RoboDynamics Official Blog

Ripsaw MS1 - world's fastest (driverless) tracked vehicle

Mon, 25 May 2009 07:41:00 -0700

Built by twin brothers Geoff and Mike Howe, the Ripsaw was billed as the fasterst tracked vehicle, clocking in at over 80mph. As of this writing I have yet to verify whether Ripsaw (the original vehnicle) is indeed the fastest tracked vehicle.

But today, with a reasonalby among of certaintly, I can say that the Ripsaw MK1 is the fastest driver-less tracked robot.

Featuring a slim frame and lacking battle armour, the Ripsaw MK1 is fast, dangerous, and often on the attack. A remotely controlled M420 Machine Gun is now the main feature of the vehicle - and the Howe brothers (with funding from the powers that be) are developing it such that it can become a great asset for the troops in Iraq to get them out of Ambush situations.

Don't be fooled by the spare looking frame though. This baby can take some serious hits and contually tick... Here are a couple of videos of the RipSaw MS1 in action:

Via Observe the Bannana.

iRobot introduces Ember - the DARPA funded LANDroid

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:10:00 -0700

I can't decide whether the new Ember robot is more cute than practical... knowing the success of iRobot with military grade robots, and the again with iterations to their consumer Roomba, I suspect this time they've achieved both.

Ember is a LANDroid, a DARPA funded project with multiple universities and organizations participating. In full disclosure, I should mention that I know researchers from other university/organization who are working on the same project. The goal of LANDroids is to develop what will amount to be disposable robots that are capable of creating a mesh network on the fly.

The idea is that a large number of these bots can be deployed on demand in forward combat areas thus creating a network which all soldiers within its geographic coverage can utilize. If a node (robot) is destryoed, the LANDroids must have the capability to detect and rearrange their positions to provide maximum coverage on the fly. This is a huge undertaking - and anyone who has any experience in setting up access points knows that even when the APs are stationary, this is a huge undertaking.

Nevertheless, the benefit of being able to create a network on the fly has huge advantages, and indeed beyond just military. For example, being able to have a network up and running quickly after a natural disaster where the network infrastructure has been taken out can provide huge benefits for early responders. In the enterprise, it can be argued that having these robots would enable network installers to be able to quickly identify optimal locations for each access point they intend to install.

One thing to note is that similar to its older brother the PackBot, the Ember also has the "flippers" which enable it to negotiate uneven terrain more effectively (the PackBot uses its flippers to negotiate stairs).

Here's a video of Ember via Wired:

Introducing Gigapan Epic 100

Sat, 09 May 2009 18:33:00 -0700

GigaPan - the robotic photographer - is one of those great products that incorporates robotics technology to accomplish somethign useful (as well as cool). Basically, you set an off-the-shelf digital camera on top of a motorized (roboticised) tripod, and Gigapan takes a large number of high res photos as its motors 360 degrees around. Using some software magic, the pictures are stitched together to creae a seemless photo that you can navigate through. Think of it as Google Street Maps but from a stationary position doing a 360 look.

There are several things that are cool about Gigapan. First, it uses an off-the-shelf camera, which means they have significantly reduced the cost of accomplishing something like this. The Gigapan sells for $379. Second, you can create really amazing pictures - my personal favorite - the Belgian waffle at Burning Man 2006. Pictures can be uploaded to their website for public viewing and its remarkable how many are added on a daily basis, given a relatively small installed base. And finally, you can embed the final images on your own websites and blogs - and the optimization they've done where it serves the relevant bits as you navigate through the image is very impressive.

And now there is the Gigapan 100

With this new version of the hardware you can use a heavy duty SLR camera which makes it ideal for professional photographers. This version sells for $450.

I should also mention that my two good friends, Rich LeGrand of CharmedLabs and Dr. Illah Nourbakhsh of CMU Robotics Institue are involved in this project, the latter of whom joined us earlier this year on our Board of Advisors. I also visited the Gigapan headquarters last month in Portaland and was impressed by the team and the operation they've put together. I wish the whole team much success to come.

PS. I should also mention that you can embed these pics in Google Earth.

Google Sync - the free alternative to Microsoft Exchange, especially for the iPhone

Wed, 06 May 2009 13:06:00 -0700

I've been using Microsoft Exchange for a long time and am a big fan of it. In fact I didn't buy an iPhone until the iPone 3G came out - specifically because the older (firmware) did not support Exchange. The notion of having your email, contacts, and calendar synched across devices (and available on the web) is both compelling and useful.

