ROBOT RESCUE

Yokohama Fire Department gets new rescue robot




The Yokohama fire department in Japan has enlisted a rescue robot to help recover victims from earthquake and other disaster zones. The robot is built around a large metal compartment equipped with two sets of tracks on either side.

It is unique in that it has an extendable tray that allows it to pull victims into its belly, where it can monitor vital signs throughout the rescue operation. The robot will be controlled by a remote operator and use infrared cameras to allow operations in conditions with poor visibility.


Original Post By ; Robot Forum

ROBOT Like Albert Einstein

A robot replica of Albert Einstein may not possess the great man's genius, but its emotional intelligence is second to none.



Scientists hope it will defy the perception that human-like robots are "creepy" and could be the first step to making robots emotionally sensitive, preventing a "Matrix"-style war between man and machine.

Einstein, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist noted for his theory of relativity, was chosen for the model because he appears "lovable and emotionally accessible", as well as being a universally esteemed scientist.

They say the robot, designed by Texas-based Hanson Robotics, can interact "naturally" with humans and could be used to teach autistic children how to perceive emotion.

David Hanson, the robot's designer, told UC San Diego News: "Some scientists believe strongly that very human-like robots are so inherently creepy that people can never get over it and interact with them normally.

"But these are some of the questions we're trying to address with the Einstein robot. Does software engage people more when you have a robot that's more aware of you?

"We're trying to get past the novelty of the technology to a certain extent so that people can socially engage with the robots and get lost in that social engagement.

"But it's very important that we develop empathetic machines, machines that have compassion, machines that understand what you're feeling.

"If these robots do become as intelligent as human beings, we want this infrastructure of compassion and empathy to be in place so the machines are prepared to use their intellectual powers for the good of civilisation. In a way, we're planting the seeds for the survival of humanity."

The robot uses facial recognition software that understands hundreds of human expressions such as sadness, anger, fear, happiness and confusion, as well as age and gender.

The flesh-like material that makes up the robot's face, Frubber, was designed and patented by Dr Hanson and is so detailed it even includes realistic skin pores.

Scientists at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at UC San Diego wrote the facial recognition software that enables the head-and-shoulders model to interact with people.

Javier Movellan, who designed the software, said: "Developing a robot like this one teaches us how sensitive we are to biological movement and facial expressions, and when we get it right, it's really astonishing.

"Although we're thinking of Einstein as a tool for science right now, in the future I could see it being used in museums or as a way to teach people from other cultures how to interact with one another.

"We're also exploring the use of the robot for children with autism. It could be used as a way to teach them facial expression recognition."

For now, the cost of robots – 75,000 US dollars (£52,000) for one as sophisticated as Einstein – prohibit them being so widely used, but Mr Hanson hopes mass production could eventually drive the cost down to 200 dollars.

Dr Movellan added that the production of a robot with a "complete mind" could be just 10 years away.

Japanese Robot Humanoid - New Robot TEACHER can be Angry

School pupils are to be taught by the world's first robot teacher in one of the most radical uses so far of android technology.



The device, created by scientists after 15 years of research, is being trialled at a primary school in Tokyo.

Named Saya, she can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks and make facial expressions – including anger – thanks to 18 motors hidden behind her latex face.

The humanoid was originally developed to replace a variety of workers, including secretaries, in a bid to allow firms to cut costs while still retaining some kind of human interaction.

Her creator, science professor Hiroshi Kobayashi at the University of Tokyo, had been working on a robot for 15 years. She is the latest example of robots spreading to every aspect of life in Japan. They already guide traffic, attempt to lure university graduates to sign up to courses and one is even being developed to provide company to Alzheimer's sufferers.

The Japanese government has said that by 2015 it wants a robot in every home and is pouring $35 million (£23 million) into robotic intelligence to make it happen.

The push is because of Japan's ageing population – in seven years one in four Japanese will be over 65 – which means the workforce is declining, pushing up wage costs for businesses and making recruitment difficult.


