At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., engineers have long been trying to cram as much robot as possible into the absolute minimum amount of space, and a team of roboticists there recently showed us their latest creation: PUFFER, the Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot. It’s designed to pack down nearly flat for transport, and then re-expand on site to investigate all the places a bigger rover can’t quite reach.
The overall idea with PUFFER is that you’d pack a bunch of them along with the next Mars rover, and send them out whenever you want to go somewhere that it would be either risky or impossible for the larger rover to go. Maybe this is crawling along dunes of deep sand, taking a trip down the steep sides of a crater, or exploring little nooks and crannies where a larger rover simply can’t fit.
PUFFER’s small size and weight also open up some interesting possibilities when you think about sending more than one of them on a mission at once. Potentially, a lot more than one of them. Having access to a small swarm of PUFFERs means that you could set up robots to cooperate with each other, perhaps even to the extent of robots providing physical assistance to one another to do more comprehensive science.
One of the most exciting things about PUFFER is how it’s helping to bring some of the coolest robotics research we’ve seen over the last several years into the realm of practical applications. Most of the time, when we write about things like origami robots, the best that we can say is that in the abstract they might, at some point, be good for disaster relief or exploration or something like that. With PUFFER, JPL is taking the next step, saying, “Okay, how can we make these technologies actually do something useful in a real world environment, even if that real world is some world other than Earth?”
EPFL's Collapsable Delivery Drone Protects Your Package With an Origami Cage
By Jogi Jose
Of the many, many (many many many) challenges that are inherent to urban drone delivery, safety is one of the most important. Nobody has a reliable, cost-effective solution for this, although we’ve seen some unreliable ones (dangling packages on strings) and cumbersome ones (dedicated, protected landing pads), so we’ve been missing an elegant way of protecting end users from robots that fly with spinning blades of death.
EPFL in Switzerland has had a solution for this for years—drones surrounded by protective cages that allow them to bounce off of obstacles. As far as the drones are concerned, humans are obstacles as well, so a protective cage does pretty well at protecting them from us (and vice versa). The annoying thing about these cages has always been that they’re all kinds of bulky, especially if they’re protecting a quadrotor beefy enough to be useful.
At IROS in Vancouver, researchers from Dario Floreano’s lab at EPFL will present a clever origami protective cage that can quickly expand to 92 percent of its original size to safely(ish) deliver 0.5 kilogram of whatever you want, locked up inside.
The specific folding pattern used here (similar to a Chinese lantern) was designed to result in a rigid structure—many origami enclosures are squeezable, but this one isn’t. The pattern also has vertices that are modular, allowing the density of the cage to be adjusted. You might think that the system overall would work better with the quadrotor on the inside top of the cage instead of the inside bottom, which would allow the entire cage to act as an impact absorber for hard landings and make it safer to grab, but simulations showed that having the package beneath the rotors would have a significant impact on efficiency.
In its current form, the quadrotor (which is sorely lacking a catchy name like “Cagey McDroneface”) weighs 1 kg. The carbon fiber cage is 65 x 65 x 43 centimeters when deployed, and folds down to a size of 31 x 38 x 12 cm when stowed. To attach the package to the cage, a high-tech system comprising either “a round shape lightweight net and ropes” or a glorified plastic box is used. While the drone is technically autonomous in that it has an autopilot on board, without any sense-and-avoid system, it’s limited to navigating between GPS waypoints.
The abstract on this paper says that the cage “ensures the safety of people,” but especially since this is being presented as a delivery drone, what they really should be saying is something more like “enhances the safety of trained users.” With the drone hovering above me, my first instinct (and I think this is a common one) would be to grasp it by sticking my fingers through the cage, rather than by holding my hands flat against the cage. You can see the researchers doing the former in the video, and it puts their fingers very close to the propellers. This version of the drone will probably not sever anything, but I bet it’s very painful, and this particular design seems not ideal for generalized public deliveries.
Looking at this thing, it seems like the cage should mess with the aerodynamics to the point where there’d be a serious impact on efficiency. As it turns out, any drone carrying a package takes a big efficiency hit, and that hit essentially overwhelms the impact that the cage has on the quadrotor. This design can also be scaled up for larger payloads (it scales linearly, cage and all), and the researchers estimate that their “proposed design could scale up to fly 2 kg cargo over 15 km, which would cover 86 percent of the deliveries made by Amazon.”
