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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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CALENDAR
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| 2002.07.01-21 |
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Telluride Workshop on Neuromorphic Engineering, Telluride, CO
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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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| 2002.07.20 |
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SOZBOTS, Burbank, CA
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| 2002.07.27-28 |
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BotCon 2002, Fort Wayne, IN
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| 2002.07.28-08.01 |
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18th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Edmonton, Canada
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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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| 2002.07.29-08.03 |
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AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competition
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| 2002.07.31-08.04 |
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5th Annual AUVS International Undersea Robotics Competition, Annapolis, MD
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| 2002.08.04-11 |
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7th Conference on Simulation of Adaptative Behavior, Ediburgh, UK
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| 2002.08.18 |
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Albany Robot Conflict, Albany, NY
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| 2002.08.31 |
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Robocon University World Championship, Tokyo, Japan
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| 2002.09.02 |
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DragonCon Robot Battles, Atlanta, GA
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| 2002.09.13-15 |
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BotBash, Tempe, AZ
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| 2002.09.30-10.04 |
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IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Lausanne, Switzerland |
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| 2002.09 |
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Central Jersey Robot Conflict, Cherry Hill, NJ
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| 2002.09 |
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Robotics Society of Southern California Robot Talent Contest, Fullerton, CA
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| 2002.09 |
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San Francisco Robotics Society Robot Games, San Francisco, CA
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ABOUT NETSURFER
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COOL TOYS
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IN THE NEWS
The Great Escape
The Magna Science Adventure Centre's artificial evolution experiment/exhibit
surprised itself with an unexpected demonstration of the power of evolution
and emergent behaviour. Gaak, a two-foot tall, energy-hunting predator
robot, left momentarily unattended, headed out through a gap in the fence
and into the parking lot where it nearly fell prey to another of man's
inventions, the automobile. While popular press cried "dash to freedom"
and "robot cunning" (Gaak is named after a sinister Star Trek Klingon),
the practical explanation is that these predator robots associate light with
prey and was just "chasing sunbeams" from the Science Centre building
out into the open.
ROBOCUP UPDATE
Robocup
While Brazil's continued dominance in human World Cup Soccer
may have captured the larger audience,
Robocup 2002 was also a ringing success.
188 teams consisting of 1000+ competitors
from 29 nations came to compete in Fukuoka, Japan.
The event, spread over 6 days, was supported by nearly 120,000
spectators and 50 institutional exhibitors and sponsors, and
even the technical symposium drew over 600 participants.
From the 12 teams that first came together in Nagoya, Japan in 1997,
RoboCup has made rapid progress. Next stop? Padua, Italy in July 2003.
Sweet Revenge
Cornell University claimed vengeance of a sort for
the US loss to Germany in World Cup Soccer quarterfinals
when its Big Red team defeated the Freie Universitat Fighters of Berlin 7-3
in the RoboCup Small Robot League finals. Big Red
and the Fighters have met three times since 1999, and
each time Big Red triumphed.
The hat-trick world champions combine robotics know-how
with soccer savvy. Their strategy, like the best human teams, is to
retain control of the ball, and they claim to be the first robotics
team that can pass the ball from one player to another.
Like human soccer stars, Big Red also courts the media with press releases,
photo archives, and special appearances at the Smithsonian and Silicon Valley's
Tech Museum.
The Aussies are Coming
While the cube-bots of the Small-Size and Middle-Size leagues
require no less blood, sweat, and ingenuity, the modified AIBOs of the Four-Legged
league usually steal the show.
Here, veteran CMPack'02 from CMU added another championship
to its stellar record. Winning with commanding margins
all the way to the finals, it edged out University of New South Wales team
rUNSWift on penalty kicks after a 3-3 draw.
Besides CMPack'02, the other three semifinalists were all Australia teams
that had decimated their round robin groups. CMU certainly has its work
to keep its throne cut out.
Credit also to fourth placer
RoboMutts with the fastest posting of competition coverage on their website.
Humanoids Debut
Following the buzz of Honda's Asimo and Sony's SDR-4X,
10 humanoid robots in 4 height classes competed for the first time in Fukuoka.
Events included walking, shooting, and freestyle performance.