Being a small company, we do not have the resources or the need to run our own Exchange server... so like many of you, we use a managed service provider. However, in the six years that I've been using Exchange I've had to switch my provider three times. The reasons varied from charging me for things I didn't use/need to not offering simple things that we did need but they'd stop offering. My most recent switch took place last month - and everytime a switch takes place, we lose a considerable amount of time managing the change-over from one provider to another. I've been on the lookout for another alternative, and today, Google introduced that alternative.

Welcome Google Sync.

Google Sync enables you to sync your smartphone to your Gmail, Contacts, and Google Calendar. And with the previous introduction of Offline Gmail browsing, this basically covers everything I need. My days using Outlook are now numbered. What is particularly exciting to me is the ability to use my iPhone with Google Sync. I just did a test run and it worked great. Before I do a full switch however, I will be migrating the robodynamics.com domain over to Google Apps, which in addition lets us use Google Docs from within our domain.

Singularity is near! At least according to Ray Kurzweil

Mon, 04 May 2009 03:26:00 -0700

Though I don't necessarily agree with all his assessments, I have a huge amount of respect for Dr. Ray Kurzweil. If you don't know him, he is a distinguished researcher, the man (or at least face) behind a variety of technologies such as electronics synthesizers, Optical Character Reading (OCR), a well published author, and a well-known speakers on various topics within the Artificial Intelligence realm. He dubs himself as a “futurist” researcher, aiming to predict down to the year, when a certain technology or seminal event will occur into the future… and he is convinced he will live forever.

Dr. Kurzweill is also the preeminent advocate of Singularity.

Singularity is that point in human history where machine intelligence will equal and subsequently surpass that of human intellect. This notion was formerly known as Strong AI, and researchers (and philosophers) have had a long running debate as to whether Singularity can ever be reached. While this debate precedes modern computers by three hundred years dividing thinkers and philosophers on the notion, I am no longer aware of any researchers over the last ten years who do not believe Singularity is no longer a matter of time. So the new debate is not whether machines will be “smarter” than humans, but rather WHEN will they reach that point. On this note, Dr. Kurzweil believes that “Singularity” is near, predicting that it will happen by 2029.

Being privy to a great deal of research going on in this field, there is no doubt in my mind that about Singularity. As to the timeframe however, I’m much more pessimistic, believing that it will not happen in my lifetime.

Regardless of the when, the existence of non-biological “thinking machines” with robust human-like intellect has far reaching consequences and social ramifications. Questions such as the very definition of being human, machine rights and justice, and rules of engagement in a world where machine can make qualitative decision on-par with humans, are things we’ll be grappling with in the not-so-distant future. Even in today’s landscape, the proliferation of robots into the battlefield raises serious questions for society at large. In Japan, United Kingdom, and South Korea, governments are already pondering Robot Rights. And just last week a man who sued a robot (and the company operating it) won his lawsuit in court in Sweden.

Whatever your stance on these issues, one cannot deny the certainty that machines are proliferating and that they’re getting smarter. My hope is that a larger discourse can begin on these issues thus forcing us to take a closer look not just at our future with machines, but within ourselves as well.

Bill Gates on Jeff Bezos

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:00:00 -0700

Jeff Bezos is selected to the 2009 TIME 100 list - and deservedly so. I've never been one to care much about "top lists" but I did find it interesting that the article was actually written by one Bill Gates.

Jeff Bezos is indeed a pioneer and a visionary, but like Bill Gates, I do have to agree that his biggest contribution (so far) is the Kindle book reader.

As a side note, with my birthday coming up, I should mention that I've been lobbying friends to buy me a Kindle. In case you want to contribute to my Kindle fund, here's the link to my Amazon Wishlist :)

Other notables in the TIME list were Biz Stone and Evan Williams, collectively known as the Twitter guys.

Do you know how to "drive" a robot?

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:11:00 -0700

Before robots attack humans, they will spend a great deal of time helping humanity accomplish varoius tasks.

Robots will come in all shapes and sizes - and will solve all kinds of problems.

Want your apartment vacuumed? Get a Roomba.

Need a sniper at high altitude in a combat zone? Send a SniperBot.

