The robot, named after Canadian female hockey star Jennifer Botterill, was developed at the University of Manitoba, and will be in a robotic competition in St. Paul, Minnesota later this year. Hockey is well known for being a full contact sport, but in a world where we expect to see robots duking it out in battles to the death, this seems pretty tame in comparison. In fact, it might even make people outside of Canada somewhat interested in hockey. Maybe.

This isn’t the first time university researchers in Canada have created a hockey-playing robot. In fact, just last year a similar creation was developed at the University of Waterloo. That robot was able to make slapshots at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour. I wouldn’t want to be the goalie defending against that monstrosity. The real question is when we’ll start watching robots instead of humans on ESPN, Jetsons-style. Hopefully it won’t be too long from now.

[via Yahoo Sports]

Wow Stuff calls it the “Greatest Toy in the Universe,” but that’s just a working title for now. The toy itself hasn’t actually been named yet but it’s already getting a lot of traction. So what is it? It’s a toy robot that can go into battle with a variety of different weapons. The little robots can shoot ping pong balls, flying discs, or darts. They can also be customized with removable armor.

It’s all remote-controlled, and the idea is to have two or more of them duke it out in a Real Steel-esque battle royale. Creator Jaimie Mantzel has become almost as popular as the toy itself. In the teaser video for the robotic toys, he says, “No one at the stores, or in marketing, care whether or not a toy is awesome. They don’t care if it’s cheap junk with wheels on it that shouldn’t be there,” he admits. But his creation is different. “There’s no reason anyone should ever have to take something home and be disappointed,” he says. Right now, users are able to submit their own ideas for what the toy robots should be called. They’re due out in time for the 2012 holiday season.

[via Cnet]

We may not be able to beam up Scotty or use the force on planet Earth just yet, but this instance of science fiction turning into real science is just as exciting. So with the visor over your head, what you see is exactly what the robot sees. Sensors in the robot, named Telesar V, can also relay sound. And as for the gloves, well they’re lined with semiconductors and tiny motors to relay sensations of heat or texture.

So, yes, in addition to seeing and hearing exactly what Telesar V sees and hears, you can also feel what he feels. So far, though, there are no plans to send the little robotic buddy to a distant planet filled with Telesar cousins so humans can try to blend in and understand the alien population. What professor Susumu Tachi, who designed the bot, wants to use it for is to examine disaster areas that may be unsafe or impossible for humans to navigate. Obviously it was partially inspired by the Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster last year.

[via Time]

And it’s all powered by an Xbox controller. Microsoft’s ergonomics were apparently just right for the process of carrying out tasks remotely. With the controller, users can navigate the Warrior and send basic functions to it, such as smashing windows or transporting heavy material. It can zoom by at up to eight miles per hour. The biggest advantage is its small footprint.

iRobot VP of operations for military and industrial robots Tim Trainer was quoted as saying, “With the small robots, you really have to optimize them for specific missions. With the Warrior, you can provide more flexibility.” Warrior prototypes have already been deployed, including two that were sent to navigate damage at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan after last year’s earthquake and tsunami.

[via Mashable]

I don’t use the word “crap” lightly, as it’s Ioannis Ieropoulos, a roboticist at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, who uses the term in a description of the robot. This isn’t the first prototype created by the lab, but it does share it’s name. Ecobot has been the name of this project since the first iteration, one equipped with a microbial fuel cell that allowed the robot to be powered by E. coli bacteria as it fed on refined sugar. The second bot was Ecobot-II and was able to work with sludge microbes to break down all manner of nasty things: rotten apples, dead flies, and prawn shells amongst them.

But then came the the problem of what to do with the waste – there’s always waste somewhere or another! As these two first iterations started to eat more and more, their lack of a way to get rid of waste had the food they’d eaten poisoning them – death ensued. So the Ecobot-III was born, and the pooping began. This robot is also called “BREADbot” – Bio-Regulation and Energy-Autonomy with Digestion. As Ieropoulos notes:

“EcoBot-III is a robot that collects its own food and water from the environment. It performs the task we design it to do, and at the end of the day, it gets rid of its own waste. It literally craps into its own ‘litter’ tray.” – Ieropoulos

This robot is gaining some big interest from such names as NASA who are taking special interest in the robot if it truly is able to work by breaking down human feces (amongst other things, but mostly that) as such a robot could play a big part in future space travel missions should then include human companions. As far as sticking around Earth, John Greenman, microbiologist at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory had the following to say:

“Robots that eat biological fuels could find enough fuel almost anywhere. There is organic matter anywhere on Earth — leaves and soil in the forest, or even human waste such as urine and feces.” – Greenman

As the project started in 2002, moved up to Ecobot-III in 2010 and hits the next level soon, so too do we move closer to the Circle of Life edition of poobot – Ecobot-IV. The Ecobot-IV model is in the works now and will both be shrinking in size significantly and will be gaining much more power from each bit of waste by boosting the stacks of microbial fuel cells. Now feast your eyes on the nastiest robot on earth as it’s presented by the scientists and engineers that produced it:

[via Mother Nature Network]

The LS3 prototype is equipped with sensors that allow it to distinguish between trees, rocks, soldiers, and other obstacles in the terrain. An 18-month test will start in July before the LS3 is deployed in an actual field exercise for the US Marines. The LS3 will continue to be refined during this period and ultimately must be able to carry 400lbs for 20 miles without refueling within 24 hours.

Its vision sensors will be tested and refined to ensure that it can properly detect obstacles and autonomously correct its course as needed. Hearing sensors will be added so that the LS3 can follow verbal commands from soldiers. It also serves as an auxiliary power source that soldiers can use to recharge batteries for handheld devices.

[via Armed with Science]

The robot, named da Vinci, was employed at the San Anotonio Methodist Hospital. Dr. Nathan Hales performed the surgery, which involves inserting the tiny robot into the patient’s mouth and then remotely controlling it with a sophisticated computer terminal. He said instead of being admitted to the hospital for 7-10 days, the patient will likely be ready to leave in as little as three days.

In addition, she was able to eat and drink almost as normal within the next day. Patients of traditional throat cancer surgeries have to wait for up to a week before that’s possible. “As a head and neck surgeon, having one more tool or one more method that we can address these cancers, it’s advantageous for all of us. It gives us one more way to provide hope and help for patients,” Hales said.

[via KENS]

The children – who are perhaps the best subjects in any study because society hasn’t taught them to lie and cheat – were asked to describe what life would be like if robots were part of their everyday routine. They were also asked to draw a corresponding picture. The results as tabulated by Latitude were interesting – 38% described robots that could help them learn, and the same amount, 38%, described robots that could play with them.

And those two 38% overlapped significantly in their descriptions. Many children talked about robots being able to teach new things in a fun and engaging way, assumedly something their current teachers aren’t doing such a good job of. And the children also described their home lives with robot interaction, many of which discussing a world where their robots could do their chores. We’d bet even the majority of adults would say the same thing. 66% of the children in the study envisioned a world where robots would have the same level of intelligence as humans. So, scientists, get cracking – you’ve got a lot of young kinds out there who are expecting hella cool robots when they grow up.

[via Forbes]

It’s not just anecdotal to say the robot looks like a crab. The story goes that inventors Lawrence Ho and Louis Phee came up with the idea after eating seafood and realizing how masterful crabs were at using their pincers to grab the most precise objects. The robot, which has similar pincers to grab the infected area, also contains a tiny camera that allows the surgeon to remotely operate the procedure.

