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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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CALENDAR
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| 2002.04.05-06 |
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2nd Annual Acroname Robotics Expo and Contest, Boulder, CO
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| 2002.04.06 |
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DPRG RoboRama (2002.a), Dallax, TX
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| 2002.04.06-07 |
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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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| 2002.04.24-25 |
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Micro-Rato, Aveiro, Portugal
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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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FIRST Robotics Competition National Championship, Orlando, FL
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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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| 2002.04.28 |
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LEGO MY EGG-O Robotic Egg Hunt, Cleveland, OH
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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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| 2002.05.03-04 |
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Robothon, Seattle, WA
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| 2002.05.04-05 |
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15th Annual RI/SME Student Robotic Engineering Challenge, Pittsurgh, PA
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| 2002.05.10-12 |
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Eurobot, La Ferte Bernard, France
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| 2002.05.10-11 |
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Western Canadian Robot Games (BEAM), Calgary, Canada
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| 2002.05.13-15 |
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Nanotech Planet Spring 2002 Conference and Expo, San Jose, CA
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| 2002.05.18-20 |
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Singapore Robotic Games, Republic of Singapore
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| 2002.05.19 |
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3rd Annual PARTS Mini-Sumo Robot Competition, Portland, OR
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| 2002.05.23-29 |
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FIRA Robot World Cup, Seoul, Korea
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| 2002.06.01 |
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UK National Micromouse Competition, London, UK
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| 2002.06.01 |
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TNO Robot Competition, The Hague, Netherlands
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| 2002.06.7-8 |
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RoboFesta, Rome, Italy
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| 2002.06.19-23 |
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RoboCup Robot Soccer World Cup, Fukuoka, Japan
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| 2002.06.29-07.02 |
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Botball National Tournament, Norman, OK
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| 2002.06 |
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Terra Segura, SDRS, and RSSC Mine Clearing Contest, San Diego, CA
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| 2002.06 |
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Robattle, Vancouver, Canada
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| 2002.07.06-08 |
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AUVS International Ground Robotics Competition, Walt Disney World, FL
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| 2002.07.15-19 |
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K'NEX K-bot World Championships, Las Vegas, NV
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| 2002.07.28-08.01 |
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11th Annual AAAI Mobile Robot Competition, Edmonton, Canada
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| 2002.07 |
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5th Annual AUVS International Undersea Robotics Competition, Annapolis, MD
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| 2002.07 |
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AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competition
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ABOUT NETSURFER
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COOL TOYS
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WHAT'S UP
First Customer Survey
It's been 6 months since we launched Netsurfer Robotics
and you haven't consigned us to the big bit bucket in the
sky. But that's no reason for us to grin and sit on our soldering irons.
Instead, we'd like to ask you to tell us a bit about
who you are and what you think. We know your time is
precious, so it's just 6 quick multiple choice questions
- and an optional essay 8-).
Please take a minute to click on the link below and give
some input to our continued evolution.
IN THE NEWS
Robo Fame
Robodex March 28-31 in Yokohama, Japan was abuzz with Sony's
latest entertainment robot SDR-4X - a gumby-legged humanoid
that can negotiate stairs, slopes, and irregular surfaces strewn with
obstacles. Special "Motion Creator" software teaches SDR-4X robots
complex steps and movements, using
more degrees of freedom in head, wrist, and individual finger movement
to add expressiveness. Couple this with a high-pitched singing voice and
we have a new song-and-dance group for MTV.
(Britney Spears, don't plan your retirement yet.)
Features such as face and voice recognition, vocabulary acquisition,
and short and long term memory enable SDR-4Xs to produce more complex behaviours.
Answer to the
if-you-need-to-ask question: an SDR-4X is about "the price of a luxury car".
Bipeds Rule Robodex 2002
In addition to Sony SDR-4X and the inevitable Honda Asimo,
other bipeds overran Robodex. These include Kawanda's HRP-2,
the PINO humanoid, the Murata humanoid, Fujitsu's HOAP-1, and SGI's POSY.
Many of these walk smoothly, including up and down stairs, and bow
with correct elegance. POSY, designed for empathy and not ambulatory
grace, stayed put but won over the crowd with a pretty face and a pretty
posy of flowers.
The first worldwide biped
grapple competition was held, but the competitors mostly just strutted their stuff.
Both the official Robodex site and several others provide extensive
images and videos of the bots in action.
Accessible Nano-Legos
The latest step in roboticist Mark Tilden's journey from BEAM
robots and B.I.O. Bug toys is the confluence of MEMS, emergent
behaviour, and the toy industry. Project "Nano-Lego"
(officially "Cohesive Elemental Arrays")
builds modules of plastic and printed circuit board components
that self-assemble and change shapes in response to stimuli
such as bright light. The goal is to shrink these down to
MEMS scale while maintaining the popularity and production characteristics
of toys. This would make MEMS technology accessible to hobbyists,
an orders-of-magnitude leap from the current semiconductor fab
levels of expense and complexity. With widespread adoption,
fascinating new ideas are bound to emerge to complete the virtuous circle.