Source : www.telegraph.co.uk

Japanese Robot Humanoid (Videos)

In other developments, Japanese scientists and engineers at Waseda University in Tokyo unveiled their latest humanoid robot named Twenty-One. This new and improved humanoid robot is equipped with manual dexterity capable of picking up a drinking straw, placing it into a tumbler and handing off the drink to it's human counter-part. Twenty-One looks like a robotic version of Steven Spielberg's kind-eyed character ET. Japan is truly taking one giant step forward for mankind.

The collaborative efforts of the University of Tokyo, Toyota, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sega and Olympus under the auspices of IRT, (Robot Technology Research Technology Initiative) have formed a Home Assistant Robot Project. The robot is 61-inches in height by 25.6-inches wide with a depth of 31.31-inches. The new home assistant has not been officially named, but currently goes by the name AR, the initials of "Assistant Robot."

AR is equipped with a wide-angle stereo camera, a telephoto stereo camera and ultra-sensitive sensors. AR operates on a two-wheel drive base with balancing wheels. The battery life is estimated to run 30-minutes to 1-hour. Seeing is believing, but in short AR can sweep the floor, pick up a tray of dirty dishes, move them to the sink, load up the dishwasher, move chairs, put dirty clothes in the washer and more.



The humanoid robot Twenty-One developed by Waseda University in Tokyo is equipped with voice recognition and three soft cushioned fingers with an opposable thumb. Twenty-One is capable of picking up a drinking straw, putting it in a tumbler and serving the drink. The versatility of Twenty-One to run the gamut from fine motor skills to dead-weight support for disabled patients gentle movement from bed to wheel chair via voice recognition frees up family members and para-professional assistants.

Twenty-One has a remarkable resemblance to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, except it measures nearly 5-feet in height and has multiple built-in sensors, visual and voice recognition. Again, seeing is believing, catch Twenty-One the video below.



In other news, Japan's Digital Content Expo in late October 2008 allowed robot developers to show off robots performing a range of gymnastic and calisthenic feats including balancing on one foot, playing a game of limbo, moving from floor position to upright and more. A poorly translated version of the event is available by clicking on the original animated Japanese version at here . English speaking readers may simply log-on to Yahoo Babelfish or use Google translator to view the entire page.

The human assistant robot is in the fine-tuning stage and holds great promise for the pending influx of baby-boomers in need of a little help while in a care facility or at home.

ER 2.0 : Robots surgery by Jessica Griggs

IF a soldier is severely wounded, they have a markedly better chance of survival if they are seen by a doctor within the hour. But what if the closest field hospital is more than an hour away, or the nearby unit doesn't have the necessary medical expertise?

Help could come in the form of a mobile operating theatre, according to a consortium led by non-profit lab SRI International, based in Menlo Park, California. The device, called Trauma Pod, is still in the early stages, but its developers claim it will ultimately be able to retrieve someone from the battlefield, diagnose them, and perform lifesaving procedures while transferring them to hospital.

Inside the prototype theatre are a team of robots, led by a robotic surgeon remotely controlled by an actual surgeon. The lead robot has three arms under the surgeon's control: one holds an endoscope to allow the surgeon to see inside the patient while the other two grip the surgical tools.

Ultimately, the robot surgeon will be able to perform "temporary fix" procedures to buy the patient a few more hours until they reach a hospital, says lead developer Pablo Garcia at SRI International. "The system will focus on damage control surgery, the minimum necessary to stabilise someone," he says. "It could provide airway control, relieve immediate life-threatening injuries such as a collapsed lung, or stop bleeding temporarily."

The robot will focus on damage control, to buy someone a few more hours until they reach a hospital

Garcia says the robot could also be instructed to independently perform some relatively simple tasks, such as placing stitches or tying knots, to allow the surgeon to concentrate on more complex procedures.

The surgical robot is assisted by 12 other robotic systems, so far also at the prototype stage. The bed itself, developed by Integrated Medical Systems in Signal Hill, California, monitors the patient's vital signs, can administer fluids and oxygen, and will eventually act as an anaesthesiologist, using a robotic arm to place an IV line to deliver drugs. The "scrub nurse", a voice-activated robot arm, passes fresh tools and supplies to the "surgeon" and disposes of used equipment, while the role of circulating nurse is performed by a tool-dispensing robot. Each machine communicates with the others and is closely monitored by software programmed with the correct series of steps for a range of emergency procedures, to ensure everything happens in the right order and prevent collisions. The human surgeon can control each robot and speak to the patient to provide reassurance.