Need to be in two places at once? Get a TiLR!!!

Let me back up a bit...

At RoboDynamics we set out to develop a number of the underlying technologies that enable a wide range of robotic applications. We then use these technologies to deliver an end-to-end solution than can solve a large problem for the end user. Though TiLR can be used for a wide variety of applications, we picked robotic telepresence as the first showcase of TiLR's capabilities.

We believe robotic telepresence will have a significant impact on the way we live and conduct business. The significance of this technology is in its ability to instantly transport expertise without physically transporting the expert. From healthcare to enterprise management, the ability to have instant access to a subject-matter expert can mean a life-or-death difference.

A great example of this is our colleagues at InToch Health Systems. Their RP-7 robot has saved countless lives by enabling medical specialists (doctors) to be at a patient's bedside within minutes - in hospitals where no such specialists exist. The net effect is better care for the patient, time savings for the doctor, and cost-savings and efficiency for the hospital.

Though we do not intend to enter the healthcare market, the example above clearly demonstrates the significance of this technology. Our interest is in enterprise and industrial markets, where we enable stakeholders to communicate more effectively within teams or spaces that matter to them. For example, we enable remote workers to better communicate with the rest of the team at the main office - or an engineer to inspect an assembly line in China - from the convenience of their computer. The key concept here is convenience!

One of main technologies we've been working on is bridging the gap between the ubiquity of the web and robots. As a matter of convenience, we believe that it is critical to deliver robotic applications through web-based interfaces. This is a very difficult challenge and remains a work-in-progress. However, with the introduction of Rocketship, our web-based interface to TiLR, we have taken a huge step in bridging this gap. Given this technology, we can now transport experties within seconds of opening a browser. Though still in Beta, I want to invite everyone to give Rocketship a try - and provide feedback as we continue iterating this technology.

And so... without further ado, below is a 60 second video of Rocketship. Please enjoy.

Do you have Robot Insurance?

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:33:00 -0700

If you've read Daniel Wilson's How to Survive a Robot Uprising, then you already know that robot attacks are imminent.

More importantly, you've already educated yourself on how to protect yourself by reading the book.

But what if you don't survive the encounter?

While this is an unpleasant thought, it is important to be prepared.

Translation: Get Robot Insurance!

Don't know where to start? Watch the video below...

Comments welcomed.

RoboDynamics honored as TiECON Hottest Startup finalist - PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO VOTE FOR US

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:26:00 -0700

Dear Friends of RoboDynamics,

I've got some very exciting news today: RoboDynamics has been selected as a finalist for the TiECon Hottest Startup 2009. This event is the international celebration of the best new technology companies over five different sectors, and RoboDynamics has been selected by their panel of judges in the Wireless sector. This is a huge honor and accomplishment for RoboDynamics - and

we need your vote to WIN!

It takes less than 10 seconds to vote.

Please click the link below and vote for RoboDynamics. We can be found under the Wireless section in the far right column. I have also included pictures below on how to vote.

http://www.tie50.net/polling/

Please don't forget to forward this to all your friends... we need all the votes we can get to win this.

Information about TiECon can be found here - http://www.tiecon.org.

Thank you in advance for your support - we couldn't do it without you.

Best,
/F

Instructions (two easy steps):

Step 1: Locate and select "RoboDynamics" by checking off the checkbox in the far-right column as shown.

Step 2: Enter your email address in the box provided and click the "Cast Vote" button.

Happy Birthday Hubble Telescope

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:27:00 -0700

Today marks the birthday of one of the most sophisticated robots - or telescope (depending on your viewpoint) - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Nineteen years ago today this deep space observatory was launched into orbit by the shuttle Discovery. Despite some early glitches the telescope (robot) has managed to send back some of the most spectacular images ever known to mankind. Named in honor of Edwin Hubble, the telescope is not only a scientific instrument, but the personification of man's sense of curiosity and adventure.

More importantly to this author, the Hubble Telescope is yet another shining example of robotic telepresence applications.

After overcoming glitches in the early days of its life, the Hubble has managed to send back "the deepest views of the universe yet, allowing astronomers to measure its precise age. It has also confirmed the existence of dark energy" - to quote an article on wired today in honor of Hubble.

NASA has a great website about the Hubble Telescope and I especially suggest checking out the Hubble's impressive library of pictures.

