 |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
|
|
|
|
CALENDAR
|
| |
| 2002.05.03-04 |
| |
Robothon, Seattle, WA
|
| |
| 2002.05.04-05 |
| |
15th Annual RI/SME Student Robotic Engineering Challenge, Pittsurgh, PA
|
| |
| 2002.05.10-12 |
| |
Eurobot, La Ferte Bernard, France
|
| |
| 2002.05.10-11 |
| |
Western Canadian Robot Games (BEAM), Calgary, Canada
|
| |
| 2002.05.13-15 |
| |
Nanotech Planet Spring 2002 Conference and Expo, San Jose, CA
|
| |
| 2002.05.18-20 |
| |
Singapore Robotic Games, Republic of Singapore
|
| |
| 2002.05.19 |
| |
3rd Annual PARTS Mini-Sumo Robot Competition, Portland, OR
|
| |
| 2002.05.23-29 |
| |
FIRA Robot World Cup, Seoul, Korea
|
| |
| 2002.05.24 |
| |
SPURT, Rostock-Warnemunde, Germany
|
| |
| 2002.06.01 |
| |
UK National Micromouse Competition, London, UK
|
| |
| 2002.06.01 |
| |
TNO Robot Competition, The Hague, Netherlands
|
| |
| 2002.06.7-8 |
| |
RoboFesta, Rome, Italy
|
| |
| 2002.06.19-23 |
| |
RoboCup Robot Soccer World Cup, Fukuoka, Japan
|
| |
| 2002.06.29-07.02 |
| |
Botball National Tournament, Norman, OK
|
| |
| 2002.06 |
| |
Terra Segura, SDRS, and RSSC Mine Clearing Contest, San Diego, CA
|
| |
| 2002.06 |
| |
Robattle, Vancouver, Canada
|
| |
| 2002.07.06-08 |
| |
AUVS International Ground Robotics Competition, Walt Disney World, FL
|
| |
| 2002.07.15-19 |
| |
K'NEX K-bot World Championships, Las Vegas, NV
|
| |
| 2002.07.27-28 |
| |
BotCon 2002, Fort Wayne, IN
|
| |
| 2002.07.28-08.01 |
| |
11th Annual AAAI Mobile Robot Competition, Edmonton, Canada
|
| |
| 2002.07 |
| |
5th Annual AUVS International Undersea Robotics Competition, Annapolis, MD
|
| |
| 2002.07 |
| |
AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competition
|
| |
|
|
ABOUT NETSURFER
|
|
|
|
COOL TOYS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WHAT'S NEW @NSR
The responses so far to our reader survey
have been tabulated and posted - thanks to
all who contributed.
Not surprisingly, you are most interested in
new developments and news, followed by featured robots,
software/AI, and applications. As to the subscription fee
question, we may have goofed by not being more explicit about
what "free with ads and all" means.
So we've updated the survey page to
be clear about it.
As you may know from other Netsurfer pubs, we are not advocates of
the advertising model. But if most readers prefer
it, NSR will give it serious consideration.
With less than 10% of readers
responding so far, we'd like to encourage you to stop by
the updated page and give us your feedback.
IN THE NEWS
Remote-Controlled Rats
Scientists at the State University of New York have trained
rats to navigate terrain under remote control by stimulating
the brain region that processes signals from their whiskers
and rewarding correct behaviour with a jolt to the pleasure
region. RC-Rat in action carries a backpack
containing a radio receiver connected to the electrodes implanted
in its brain. Arguably much easier and cheaper to build than
a similarly capable mobile robot, RC-Rat applications are limited
only by the payload and the imagination. Although reward-based
training is timeless and applicable to all species including
Homo sapiens, PETA folks may object to this
direct tampering with the animal's mind.
Opening June 3rd, 2002
If you can't beat them, they must be onto a good thing.
When Sony cracked down on AiboPet, a
hobbyist who just wanted to get closer to the metal doggie's innards,
Aibo fans responded with a boycott. Sony saw the light and
has now announced the Open-R
SDK, a Linux- and PC-based set of tools that
gives direct access to Aibo's sensors and controllers,
including the C++ API to Sony's Open-R robotic entertainment system.
Free to registered users, the SDK will be available June 3rd.