To get into the patient, it goes down through their mouth and takes the same track that any other object would take to get to the stomach. If you can “stomach” that, then this procedure could be the next big thing in robotic surgery. It has already been used on upwards of five patients in Asia. At this point, it appears the crab-robot cancer-remover will be commercially available in around three years.

[via Medgadget]

That means you can throw a Quadrotor into the air and have it automatically re-orient itself and hover, useful for deployment in less than stable conditions. However, the real magic – or horror, depending on your willingness to subjugate yourself to our airborne masters – comes when several of the ‘bots work together.

The so-called swarms can fly in formation, maintaining perfect distance from each other, but they can also hold transition between orientations in 3D, as well as shift their positions so as to navigate around obsticles. The figure-of-eight pattern in the video below is particularly mesmerizing.

The brains behind the technology looks to be a blend of several projects going on at the GRASP lab, including the Micro Autonomous System Technologies research – which looks at complex, intelligent robot collectives that would be too difficult to teleoperate – and the SWARMS research “Scalable sWarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile Sensors.” The latter attempts to replicate biological swarming habits in ‘bots, using robot intelligence to carry out high-level commands from human operators.

[via Google+]

It’s a fascinating thing to think about. Every day, doctors get in the operating room and instead of sitting at the patient’s side, he is at a computer console, operating the controls of robotic machinery that performs the delicate operation. Ever since the first successful surgery of its kind was performed several years ago, there were all kinds of hopes that patients would have extremely limited recovery time and a quicker return to their sex life.

Duke University Medical Center prostate surgeon Judd W. Moul, however, says that has not been the case. Moul, who led the Urology study, said patients who had the robot-assisted surgery were actually less satisfied in the long run. This, he conjectures, is because they have very high expectations. 89% of prostate cancer patients who had the robotic surgery said they expected to be out of the hospital in less than one day and to be back in perfect physical order within six months. And while Moul believes that is possible, the expertise in performing the surgery just isn’t there yet.

[via Vancouver Sun]

Whether that was worth it depends on how appealing a robot with a huge speaker for its pelvis and a low-storage PMP tucked inside is to you, and whether those feelings changed having seen the ‘bot dancing with the Canadian jig wastrel. Folding, Transformer-style, to an 8-inch high speaker block, or opening up to cycle between a number of preset dance moves controlled by remote, the mRobo is expected to ship in the fall.

Meanwhile, a Bieber-branded edition of the Tosy robot is apparently being considered, high praise indeed. Britney Spears will no doubt be livid; sources claim she was also under consideration, but Tosy eventually bagged the Biebs.

Researchers are still being sought for the new program, which is called Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) and will span five years. The purpose of the drone helicopters will be to deliver supplies and combat essentials to Marines, but they will eventually be used in delivering supplies for medical missions as well as casualty evacuations.

The idea behind the autonomous helicopter drone is that it works for people without any flight experience. The user simply requests an emergency supply via an iOS or Android app and the drone will automatically deliver the supplies, landing as close to the person as possible. All this is done almost without any any input from the user in terms of take off, flight planning, navigation, and landing.

[via YTech]

The event surely drew a crowd even at a venue like CES, a true testament to the power of the Biebs. The presentation ran into a few snags with a microphone that didn’t work and a screen that wouldn’t turn on, plus the mRobo was still in a prototype form, not quite ready to show off all its moves. Nonetheless, thanks to the 2-hour stint by the Bieber, the event was quite a success for TOSY, which got the coverage they wanted.

As for the robot itself, well it’s more of a novelty speaker system that can dance to the music you upload to it. The mRobo can store 2GB worth of music or roughly 500 songs. However, all the dance moves are pre-programmed and you have to use a remote to tell it what to do. It weighs about 3.3 pounds, measure 8-inches tall in its speaker form, but reaches about a foot tall after it transforms. It’s expected to ship this fall for $199.

[via Time, via IDG]

It’s the first tournament in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), sponsored by NASA among others, a program intended to get young people interested in science and technology. The Rebound Rumble game – which you can see played out render form in the video below – takes a pre-defined set of components from which the robots can be built, and then puts them on a basketball court together.

Initially, the robots must work autonomously – though one of the three can be directed using a Kinect sensor bar – before drivers can take full control and work together. Winning is thus a matter of teamwork as well as scoring through the different hoops – higher hoops garner more points, as does scoring during the initial autonomous “hybrid” period – while players can gain bonus points by balancing their ‘bots on teeter-totter bridges.

A match lasts 135 seconds, though so far no teams have actually played: they currently have six weeks – and a video of will.i.am explaining the rules, below – to get their robots built, programmed and tested before the first games take place. As the great Black Eyed Peas philosopher says “let the games begin and keep on rockin’.”

It’s apparently the culmination of a year’s work, and though you may not see the value in using a ‘bot costing several thousand dollars to keep a cat’s fur silky-smooth, it’s a big step forward in domestic telepresence. The Kinect and Wii remotes are used to control Nao’s arms, while the sensor bar and the treadmill track movement; meanwhile the head-mounted display shows Veltrop what the ‘bot can see, as well as moving its head according to his own movements.

Next up is two-way audio using the integrated microphone and speakers, and perhaps some practice so that the cat doesn’t end up clawing Nao to pieces. This video is apparently the second attempt at a remote grooming, and it still includes such painful gems as ”Oh, did I just punch him in the head? Sorry kitty.”

[via Kotaku]

The six-legged robot usually uses all of its limbs to walk, but it can also repurpose two of them as grabbing arms to grab things. The researchers have several different versions, including models with wheel-tipped legs for faster movement, some which can climb up mesh walls and even let out a web-like rope for abseiling down to the ground, and, still in the labs, a cartwheeling model just in case there are fast-running children to be rounded up for processing.

As for the envisaged use, for search and rescue missions, the ‘bot can lower its body and still move so as to scuttle through small spaces, and be outfitted with pressure sensors on the leg-tips to more precisely control what’s picked up. The quad-jointed limbs mean it can work just as easily either way up, so forget about flipping it onto its back before dashing off to join the nearest resistance cell.

No word on when we might expect to see these Asterisk robots escape the lab, but frankly we’re okay if the Osaka University team takes a little while longer before unleashing them in the wild.

Google itself consistently declines to comment on the Google X lab specifically, though its spokespeople confirm that some of the R&D budget goes to projects that might be seen as outlandish. Much of the momentum of Google X – which employs engineers from such illustrious backgrounds as Microsoft, MIT and Nokia Labs – is apparently from company co-founder Sergey Brin, described as “deeply involved” and responsible, along with Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, for the original list of research topics underway.

Even if autonomous data-gathering robot cars don’t start handing the Street View team their pink slips, they could end up on the road sooner rather than later. Google is apparently considering manufacturing the self-driving cars in the US, making cash by selling location-based advertising for nearby stores and restaurants. Domestic-scale versions could find roles in homes and offices, meanwhile, and would likely be easier for Google to get through safety testing.

Other home- and office-based projects include ubiquitous networking, with Google apparently hoping to internet-enable all manner of devices and even clothing so that they can tweet your habits, learn your routines and helpfully fill in the gaps such as ordering groceries as and when you run out of them. It all seems terribly practical when viewed alongside space elevators – a fond favorite of sci-fi authors – as a potential way to dramatically reduce the cost of delivering payloads beyond the atmosphere by sending them up a tethered cable that ends in orbit.

