Robot Builders

Stability is essential for teleoperation and a prerequisite for performance. This paper analyzes the the stability/performance trade-off of a teleoperator where the slave device has a built-in passive intrinsic stiffness. Stability is quantified as time delay robustness and performance is expressed using teleoperator damping and teleoperator stiffness, the boundaries of the Colgate Z-width

Two classic control schemes, position error and Lawrence 4-channel, are used along with a novel 5-channel scheme where the slave stiffness deflection is measured, and compensated for, to improve the performance.

The teleoperator system was analyzed theoretically using a linear model and the findings were experimentally validated on a one degree of freedom teleoperation setup.

It was found that:

Therefore it can be concluded that a compliant slave device offers a stability advantage for a range of teleoperation situations and that the loss of performance can be partly compensated.

As you probably know, carbon nanotubes have very interesting mechanical, electrical and optical properties. But they are ’small.’ Now, researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have developed a process to build extremely long aligned carbon nanotube arrays. They’ve been able to produce 18-mm-long carbon nanotubes which might be spun into nanofibers. Such electrically conductive fibers could one day replace copper wires. The researchers say their nanofibers could be used for applications such as nanomedicine, aerospace and electronics.

The goal of the DARPA prosthetics program is to create an advanced upper limb replacement with neural control within a decade. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and other team members are conducting tests of their Proto 1 prosthetic arm with help from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. The limb sports eight degrees of freedom and a control system significantly better than existing technology. The limb system includes a virtual environment for patient training, clinical configuration, and the recording of limb movement during testing. More intuitive control and an improved natural sensation of grip and touch is made possible by Targeted Muscle Reinnervation which transfers residual nerves from the lost limb to unused muscle regions such as the chest. A realistic looking covering is made with help from photographs of the patients limb. Demonstrations included removing a credit card from a pocket, stacking cups with grip control based on sensory feedback instead of vision, and walking using the free swing mode. The next version of the limb is expected to have 25 degrees of freedom, increased strength and speed, and as many as 80 sensors to monitor temperature, positioning, and an artificial sense of touch.

I wonder this just came to me, why is it when Hollywood makes a movie involving robots, androids, artificial life why is it always trying to hurt human kind? Is it just for drama or is it just what sells right now? I tend to think that robotic or android based societies would be able to accomplish so much more and provide for humans a better life. They would not of course take over human thought and ideas but, I think would augment them.
As there are some things that artificial life, artificial programs
are all ready trying to do. For instance testing medical technologies to further human life go to places that a regular human would not be able to survive. If I am not correct, correct me if I am wrong please as my understanding of the human mind and body is made up of chemicals and electrical energy which send impulses that travel from our sensing units (i.e. Eyes) and then to the brain which in turn takes these impulses and translates the impulses into a pattern that the brain references its databases (patterns) and concludes what the object is or feeling is.
Although these patterns are a learned behavior (have to be taught) I mean that if a child or person has never seen a donkey he/she would not know what this entity is. So someone tells us what this item is or a picture with a name under it explains it as being a “donkey”. Humans I think function along the same lines as I think an android would learn if it was taught to understand things and to logically work things out. It would use its sensors (i.e. Optical in this case) see the donkey, reference it’s memory, if a picture or pattern is there recognize it as a “donkey” once again a learned experience. You will notice here I am talking of the term “Android” a completely artificial entity made up of mechanical parts. And a “Cyborg” if I understand the current definition of the term means a life form with biomechanical attributes. I would not want any human biological parts to remain as these degrade and putrefy without a constant source of regeneration from either organs or blood which needs to be replaced all the time. I am strictly speaking I guess in the electrical mechanical mechanisms needed to perform the change from a biochemical/electrical
being to a mechanical/ electrical. At this point I may be wrong but
that isn’t information relating to memory consciousness, talent,
wants, desires all electrical impulses send to our brain (a fantastic
processing unit) to quantify, categorize and store gathered
information for later data retrieval and or processing.

Date: June 2, 2007, 10:30AM - 4PM
Location: Milford High School
1 Eagles Way
Milford, OH 45150

Join us for a exciting head-to-head competition featuring robot Sumo,
and other robotic demonstrations and exhibitions. Teams may use
kits or homebuilt robots, as long as they follow the rules and weight
limits.

