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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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CALENDAR
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| 2002.01.24-30 |
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Robot Wars, London, UK
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| 2002.02.01-03 |
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Yantriki, Bombay, India
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| 2002.02.09 |
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6th Annual Atlanta Robot Rally, Atlanta, GA
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| 2002.02 |
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BotBash, Phoenix, AZ
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| 2002.03.01-03 |
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9th Annual Canada First Robotic Games, Toronto, Canada
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| 2002.03.08-09 |
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AMD Jerry Sanders Creative Design Contest, Urbana, IL
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| 2002.03.10-14 |
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APEC Micromouse Contest, Dallas, TX
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| 2002.03.13 |
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RoboFlag, Ottawa, Canada
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| 2002.03.17-21 |
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5th Bi-Annual ASCE Lunar Robotic Construction Contest, Albuquerque, NM
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| 2002.03.23 |
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Indonesian Robot Contest, Surabaya, Indonesia
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| 2002.03.23-24 |
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Hobby Show Robot Conflict, Philadelphia, PA
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| 2002.03.31 |
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Penn State Abington Fire-Fighting Robot Contest, Abington, PA
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| 2002.03 |
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BattleBots, San Francisco, CA
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| 2002.03 |
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DPRG Fire-Fighting Robot Contest, Dallas, TX
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| 2002.04.6-7 |
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7th Annual Manitoba Robot Games, Manitoba, Canada
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| 2002.04.10 |
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15th Annual Tech Museum of Innovation's Tech Challenge, San Jose, CA
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| 2002.04.11-13 |
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6th Annual Micro Air Vehicle Competition, Gainesville, FL
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| 2002.04.19 |
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8th Annual Carnegie Mellon Mobot Races, Pittsburgh, PA
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| 2002.04.19-21 |
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RoboRodentia, San Luis Obispo, CA
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| 2002.04.20 |
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8th Annual UC Davis Picnic Day MicroMouse contest, Davis, CA
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| 2002.04.21 |
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Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest, Hartford, CT
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| 2002.04.24 |
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DTU RoboCup, Copenhagen, Denmark
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| 2002.04.25-27 |
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FIRST Robotics Competition National Championship, Orlando, FL
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| 2002.04.25-26 |
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Alcabot, Madrid, Spain
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| 2002.04.25-27 |
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15th Annual SAE Walking Machine Challenge, Golden, CO
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| 2002.04.26 |
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SPURT (School Projects Using Robot Techniques), Rostock-Warnemunde, Germany
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| 2002.04 |
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DPRG RoboRama, Dallas, TX
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| 2002.04 |
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12th Annual Singapore Inter-School Micromouse Competition, Singapore
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| 2002.04 |
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10th Annual Northwest Robot Sumo Tournament, Lynnwood, WA
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| 2002.04 |
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National Festival of Robotics, Guimaraes, Portugal
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| 2002.04 |
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Western Sumo and Tractor Pull Competition, Brandon, Canada
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| 2002.04 |
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LEGO MY EGG-O Robotic Egg Hunt, Cleveland, OH
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ABOUT NETSURFER
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COOL TOYS
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IN THE NEWS
FIRST 2002
Another season of FIRST Robotics Competition has kicked off for
over 600 teams in U.S., Canada, and Brazil.
The competition for high schools students entails
building an original robot from a standard parts kit in 6 weeks.
This year's challenge is a race of gathering balls into scoring
zones in two minutes. Winning is defined by design excellence, team spirit,
and professionalism - scoring points is secondary.
To complete this dare-to-be-different story,
FIRST was founded in 1992 by Dean Kamen of recent Ginger/Segway fame.
All New Battles
Starting the year with a bang, a new season of Battlebots duels
opened on January 8. While the Robotica competition requires participants
to challenge obstacle courses as well as each other, Battlebots is
all mecanismo-a-mecanismo combat.
To keep up, you will have to stay tuned to Comedy
Central. Unlike Robotica, the Battlebots site offers scant information
on the current competition, participants and progress, and even archives are
slow in appearing. However, shop till you drop with Battlebot toys, apparel,
calendars and posters, and videos from the 1999 series.