The kit is only for non-commercial use, and source code is
not included, but
credit Sony for a reminder to respect others' privacy
when you program your Aibo to record what it sees and hears.
Kephera II from K-Team
Want to test out navigation algorithms or multi-agent strategies without
building your own robots first? Many researchers on the other side of
the Atlantic rely on
Kephera, a mobile robot the size of a hockey puck. Armed with interchangeable
gripper, video, radio, and other extension turrets, the Kephera
can interface to popular scientific packages such as MatLab and LabView.
The development environment includes the standard GNU gcc cross
compiler and tools, and Webots, a 3D simulation package.
Swiss makers K-Team has just announced the Kephera II with, not
surprisingly, a faster
CPU, more memory, and longer battery life.
OPEN SOURCE IN ROBOTICS
Hey, What's Open?
A long time ago in a world far far different, companies built proprietary, monolithic
computer systems and gave away the software.
Then software became very valuable, and was no longer free.
As time went by, people
discovered collaboration, and published system interfaces
and standards came into existence. Although the internals were still
secret, open interface standards were a Good Thing and everyone used them.
Somewhere along the line, Richard Stallman created
Free (as in speech, not as in beer) Software, which was a Very Good Thing.
This in turn grew into the broader and more descriptive "Open Source".
Open Source took on a life of its own and the "Open" confusion began.
So when you see "Open", read the fine print.
Open Source Brains
Whether it's Aibo or a clever Mindstorms creation, the robot is
a computer with an operating system
like Windows or OS-X but endowed with the quality known as "Real Time" - the system
must respond within a guaranteed amount of time.
This and other technical requirements make for more and proprietary variations in
the embedded OS world. Still, open source choices abound.
Garden variety Linux is not real time, but a plethora
of patches and solutions have been developed to make it so.
For the more demanding applications,
there is uClinux (microcontroller Linux) to work with simpler processors
without memory management capabilities,
and eCOS, Red Hat's
highly configurable, real time OS when a small memory footprint is also required.
Only Gnu
Between everything you want to do and the chunk of silicon with its
mindnumbing stream of ones and zeroes that makes it so
is a bit of necessary magic that translates from one to the other.
While even non-techies have heard of Linux, the unsung hero of Open Source is the Gnu toolset.
Bearing terse names such as gcc, g++, and gdb, these development tools are a key
component of the original Free Software platform.
While many robot makers like Sony and Kephera prefer to create their own operating system,
the development toolset of choice is always Gnu; indeed that's probably what they
used to build the OS in the first place.
As with Linux,
you can download Gnu tools for free or get a commercially supported distribution.
Open Vision
Besides the embedded/real time Linux projects, one of the most active open source
projects in robotics is OpenCV, the open source computer vision library from
Intel. Focused mainly on real time computer vision, OpenCV was first released in 2000.
Currently at version 2.1, it has over 500 imaging functions
including the recently announced stereoscopic capabilities, and was developed at
Intel's research center in Nihzniy Novgorod, Russia. Code and detailed documentation
are available for download at SourceForge, and an active mailing list is maintained
at Yahoo Groups. In a similar vein,
Carnegie Mellon University, another group active in computer
vision and navigation, provides the CMVision library for low level colour vision at video
rates.
Open Mind
Trawl through SourceForge's 40,000 or so listings and you will easily
find dozens of inactive, robotics-related projects. A disproportionate
number of A.I. projects, however, have legs.
OpenCyc (general knowledge and commonsense-based
reasoning), Robocup Soccer Simulator, OpenAI (including mobile agent tools),
various voice recognition and natural language processing packages, and a host
of other goodies can be found under the Scientific/Engineering catalog.
In addition to the aficionados on SourceForge, A.I. projects have been the
traditional provenance of universities and other research organizations.
Carnegie Mellon's Teambots multiagent project provides links to some of the
more interesting ones out there.
Open Source Humanoid Robots
While Sony's SDR-4X wow'ed them with the song and dance routine at Robodex,
a fleet of humanoid robots shared the stage. Based on RT-Linux, Fujitsu's HOAP-1
miniature robot became the first freely programmable humanoid robot available
in September 2001. Fujitsu released the internal details in order to ensure a common
research platform. Separately, H7, a larger humanoid also based on RT-Linux was introduced
six weeks later. Kawada Industries, which helped build H7, its predecessor H6, and
H7 derivative Isamu, introduced the HRP-2P at Robodex.