MAYDAY FOR ROBOTS
May Day is celebrated as Labor Day in a number of countries.
So instead of war heroes or the stars of telesurgery or space dancing
with the Hubble,
we are saluting some robots that toil at mundane, dirty, dangerous,
and downright boring jobs.
Crash Test Dummies and Robo Roos
The longest suffering if not hardest working in the industrial robot
family must be the crash test dummies. Since their first deployment
at General Motors, robots representing the average male have been joined
by those representing different size, age, and gender, including
CRABI, the small "Child Restraint Air Bag Interaction" version.
Fully instrumented dummies model and measure the dynamics of human
anatomy in painful detail, and, at about US$150,000,
cost significantly more than Sony's SDR-4X.
On the other side of the bumper,
automotive engineers also worry about vehicle/large animal collisions.
The Australian response to 20,000+ annual incidents: the 59-kg Robo Roo.
On the Road Again
Roadway maintenance is one of the more dangerous occupations around -
and heaven help you if you dare to actually
slow down or block traffic. It's another job for robot helpers!
The Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology
(AHMCT) Research Center at UC Davis has developed a variety of robots to
remove snow and debris, clear mudslides, seal cracks in the road, and
even lay down and remove traffic cones.
Future projects include laser graffiti removal and aerial bridge inspection
systems. One of its interesting discoveries: customer agencies usually
prefer teams of smaller, specialized
robots over monolithic do-it-all devices.
Drive and Spray
Weeds grow where you don't want them, and their inexorable
march across the landscape costs millions of dollars in damages
to roadways alone. Efficient eradication entails
driving and spot spraying weeds only where they grow. The latest high
tech solution from California involves a truck-mounted boom with multiple
independent spray heads activated by light sensors that detect chlorophyll.
A high torque SmartMotor controls the boom with the help of
radar groundspeed and other sensors, automatically retracting it in
1/2 second when optical sensors detect obstacles such as road signs.
In addition to labor and capital savings, the manufacturer claims
up to 80% reduction in chemical usage, a collateral
benefit for the rest of the environment.
Double Duty in the Sewers
What infrastructural network is most essential to health and wellbeing
in big cities? One could make a case for the sewer system.
Yet its maintenance is conceivably the most unpleasant if not most dangerous.
Enter KA-TE systems, the high tech Swiss version of Roto-Rooter.
Their remotely controlled robots, deployed from the standard plumber's van, can
inspect, smooth, and seal sewer lines up to about 30 inches in diameter.
And what is the largest expense in setting up broadband networks in cities?
Tearing up the roads to lay fiber. The same robots have now been
modified to install optical fiber through sewer lines, one-upping the
guys who laid down the long haul networks along railroad right-of-ways.
Pittsburgh, Dallas, Albuquerque: coming to a city near you.
Robo-Milking
Come heat, hail, or high water, cows have to be milked 2 to 3 times a day,
a tedious chore - not to mention dangers from the occasional errant hoof.
Starting with the Dutch, the Europeans have been using robotic milking systems
for over ten years, and the trend has now crossed the Atlantic.
Unlike cars on a production line, cows vary in shape and size - and move, so
key components include laser- or
ultrasound-based sensors and a flexible robotic arm.
Experience says that most cows adapt quickly, and are happier for being able to
determine when they want to be milked.
Scratching the Surface at USPS
More than 200 billion pieces of mail (think paper spam) moves through
the US Postal Service annually.
The first step in robotic handling has been the dispatch of trays of
zipcode-sorted mail from conveyor belt to different outbound containers.
Alas, the cardboard trays come in a plethora of shapes, sizes,
and conditions, and wiggle and sag and generally behave in ways
contrary to easy automation. Added challenges include the USPS's
desires for perfect safety.
Systems from Fanuc and ABB currently
handle between 5 and 10% of all letters and "flats". No packages and
parcels yet - after all, if you stick enough stamps on a coconut the
USPS will deliver.
Hospital Gopher
Where does the 400-pound robot fit in the hospital elevator?
Anywhere it wants. Pyxis HelpMate is a five-foot tall autonomous rolling cabinet
that has learned that politeness doesn't pay in the bustling traffic of harried
medical personnel. Equipped with vision, sonar and infrared
collision detection sensors, and
radio and IR communications to open doors and summon the elevator, HelpMate
can plan its own path as it
delivers samples, medications, and sundry throughout the hospital.
Working for the paltry cost of $5 an hour and no benefits, its
rudimentary speech skills also prevent long water cooler conversations
that relieve the tedium of gopher type jobs.