Of course, as ASIMO is a ‘bot it can actually do some things better than humans. The sensors, for instance, enable face recognition, and ASIMO can recognize multiple people speaking simultaneously; it’s also capable of tracking peoples’ movement and predicting where they’ll be so as to avoid collisions.

New legs, meanwhile, mean ASIMO can walk, run, run backward, hop on one leg or on two legs continuously, thanks to stronger motors and a greater range of movement. Honda says that means the ‘bot can walk over uneven floors while still maintaining a stable posture, which certainly suggests the company has created the perfect robot butler to bring you a martini while you’re sunning yourself on rocks. It’ll get to you before the drink has lost its chill, too, thanks to an increased pace: up to 9km/hr, from 6km/hr.

Finally, there’s a new robotic hand with tactile and force sensors in each finger and the palm, giving ASIMO greater control over manipulating objects and ensuring he doesn’t crush your olive while threading it onto a toothpick. Similar tech has been integrated into a standalone robotic arm, which Honda may eventually offer to industrial clients as a way of interacting with potentially dangerous substances or in hazardous environments.

“Combined with the object recognition technology based on visual and tactile senses, this multi-fingered hand enables the all-new ASIMO to perform tasks with dexterity, such as picking up a glass bottle and twisting off the cap, or holding a soft paper cup to pour a liquid without squishing it. Moreover, ASIMO is now capable of making sign language expressions which require the complex movement of fingers” Honda

Honda has set up Honda Robotics, a task force gathering together all of its robot research, ASIMO development, assisted movement devices and individual personal transport gadgets. The group will attempt to push commercial applications of the various projects.

[Thanks Si!]

The PETMAN was developed by Boston Dynamics for the US Army, but not to be a soldier replacement—at least not yet. Instead, the robot is being marketed with the special purpose of testing chemical protection clothing designed for soldiers. It can move like a real person and do a variety of calisthenics to test the wear and tear on suits. It can even simulate human physiology such as body temperature and sweating.

Ready to be delivered to the US Army this year, the PETMAN took 13 months to design followed by 17 months to build, install and validate. Similar to the SARCOS robot we saw a few months back, the PETMAN is almost completely untethered, able to balance and move on its own. And although it won’t be heading into the field of combat for now, it’s hard not to imagine the possibilities of Terminator-like battles in the future.

[via Engadget]

Before we continue, there’s no way on earth you’re going to continue to read this post without knowing how a robot represented this man’s mother. When it came time to have Garriot’s wedding, his mother would not have been able to attend it since it was going to be in France and she wouldn’t be leaving Las Vegas. So Garriot hooked her up with a laptop interface for the robot, had the robot transported to France instead, and boom, there she was, witnessing it all, speaking to guests, and even going so far as to dance at the reception with all the kiddies. And what’s best about this part of the story is that the robot was, for this occasion, outfitted with a cardboard cutout image of Garriot’s mother so it’d be perfectly legitimate and ready to rock!

The robot itself is a model QB60 from Anybots, Inc, also known as an “Anybot QB”, and cost Garriot a cool $15,000 when it was purchased. He made the decision to pick one up when it was first decided that his company would stay in Austin while his wife would live and work in New York. Because both of them were unable to move their workstations, the stand-in robot was the perfect solution. Now Garriot uses the robot to speak with and interact with his co-workers at the Texas-based Portalarium game developers outfit while he travels to New York as well as any other place his job or personal life takes him.

Garriot notes on the situation:

“A great part of successful collaboration comes not when you’re having something to discuss, but just hearing what other people are discussing. It is a huge advantage to just feel like you’re in the room with the team, even when you’re on the road. It has been a relief to the challenges of travel. … In this era where people need to travel a lot more for work and also at the same time, we’re trying to cut down on expenses, this kind of technology is definitely a wave of the future.

The Internet is now ubiquitous. High-speed Internet allows video conferencing. The technology of a self-balancing system like a Segway is clearly something that even school kids do in robotics competitions. So this is the kind of technology that has really, truly come of age and this is a great way that this can be packaged can be put together for the service of humanity.”

BONUS straight from the Anyblog comes this video of the same model robot as written about above ordering a scone in California. Cool beans!

[via KXAN]

The creators of the robot race shall never die, so is their legacy and their contribution to the eternal memory of mankind. This fellow was the first to propose and support the idea of selling computers in a sort of time-sharing way in which both applications and computing power could be sold like utilities – yes, the utilities you’re thinking of, water, electricity, etcetera. You know that term “cloud computing”? That’s right along the same lines. He’s been a frequenter of Usenet forums working with enthusiasts around the world for several years, and he wrote a rather interesting story in 2001 by the name of “The Robot and the Baby” which explored the possibility of robots having emotions. A good read if you get a minute to take a look.

John McCarthy also kept up a rather rudimentary looking webpage from 1995 through 2007, and though it shows the doctor’s obvious unwillingness to succumb to Web 2.0 and the blog age, it does truly show the bulk of the work he’d done in one mass. At http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/index.html you’ll find the page which includes links to the many papers and awards McCarthy’d won, and at his [commentary] page you’ll find the closest thing McCarthy ever made to a blog format collection of words. This too ends several years before his death, the last entry dated at June 20, 2008.

Farewell McCarthy, may you continue to hypothesize in whatever beyond you believe in.

You’ll find that each of these little guys was created by hand, that they’re absolutely intricately detailed, and that the Roomba vacuums themselves weren’t altered in the least bit. They’re, again, basically just wearing hats. We’re not a group to step back from such simple mods though, as its often the simplest gesture that brings about the most genius results. Here we’ve got a set of four characters you’ll remember from your favorite two Nintendo-based games.

There’s Goomba from Super Mario Bros, there’s two Koopa shalls, green and homing red, both from Super Mario Kart, and then of course there’s the disparate Octorok from the Legend of Zelda. These little creatures floated about the art show for hours on end, all 4,500 square feed of the exhibit spic and span at the end of it all. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Roomba sold these custom costumes so that everyone could have a big time awesome experience?

Also note, if you’re wondering, that the music you are hearing is “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter” by the band The Main Drag. Fun stuff!

Thanks for the tip, anon!

It’s the brainchild of Marco Castronuovo, an Italian aerospace engineer at the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, and detailed in a newly published paper titled “Active space debris removal – A preliminary mission analysis and design.” He suggests deploying a double-armed debris-grabbing satellite that would rendezvous with an object, use one robotic arm to take hold of it, and the second to apply a solid propellent rocket.

Castronuovo has reasonable conservative targets in mind, only envisaging the project removing 35 objects over a seven year period. Those selected would be the biggest threat to future missions, however, being a pick of the 41 largest in the sun-synchronous orbital region near the Earth. Should they collide, it’s theorized, they could scatter into dense clouds of micro-debris that would be incredibly difficult to dissipate, and present a significant barrier to active spacecraft.

Whether the plan is picked up and acted on remains to be seen, however; it’s not the only strategy that has been put forward for debris removal after all. Still, it’s hard to argue with the need for such a clean-up, with the International Space Station being forced into evasive maneuvers last month when a potential collision was predicted.