Taller and lighter than Honda's Asimo,
HRP-2P was developed in approximately one year using ART-Linux - and the
next generation is already in the works. Open source software is
known for its rapid evolution, and clearly open source robotics is no different.
Across the Atlantic
While the Americans take the thousand points of light, bottom-up approach to open
source projects, our friends across the pond prefer a top-down approach.
The EU-funded R&D program for 1998-2002 included
3.6 billion Euros for "Information Society Technologies (IST)", adding the
specific requirement of open source or free software in 1999.
Robotics-related programs include efforts in real time Linux as well as
the Open Robot Control Software (OROCOS) project. Formally kicked off in September 2001,
OROCOS is a CORBA-based program emphasizing software components for robotic tasks
such as kinematics and dynamics, sensing and control, planning and communication, etc.
OROCOS has garnered widespread local support, becoming one of only four special interest topics
for EURON, the European Robotics Research Network, in 2002.
TECHNOTOYS
Terror of the Sidewalk Cafes
Mysterious Ginger revealed itself to be the intuitive Segway scooter that geeks and government
purchase managers alike can love. Dean Kamen, its inventor and founder of the FIRST Robotics
competition, was recently awarded the Lemelson-MIT prize for innovation, and promptly turned
over the cool half million dollars, plus another quarter garnered from Amazon auctions, to
FIRST. What is not so well known is a similar amount, at last count, spent by
the Segway folks lobbying at state and federal levels. Their goal? To change laws that
regulate the Segway as a motorized vehicle and so prevent its use on sidewalks
and trails. Model bills and testimony to 45 state legislatures later,
5 have passed and 21 are pending.
Transformers: Marketing Blitz in Disguise
The Transformers, an 80s toy and cartoon series, were
based on vehicles that change into
robots and engage in the standard battle of good against evil.
In addition to being cool toys,
the morphing bots struck a deep chord
in the childhood and adolescent fascination with empowerment and transformation,
and so provided toymaker Hasbro with a billion-dollar payday.
Years later, the Gen-Xers are now working adults with enough disposable income to fuel
their own nostalgia boom.
The Transformer revival begins with a comic book series from two Canadian
Gen-Xers, re-release of the cartoons on DVD, a new line of toys
from Hasbro, and merchandising galore.
Actually, Transformers never went away. BotCon, the fan conference,
started in 1994 and has grown strongly stateside and overseas ever since.
PROOF OF THE PUDDING
The Good Ship Jules Verne
The Canadian robotic arm has been a star in recent space shuttle missions, snaring
the Hubble Space Telescope for midlife surgery and assembling parts
of the International Space Station.
Now it's the European Space Agency's turn to shine with the test version
of Jules Verne, its robotic space cargo ship and tug.
Navigating by the stars for its rendezvous with ISS, the Jules Verne
will dock automatically using an optical navigation system.
Besides bringing up new cargo and hauling
out the garbage, it will also use its thrusters to nudge ISS into
higher orbit - a necessary task in
the station's continuous battle against earth's gravity.
Sadly, Jules Verne will send itself to a fiery death
in earth's upper atmosphere at the end of its mission.
UCAVs Tarnished
The success of Predator and Global Hawk in Afghanistan has turned unmanned combat air
vehicles into the darlings of the military set with a US$1 billion slice of
the 2003 budget pie.
Alas, costs for the Global Hawk have tripled to $48 million apiece, almost
as much as two F-16 jets. But perhaps it's just as well there are fewer of them.
The collapse of the commercial satellite industry,
partly triggered by the fiber optic glut, has left the military
with inadequate wireless bandwidth. In Afghanistan, only two Predators and a Global Hawk
could run simultaneously - at reduced data rates.
And getting pilots to fly UCAVs from the ground is no bargain:
morale plummets faster than a dead bird when a jet jockey is assigned to joystick duty.
Send in the Infantry?
While unmanned vehicles got the glory and the budget, "old Army" artillery system Crusader
was getting the boot.
Moving with the times, the US Army has enlisted WWII partner MIT to
establish the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). US$50 million gets 150
researchers including 35 profs and 80 grad students to work on diverse
projects from newfangled stuff like exoskeletons and wearable medical treatment gadgets
to improving old standbys such as camouflage and lighter equipment.
