The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

telerobot at school

A Willow Garage telepresence robot promoted careers in robotics at a local elementary school.

Wouldn’t you have loved to be the kid who brought a real life working robot to school for show and tell? Willow Garage delighted students at a Cupertino, California elementary school for their “Discovery Day” – an opportunity for children to learn about local careers – by sending one of their new telepresence robots (the Texai) to make a presentation. Among the firefighters, doctors, and business executives mingled two WG engineers: Rob Wheeler in person, and Dallas Goecker remotely controlling a Texai from Indiana. Talking with a robot that’s being operated from half a continent away is a pretty cool way to convince kids that open source robotics engineer is the coolest job ever. Check out more pics after the break.

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Texas alpha telepresence robots

Willow Garage just built 25 telepresence bots. Let the open source festivities begin!

Fans of open source robotics need look no further than Willow Garage. Not satisfied with merely creating an amazing robot platform that plugs itself in to recharge (PR2), they are also one of the driving forces behind an open source Robot Operating System (ROS). Now, Willow Garage has unveiled another ambitious project: telepresence robots. They recently finished building 25 of their Texas Alphas (TAs) – robots that allow workers to telecommute and command a dynamic representative thousands of miles away. The TAs are going to help with human-robot interaction research at Willow Garage and some are being lent out to other companies to test their feasibility in a non-robotics workplace. Looks like Willow Garage just jumped head long into the telepresence business and that could mean amazing open source development for the field. Check out videos of the TA in action below.

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by Aaron Saenz on January 18th, 2010
willow garage PR2 beta robot

Who wants a robot? Raise your hand.

Open source robotics received a huge boost in momentum last Friday. Willow Garage, one of the driving forces behind the Robot Operating System, announced that it would be giving away ten of its new and extraordinary PR2 Beta Robots. The PR2 line achieved wide-spread notoriety in 2009 with its ability to plug itself into a wall outlet and recharge itself. Each PR2 Beta is a highly valued and expensive machine that represents a unique entry point to world-class robotics research. Willow Garage has an open call for proposals, so that any research group on the planet can apply to receive one of the PR2 Betas completely free of charge. That’s right, Willow Garage is giving these robots away for free. Applicants will have to release their research with the PR2 freely and under standard open source agreements. In this way, Willow Garage is accelerating the field of robotics, not just by making their PR2 Betas available, but by encouraging the shared development of robots and advocating the open source creed.

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by Aaron Saenz on November 19th, 2009

The Beatles and The Monkees. Scooby-Doo and Josie and The Pussycats. Transformers and Gobots. It seems like whenever someone creates something amazing, someone else has to copy it. But what happens when the copy is as good as the original? The humanoid robot or HUBO from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) may seem like a copy of ASIMO. It was made later, has the same astronaut look to its design, and performs many of the same cutesy tasks. It’s even the exact same height (130cm). Yet the latest version, HUBO-2, has the range of motion and the mobility to dance, shake hands, and even play with a sword. Is it a copy, or just an example of brilliant robotic engineers thinking alike? Watch the video after the break and judge for yourself.

HUBO (left) has many of the characteristics of ASIMO (right) but that's to be expected from two humanoid robots. Right?

KAIST's HUBO (left) has many of the characteristics of Honda's ASIMO (right) but that's to be expected from two humanoid robots. Right?

Humanoid robotics is sort of like general artificial intelligence. There have been some amazing strides in narrow application robotics (such as Adept Quattro), and narrow AI (artificial writers), but the race to create human-like intelligence and bodies is still a long ways off. ASIMO and HUBO are two of the few high profile and well funded private programs actually chasing the dream of robots that can move and interact with people as an equal. Their successes, then, are typically unique in the field. ASIMO has had break-throughs in the level of complex human tasks it can accomplish. HUBO put on Albert Einstein’s face and interacted with people with help from Hanson Robotics. With enough time, effort, and money, it seems like that one of these two projects will eventually create a robot that can fully mimic human actions and find a role in human society. Companion bots may seem like just another science fiction fantasy, but these humanoid robotics programs are taking steps in that direction.

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by Aaron Saenz on October 20th, 2009
Mmmmm...that electricity sure smells good.

Mmmmm...that electricity sure smells good.

The robots are starting to feed themselves. Marvin, the prototype from Intel Labs Seattle, can now plug itself into a wall outlet to recharge its battery. While not the first robot to plug itself in, Marvin does have the unique ability to sense the electric field surrounding the outlet. This electric field sense makes Marvin the first robot that doesn’t just feed itself, it also hunts for its own food. Check out the video from Seattle Times after the break.

Getting a robot to return to a stationary docking port for recharging is a fairly standard accomplishment. Roombas and Rovios perform the task as a matter of routine. Moving the docking station, however, can disrupt the ability of these robots to recharge. The PR2 from Willow Garage took the recharging quest to the next level by plugging itself in to electric outlets it could recognize on sight. Marvin, who shares much in common with PR2 (more on that below), uses electric field sensing to help it find completely new outlets. This progression in electrical outlet hunting is really a progression in the autonomy of robots. Developers are coding self-servicing behavior into their bots, allowing for the possibility that these devices will one day be able to fully maintain themselves.
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by Aaron Saenz on September 15th, 2009

A FlexPicker made out of Legos? Someone had too much time on their hands.

A FlexPicker made out of Legos? Someone had too much time on their hands.

Okay, I love Legos, I love robots, I even love robotic Legos, but I can’t decide if the tribute FlexPicker Lego-bot is awesome or just ridiculous. FlexPickers are lightning fast movers and sorters from ABB robotics that put most other industrial robots to shame. A user on Lego Mindstorms, with the handle ‘LegoShep’, recreated a FlexPicker using only Legos and an air compressor. Pretty amazing stuff. We’ve placed the video from our original Flexpicker story next to the Lego version below.

As a novelty the LegoFP (I’m coining the name now) is cool, but as a functioning robot it doesn’t even compare to the original. Where’s the lightning speed, the amazing agility, and the uncanny precision? The truth is that the LegoFP shouldn’t impress you with its abilities, it should impress you with its very existence. Does LegoShep just have too much time on his/her hands? Sure. But the real issue is that an amateur roboticist is straining beyond the limits of consumer products. We need to harness the dedication, and the abundant free time, of do-it-yourselfers like Shep to help build the robotic future.

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by Aaron Saenz on August 26th, 2009

E Pluribus Unum…robot? The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) saw a lot of amazing robots and computer programs. It also saw another round of discussions about the developing robotics operating system (ROS). While robotics experts the world over slave to make their creations compatible with humans, few are concentrating on how to make robots work well with each other. In fact, most research robots have zero capacity to receive programming from third parties or from a central database of commands. We live in a world where every robot is an island unto itself. The ongoing growth of ROS may change all that. Check out the compilation video of IJCAI from New Scientist after the break.

The WAM robot arm from Barrett Technology works well with humans, but where are the robots that play well with others?

The WAM robot arm from Barrett Technology works well with humans, but where are the robots that play well with others?

Right now, ROS exists mainly as packages of software code on sourceforge. From these humble beginnings, developers are hoping to create the prototypes of a widespread easy to use operating system. Teams at Standford University, MIT, and the Technical University of Munich, Germany are all making major contributions and helping lay the ground work for ROS development. Right now ROS has packages that address hardware abstraction, remedial device control, communication between programs, and code management. It’s a beginning that, come to think of it, isn’t really that humble anymore.

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