TECHNOTOYS
AIBO's Bodyguard
While Sony's AIBO was meant to make friends and be a pet,
Japanese consumer electronics
maker Sanyo has unveiled its T7S guard dog. The size and weight of a medium-sized
dog, it looks like a shiny chrome anteater and moves at about the
same speed. Armed with a CCD camera and a 3G cell phone,
it patrols its territory
as a telepresence canine. When an intruder is detected, the T7S
contacts a configurable "master" or security center.
The handler can view
and threaten the visitor through the robot's camera and
speaker systems.
T7S is all bark and no bite right now, but adding a spritzer of mace
or other weaponry should not be a difficult upgrade. Hot pursuit?
Next generation.
BITS & PIECES
Flexible Solar Cells
Conducting plastics have been considered for a number of minor applications
since their discovery in 1977. Their use in solar cells received a recent boost
when UC Berkeley scientists created a hybrid cell of polymer
and nanorod semiconductor crystals. Although efficiency is currently an order
of magnitude less than commercial photovoltaics, the potential for
improvement is significant. Key however, is the fact
that these hybrids can just about
be mixed up in buckets and painted onto different materials. Compared with
limited-size semiconductor fab processes for current cells, the low
cost low tech manufacturing requirements open up a broad
spectrum of innovative applications.
SEE ME, HEAR ME
Spatial Navigation Update
We can all imagine how a line-following robot or even a maze running
robot might work. But how do mobile autonomous robots understand their
spatial environment and find their way through it? Sensor based navigation
has been under intensive study at CMU since 1999.
The approach basically maps the environment continuously to a 3D grid of cells
and determines whether they are occupied or not.
The latest technical report shows the complexity of the problem and the
progress to date. Like many another software system, encoding the solution
to something we take so much for granted is no small undertaking, and the
three year project now looks more like a five year undertaking.
Urbie Navigation Soup-to-Nuts
It's hard telling a robot on Mars what to do when a signal from earth
can take 20 minutes to get there,
so autonomous navigation is crucial to NASA projects.
This delightful hour-long lecture gives an update on Urbie,
JPL's urban reconnaissance robot,
which shares technology with the Mars Exploration Rovers
scheduled for a 2003 mission. Sporting a tracked chassis with extension arms,
Urbie is equipped with many custom and off-the-shelf sensors,
including ladar (laser radar) and a GPS with 2-cm accuracy. Software
algorithms enable amazingly quick stairclimbing,
navigating through dense grass, and topo
mapping while on the move. The webcast is highlighted
by videos of Urbie in action and a
wide-ranging and frank Q&A session.
MAN vs MACHINE
Robotic Eldercare
An aging population is a challenge for developed nations such as Japan,
and Japanese electronics makers are turning this into an opportunity for
innovation. Matsushita has created the senior residence of the future,
chock full of gadgets to provide and monitor care for its residents. A
key element is companionship through furry and interactive robotic pets.
The therapeutic effect of small animals is well known, and preliminary
indications are that seniors and children will bond with AIBO and its
cohorts. Elsewhere, robots that recognize and respond to human emotions
have been assembled from off-the-shelf parts. Just as inheritances for pets
are now part of the estate planning repertoire, robot beneficiaries will be
coming around that corner.
MACHINE vs MACHINE
First in a Vacuum
AP surprised roboticists and hobbyists alike with its recent
story that vacuum builder Hoover is coming out with the first
robotic vacuum cleaner by year end. This "breakthrough product"
is based on Hoover floorcare expertise and navigational technology
licensed from Friendly Robotics (of the slow lawnmover fame).
H-e-l-l-o.
While a separate Matsushita product isn't planned to be out for 2 years,
and you could argue that vacuum robot rally contestants aren't
consumer products, there are still quite a few players out there.
We sincerely hope the Hoover product manager isn't sitting in a corner
doing crossword puzzle like his brethren Maytag repairman.
IN THE ARTS
Victorian Mechanical Men
"Mechanical Marvels of the 19th Century" is
an elaborate and inspired history of the robotic contraptions
of the late 19th century.
Lavishly illustrated, it tells the tale of
inventions such as "The Steam Man", "The Electric Man",
and the "Automatic Man" and their role in the Victorian
world. The section on
Boilerplate, the "Mechanical Man" whose war-zone exploits
would make Asimo envious, is particularly rich in
cosmetic documentation.
With details drawn from and interwoven with the
"edisonade" adventure stories of the period,
the site has succeeded in bringing
the spirit of swashbuckling invention online.
A.I., Take 2
Spielberg's sci-fi Pinocchio movie "A.I." disappeared from
cinemas into video release quickly enough,
but its appearance inspired a couple of wags.
Mad Magazine provides its usual twisted take on some
key scenes (along with a few from "Dr. Dolittle 2").
The sequence slides from sly juxtaposition to coup de grace
in six easy panels.