Besides just scaling the drone up, the EPFL researchers also plan to investigate other cage styles to be able to accommodate packages of different shapes and sizes (like documents). They also want to add cameras on the outside of the cage for precision landings, as well as an emergency parachute system just in case things goes wrong, which (since this is a robot) at some point it almost certainly will.
In new research published today in Nature Communications, a group of European researchers have come out with a new kind of modular robot.
Many robots can complete a task by themselves, but don't work well as a team. On the other hand, scientists are now building machines that use distributed intelligence like that of a bee hive to work together, but these bots don't work well as independent components.
The researchers at Université Libre de Bruxelles wanted to build a versatile robot that could act independently but, when it encounters other like robots, surrender itself to a leader-bot, which they've called the "brain" unit. It's a sort of air traffic controller for the other robots that can arrange them as needed.
They create an artificial nervous system where each bot acts as a different neuron. But if the brain unit is damaged, the system has been designed to compensate. Three previous "neuron" units are deputized to act like one part of the brain unit, detaching from the dead node before reforming to carry on the work. The researchers hope to forge a world that looks past purpose-built bots and towards one where a single robot platform could work for every task ... as long as you can tell the individual components how to fall in place right.
"Our vision is that, in the future, robots will no longer be designed and built for a particular task," they write. "Instead, we will design composable robotic units that give robots the flexibility to autonomously adapt their capabilities, shape and size to changing task requirements."
Robots are already taking lots of human jobs. Now it looks like breakdancers have to watch their backs next.
On August 18, a group of dancing Dobi robots broke the Guinness World Record for most robots dancing simultaneously, and the result is either an adorable display of what toys can do with new technology or a dystopian preview of our robot overlords entertaining the masses. Depends on how your day is going.
The new record was set by WL Intelligent Technology Co, LTD in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Their Dobi robots can talk, respond to voice commands, do pushups, and obviously bust a move. A total of 1,069 robots completed the dance routine, all programmed through one control system. But a few fell down—the total was originally supposed to be even higher.
The dance moves are pretty cute, since the robots are small enough to be toy-sized, but their synchronized routine is almost militaristic, and the perfect synchronization makes this dance routine downright creepy. (If you want to build your own dancing robot army, the Dobi retails for $329.)
GIF
YouTube
They broke the record previously set by fellow Chinese company Ever Win Company & Ltd, which had 1,007 robots dancing at once. Even though it's no longer the record, the video is still an impressive one, especially since the robots have arguably better dance moves. But style doesn't beat substance, so their record is gone.
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Scientists from the Italian Institute of Technology are developing 'smart materials' that could lead to robots that will decompose like a human body once they've reached the end of their life-span.
STORY: Robots are getting ever more life-like, but underneath their synthetic skin it's a different story. Their insides are still made mostly from metal and plastic - materials that are hard to dispose of. But researchers in Italy are developing 'smart materials' that could allow robots to be built from substances that will biodegrade when they've reached the end of their life-span.
By merging separate distinct materials at the nano level the scientists are creating new and novel materials that preserve the properties of the individual components, but exhibit characteristics that would not be possible individually.
"We are infusing any material with nano technology. So what we are doing apart from making these new composite materials - smart materials - we're also using them to change the properties of other materials, other existing materials like paper or cotton or different foams; from synthetic foams like polyurethane or forms of cotton. So like this, in all these existing materials we are giving new properties that these materials don't have so we can open up their application range," explained Athanassia Athanassiou, who leads the Smart Materials Group at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa.
The researchers say their 'smart materials' could eventually replace conventional plastic which is made from petroleum, a fossil fuel, and contributes to climate change. Bioplastics are made from plant material, but are more energy-intensive to produce. Athanassiou's team have developed a way to create bioplastic from food waste, and so hope to mitigate the additional energy required by using resources that would normally go to waste.
In particular, robotics could be an important application for their research, according to Athanassiou.
"These biodegradable materials, natural materials, they are very flexible so they can be used for robotic skins. But they can be also very hard so they can be used for internal parts of a robot. And also, in this flexible skin - robotic skin let's say - we can incorporate sensors so they have this tactile sensing that the robots need, but with biodegradable materials," Athanassiou told Reuters.
Nikos Tsagarakis, lead researcher on a humanoid robot project at the IIT, said that roboticists will have to move on from metal in order to build the next generation of robot.