Unsurprisingly the Japanese entries dominated, and Nagara, built by a coalition
from the Gifu Prefecture (a high tech region west of Tokyo with Silicon
Valley dreams) took the top honours.
Other participants include statuesque Priscilla from Sweden, and
peripatetic Robo erectus from Singapore Polytechnic
and Tao-Pie-Pie from University of Auckland. The latter two also participated
in FIRA humanoid competitions in May, where Tao-Pie-Pie won a technical merit award
for autonomous operations.
DUELING DIRECTIONS
Joseph F. Engelberger is known as the founding father of industrial
robotics and the robotics industry and namesake of the prestigious Engelberger
Robotics Award. And he is mad at the academic research
community for focusing on stuff only good for filling graduate dissertations,
like walking and facial expressions. His solution: provide seed funds for
nearer term industrial and service applications, like
eldercare, lest the Japanese steal the future.
On the other hand, Seymour Papert, visionary and cofounder of the MIT AI Lab,
mourns the "flattening" of the big cosmic questions of early AI.
His take is that where research once aspired to subjects such as
a machine to rival human intelligence, the discipline has been reduced
to robotic accounting and automotive assembly because of bottom-line fixation.
No panacea offered.
ENGELBERGERIAN ADVANCES
Land of the Household Robots
Japan stole a march on US and Europe with widespread adoption of industrial
robotics and leaped to the top of the manufacturing pile. Although its
economy is now languishing, its fascination with technology
continues and it is way ahead in the development of service robots.
Honda's Asimo and Sony's SDR-4X dominate mindshare for service and
entertainment humanoid robots respectively, but market positioning does not
hide their tremendous head start in consumer assistance
and companionship robots. Less technologically ambitious bots useful
around the house are being introduced regularly by major manufacturers;
witness NEC's PaPeRo and NTT's FII-RII. While some may appear
trite or even kitschy, think of them as troops
at the first beach head of a new order.
Look Before You Leap
Having two eyes means looking better and seeing a lot better - being able,
in fact, to judge distance. Historically, specialized robotics
implement depth perception with
expensive cameras and a lot of offboard computing horsepower. But like all things
silicon, CMOS imaging devices and more powerful processing will make stereoscopic
vision a viable popular option. Startup Tyzx's low-powered
DeepSea chip is a dedicated processor
that compares two streams of digital images and extract 3D information in colour.
First applications include operating oil platforms in bad weather
and deployment in the International Space Station. Military and surveillance
customers are targeted, and consumer adoption is inevitable as we move down
the experience curve. But watch out, Microsoft is also interested
in this technology...
Look Before You Place
Not everyone needs to have two eyes for depth vision. BrainTech's SC3D (single camera
3 dimensional technology) algorithms use a single still image to
calculate the location of an object. The information, derived within 0.2 to 0.8
seconds with a maximum error of plus or minus 0.5mm, can then be used to
control robotic manipulators. First developed for the automotive industry,
advantages include simplicity and low cost when compared
with stereoscopic cameras and laser triangulation.
Partner Marubeni of Japan is offering RoboNavigator, a
SC3D-based controller system
at about USD$100,000, with projected annual sales of 200 units by 2005.
Keeping its eggs in multiple baskets,
BrainTech's offers a full line of vision-guided robotics solutions
based on single and multiple cameras and lasers.
NOT YOUR GRAND PAPPERT AI
Yakity Yak
A cheap microphone on your PC will get you a .WAV file that has AIBO
talking with your voice ("Bedtime, kids!"). But if you want more than a parrot,
it's a complicated research project. Scientists
at Sony's Computer Science Laboratory in Paris are teaching a souped-up
version of AIBO to talk. The process is the tried-and-true "point and name"
approach used with babies, and excruciatingly slow. Now some wag
may suggest automating this, i.e., having one robot teach another, and
it does work.
A pair of robots have been able to build up a common vocabulary of
about 100 words expressing basic concepts. Interestingly enough, like twins or
young children, some of these words are arbitrary and totally
incomprehensible to anyone else.