Robots operate under total computer control, without human assistance.

LEGO Mindstorms robots, Parallax BOE-BOX, Vex robots, and any other
robots may
enter the Sumo competition. Rules are online at
http://www.robocap.org/compete/

You can bring your robot to show off how it works, too! We have a
commitment
from a local FIRST team to bring their robot for display.

Registration

Register at http://www.robocap.org/compete
- deadline May 20, 2007
Once there, select the compete link to register a team.
Select the attend link if you think you might attend, so we can estimate
the number of spectators.

Schedule

Teams should arrive at the high school at 10:00 AM on June 2nd.
10:00 AM - Team arrival / setup at Milford High School.

10:30 AM - Doors open for spectators
- View static displays of FIRST robots

11:00 AM - 3:30 PM - demonstration and competitions

3:30 PM - prize and award ceremony

Additional info

Milford High School Robotics Club:
Advisor, Ralph Hyre

The Milford High School Robotics Club is sponsored by Milford Academic
Boosters.

In the last 20 years, spreadsheets have become essential tools. Still, they have some limitations. In particular, if they handle mathematical computations, they’re not designed to deal with logical formulas. Now, computer scientists at Stanford University have developed a prototype of a logical spreadsheet using logic instead of math to help us with data management in an innovative way. The U.S. Army would like to use the technology to organize troop deployment and training. And Stanford is already using it to schedule classes, events and rooms. The next step will be to integrate this technology on the Web to replace the forms that we routinely fill by “websheets.” read story

Yesterday CMU announced the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK) project. Originally developed by CMU professor Illah Nourbakhsh and funded by Google, Intel and Microsoft. The idea is to release several robot plans (called “recipes”) for building simple, web-enable robots from off-the-shelf parts. They hope the sudden proliferation of web-enabled robots will generate new interest in robotics. The robot is based on the Qwerk microcontroller developed by the CMU CREATE lab and Austin-based Charmed Labs. The Qwerk is Linux-based SBC with a 200MHz ARM9 and 32MB of RAM. The board also includes a Xilinx Spartan FPGA, USB, assorted I/O and, of course, 10/100 Ethernet for net access. At $350 each, the Qwerk is a bit pricey compared to other recent Linux micros such as the $69 Atmel ATNGW100, which has similar features. On the other hand, if you plunk down the money for the Qwerk, CMU will provide a lot of ready to go software for you to use including the Qwerkbot Teleop Interface, the Robot Universal Remote (RUR), Robot Dance Studio, Qwerk Audio Player, the Express-O-Matic graphic programming tool, and, well, a lot of other stuff. All of this is Free Software licensed under the GNU GPL.

What happens when you compress water in a nano-sized space? According to Georgia Tech physicists, water starts to behave like a solid. “The confined water film behaves like a solid in the vertical direction by forming layers parallel to the confining surface, while maintaining it’s liquidity in the horizontal direction where it can flow out,” said one of the researchers. “Water is a wonderful lubricant, but it flows too easily for many applications. At the one nanometer scale, water is a viscous fluid and could be a much better lubricant,” added another one.

In addition to leaving treats on new BMW’s and damaging goods in large warehouses, aggressive birds are known to attack small children on the playgrounds and even peck the eyes out of farm animals. For around $4000USD, Robop LTD can supply a solution in the form of a fiberglass robotic falcon programmed to frighten away sparrows, geese and other feathered creatures. Flapping its wings, turning its head, springing on its feet, and calling like a Peregrine apparently convinces intruders to pick another location for their unsavory deeds. A trailer-mounted boom mount is also available for quick deployment. -more-

In no particular order, here are several shorter news items that have been collecting dust in our inbox. The Swirling Brain sent a link to a sort of three-legged robot simulator called acrobots. Is it a game? Is it a graphics demo? Who knows, but it’s fun to play with. A couple of readers mentioned a Wired article about Bobby Zokaites and his modified Roomba Art Bots. Roland Piquepaille has written a new blog post about jewelry polishing robots that can grind and polish rings faster than human jewelers. The BBC reports that robot blimps will be fighting crime in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. For a more down-to-Earth story, the MAKE blog has a nice intro on the idea of Open Source Hardware.