"The main issue is it's actually difficult to see how you can achieve the properties that you want to have; say matching more the properties of the human body. So going to alternative materials would be this advantage - it will help us to make lighter robots, more efficient and, finally, also recyclable," said Tsagarakis, who is developing the Walk-Man humanoid robot to operate human tools and interact with its environment in the same way a person would.
Robots made from biodegradable material would certainly make them more human-like, and perhaps more easily accepted in the real-world. And if robots are to ever be truly ubiquitous, they also need to be easily disposed of once they reach the end of their useful life-span.
While Athanassiou believes biodegradable materials are imminent for the skin-like outer layer, she believes eventually the entire robot body could decompose just as if it was flesh and blood.
In each round of the competition, the robots fight in a timed battle. The winner is decided by either a ‘knockout’ or, if there is no clear winner once the time runs out, a panel of three expert judges will agree on a ‘judge’s decision’.
There are three ways to win by a knockout:-
Flipping an opponent out of the arena into the surrounding trench.
Manoeuvring your opponent into the ‘pit’ hazard inside the arena.
Immobilising your opponent for 10 seconds through extensive damage or your opponent breaks down and is therefore not able to continue.
In the event that a battle goes to a judges’ decision, the judges award a win based on the following three criteria:
Damage – causing clear damage to an opponent both visually and internally.
Aggression – consistently taking the battle to its opponents.
Control – demonstrating good driving skills and weapon accuracy throughout the battle.
Each category is scored from one to five and the scores are weighted to reflect their importance as follows: Aggression x3, Damage x2, and Control x1.
This results in an overall score and the robot with the highest overall score wins the battle.
Episodes 1-5: Qualifiers
Eight teams and their robots start the show and they face three battle rounds per show:-
Round 1 – Group Battles
The eight competing robots are split into two groups of four. Each group fight each other at the same time in a three-minute battle. The two winners from each group progress to the next round and the two losers from each group are eliminated from the competition.
Round 2 – Mini League ‘Head to Heads’
The four winning robots from the group battles in Round One all enter the mini league, called The Head to Heads.
Each robot fights all of the other robots once in that league, in a series of three minute-long head to head battles. To ensure fairness, the presenters draw names at random to decide which robot fights first.
A win by knockout scores three points, but if the time runs out and there is no winner it goes to the judges to decide the winner – and that robot scores two points.
The two robots in first and second place in the mini-league go through to the final.
Round Three – Final
The two robots in first and second place (based on total points scored) go head to head in a three minute final battle. The winner of the final goes through to the Grand Final at the end of the series (episode 6).
Episode 6: Grand Final
Six teams and their robots start the show. They comprise the five winners from episodes 1-5 and one runner-up selected by the judges based on the on their merits from their previous episode.
The Grand Finalists face up to three rounds as per episodes 1-5:-
Round 1 – Group Battles
Round 2 – Mini League ‘Head to Heads’
Round 3 – The Final
The winner of round three and the final battle is crowned Robot Wars Champion 2016.
As we say goodbye to the 200x’s and welcome the 201x’s it’s good to pause a bit and think about the world as it was ten years ago. There was no Wikipedia, no YouTube, internet access was still dialup for a huge portion of the population, and we didn’t have a whole heap of really cool robots. To highlight some of the great inventions of the past ten years, we’ve selected 10 of the best robots fom the past 10 years.
With any sort of list like this, things are pretty arbitrary, but we tried to pick robots that have made an impact in our culture or have impacted the hobby or science of robots in a major way. Below you’ll find 10 amazing robots from the military, toy industry, consumer industry, and science community that have had a lasting impact on robotics.
Take a look and tell us what you think. If you had to nominate 10 robots of the decade, who would they be? Keep reading for our picks for robots of the decade.
KeepOn (2007 – present)
KeepOn took the online world by storm in March of 2007 when Marek Michalowski, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, uploaded a film of KeepOn dancing to Spoon’s, “I Turn My Camera On”. The catchy beat plus KeepOn’s utter adorableness prompted over 2 million people to watch the video. KeepOn then went on to star in a WIRED sponsored music video featuring Spoon’s, “Don’t You Evah”. This video garnered another million plus views. KeepOn is hard to describe, other than “incredibly cute”, and it’s still stunning how lifelike and emotive two squishy stacked balls with googly-eyes can be.
KeepOn makes the “Top Robots of the past 10 Years” list simply because of his amazing ability to charm his way into mainstream culture.