For instance, if asked to prepare a glass of cold water for someone, even if it has never been instructed on how to do that before, the robot can pick up a glass, fill it with water and then – recognizing that it only has two hands and can’t then pick up ice as well – put down the glass so as to drop the ice in. While it may sound basic, that sort of problem-solving has generally been beyond currently implemented robotics.

“Thinking about artificial intelligence in the real world, actual environments are inevitably more complex, and they change quickly. So it’s necessary to have a learning mechanism that adapts to the situation. Also, because new situations emerge, it’s also necessary to have the ability to keep learning new information on the spot” Hasegawa Group

Just as we can consult experts and other sources, like the internet, the SOINN system can educate itself using web-based information or skills already learned by other robots, in a similar way to how the open-source robot Qbo can crowdsource object-identification so as to recognize things individual units are only seeing for the first time.

“For example, suppose this robot doesn’t know how to make tea, and it’s sent to an elderly person who lives alone. And suppose that person asks it to make a cup of green tea. The robot doesn’t know how, so it asks robots around the world how to make tea. Suppose, for example, that a robot in the UK tells it how to make British-style tea. We think this robot will become able to transfer that knowledge to its immediate situation, and make green tea using a Japanese teapot” Hasegawa Group

According to the team responsible for SOINN, it’s also computationally-light so shouldn’t require a super-powerful PC in order to do all the crunching. No word on when the system might show up in commercial ‘bots, however.

[via DigInfo.TV]

In the first part of the demo below, Qbo is shown using first a face-identifying system to spot people nearby, and then a skin color filter to track that person’s movement around the room. The second demo relies on the robot’s stereoscopic vision, with Qbo defaulting to focusing on objects nearest to it.

Interestingly, once Qbo has identified an object, it can subsequently spot it even if there are changes in color, scale, orientation or even if the object is partially blocked from the robot’s sight. Repeated viewing speeds up subsequent identification, and thanks to the cloud system those recurring encounters needn’t be with the same Qbo unit. Specifically, The Corpora has implemented a “bag of words” model (coupled with SURF), breaking the view of an object up into multiple sections.

Qbo flips between the two modes via voice prompts, part of the team’s intent to make controlling the robot something that needn’t be done with a keyboard, mouse and display. Still no exact timescale for when we’ll be able to buy – or build – one of our own, unfortunately.

The demo was designed to show the company eventually responsible for mass-production of Qbo exactly what the robot was capable of, though it actually ended up teaching TheCorpora more about naturalistic interactions. The log file storing the ‘bot’s activity recorded various occasions where bright sunlight distracted its vision, as well as a tendency to position itself further back from taller people than from shorter.

Rather than making a bad impression, however, the glitchy Qbo was perceived as more human in its behaviors. Just as people can be dazzled by bright light, or generally increase inter-personal distance when near taller companions, those tendencies in the robot only made it seem more alive rather than a PC on wheels.

The question TheCorpora is left with is deciding just how many bugs in their “social robot” software to iron out, and how many to leave based on the premise that “flaws” in perfect robot behavior actually contribute more than they confuse. That’s only likely to make the software environment more complex; for this particular demo, only the artificial vision, synthesis and speech recognition, the chatterbot and the modules in charge of sending and receiving data to the two Qbo internal controllers were active, but there’s considerably more in the roadmap.

The Hanako robot is made by Tmsuk to behave like a human dental patient that not only provides an open mouth for students to operate on but can actually react with saliva discharge, sneezing, blinking, and closing of the mouth. The Hanako 2 builds on this with improved speech recognition and a more realistic skin and movement.

Tmsuk partnered with a maker of “love dolls” to replace the original PVC skin with silicone. The eyes and lips are also now more realistic, with eyes being able to blink and roll. The silicone was also used to form the tongue and cheek lining. Check out the video below to see the Hanako 2 at work.

[via CrunchGear]

Hardware

Most domestic robot vacuums – such as from iRobot, Samsung and LG – have opted for a discrete, almost delicate design; something that won’t upset the children when it trundles into their rooms and nudges through their toys. Neato, though, have gone an entirely different direction. The XV-15 (like its XV-11 US cousin) is battleship grey and resolutely masculine, while its squared-off front bumper is broad and blunt-nosed.

What makes the XV-15 special, Neato claims, is its intelligent room mapping. Whereas the Roomba basically operates on a bump-and-rotate system, relying on repetition to cover the room, the XV-15′s conning tower houses a laser array which is used to map out what’s around it, and then continuously update that map as objects move or people walk past. The chunky bumper is an impact sensor, but the XV-15 aims to spot obstacles before it hits them.

In the box is the vacuum itself, a docking station for recharging and a reel of magnetic tape, the latter used to mark off areas where you don’t want the XV-15 to go. Usually with a robo-vac that would include the top of staircases, though Neato has given its model enough smarts to avoid tumbling down several flights. The docking station is basically a couple of metal strips – against which contacts on the rounded edge of the vacuum butt up – and a laptop-style AC adapter inside.

Unfortunately the mains cable on our review unit was unplugged and, with no reference to what’s inside the dock in the Getting Started guide, it was trial & error to figure out why the XV-15 wouldn’t charge. Still, the design does at least mean you can unwrap more cable and move the dock further away from the mains socket, or indeed unplug the AC adapter altogether and plug it directly into the DC input on the vacuum.

Dust is collected in a plastic box set into the top of the XV-15, easily tugged out and, aside from the grey upper panel, transparent so you can see whether it needs to be emptied. A paper filter is held in place by the easily-removed door. Rather than simply using sweeping brushes, Neato has installed a proper vacuum system that, the company proudly claims, is based on jet-engine technology.

Controls consist of a small monochrome backlit display, scroll buttons, a back button, select key and large orange power/start button. Usage can be as straightforward as hitting the orange button twice and letting the XV-15 do its thing, or you can set up cleaning schedules. You can have the robo-vac run daily, every other day or three days a week.

Performance

If Neato hadn’t made the jet-engine reference, we would’ve. The XV-15 is plain loud in comparison to robo-vac rivals, the first few seconds of powering on filled by the increasing whine of the “centrifugal compression-impeller” as it gets up to speed. It’s quieter than a manual cleaner – and of course you can leave the room that the robot one is working in – but it’s definitely noticeable. You probably wouldn’t want to schedule an overnight clean, for instance.

As soon as you hit the start button, the XV-15 moves a pace forward and slowly turns around, playing its (invisible) laser around the room to map it out. Then it gets going, initially running around the edges of the room before criss-crossing the middle, all the time maintaining an evolving map of the surrounding area. That map doesn’t require line-of-sight to the charging station, either; once it’s done one room, the robo-vac can trundle through any doors it has spotted and carry on its hard work in any further rooms.

Neato XV-15 in action:

Object avoidance uses a mixture of old-fashioned bump sensors and new-fangled lasers, and often depends on whereabouts obstacles are. A low sofa confused the XV-15, its lasers seemingly low enough to tell it there was space underneath, but the body of the cleaner not small enough to fit. Instead, it made its way along the edge, bumping and turning, bumping and turning. The bump sensors themselves are reasonably sensitive, though the XV-15 would push laptop power supplies across the floor until their wires stopped them. It’s a brave little cleaner, too: it will try to scoot its way under chairs and around blockages we assumed it would merely bypass.