Modern Humorist's monomaniacal screw-sorting robot also reviews the movie.
It gets in a couple of good jabs, but is not nearly as on target as
the MH piece on AI featuring the Dell computer and the Turing Test.
Robby Lives
This is the
funny and heartwarming tale of young Fred Barton's teenage obsession with reproducing
Robby the Robot in the 70s and how he returned to his passion twenty years later to
start the Robby Revival and build a business in museum-quality reproductions of
movie robots. Robby is clearly the star of a site that features memorabilia, collectibles, movie stills, and publicity shots from "Forbidden Planet"
and "The Invisible Boy".
Original sketches, studio blueprints, and an FAQ provide additional details.
Robby's recent TV appearances, including such fare
as Columbo, The Love Boat, and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
are available as QuickTime videos.
Enough press to make Robby one of
People magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People of 2000.
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STAR TURN
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Floppy for Almost Free
Between CD's, Zip drives, online and other mass storage, the lowly,
low capacity 3 1/2 inch floppy is moving towards obsolescence.
But you can give your floppy drive a new lease on life by ...
converting it to a robot.
As it turns out, the ubiquitous device contains key
robot-building components such
as spindle and stepper motors, photo sensors, and switches,
and the addition of some wheels and very few
spare parts will have Floppy hightailing off to a brand new life
instead of the e-waste pile.
Detailed illustrated instructions included.
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BOOKS 'N' STUFF
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Build Your Own Combat Robot
by Pete Miles, Tom Carroll
Osborne McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 0072194642
02/2002
Battling robots are some of the new gladiators of high-tech circuses -
and since you don't want to run away to join the World Wrestling Foundation,
building your own combat robot is the next best thing. This book will
get you off to a good start on the general concepts: robot motion,
motors and transmissions, power and control, weapons systems, and the tricks
of communicating with your robot.
And while most folks think of remotely controlled vehicles
à la Battlebots, the authors also devote several chapters to autonomous
robots and the increasingly popular robot sumo contest.
The stories of real robots and their builders at the end will have you
rev'ed up and raring to go.
The Secret Life of Puppets
by Victoria Nelson
Harvard Univ Pr
ISBN: 0674006305
12/2001
Is our fascination with cyborgs, aliens, and the supernatural and
fantastic just distorted desire for religious meaning repressed in the
age of science and logic? "The Secret Life of Puppets" explores the
codependence of art and religion and the role reversal that has gradually
taken place from the Renaissance to the present. The evolution from golem
to Frankenstein to modern day androids, and from Pinocchio to Robocup
teams all serve to illustrate the thesis that
where religion once inspired art now art
and entertainment reflect and respond to our need for the spiritual.
An Introduction to AI Robotics
by Robin R. Murphy
MIT Press
ISBN: 0262133830
11/2000
Although a computer science bent is helpful to the reader, this comprehensive
text does a credible job moving from theoretic paradigms and architectures
to the nuts and bolts of sensing and navigation in mobile robots.
Chapters are structured for maximized absorption and retention
with the usual pedagogical objectives, reviews, and exercises.
More importantly, these are also reinforced with one or more case studies of real
world robot construction. Digression into robots in film and fiction
and a discussion on the future direction of robotics round out
an excellent introduction accessible to hobbyists as well as academics.
More Than Human
by Theodore Sturgeon
1953
This Sturgeon classic is a
provocative tale of the evolution of a new human species,
Homo gestalt, from a group of social outcasts. "Bleshing"
(remember "grok"?) to
form a single being with mental powers far beyond the original and
yet retaining their individuality, these new humans embodied
Sturgeon's hope for humanity's
future in the power of the mind and of synergy.
No surprise, optimism carried the day, neatly avoiding the standard conflict
between the old and the new.
As we consider again the co-evolution of man and machine,
this 1953 story has fresh relevance.
Remote Control Flying Saucer
Beautifully designed and very clever. Just fill the balloon with
helium at the local gift shop, tape the twin-turbo fan unit to the
bottom, adjust the ballast weight, and go!
Radio controlled and showing great maneuverability, the Flying
Saucer can even be
made to spiral up and down high, narrow spaces.
Nearly 1 meter (38 in) wide, this UFO requires only a 9V and a camera
battery for you to stage your own close encounters.
Westworld
by Michael Crichton
ISBN: B00004VVND
1973
Just like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" at Disney World, Westworld is the wild
west feature in a high tech playground populated by androids that help
guests play out their fantasies. Enter the inevitable high tech plot device,
the short circuit - or is it the blue screen of death? - stage left. The robots
are now coming after the guests, and merry mayhem ensues.
One of the classic robot movies, Westworld is due for a remake in 2002/2003
with Arnold Terminator reprising the Yul Brynner gunslinger role.
For more selections, check out the Netsurfer Library at
http://www.netsurf.com/nsl.
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