The pod is also equipped with a three-dimensional X-ray scanner, and later versions should include an ultrasound device too.

The system can't operate completely independently of people on the ground, Garcia admits. Fellow soldiers may still be needed to pick up a severely injured or traumatised comrade and place them on the bed, for example.

The Trauma Pod is being developed with $12 million in funding from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It recently completed the first phase of a feasibility trial, in which the robots inserted a plastic tube, or shunt, into a damaged blood vessel in a mannequin's leg and performed an operation to close a perforated bowel - two common injuries following a bullet wound (The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, DOI: 10.1002/rcs.238).

For the trials, the team used the da Vinci surgical robot, which has been performing keyhole surgical procedures in hospitals since its introduction in 2001. Garcia says this robot will eventually be replaced by one specifically designed for damage-control surgery, which the team hopes to develop next.

Other significant challenges remain, including improving the pod's life support systems and demonstrating its ability to stabilise a patient's airway without being controlled by a human surgeon. Eventually the team hopes to shrink Trauma Pod and all its robots to a bunk-bed sized object suitable for carrying on the back of a vehicle, and encase it in a shell able to withstand the rigours of the battlefield.

If development continues as planned, Garcia believes Trauma Pod could be sent to battle zones or other dangerous areas, such as those struck by natural disasters, within 10 years. Also some of the individual systems, such as the life support modules, could find their way into hospital operating theatres much sooner, he says.

Equipping the military with a fleet of robotic battle surgeons will not come cheap, however. The da Vinci robot costs about $1.5 million, plus $150,000 a year in maintenance. This price should come down, Garcia says. "Robotics is really exploding in all different fields. There is no reason why a lot of the technologies won't get cheaper over the next few years."

Ara Darzi of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London says the project has the right vision, but will be challenging. "It will be interesting to see how the system fares in a more hostile environment than the sterile test pod the initial trials were conducted in," he says.

But Brendan Visser, a surgeon at Stanford University in California who helped develop the Trauma Pod, is impressed with how far the project has come. "Three separate robots dance over the top of the patient with their powerful arms moving very quickly, yet they don't crash and they're able to deliver very small items from one arm to another," he says. "It's like those drunk-driving tests where they make you close your eyes and touch your nose, but at very high speed with arms that would break your nose if they smashed into it."

Source : http://www.newscientist.com

Chicago Auto Show 2009

Chevrolet Sting - Ray Concept

Name: Chevrolet Sting-Ray Concept
Type of Apocalypse: Robot Apocalypse
Why: The Chevrolet Stingray concept debuted here at the Chicago Auto Show, and aside from being a seriously badass concept car its Transformers alter-ego Sideswipe would be great in something like a robot apocalypse. Of course such a threat could come internally or extra-terrestrially so it pays to be safe with a giant transforming robot car friendly to your cause. Even if it's just a regular old end-of-days, you've at least got a sweet ride in which to drive off into the nuclear sunrise.


Source by : http://jalopnik.com

A Redneck Robot ? - Chevy Spark 2011

A new Activision website for the Transformers movie sequel video game features shots of robot modes for the Chevy Spark (Beat) and Trax. Frankly, they both look like hicks. A larger, higher-quality shot below.

The Transformers forum fan-boys at TFW2005 found a new Activision website for the inspired-by-Transformers-2 video game. The front page of the new game site features a shot of the robot modes for the Chevy Spark and Trax. Frankly, they both look like hicks. Ghetto hicks, but yes, hicks. Seriously, look at the sleepy eye and bored, folded-over arms. I half expect the Chevy Spark (also known as Skids in the movie) to be sitting back in a rocking chair on a porch, hat on head, and a piece of straw in its mouth. Maybe a banjo sitting next to him. What say you?

Source by : http://jalopnik.com