If the battery runs low mid-clean – not something we experienced in our “compact” London apartment, but something those who don’t live in shoeboxes might encounter – then the XV-15 can track straight back to the charging dock, rejuice and then retrace its steps to continue cleaning where it left off. Similarly, when it reckons all the rooms are done, it will go back to the dock and fall asleep again. Unfortunately, if you manually cancel the cleaning routine, there’s no “return to base” option: you have to carry it back instead.

Cleaning performance is surprisingly good. We were suitably disgusted by the hair and dust the XV-15 picked up, though performance was better on hard floors like wood or tile than carpets. Despite Neato’s claims about the square prow being good for getting into corners, however, we found there was a narrow strip around the edge of the room which still inevitably needed some manual attention. Still, that’s the sort of thing you could do with a compact, handheld vacuum, rather than dragging out your full cleaner.

That’s not the only annoyance. Although “set and forget” is the promise, there’s a little homework to be done if you want the robo-vac experience to go smoothly. Despite the object avoidance systems, we did find situations where the XV-15 would get stuck. Shoelaces are a particular hazard, getting caught up inside and eventually prompting the robot to shut down, and trailing cables, papers or envelopes, socks and other small detritus can prove similarly perilous.

On a couple of occasions, even though we’d done a sweep – pardon the pun – of the rooms to tuck away anything we thought might trip the XV-15 up, we still returned home a few hours later to find the robo-vac had got stuck and gone to sleep in protest. Unfortunately, there’s no way of telling exactly how far through its cleaning routine this occurred, unless you go round on your hands & knees examining the state of dust on the floor.

In a world where bathroom scales can talk to your iPhone via WiFi, is it too much to ask that your vacuum cleaner does the same? Perhaps it is, but we wish there was some sort of alert/update system that could take the mystery out of the whole process.

Wrap-Up

At $399 in the US (for the functionally-identical XV-11) or £379.99 in the UK (when it goes on sale in late July), the Neato XV-15 is around the same as a mid-range Dyson. That’s expensive for a vacuum cleaner, especially since you’ll also need some sort of manual option to tidy up around the edges, too. Performance is also a little less thorough than a Dyson can manage, but a daily tidy-up is less of a chore with the XV-15 thanks to its automation.

A robot vacuum cleaner is obviously a luxury item, but if you’re going to treat yourself then you may as well get a reasonably intelligent one. Neato’s object-avoidance systems aren’t foolproof but they’re a lot better than other, cheaper robo-vacs, and the dirt-grabbing performance is solid too. The industrial looks may put off some, but the XV-15 is a robot pet we’d like to keep around.

The exoskeleton, which is a controllable leg brace, was developed by Homayoon Kazerooni, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Berkeley, and his team of researchers. Austin Whitney, the student who got to demonstrate and use the exoskeleton on stage at graduation, was able to press a button and stand up, and then move his legs with the exoskeleton. He also used a walker to balance as he moved across the stage. It was a very exciting moment for him: “The second I pressed the button and stood up, I was flooded with a series of emotions,” Whitney told UC Berkeley’s media office. “It was overpowering…I’ve stood in the [exoskeleton] machine a lot of times before, but I knew that it would be different up here [on stage], and it truly was.”

In 2000, DARPA funded Kazerooni’s research to investigate ways to help soldiers carry heavy loads for longer periods of time. That military-focused exoskeleton was unveiled in 2004. Dr. Kazerooni described it this way: “We set out to create an exoskeleton that combines a human control system with robotic muscle. We’ve designed this system to be ergonomic, highly maneuverable and technically robust so the wearer can walk, squat, bend and swing from side to side without noticeable reductions in agility. The human pilot can also step over and under obstructions while carrying equipment and supplies.”

In 2010, the research team had come up with eLegs, which is an exoskeleton designed to help paraplegics walk. Whitney said that he hopes “today’s success will provide hope to other paraplegics that in their lifetime, they will see affordable machines that can help them regain some of their mobility.” Dr. Kazerooni also wanted to let people know that this technology is out there, and that he is not anywhere near finished. “This technology can be accessible to a large number of people, and that is our mission,” said Kazerooni. “We’re telling the community that this is possible. This is just the beginning of our work.” We can’t wait to see what is coming next.

[via UC Berkeley News Center]

Robot Lightsaber Duel

At this year’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai, China, Yaksawa Industrial demonstrated the dexterity of the robots from their industrial line by having them duel with lightsabers. Unfortunately, no sparks flew, and it wasn’t really death-defying excitement, but it’s pretty cool to watch the robot arms spinning the lightsabers around. Check out the video:

Kibot Cute and Cuddly Monkey Robot – Hands On

Our own Chris Davies travelled to South Korea this week, and had the opportunity to do a hands-on of the Kibot robot, which is intended as a toy for kids. The robot features NFC, video calling, and WiFi, and can be controlled by a cell phone. Chris has speculated on a darker purpose, though: “Kibot is carrier KT Telecom’s attempt to condition children to the inevitable AI takeover.” Our commenters think he wouldn’t last five minutes in the hands of American kids, though. Check out the video. He’s so cute!

KURMET Jumping Robot

The KURMET (get it, Kermit, KURMET…ha ha) robot was designed by researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Notre Dame to do demonstrate controllable, repeatable jumping. KURMET can move himself by jumping, and also clear obstacles. The bot learns to jump using a fuzzy control system. They hope to eventually teach the robot to do flips and even play hopscotch (which would include jumping on alternate feet). The eventual purpose could be for military purposes, as a jumping robot would be useful travelling over rough terrain. Video:

A Robot Ultra Marathon Walker

The Ranger robot had accomplished a 14.3 mile walk in 2010, and we were impressed then, since it accomplished it on a single charge. But now, the Ranger has increased that distance to 40.5 miles. This is a distance record, but certainly not a speed record. It took the Ranger 30 hours, 49 minutes, and 2 seconds to walk those miles. It started at 2 p.m. May 1 and then stopped walking when the battery went dead at 9 p.m. May 2, walking at 1.3 mph. But the impressive thing here is that the Ranger did this on a single charge once again. There were faculty and staff taking turns guiding the robot on its journey as well. I’m still aspiring to 26.2, so good going to the Ranger!

Luna Robot Personal Assistant, is Rosie Finally Here?

You remember Rosie from the Jetsons, right? Of course you do. Who wouldn’t want a robot assistant that can do all your household chores for you. Luna isn’t exactly that but it is described as the “world’s first personal robot”. It has three important features, it is expandable via expansion ports, it’s fully programmable with open standards, and it is affordable (but we don’t know the price yet). There are still a lot of details to come on this robot, and it is as yet just a concept. Here is what Fred Nikgohar, the CEO of Robodyanmics said, ““We conducted an exhaustive search for a design studio who could deliver exceptional design within the context of a technical and engineering challenge that is inherently entailed in bringing world’s first personal robot to market. With SchultzeWORKS, we found a partner who has enabled our company to articulate an exceptional visual and artistic design, while simultaneously helping us mitigate the stringent technical and quality standards contained within Luna. This ability to work both within an artistic and technical framework is indeed a rare gift that Dave and his team brought to the table for us.”

Ok, so not terribly informative, but we’ll keep watching for details.