PackBot (2001 – present)
iRobot’s PackBot saw its first real action in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, as it searched through the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. The US Military also used them shortly thereafter in Afghanistan to search caves and buildings for insurgents, and to investigate anti-personnel mines. The military quickly realized the usefulness of such a tool and the number of PackBots in use has grown to over 2,000 (iRobot’s site says 2,500 currently in use).
Due to the huge number of road-side bomb attacks in Iraq, iRobot developed an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) package for the PackBot and quickly became a strong competitor in the EOD arena, competing against the much larger and older TALON robots by Foster-Miller. EOD soldiers tended to prefer the PackBot to the TALON due to its more intuitive and responsive controls.
At the DEMO event in 2006 an amazing robot named Pleo was unveiled by Caleb Chung, the creator of the Furby (actually, maybe Furby should be on this list too!). Chung promised a successor to the unbelievably popular Furby, which sold 27 million units in one 12 month period. Pleo was supposed to supersede Furby’s ability to learn and interact with its users while adding the ability to move around by walking.
Pleo was originally announced to cost $200 and be released around Christmas 2006. Both numbers quickly slipped and Pleo was finally released in December of 2007 for a cost of over $300! Amidst all the hype around Pleo, sales were sluggish and Pleo mainly appealed to the techno-savvy crowd. Promises of a Pleo software development kit were delayed, and while Pleo owners were overwhelmingly positive about Pleo, Ugobe (Pleo’s parent company) was never able to convince the average consumer they needed one. In fact, Ugobe really didn’t know how to market Pleo at all. By late 2008 the global economy effectively shut down the company and the IP was auctioned off in April of 2009. Amazingly enough, though, the IP to Pleo was purchased by Jetta Company Limited who announced that they would continue to sell and develop Pleo.
Pleo’s amazing firebird-like story and his continued popularity with owners, children, the elderly, and robot builders put him on this list of top robots from the past 10 years. No one has successfuly produced a consumer product that is so sophisticated, intricate and accessible to the average person. Pleo’s future looks bright as long as Jetta can nail down a target market and successfully advertise Pleo. Educational and hobbiest development looks promising too.
BigDog (2005 – present)
Boston Dynamics calls BigDog, “the most advanced rough-terrain robot on earth.” If you asked someone on the street about BigDog, they’d probably say, “oh yeah! That really creepy looking walking robots. That’s awesome!” While Boston Dynamics claim may certainly be true, the incredible reaction from the general public is the main reason you’re seeing this robot on this list.
Released in 2005, BigDog was designed using funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and was created to serve as a “pack mule” for a solider in the battle field. The robot is about the size of a large dog and can carry a load of up to 340 pounds (150 kg) at 4 miles/hr while climbing over rough terrain and steep inclines. The success of the robot, and most of the creepy charm, comes from its ability mimic the walking motion of real animals. Its design absorbs shock, and recycles energy from one step to the next. It also has an onboard LIDAR and stereo vision system for navigation.
Video of an updated version of BigDog was released in 2008 and has been watched by nearly 10 million people. BigDog’s ability to recover from a kick, and walking on icy surfaces is simply amazing.
BigDog makes this list of robots of the decade because its amazing engineering impresses not only robot lovers, but the general public as well. It even inspired a very funny prody video, with nearly 3 million views.
RoboSapien (2003 – present)
RoboSapien was a unique robotic toy released in 2003. Produced by an obscure Hong Kong based toy manufacturer named WowWee, the $100 walking, talking, robot was a smash hit. For those in the BEAM Robotics community, perhaps the release wasn’t such a surprise, as Mark Tilden, the father of the BEAM field, had quit his job at Los Alamos National Laboratory and moved to Hong Kong to work on robot toys. The RoboSapien quickly won a whole slew of awards and sold close to 2 million units. WowWee released a RoboSapien V2 toy in 2005, and many more toys in the “Robo” lineup.
RoboSapien makes the list of important robots over the past ten years because of its numerous awards, large sales volume and immediate recognition by the average member of the public. WowWee proved that advanced and innovative robots could also be cool and a viable consumer product.
ASIMO and Honda P-Series (2000 – present)
Asimo is the 11th in a line of walking robots developed by Honda, called the P-Series. Unveiled in 2000, Asimo could walk and run like a human, which was an amazing feat. ASIMO had a significant upgrade in 2005, that allowed him to run twice as fast (6 km/hr or 4.3mph), interact with humans, and perform basic tasks like holding a platter and serving food. The current ASIMO models number about 100 worldwide, stand 4.2 feet tall, and weight about 120 lbs.