The last is surely important, since the Army's Tactical Mobile Robot program is
delivering a pack full of robots for combat situations, including a throwable,
camera-wielding microbot for local reconnaissance.
MAN vs MAN
Try, Try, Try Again
Roboticists know about labours of love versus money.
While Mark Tilden's deal with Hasbro turned out to be a challenging experience,
MIT graduates Colin Angle and Helen Greiner slogged through twelve years to
establish their robotics firm, iRobot. The company finally hit the big time
with a writeup in Forbes magazine.
While the path from research and consulting contract to products is classic
for tech startups, the chronicle of iRobot projects shows a paragon of
inventiveness and flexibility. Wall climbers, underwater vehicles,
a wireless device to make repairs in deep oil wells, and a toy baby that
says "Uh-oh" after a feeding... The most interesting one that didn't make it out
the door: a wireless massager that climbs up your back, detects tense
areas and massages them.
MAN vs MACHINE
The East and West of Robotics
Into the bubbling cauldron of machines become flesh, University of Toronto
researcher Ana Viseu throws an East-versus-West twist.
Drawing from the work of Kobe University Professor Machico Kusahara,
Viseu posits that the West envisions a life of leisure with robotic
slaves while the East, as exemplified by Japan, views robots as fellow
denizens that have thoughts and souls, a polarization reflecting
the differences between "man only in god's image" Christianity and animistic
Shinto beliefs. While acknowledging pragmatic reasons for the
popularity of pet robots in Japan, Viseu asks the question of how
our cultural views and expectations affect the robots that we build.
If you find this a mite simplistic about the Western side, Jeremy Smith
explores both self and slave factors in the West.
MACHINE vs MACHINE
Step Aside Mia Hamm, Here Comes Priscilla
Robocup competitions to date have featured wheeled and four-legged
robots or simulations. However, with the explosion of humanoids at Robodex
in March, as many as six teams of bipeds are expected this year. Many of these will
be small or squat, except for statuesque Swedish beauty Priscilla from the
Chalmers University of Technology. Built from a life-sized plastic skeleton,
Priscilla moves via hydraulic pistons attached to its metal-reinforced joints.
Other humanoids include the smaller Elvis - named for its jiggling hips in
early versions of its walk program, Elvina, and Murphy from Chalmers rival
Uppsala University. In addition, changes in
Robocup rules will require better location and ball handling skills, so
champions from previous years may be in for some surprises.
IN THE ARTS
Small Art
Nanorobots that can work with light microscopes and scanning electron microscopes
are already in development, so it's just a matter of time before more sophisticated
versions will be deployed in medical applications. Artist Erik Viktor's "Driller"
(thumbnail above)
is just one of the many futuristic scenarios envisioned at the Nanomedicine Art Gallery.
Not surprisingly, artery cleaner images are the most plentiful,
starting with a Scientific American illustration from 1988.
Other subjects range from the whimsical Hairjacks (think robotic lumberjacks in a
forest of hairs) to detailed designs of nanobot toothcleaners from the
American Dental Association. In addition to images, animations include virus killers,
bronchial airbots, and a large list of links to other nanomedicine and nanotech images.
|
|
|
|
STAR TURN
|
|
JiffyPop
What do you do if you are a line-following robot that has to
compete under all sorts of light conditions including disco neon
strobes? You bring your own lights. The imagination and sense
of humour, intentional or otherwise,
don't stop there. JiffyPop is named after the popular
popcorn snack with the aluminum popping pan - to which
the robot's light shield bears a suspicious resemblence.
And on its maiden voyage, JiffyPop took about five minutes to run
the course, which is just about the time its namesake takes
to do its job.
|
|
|
BOOKS 'N' STUFF
|
|
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine
by Tom Standage
Walker & Co
ISBN: 0802713912
04/2002
In the 18th century, a golden age of automata, the Turk was surely the most famous of them all. A life-sized, painted wooden carving of a man with a moustache and a turban attached to a gear-filled cabinet, it exhibited an amazing ability to play chess. How was this feat accomplished in an age of springs and gears? Ah, that would be giving away the ending. This fascinating little book looks not only at the colorful history of the Turk, but also at its place in the history of ideas about machines and artificial intelligence.