The Stressed-Out Thermostat
So robots can talk, but what do they have to say? How about how
they feel? I and A Research of Australia believes that it has
a handle on one of the Holy Grails of AI: a system that replicates
human emotional responses. EMIR (Emotional Model for Intelligent Responses)
is based on an extensive database of human response collected by psychologist
Albert Mehrarabian. Demos include an emotional thermostat when the temperature
starts getting out of its control, and first target markets will be the toy
and game software industry. EMIR is available to developers
as a Java or C/C++ library.
But is it Conscious?
The robot tells you how it feels. Is it alive and conscious?
What does that even mean?
This time, Rodney Brooks talks about
the line between alive and not: is there a vital spark, or is
it just something we don't understand or have the tools to describe?
Brooks describes fascinating computational experiments
and robotic projects in search of multicellular organizations and reproduction,
neural systems, ecological niches, and emergence, throwing in a pitch for
his company iRobots and the MIT AI Lab to boot.
Daniel Dennett provides an interesting companion piece on consciousness.
This discusses the nested objections to robotic consciousness
with a foray to philosophical issues and a description of Cog,
an AI Lab project to build robots that could
refute of said objections.
A Cog Full of Surprises
Cog, a humanoid robot project at the MIT AI Lab, is based
on the hypothesis that "Humanoid intelligence requires
humanoid interactions with the world".
Contrary to Engelbergerian criticism about academic research, Cog developers tackle
many real world challenges with hardcore engineering
even while they commit the frou-frou sin of providing the robot with facial expressions.
Mainly head, torso, and arms, Cog mimics human shape, structure, and degrees
of freedom as much as possible. Details include spring-like arm behaviour,
dual camera vision for peripheral and focused view, and the complexities of
tracking target objects through human-like eye movements.
The methodology behind Cog also reflects a new view
of intelligence that moves away from previous monolithic, centrally-controlled models.
Big Leap Forward
We first reported on the return of AI several months ago, and the momentum
continues. Popular technical press articles have since given way
to management consultant-speak as McKinsey gets into the act. With a nod
to fashion cycles, the latest McKinsey Quarterly describes real world
applications of AI technology in business and some quick rules
for deployment. To cap the story, DARPA has announced a new initiative
in cognitive research. The goal is radically new systems, self-aware,
reasoning and operating autonomously, able to respond to surprises with
imagination, and generally faster, smaller, smarter, and more robust.
Interested parties should check out the Federal Business Opportunities
posting.
TECHNOTOYS
AIBO Evolution
Like other consumer electronics products,
Sony's AIBO family is producing new models and upgrades at a rapid
clip. Low-end, manga-cute LM AIBOs Cimarron and Latte were introduced in time for
Christmas last year along with the sleek Series 220.
Last month the LM series added another personality with
the pug-like ERS-31L.
Now a new generation of the original AIBO and the Series 220 are
using an enhanced "super core" CPU that has doubled the clock rate to 384MHz.
With its recent move to make the SDK widely available, Sony is driving
to reap the ingenuity and development power of the net.
CMPack'02 and other souped-up AIBOs are just the tip of the iceberg.
The goal? AIBO leaping across the chasm into mainstream niches wherever
opportunities can be found.
PROOF OF THE PUDDING
Marathon UAV
Predator and Global Hawk demonstrated the power of military
UAVs - and their costs. Low-cost civilian mini-UAVs, on the other hand,
have a broad range of applications from fisheries
monitoring and search and rescue to weather reconaissance.
After 10 years of work, the Insitu Group of Washington State
is finally gaining altitude with a contract with Boeing.
The resultant ScanEagle UAV successfully made its first flight in June.
Only four feet long with a 10-foot wingspan, it was launched by a catapult and retrieved by catching
a rope from a 30-foot pole. Insitu's low-cost endurance birds
also made the first transatlantic UAV
flight in 1999, a 2,000-mile trip from Newfoundland to Scotland, using
only 1.5 gallons of gasoline.
Robotic Radiation Hound
Engineer/artist Natalie Jeremijenko's
fascination with technology and its impact on life and environment
is a point of view that
includes motion detectors on the Golden Gate Bridge to count the number of
suicides and software rewarding users with a tree ring every time a
tree's worth of paper has been used.