Hasbro Android Robot Toys get I/O video playtime,

Our new favorite monkey robot, Kibot, may be stuck in Korea, but Hasbro has wider ambitions for its Nexus S powered Robot Toys. On show at Google I/O this week, the Android-bots are basically self-powered motorized cradles into which the Samsung smartphone docks, hooking up via Bluetooth. You can then hold races and use object recognition, just as you will see in the video. My favorite part is where one of the robots falls over and actually loses a screw. Definitely still in development. Vincent Nguyen was disappointed that the robots couldn’t make out, since there is a boy and a girl. Maybe they can work that in. But you can shake them and, thanks to the accelerometer, they get dizzy; rub the touchscreen and they’ll cheer up. Awww.

While it would be easy to slap some wheels onto a dock and call it a day, Hasbro has gone further than that. Each robot has feet rather than wheels, and they use object-recognition via the Nexus S’ front-facing camera, as well as other sensors in the phone, to react to their environment. Shots are sent to Google’s cloud servers where they’re processed in real-time; the robot then knows whether to get curious or to run (slowly) away.

More details in the video:

More Google I/O Robotics: Sphero Robotic Ball Debuts Developer Program

Since the PlayStation Network is down, have you considered other forms of game play? Well, how about a robotic ball that can be controlled directly from your smartphone to do all kinds of crazy maneuvers in the real physical world? No? But Orbotix has. The company created a robotic ball called Sphero, the first of its kind. Now, they’re opening up the API behind what controls this amazing sphere by unveiling their Sphero developer program at Google I/O.

Orbotix is touting an open and absolute killer of an API and they are seeking the smartest developers to help reinvent the concept of play with Sphero. Developers who register for the program will have access to the full SDK for both Android and iOS platforms, sample apps, developer guides access to developer forums and an idea portal, exclusive hack-a-thons, bounties, contests, and educational discounts. Developers that register now can get a Sphero at a special discounted rate with early delivery, early access to software features, access to new prototypes, and may even have a chance to win a free Sphero.

Orbotix will be hosting various Hack-a-thons for their developers to code and test with the robotic ball present. If you want to register for the Sphero developer program go to www.goshero.com/developer

Watch the Sphero robotic balls in action:

German Researchers Take Out After a Robot With Baseball Bat

No, they aren’t trying to defend themselves from an alien robot invasion, they are testing the toughness of the DLR Hand Arm System, an ultra-tough system with 52 motors and joints that absorbs energy the way human hands and arms can. These crazy guys at DLR, the German Aerospace Agency, have all the fun. We saw the Rollin’ Justin Robot last week, and then they have also have smashed robot’s hands with a hammmer, and have given a robot a knife and let themselves be stabbed. Really!

So they want their robots to be tough in order to prevent breakdowns in industrial settings. The arm worked just as well as before after being whacked with a bat, more than we could say for a human arm. That’s because the arm has newly designed floating spring joints, which help dissipate energy better than a rigid structure could. The arms also have two motors, one to control the joint and another small one to adjust its stiffness. The hand also has 38 tendons which are tougher than Kevlar, according to IEEE Spectrum. The tendons are attached to a spring-based elastic mechanism, which also allows the fingers to release and store energy.

You can see the human having way too much fun taking a what at the robot in the video:

DIY R2-D2 rolling trash can, not a robot, but still pretty cool

Those trash cans we put out on our curbs are pretty boring, kind of gross, and not really something you want to think about too much. But this one is different. It’s been improved to look like R2-D2, probably with masking tape and paint, and a lot of time. To whoever made this, though, keep it away from our writer Shane McGlaun. He’s got his eye on it.

That’s a wrap for this week’s SlashGear Science Week in Review. We hope you enjoyed all the Robot action. See you next week!

The last time we talked about the Ranger robot was in July of 2010 when it was able to walk 14.3-miles on a single charge to beat a distance record. The Cornell team is back this year with an updated version of Ranger that was again attempting to set a distance record. The new Ranger started walking around an oval track at the university at about 2 p.m. May 1 and then stopped walking when the battery went dead at 9 p.m. May 2. Ranger walked for 30 hours, 49 minutes, and 2 seconds.

Ranger made 307.75 laps around the track at a 1.3 mph walking speed. The total distance the bot walked was 40.5 miles around the Barton Hall track. Faculty and students took shifts walking with Ranger to steer it around the track. The 14.3-mile record Ranger set last year was obliterated and the battery on the robot didn’t need to be charged or touched for the entire distance walked. The Cornell Team points out that at the Osaka, Japan robot marathon the robots were repeatedly recharged.

[via PhysOrg]

While it would be easy to slap some wheels onto a dock and call it a day, Hasbro has gone further than that. Each robot has feet rather than wheels, and they use object-recognition via the Nexus S’ front-facing camera, as well as other sensors in the phone, to react to their environment. Shots are sent to Google’s cloud servers where they’re processed in real-time; the robot then knows whether to get curious or to run (slowly) away.

Shake them and, thanks to the accelerometer, they get dizzy; rub the touchscreen and they’ll cheer up. Right now they’re just prototypes, but we’re guessing Hasbro is at least considering a commercial launch. More details in the video below.

[via Android Community]

Made by iriver, the Kibot hardware is cutesy and eye-catching. A simple hoop design, this is no Sony AIBO: it can basically turn its head and flash lights in its cheeks, eyes, ears and elsewhere, while movement is a slow, child-friendly crawl. The oddly tonsured top is in fact a button: tapping it brings the ‘bot to life, as well as making it talk to you (in Korean, naturally; phrases supposedly include “that feels good” rather than “prepare to bow to your silicon simian overlords”) A 1.3-megapixel webcam sits above a 3.5-inch touchscreen, while an NFC reader is hidden in the nose.

That NFC chip uses specially-tagged books and cards to load different features and trigger differen functionality. Hold up a story book to Kibot, for instance, and it pulls up an animated read-through shown on-screen and played through the robot’s speakers. Cards showing parents’ faces initiate video calls with their cellphones.

Alternatively, parents can remotely access Kibot and control its movements using their cellphone, watching streaming video of what’s happening around the plastic monkey. KT Telecom is offering various apps, content and games for download, with new content added each month.

Kibot is priced at 480,000 KRW ($450) with a 7,000 KRW ($6.52) monthly service fee; alternatively KT Telecom offer the robot on a subsidized plan. No word on whether it might be coming to the US or Europe, unfortunately.

Orbotix is touting an open and absolute killer of an API and they are seeking the smartest developers to help reinvent the concept of play with Sphero. Developers who register for the program will have access to the full SDK for both Android and iOS platforms, sample apps, developer guides access to developer forums and an idea portal, exclusive hack-a-thons, bounties, contests, and educational discounts. Developers that register now can get a Sphero at a special discounted rate with early delivery, early access to software features, access to new prototypes, and may even have a chance to win a free Sphero.

To develop a killer app for the Sphero you wont actually need to have one. However, Orbotix will be hosting various Hack-a-thons for their developers to code and test with the robotic ball present. It may take them awhile to deliver the Sphero into developer hands, but they’d like to build up a community of active developers first. They will be at the opening reception of Google I/O this evening.

To register for the Sphero developer program go to www.goshero.com/developer

Watch Sphero robotic balls in action:

When you’re active and attentive, the ears perk up; when you’re feeling tired and sluggish, they lie flat. Get enthusiastic – and, frankly, who wouldn’t be permanently enthusiastic wearing a set of robotic cat ears? – and they wiggle and twitch. It’s seemingly controlled by an Android app running a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

According to Neurowear, “Necomimi is the new communication tool that augments [a] human’s body and ability” and is the first step in better communicating how we’re feeling and reacting to the world beyond words and facial expressions. It’s going to be very, very popular with furries.

