounds from the food and chemically analyzing them with chromatography. The problem: "They often only give the volatile composition of the food. But not all the volatiles are released in mouth during consumption an we need to know exactly which compounds reach the receptors, and in what amount."
• Asking people to chew food and then collecting their breath to analyze it's volatile content. The problem: " It is both difficult and expensive, and it requires to work with several people to be reliable."

Hence, the Chewinator. It could one day be used to analyze foods for quality and taste.

The scientists describe their artificial mouth in this week's issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Watch your fingers.

Illustration: Courtesy Gaëlle Arvisenet