One of her latest projects is to convert the Mega Byte 2.0 robotic dog into
a mobile Geiger counter, zooming in like a bloodhound towards higher levels of
radiation. Now just think what you might be able to do with an AIBO, and
think of all the robotic dogs and critters waiting out there...
Also check out the original proposal for an example of proposalspeak in
the art world.
Horses Sweat, Gentlemen Perspire, Ladies Glow
So where does that antiquated piece of correct English leave robots?
Well, if you are Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Walter, you do all
of the above. Walter simulates warmbloodedness by pumping water at body
temperature to its extremities. It has different fabric "skins" that, while waterproof,
"sweats" through tiny pores at different rates while it walks.
Used for measuring the thermal insulation and moisture vapour resistance
properties of clothing from sportswear to spacesuits, Walter just needs to zip
on the appropriate skin for lady, gent or equine.
MAN vs MAN
Robosites
Is our fascination with things robotic just a passing fancy
and a bubble that has already burst?
Several robo*.com domains have been reclaimed by creative destruction,
while other sites seem to be deserted
relics of ancient civilizations running on autopilot - the
the only sign of life is the ubiquitous
robonews from Moreover.com's search engine.
Robocafe, a directory in Internet space, waits for visitors
to add themselves like Kilroy, but there've been precious few
since early 2000. Robot Science & Technology, mainly a glossy offline
mag, stopped around time of AIBO 2. Even BBC's Robot World
feels a little stale. Still, new life crops up. Robogeeks bills
itself as "The ultimate resource for everything robotic"
and RoboLife is onto a second rev through
one man's labour of love.
MACHINE vs MACHINE
Webot's Third ALife competition
If the smell of solder and idiosyncracies of mechanical things just don't appeal,
you may want to try mobile robot simulation instead. Webots, a simulator that
lets you create custom robots and virtual worlds, is currently running the Third
ALife competition world on the net. Like a virtual and more benign Gaak,
competing bots navigate a maze in search of energy "chargers" ahead of each other.
A virtual webcam on the simulator
will show the blow-by-blow starting 7/15 until the last
bots are left standing next May 1.
Competitors can enter and upload improved versions any time between now and then.
Built by Cyberbotics of Switzerland, Webot can also
downloading your favourite controller into Kephera, a real physical robot.
IN THE ARTS
Where Did I, Robot, Come From?
Every human culture has its creation myth. While the MIT folks worry
about consciousness in robots, Garry Shepherd of RMIT
(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University of Australia
worries about what robots will have for their tales of creation and
prehistory. An intriguing concept that's a little, uh, eccentric
in execution. Sculptor Shepherd's invention traces back to the British Isles and
its faerie lore: faeries have robots and when faerieland got crowded some
faeries showed up in the human realm to help humans build their bots.
Or something like that, because, of course, all creation myths are
meant to be shrouded in uncertainty, and navigating the site is a
sometimes mysterious and unexpected undertaking.
Doraemon Retrospective
One of the most famous Japanese manga characters is Doraemon, a robot in the shape
of a blue cat minus the ears, sent back from the future to help hapless
fourth-grader Nobita from ruining the lives of his descendents.
Nobita is cast into and rescued
from his trials and tribulations by a series of magical gadgets
like the "Wherever Door" or the "Gulliver Tunnel"
from Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket.
Imaginative, whimsical, and often heartwarming without being saccharine,
the tales appeared in the 70s and created a goldmine of films
and sundry merchandising.
Currently, the Suntory Museum in Osaka is featuring
art and photographs, toys, and even fashions from
a generation of artists raised on and inspired by Doraemon.
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STAR TURN
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Walking Forest Machine
Walk up, down, and along rugged slopes,
step over obstacles, and cut down only
the right trees. This seasoned Finnish lumberjack is
a tree harvester sprouting six articulated legs and
one massive articulated arm with a buzz saw on
the end. The onboard
driver uses a single joystick to direct
all walking, ground clearance, and harvesting
functions through an intelligent computer system.
Ten years in development, you wouldn't want to run
into it on a moonless night in the woods.