[via BoingBoing]

First off, who thought it would be a good idea to program a robot to literally gouge needles into someone’s scalp, ripping out their hair one strand at a time? I know that’s not something I would ever think about, ever. This idea is terrifying to me. But, it is an impressive technical feat, so… There’s that.

Restoration Robots is based in Mountain View CA. They hope to streamline the hair transplant process, of which there were more than 100,000 in 2009. They claim that the ARTAS robot will shave (pun intended) hours off of the procedure.

[via Forbes]

“I developed DON-8r as a device to get people more personally involved with raising funds for charities. I was inspired by the increasingly negative attitude that many people have towards on-the-street charity workers. Rather than approaching them and supporting their charity, people will often go out of their way to avoid them. DON-8r is my response to this, an engaging and approachable robot that raises money for charities through encouraging playful and empathetic support from strangers and passers-by.”

DON-8r is constructed from smooth plastic panels, it glides along the ground for a set length and then stops to ask passers by for donations. The coinage deposited into the slot on his back helps to power the bot, and he won’t roll on without the continued support from passers by. This little robotic panhandler is designed to be branded with any chairty of choice.

Tim Pryde is a student of the University of Dundee in Scotland in his final year. He teamed up with the Dundee Science Centre and produced this cute little bot to raise awareness for the center and to collect DON-8tions. He will be exhibiting his bot at the following shows:

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Degree Show, Dundee 21 – 29 May 2011
New Designers, London 6th – 9th July 2011

And just for fun, here’s an early video he posted of the GUTS! We love robot guts, and robots in general. If you want to read more about the design process, Tim’s chronicled the whole process in his blog.

Earth day was this week, so we have featured some green concepts and innovations. We always like seeing more efficient ways of doing things, and a road that powers its own lighting and traffic systems is a great example of that. But first, the world’s first hybrid car.

World’s First Hybrid Car

If you had to quickly think of a hybrid car, the Prius would probably be the first vehicle that would come to mind. But the very first functional hybrid car was the Porsche Semper Vivus, built way back in 1900. Back then, the battle between electric and combustion engines had not yet been won, and nobody knew for sure which way things would go.

Porsche has rolled out an exact replica of the very first hybrid car, which was painstakingly recreated by a dedicated hobbyist, and gave some journalists a ride around in it. The Semper Vivus had two electric motors, one on each front wheel, and two combustion motors which power the car and also charge the electric motors. Pretty cool! You can check out the action in the videos below.

Solar magnetic energy, the future of solar?

Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered a new property of light that allows them to harness its magnetic attributes.

Electromagnetism is a classically unified force, the relationship between light and magnetism is well known, but the magnetic component was thought to be weak enough that it could be safely ignored. Stephen Rand, a professor at UMich, said, “You could stare at the equations of motion all day and you will not see this possibility. We’ve all been taught that this doesn’t happen. It’s a very odd interaction. That’s why it’s been overlooked for more than 100 years.”

This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation,” Rand said. “In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment. Intense magnetization can be induced by intense light and then it is ultimately capable of providing a capacitive power source.”

Using this magnetic property of light would only require glass, for lenses to focus the light and fiber to guide it. Transparent ceramics are also a possibility. This would be much cheaper than solar cells which are expensive to produce. This could be the breakthrough that makes solar power cheap enough for widespread adoption.

Sidewalk, Heal Thyself

We use concrete for so many things, and it is a great building material: inexpensive, durable, easy to shape. But it can develop micro cracks very quickly when under tension, sometimes in a matter of weeks. Once that happens, water can seep in and the deterioration process begins.

Researchers in Belgium at Delft University have a great solution to this problem: bacteria. They say that they will be able to commercialize a “biological concrete” within two to four years that can heal itself in much the same way our bodies do.

The concrete uses a specially selected bacteria from the genus Bacillus, with a combination of calcium lactate, nitrogen and phosphorus to create a healing agent inside the concrete. If these agents are not exposed to water, they can remain dormant inside the concrete for centuries. But as soon as water seeps in, the bacteria spores germinate and feed on the calcium lactate. This process consumes oxygen, which converts the calcium lactate into limestone that solidifies and seals the surface. As the oxygen is removed, this also protects the steel reinforcement.

’We use clay pellets that are around 2-4mm wide to make sure that the agents are not activated during the mixing process,’ said Dr Henk Jonkers. ’The problem with this is we have to use relatively high volumes of this porous aggregate within the concrete mix. As a result, you gain self-healing but you lose the strength of the concrete.’

In fact, the concrete becomes about 25 percent weaker, which is far too much for applications that require high compressive strength. Jonkers is working on using a compressed powder rather than the pellets, that will hold the self-healing agent in less than one percent of the volume of the concrete.

Researchers at Ghent University are taking a different approach, using a hollow glass capsule to contain the healing agents, which they make out of Bacillus sphaericus and urea. The capsules range from 0.8 to 4mm in diameter. If the concrete cracks, the capsules break, releasing the healing agent. This method retains the strength of the concrete, but sounds more expensive.

Bacteria struggle to fill cracks larger than 300mm. Synthetic agents can fill larger cracks, but they can also make the concrete brittle, and are not sustainable. The scientists hope to find a way to improve their organic healing method, and are already working on a new solution that would make the cost of the self-healing concrete (which now is double the cost of traditional material) on par with regular concrete.

If this material is able to be made commercially, it could save huge amounts of money on road and other infrastructure repairs. 50 percent of Europe’s annual construction budget is spent on rehabilitation and repair of existing structures.

It’s a very green concept, as it is sustainable and also would prolong the life of a building material, so that less would be chucked into landfills.

Solar Roads

And in another case of the Dutch doing crazy things with concrete, how about road with solar panels built in?

The project is called the Solaroad, and was developed by the Dutch research firm TNO. Here’s the idea: a layer of concrete forms the road, a centimeter thick layer of crystalline silicon solar cells is laid on top, and then the whole thing is covered by a layer of toughened glass. Sounds slippery, and expensive. But let’s continue.

The road could produce as much as 50kWh per square meter per year, which could power street lighting, traffic systems, and households. The idea is still in development, and it would be first applied to bike lanes. The first Solaroad is scheduled for installation next year, and then they hope to study it and expand the roads throughout the country. Would this ever make it to the US? Who knows, but probably not in the near future. It will be interesting to see how it works out for the Dutch.

Medical Innovations: Artificial Pancreas, Hand Transplant, Bionic Leg, and an App for Knee Surgery

Artificial pancreas

The pancreas is such an incredibly complex organ, producing needed horomones for the body such as insulin, and also aiding in digestion. It is part of both the endocrine and digestive system. The thought of actually producing an artificial pancreas is staggering. So it isn’t too surprising that this artificial pancreas really isn’t one. It doesn’t actually replace a person’s pancreas. It only fulfills one of the pancreas’ functions, supplying insulin.

The system has three parts: a small subcutaneous patch to monitor blood glucose levels, sending the results via radio frequency to a small computer that calculates the correct insulin dose, and an insulin pump that delivers the dosage.