"The Turk, Chess Automaton",
on the other hand, is a more chess- and magic-centric version of the story,
full of technical details, contemporary accounts, and transcripts of the
Turk's chess games.
Jin Sato's Lego Mindstorms: The Master's Technique
by Jin Sato
No Starch Press
ISBN: 1886411565
04/2002
There was Aibo, and then there was MIBO, the robotic dog built from
LEGO Mindstorms bricks. Now MIBO's creator, Ottawa engineer Jin Sato, has written
a book on how to build MIBO and LEGO robots in general. While it's
interesting to read about building robots and programming environments from
"The Master's" point of view, the projects are what makes the book.
Sato provides parts lists and lots of
illustrations for building MIBO and the other four robots.
A word of caution: you probably don't want to build MIBO for your first
Mindstorms project, as it is really quite complicated.
The Door into Summer
by Robert A. Heinlein
Del Rey
ISBN: 0345413997
Not as well known as many of Heinlein's other works,
"The Door into Summer" is nevertheless a great story combining
remarkable predictions of technology with a plot based on the human
condition. The inventor's nirvana (creating the ultimate household robot)
is upended by the all too usual betrayal by the business partner in cahoots
with the fiancée. But technology triumphs in the end: time travel allows
our hero to go back in time and fix all his problems - with the help of
his cat.
Written in first person, the authentic voice and characterization keeps
the science in fine balance with the fiction.
Robots for Kids: Exploring New Technologies for Learning
by Allison Druin, James Hendler (Editors)
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
ISBN: 1558605975
04/2000
Even if you have nothing to do with kids and education, the first
four chapters of this book provide compelling stories of the development of
Lego Mindstorms and Aibo, robotic storytelling in education, and
the behind-the-scenes view of high tech toy development.
The rest of the book might have been just an excellent reference,
providing detailed descriptions on using robotics
at various levels from elementary school to university outreach.
Instead, it transcends the genre with the inclusion of intriguing essays showing the
children's point of view, their hands-on experiencess and their ideas about
robots. A twofer bargain.
Rumble Robots: King El Smasho
Trendmasters
ISBN: B00005YWJT
These are not quite just the assemble and slam'em-bam'em figures you might expect
from their kid-pleasing names. You start with a card game to try and win
cards from your opponents. Then swipe the cards through your bot (good practice
for future credit card users) to give it specific powers, and then the battle
begins. A good old-fashioned bout of punching, knocking each other over, zapping
"laser beams", and battle cries ensues.
Maximum purchase is ensured since your King El Smasho has to have assistance from his
knights and protection from a company of
soldiers
to do battle with
King Slugnut and his troops. Game cards are collectibles too, of course.
Transformers - Special First Season Collector's Edition
ISBN: B000063K17
Bootleg copies of every episode of Transformers, Robots in Disguise,
is readily available on the Internet, but Rhino Home Video's release
of the first 16 episodes
hit the Amazon charts at #7 on advance sales alone, and quickly roared
to the top. Excellent production values including brilliant colours
and surround-sound, and a fourth bonus disk loaded
with outtakes, details on the remastering process,
highlights from BotCon 2001, etc. make a superior package that has fans clamouring
for follow-ons - and rushing into toy stores to see what cool Transformers
a decade or two of technology can create.
The set includes two limited edition cels,
but is encoded for US and Canada only. You may prefer the
video version, dubbed in English.
Transformers Robots in Disguise: Electronic Optimus Prime (Fire Truck) Level 4
Hasbro
ISBN: B00005NCHJ
Optimus Prime is the leader of the good guys, a fire truck whose motto is
"We will put out the fires of evil!". In its new incarnation, it
comes with light and sound effects and four levels of transformation that
keep tinkerers thrilled with the disassembly and assembly required.
Living up to Hasbro's theme of "Change and Combination",
the ultimate transformation is a combination with
Ultra Magnus to form Omega prime, a robot smaller
than only
Supreme Cheetor (yes, size matters).
If this is not enough to defeat the evil
Megatron, the new "Integration"-themed
minicon figures will be available later this year.
These plug into larger Transformers to enhance battle
features and reveal surprising hidden powers.
For more selections, check out the Netsurfer Library at
http://www.netsurf.com/nsl.
|
|
|
| SEARCH NETSURFER |
|
|
|
| SEARCH AMAZON.COM |
|
|
|