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BOOKS 'N' STUFF
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Our Molecular Future: How Nanotechnology, Robotics, Genetics and Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Our World
by Douglas Mulhall
Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1573929921
07/2002
Technology journalist Douglas Mulhall hosts this MTV-paced romp through the
latest technologic developments and extrapolates them into the future where
nanotech, robotics, and AI converge. Described as "thinking the unbelievable",
the books steps through such scenarios as a far less stable natural environment
with disruptive catastrophes, a molecular economy where the ability to manipulate
matter at the atomic level wipes out the manufacturing economy as we know it,
and the rise of a new, independent robotic species.
Mulhall's proclamations are often intriguing and digressive, but the question
of whether these are
science or science fiction remains controversial.
Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robots: Case Studies of Successful Robot Systems
by David Kortenkamp, R. Peter Bonasso, Robin R. Murphy (Editors)
MIT Press
ISBN: 0262611376
03/1998
Although studying what didn't work is sometimes more educational than studying
what did, this collection about successful mobile robots is a cornucopia
of working designs and algorithms. The book is divided into three parts key
to mobile robots: navigation and mapping, computer vision, and the
necessary architecture to pull these together in real time with other subsystems.
More importantly,
each featured robot has been "battle-tested" outside the laboratory environment.
400 pages devoted to the thirteen cases give a comfortable level of detail
and is supplemented by a bibliography of technical papers. Though a bit dated,
the book still provides good coverage of the field.
Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology
by Stephen E. Palmer
MIT Press
ISBN: 0262161834
05/1999
Do we want focus or peripheral vision? Depth perception? Vision
is integral to all but the most constrained robotic environments.
Palmer's 760 page opus tackles the full range from basics of physics
and biology to the frontiers
of research where neuroscience is integrated with computation and
psychology. Unique in the way it unifies the multitude of
disciplines related to vision, the text also does a masterful job
of presenting different points of view and providing extensive
supplemental resources in the glossary and appendices.
A credible reference for roboticists and not alike.
Technology Review
ISBN: B00005NIOY
Published by the eponymous MIT spinoff, this magazine is an interesting
blend of ahead-of-the-curve technology trends and commercial interests.
Written for the general reader with an interest in technology,
it covers diverse fields from biotechnology and nanotechnology
to power generation and the distribution grid and innovations in retailing systems.
Regular columns deal likewise
with a broad spectrum of topics affecting the progress of technology
and its implications. The puzzles section is a nice bonus to keep you
engrossed. 10 issues per year.
Battlebots Kickbot Arena Game
Hasbro
ISBN: B00005BVNE
The Battlebot arena is transformed into a card and dice board game in Hasbro's
solder-free interpretation. Pick a bot and get ready to roll (the dice).
A hit may
defeat some, but a super hit will clobber everything - or create a MAD scenario
if both you and your opponent have it. Arena features such as the Pulverizer
make their appearance on the board along with trap doors and other hazards
that can be used to your advantage. The winner eliminates the competition's
bots and wins, no surprise, a silver nut.
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd Pap)
ISBN: 0553380958
Neal Stephenson is one of the all-time favourite authors for Netsurfer readers.
Snow Crash, his breakthrough novel, dives headlong into the dystopic cyberpunk genre. The protagonist, hacker, swordsman, and pizza deliveryman, has to save
the world from a new strange drug/virus called "snow crash". Stephenson's world
is a highly textured kaleidoscope of throwaway inventiveness such as the Pearly Gates
religious franchise, cool skateboards, the fall of ancient Sumeria, and the Cosa Nostra
Pizza, Inc. Pull up a tall cool drink, put on the shades,
suspend literary judgement, and enjoy this fast-forward classic.
Robocop
ISBN: 6305073341
1987
Speaking of classics, Robocop may be an oldie, but it fits the bill for a big action
summer movie, and was in fact the sleeper hit the summer of 1987.
In near-future, dystopic (is that redundant?) Chicago, a policeman
is gunned down and repaired with robotic parts. The indestructible cyborg
is an avenging angel that rampages through the envelop of graphic violence.
Yet in the process, the film manages to skewer corporate ambition,
government bureaucrats, military conspiracies, and garden variety crooks alike.
Special effects, cinematography, and music all score high on the production values
ladder. Share with discretion with the kids.
For more selections, check out the Netsurfer Library at
http://www.netsurf.com/nsl.
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