The Money May Follow
The adage for many is "follow the money". September 11
brought robotics back into the technology limelight: with the Internet,
portals, e-commerce, and such having lost a lot of glitz in the last 18 months,
is it time for a new tech darling? The December issue of Red Herring,
a magazine committed to "first looks" of tech companies and trends, revisits
the robotics industry. Noting that "Robotics doesn't have a strong history
of returning investors' money", it nevertheless strikes an optimistic note
that, with more practical applications daily, investor attitudes might eventually
shift. It's Red Herring #108 - available in hardcopy now, and on the web site
in due course.
NEW YEAR SOLUTIONS
A New Vacuum Sweeps Clean
Ask anyone about home robots and the most common request is a vacuum
cleaner - after all, we solved the clothes- and dish-washing problems quite a
while ago. Well, real help may be on its way this year. Dyson, a British
manufacturer of high tech vacuum cleaners and clotheswashers, is currently
home-testing its DC06 robotic vacuum cleaner. Based on 3 on-board computers,
50 sensory devices, and 60,000 hours of research, DC06 comes from the folks that
gave us the bagless "cyclonic" vacuum cleaners.
And it already has a lower-end competitor under US$1,000
from Australia's FloorBotics.
An end to pushing the vacuum cleaner around may be in sight
- just remember to teach
Aibo not to chase and chew the vacuu-bot.
A Beautiful Lawn
The other popular home robot request is the lawnmower.
In this case, the wish is reality even if Santa didn't put one in your stocking
at Christmas. Made eco-friendly with an electric motor and mulching blades,
the RL500 Robomower from Friendly Robotics can handle tall grass and slopes, navigate edges, and go around swimming pools without falling in.
Putt-putting along gently at the rate of a quarter acre a (working) day, it's
best for small yards. It can operate in the dark at night,
but you'll need extra batteries for round-the-clock shifts.
And avoid the rain: it's still a computer on wheels.
The Snowthrower
In the recessionary climate, many homeowners are jettisoning snowplowing contracts
in favor of the good old do-it-yourself spirit. Unfortunately, this comes
with a rise in emergency room visits - back injuries (snow can
be heavy), breaks and bruises from slipping and falling, and other nastinesses.
Enter Niveus, a remote-controlled snowthrower designed by students at MIT using
off-the-shelf parts.
Controlled by joystick and a portable monitor, Niveus combines a game of
driveway Flight Simulator in the warm and dry comfort of your house with the
dreaded chore of shovelling what the latest storm has delivered.
No word of commercialization yet, pity.
BRAVE NEW BODY PARTS
Cochlear Implant
There was a certain sense of irony when conservative radio personality Rush
Limbaugh announced that he was rapidly going deaf. Determined to remain master
of his bully pulpit, Limbaugh successfully underwent a cochlear implant in
early January. Where hearing aids isolate and amplify sound frequencies going
to the mechanical parts of the ear, implants send electrical signals directly
to nerve. The device consists of a microphone that picks up sounds, a speech processor that changes sound into electrical signals, a transmitter, and 15 to 20 electrodes implanted in the auditory nerve in the inner ear.
The procedure is
FDA-approved and at least one device, the Clarion Bionic Ear, can be
connected directly to CD players and other digital audio systems.
Artificial Retinas
Retinal disease is the number one cause of blindness
in the developed world. As cochlear
implants seek to replace faulty sound sensors, there is active research to replace the damaged light sensors in the retina.
Earlier attempts involved head-mounted
video cameras, lasers, wires, and batteries.
But since 2000, Optobionics has been in
clinical trials with its Artificial Silicon Retina.
This 2 millimeter silicon chip covered
with microphotodiodes is implanted behind the retina, relying only on
incoming light to generate electrical signals to the optic nerve.
Unfortunately, silicon is
potentially toxic to the body and the large chip can block
the flow of nutrients in the eye.
NASA has developed more
body-friendly thin ceramic film retinas that are
going into human trials in 2002.