ASIMO, with his space-suit looking appearance, is cheerful and endearing. He has paved the way for many subsequent walking, human-like robots, but still holds his own as an advanced and powerful robot. ASIMO is a great boon to Honda’s global branding, and helps the company’s appearance of innovation and technology. ASIMO has also appeared in commercials for Honda, like this one, has his own website, and makes many celebrity appearances. A YouTube video showing ASIMO’s 2005 upgrade has had over 2.5 millions views.
ASIMO makes this list because of his winsome appearance, world-wide recognition, and advanced technology.
Aibo (1999 – 2006)
2006 was the year that robot dogs died, when Sony shut down its popular and sophisticated robotics divsion. Started in 1999, Sony produced the very popular Aibo robot dog, which quickly became a favorite robot of dog lovers and high-rolling robot builders alike. Sony developed the robots through three generations and garnered a large following of devoted developers.
Aibo makes the list of robots of the decade because of its continued popularity, numerous uses in research, and tearful story of corporate robo-execution.
The drone, which was developed by the secretive General Atomics company, has flown combat missions in several foreign countries, and is extensively used by the US military in the war in Afghanistan. The Predator’s low airspeed makes it nearly invisible to ground troops, and advanced camera’s and optics allow the ground-based operator to obtain high-resolution images of the ground below.
Most of the Predators are controlled via ground-based troops stationed in Southern California, and the drones are controlled via military satellite links. The video downlink feeds can be access by troops in the field, or by insurgents themselves, as the video feeds aren’t encrypted.
The Predators make this list because they have been instrumental in saving hundreds of soldier’s lives over the course of the past 10 years. It can only be left to the imagination how difficult the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been without powerful air-based surveillance by these robots.
LEGO Mindstorms (1998 – present)
If you were a robot builder or a LEGO fan in 1998, the biggest news of the year was the release of LEGO’s LEGO Mindstorms RIS product. It was revolutionary for a strictly toy company to unveil an advanced robotics platform that appealed to hobbyists, educators, and children alike. The first set, the RIS 1.0 sold well and LEGO released a RIS 2.0 kit shortly thereafter. The RIS set was wildly successful (LEGO’s best selling product) and spawned a huge variety of projects, books, and various compilers. The RIS also had its own competition, the FIRST Lego League competition.
For eight years the set remained substantially the same, while the rest of the world made huge progress in computing power and robotics technology. Then, in early 2006, LEGO announced the creation of a brand new and completely re-imaged Mindstorms kit called “LEGO Mindstorms NXT”. The new kit featured a powerful processor, bluetooth connectivity, a LABView-based programming environment, and several new sensors. The motors in the kit were also significantly upgraded to allow for speed control or position control – a major difficulty in designing robots for the RIS. The kit was released to the public in July of 2006 and was praised as a great addition to the Mindstorms lineup. Amazingly enough, LEGO had designed the new set in a mere eleven months, with the close help from a team of its biggest Mindstorms fans. Mindstorms NXT 2.0 was released in the summer of 2009 and continues to sell well.
LEGO Mindstorms NXT (and RIS) make this list because it has introduced millions of children to the world of robotics. While RIS was relased over 12 years ago, the NXT release in 2006 once again kicked off a flurry of books and innovative creations that excite and inspire. I firmly believe that the world will be a better place 20 or 30 years from now because so many were inspired by the Mindstorms kits and went on to do great things.
Roomba (2002 – present)
It’s awful hard to remember back to 2001 when the dream of floor cleaning robots was still just that – a dream of housewives and robo-fanboys everywhere. iRobot took the household cleaning market by storm when it released its first commercial floor cleaning robot, called the Roomba, in 2002. By 2004 the Roomba had sold 1 million units, when a second generation model was released, the Roomba Discovery series. iRobot has since gone on to release a 3rd generation model in 2007, and a floor scrubbing robot, Scooba. To date 2.5 million Roombas have been sold.
The Roomba makes the list because my grandmother has one. Any robot that can be operated and loved by a technophobe is a rare find and worth celebrating. SNL also did a very funny parody of Roomba, called the “Woomba”.
Onward To The Next 10 Years …
So, there you have it. The 10 most important robots of the past ten years. What do you think? Are there any robots I left off or any robots you think shouldn’t be on this list? It’s been a pretty busy 10 years for robotic innovation, so I don’t doubt there’s plenty more than I could have listed. Here’s to ten great years of robot goodness and high hopes for ten more!