“The system has the potential to improve the safety and effectiveness of insulin delivery and may allow more flexible lifestyles in the future,” said Dr Roman Hovorka of Cambridge University, who led the study. He said that the system could be exceptionally useful at night, when dangerous blood sugar drops often happen.

There are currently systems that allow a patient to wear a patch that monitors their blood sugar, and a small, cell phone size insulin pump to deliver a steady dose throughout the day. But these still require input from a clinician or a patient. This system is closed-loop, intended to be completely autonomous, just like an organ. It was tested by 12 diabetics overnight, after consuming a large meal with carbohydrates and alcohol (sounds like a joke: 12 diabetics walk into a bar…). The patients had a 22 percent improvement in keeping blood-glucose levels in a safe range, and the incidence of low blood-glucose levels was cut in half.

This technology would be a great improvement in the quality of life for many diabetics. Now, to make it widely available, and affordable.

Hand Transplant

In another amazing medical accomplishment, a woman from Yuba City, California recieved a hand transplant. Emily Fennell is a single mom, and lost her right hand in a car accident in 2006. She had adapted to using her left hand for daily tasks, and had a prosthesis, but it was less than satisfactory. So, in an amazing 14 1/2 hour operation at UCLA Medical Center, which required a team of 20, her bones, blood vessels, nerves and tendons were connected to the donated hand.

This is the 13th such transplant in the US, and the first at UCLA. Fennell will have to take medication for the rest of her life to prevent rejection of the hand, but with some intensive rehabilitation (she is spending more than 8 hours a day in therapy now), she will be able to regain significant use of the hand. It will never be fully functional but she will regain 60 percent of function. She was able to move her new fingers soon after the surgery, but still has no feeling in the hand. The surgery cost $800,000, but it was experimental, so she did not have to pay.

A surgeon who has performed the transplant surgery on another patient, Dr. Linda Cendales, described the function of a transplanted hand this way, “They will never have a normal hand. But they do recover enough sensation to differentiate between temperatures, and rough and smooth surfaces.” They can open doors, tie shoes and turn pages. Not a bad deal, all things considered.

Bionic Leg

There have been great advances in the use of prosthetic limbs, making them lighter, more comfortable, and easier to move. But many of the current prosthetics are operated manually, by the person swinging their leg out to step forward. Scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Center for Bionic Medicine are working on a project to create a robotic prosthesis that would be controlled by the person’s own nervous system, and powered so that it can move on its own.

One patient that is testing the new technology is Hailey Daniswicz, 20, who lost her lower leg to bone cancer in 2005. Daniswicz is training a computer avatar to recognize slight movements in her thigh. She has electrodes attached to nine different muscles in her thigh, and can see her progress on the screen as she flexes and moves her muscles. The computer begins to recognize the intent of the user over time.

She is participating in a clinical trial sponsored by the U.S. Army using electromyography (electrical signals produced by muscles) and pattern recognition computer software to control the next generation of robotic limbs. She will eventually be fitted with a robotic limb.

“We’re really integrating the machine with the person,” said Levi Hargrove, a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Center for Bionic Medicine who is leading the project. The researchers have already developed prosthetic arms that use nerve impulses to operate. A leg is the next step. It is too early to say now when these would be available, but we are closer than we’ve ever been before.

Knee Surgery? There’s an app for that.

Is there anything you can’t do with an app? There’s even an app that assists with knee surgery. The app is called DASH and is developed to work on an iPod touch to aid doctors through complex knee and hip replacement surgery. There’s of course more equipment needed than just the iPod touch, but the device is an integral part of the system.

Doctors at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai successfully performed three knee replacement surgeries using the new technology. The system involves slipping the iPod touch into a case that has precision measuring instruments attached to it. The surgeon then positions the iPod touch to read the data from the high-resolution screen to accurately mark spots to cut and properly align new components into the joint.

“Accuracy in positioning the new joint is what decides how well the patient walks post-surgery, how much the knee bends, and even how long it lasts,” said Dr. Arun Mullaji, who demoed the new system.

There are already precision technologies that help with the complexity of knee surgery, but they are bulky and complicated to operate. The DASH software along with the use of an iPod touch makes the process more portable, intuitive, and affordable. The system was developed by Smith & Nephew along with Brainlab and already has a CE certification for Europe. It is waiting for approval in the U.S. A free demo of the app is available for download called DASH Learn.

See the video of how it is done here:

And Now For The Robots…

SARCOS: A robot you can push around

The Sarcos is a full body humanoid robot that stands and balances on its own two feet with movements that are fluid thanks to the use of hydraulic actuators. Ben Stephens, a Ph.D. research student at Carnegie Mellon, works with Sarcos to develop its balancing abilities. In the first video below you will see him demonstrating Sarcos by having it perform a dance that was programmed from recording human movement via motion capture.

The second video actually shows Sarcos getting pushed with a stick and being able to step forward to adjust its balance without falling over. That’s a good skill to have considering Sarcos is probably not cheap nor lightweight and could cause both monetary and physical damage. What’s interesting in both videos is that Sarcos is not just playing back programmed joint movements, but is actively adjusting balance throughout each movement.

Now, if they can make him cordless, and give him some skin, that guy is going to be really freaky.

iRobots in Fukushima

On Sunday April 17th, iRobot packbots entered the Fukushima Daiichi reactor building 3 to explore parts of the plant that have been closed to people since the facility was evacuated. Japanese nuclear workers were entering some locations in the plant just after the disaster, but now they’ve mostly pulled back to safe locations. The shorter term radiation doses were relatively safe, but at sustained elevated levels the threat of damage grows. The repair efforts continue with support from a number of robotic helpers.

The packbots had the important job of taking radiation and temperature readings from inside the rooms that had been sealed since the disaster. TEPco has not released these findings to the public yet, but rest assured, you don’t want to go in there. The bots also feature a video camera with a live-feed to operators at a safe location. The iRobot packbots are notable for their use in US Military operations in Iraq and Afganistan as bomb defusal bots.

See the video of the packbots entering the plant:

That’s a wrap for SlashGear Science week in review. Thanks for reading, and see you next week. We always appreciate your feedback, so feel free to send in your suggestions, or leave them in the comments.

Daniswicz is participating in a clinical trial sponsored by the U.S. Army. The study uses electromyography (electrical signals produced by muscles) and pattern recognition computer software to control the next generation of robotic limbs. She will eventually be fitted with a robotic limb.

“We’re really integrating the machine with the person,” said Levi Hargrove, a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Center for Bionic Medicine who is leading the project.

The electrodes act as antennas, picking up electrical signals sent from the nerves to the muscles. These signals are fired in a specific pattern, so the computer can recognize how the person wants to move. “The way most prosthetics work now is you have mechanical sensors. You have to push and interact with them,” Hargrove said. “With this, you measure the actual neural intent and have that tell the motor what to do.”

The researchers have already developed prosthetic arms that use nerve impulses to operate. A leg is the next step. One surprising finding is that patients were able to operate the ankle joint as well as the knee joint. Researchers had thought that would require surgery implanting additional nerve endings to accomplish. The fact that it does not require surgery makes the population of people who will be eligible to receive these robotic legs very broad.

Right now, most prosthetic legs are pretty passive. They are operated by the user swinging them out. This robotic limb would be powered, and move on its own. It would be a much more natural movement. It is too early to say now when these would be available, but we are close than we’ve ever been before.

[via Reuters]