The Smart Leg
Lightweight carbon fiber shell, dual microprocessors receiving data from multiple piezoelectric sensors and gauges at 50 Hz and controlling hydraulic and
mechanical systems. Rechargeable lithium ion battery included, US$40,000 and up.
This isn't Ginger, the Segway Human Transporter, but the Otto Bock 3C100 C-Leg,
the state-of-the-art leg prosthetic for amputees.
The adaptive knee and leg combination switches automatically from relaxed
to rigid positions, allowing the user to walk on uneven terrain and
down stairs with a natural gait and at varying speeds. Another company,
Blatchford Endolite, will be introducing a similar but lower-cost system
later this year.
Exoskeletons with a Cause
Instead of replacing lost capabilities, a wearable, smart exoskeleton
or human extender can increase
the strength, speed, and endurance of workers in many environments.
Control of and feedback from the extender via direct contact
rather than a joystick or keyboard type device makes for
interesting design challenges.
Existing and trial applications of extenders range
from hazardous material handling and animatronics
for the entertainment industry (Sarcos) to load handling at warehouses
and construction sites (UC Berkeley).
Now the DARPA Exoskeleton program hopes to pull together these
and other efforts
as a full body suit with self-contained power and flight capabilities
for, you guessed it, combat situations. Shades of Heinlein's
"Starship Troopers".
Just Add RAM
Plug in the audio and video components, and what does your PC usually need?
More RAM. With bionic ears and eyes, it's probably
time to figure out how to add more RAM to our brains. Research is under way
to connect microelectronic materials to nerve cells. Through some clever
biochemical sleight of hand, semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots,
can now be attached to nerve cells via biomolecules such as
antibodies or peptides. The next trick is to control
the electrical environment and the interaction between cells
and a semiconductor array. RAM may be a while off,
but related research in neuroprosthetics,
using neural signals to control artificial arms and legs, will yield
real benefits sooner.
BRAVE NEW WORLD
Atomic Repair Man
While massive welding and painting robots are finding their way into
low labor cost countries,
robots working on the microscopic and even atomic scale are also being
developed. MINIMAN robots at the University of Karlsruhe,
mounted on optical microscopes or within scanning electron microscopes,
already perform tasks such as manipulating single cells or assembling
components about 1 milimeter in size. MIT's NanoWalkers, tiny packages
of circuitry and tools that can scuttle along in 2 nanometer steps,
function as autonomous, in situ instrumentation. The first application,
using a scanning tunneling microscope "tool", is now offering performance
comparable to traditional instruments. Both robots are just the first wave
in the nascent world of nano-assembly.
IN THE ARTS
But Is It Art?
Is it far away or is it just small? Technology has enabled us to
view that which is very far away, and that which is very small.
What is real and what is an artifact of the viewing technology?
San Francisco Ken Goldberg meditates on these questions with his
installation of a 1:1/1,000,000 scale model of Frank Lloyd Wright's
Falling Waters. Etched in silicon with MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical
Systems) techniques, the model is visible only through an optical microscope,
and better through scanning electron microscopy. The unifying theme?
The cantilever, a dominant theme in Wright's design, is a common device in
the MEMS world. An example of the latter is the collision detector
that triggers airbag deployment in cars.
The Robot Zoo
You've seen the amazing computer simulations of dinosaurs in
the movie "Jurassic Park".
But did you know that SGI is also into robotic animals? The Robot Zoo is
an interactive exhibit aimed at getting kids engaged in science and technology.
Its denizens include bats, giraffes, chameleons, rhinos, and squids, among
others. You can design the chameleon's camouflage, manipulate the rhino, and
add more and stranger parts to the platypus, or try wearing a scaled version
of a turtle's shell.
Three separate and complete troops
roam the US year-round, so you'll have to catch
it when you can. The web site is good for interesting descriptions of the zoo
animals and high-res images of some of the bots.
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STAR TURN
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CBOT 2000
During the holiday season, even the most diehard robot
builders are tempted by the jingling bells and tantalizing
smells wafting out of a warm kitchen. Robots built
of gingerbread rather than tin and wires abound.
CBOT 2000 was given as a gift. NASA's Cool Robot
of the week for December 24, like all good bots, came with
gingerbread assembly instructions. Unfortunately, it was rapidly
consumed, and all that is left is an empty link.
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BOOKS 'N' STUFF
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Starship Troopers
by Robert Heinlein
Berkley Pub Group
ISBN: 0441783589
Considered by some to be Heinlein's finest work, Starship Troopers is
of particular robotic interest as one of the earlier descriptions of human
extender-suits for a stronger, faster soldier.
While there is plenty of high tech weaponry and battles
with a conveniently insect-like enemy, the book also carries a pro-military
theme of citzenship through military service, swift black-and-white justice,
and the ramifications of such a society. Viewed from the eyes of a young man who
signs up as a lark and finds out why he is a soldier, it adds a
coming-of-age twist as well.
The R-rated
DVD is typically regarded as an action comic version of the
story that avoids the philosophical and political underpinnings of the book.
One Jump Ahead
by Jonathan Schaeffer
Springer Verlag Pub
ISBN: 0387949305
04/1997
The story of Deep Blue, the chess program that "beat" then world champion
Garry Kasparov, is well
documented and
analyzed. Here is the account of the development of the checkers
progam Chinook
from a lunch time conversation to a program that defeats the world champion
of the game. Written by the leader of the program development team,
it is a surprisingly engrossing account that enlightens the reader on the
game of chess and the nature of AI programming while presenting
a tale of human foibles and fascinating personalities, including Marion
Tinsley, probably the greatest checker player of all time. A good read where
descriptions of the matches will have you teetering on the edge of your seat.
Monkey vs. Robot
by James Kochalka
Top Shelf Productions
ISBN: 1891830155
09/2000
Monkeys and robots sort it out in the jungle in this short, comics-styled
book. The simple fable and minimalist artwork form an elegant
and timeless story: war and
its consequences are not very pretty.
Or you can peel it back. Is it the clash between
nature and technology? Evolution from primates to
"Robo sapiens"? The march of progress?
The primal essence of conflict? A little gem for children
and adults alike.
Evolutionary Robotics (Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents)
by Stefano Nolfi, Dario Floreano
The MIT Press
ISBN 0262140705
11/2000
Darwinian selection and survival of the fittest finds applicability
in many arenas. In complex engineering systems, we often cannot predict the
likelihood of success of a design a priori. Genetic algorithms basically
let us try many different variations and see what sticks.
How can we apply this evolutionary approach to robotics and agent-based systems?
Robotic evolutions occurs by providing
variability in its "genetically specified" controller system - including small
random changes, followed by selection
based on how successfully certain tasks are performed.
This book introduces the reader to the basic concepts and methodologies
of evolution, their advantages and disadvantages,
and the results to date.
A companion web site also lets the reader try some of these experiments.
Desktop Rover 2-Pack
$99.95
Turn your overcrowded desk into a garden of delights
or a mission to the unknown for this pair of soda-can
sized rovers. Inspired by the NASA Planetary Exploration Missions,
these critters
will happily navigate the obstacles or play laser tag among the piles of papers,
cans, pizza boxes, and spare parts and tools. Or double up to four Rovers
and let them battle it out for ownership of the TV remote control.
Batteries, but no assembly required.
Short Circuit (Special Edition)
ISBN: B00004W19V
1986
Number 5, a military robot is short-ciruited by a lighting bolt and comes
to live with curiosity and a sense of humour. This not-very-original
premise nevertheless results in a light-hearted comedy where a pet-happy
animal lover rescues Number 5 and tries to teach it about animals - have
you wondered about "when Aibo meets Bowzer?" - life as exemplified by
"Saturday Night Fever", and everything in
between, Needless to say, a host of whacky characters and the obligatory
trigger-happy military follow in hot pursuit.
For more light entertainment,
"Short Circuit 2" takes off when Number 5 goes to New York to help
its designer make it rich in the big city.
For more selections, check out the Netsurfer Library at
http://www.netsurf.com/nsl.
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