The Hubble is scheduled to be decommissioned sometime over the next decade and will be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Flying Sniper Bot

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:06:00 -0700

Guns on robots have always made me nervous. But there is no denying that having a high flying sniper at your disposal can be invaluable in a number of combat scenarios.

So without further adieu - meet ARSS (Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System) - a sniper (helicopter) robot being tested by the US Army.

The challenge of this robot is to have a stabalized gun turret as the helicopter hovers. That job went to Space Dynamics Lab at Utah State University, where they mounted a sniper riffle capable of shooting 7-10 rounds per second along with a high resolution camera, all enabling the operator on the ground to pull the trigger.

And of course as the army likes to do these days, the controll station uses a modified Xbox controller.

Why robotics matters to Earth Day

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:59:00 -0700

Since 1970 on April 22nd we celebrate Earth Day in the United States. Founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day marks the beginning of the Environmental Movement - which in recent years has seeped into the larger consciousness of the American public. Protecting the enviroment is the single greatest challenge facing humankind today. Global Warming, caused by massive release of CO2 gasses into the atmosphere, combined with unabated deforestation, have social implications that is yet to reach our full consciousness... as declining water supplies, famine, and wars are certain to follow.

In order to solve this challenge we must have both a short term as well as a longer term approach. It is a matter of great concern that the longer term approach requires the type of global leadership that our politicians are still lacking. The good news however, is that there exists a vast amount of information and resources as to how we can work together in grassroots fashion to decrease our collective carbon footprint in the short term. A good place to start learning (and acting) is the CarbonFootprint.com website.

My goal with this post is to simply shed light on how robotic telepresence will play a small but significant role in reducing CO2 emissions both in the short and long term.

Robotic telepresence is about transporting expertise without physical transport of the expert.

Even in this nascent era of robotics there are a number of great robotic technologies in the field - that as an added side-benefit - are helping to reduce our carbon footprint by enabling people to be in two places at once. Whether its getting a medical doctor to the front-lines of battle in Iraq, conducting a business meeting between counterparts in a global corporation, or a maintenance manager inspecting an assembly line on the factory floor 15 blocks away, our tradional transport systems require burning carbon-based fuels (oil) to get the expert from point A to point B. Robotic telepresence provides a viable alternative that enables getting the benefit of the expertise without requiring the expert to be transported to that location. I would be the first to admit that there's nothing like being there in person. The question is whether this next-best alternative telepresence (in all its forms) is viable. And the answer is a resounding yes.

Saving lives, saving time, and decreasing carbon-emissions; these are some examples that are already in place:

RP-7 (InTouch Health Systems)

The RP-7 already has over 400 installed bases and extends the reach of medical doctors by providing instant access to the patient. Within seconds a doctor can be summoned to a patient's bedside, be they in a small town hospital that lacks specialists or the front-lines of battle in Iraq where it would be prohibitive to have a doctor present. This robot enables the doctor to see the patient, and with the help of a nurse, access realtime telemetry information such as heartbeat and pulse rate of the patient. The benefits are that medical expertise can be provided anytime, anywhere, as long as a robot is present there. This robot is one of my alltime favorite applications of robotic telepresence.

Da Vinci (Intuitive Surgical)

The Da Vinci robot is designed to enable surgeons to conduct surgeries remotely. It has multiple articulated arms that can hold a variety of tools - even those that a doctor would not be able to use with his (skilled) hands. The robot is often used to provide surgeries on patients in developing countries where the local doctors lack the skill and/or simply not enough of them available. Interestingly, the robot has proved very effective for local surgeries as well, particularly the types of surgeries that are performed in confined organs of the body - such as prostate surgeries.

TiLR (RoboDynamics)

For obvious reasons, TiLR is a robot I know intimately. What may not be obvious are all the different applications that TiLR has proved invaluable. Since August 2008, TiLR has been deployed in factories, warehouses, and offices. In all cases, TiLR routinely saved travel for the user. In factories we were able to deliver maintenance on specialized machines from a specialist in a different state. In a bank we were able to save downtime for employees who no longer needed to travel to regional headquarters to report to their superiors. And in enterprise settings we enabled remote workers to participate in informal office conversations that they would never be otherwise privy to. TiLR has saved time and travel while increasing productivity and collaboration, in virtually every setting we placed him in.

In all three examples above, and there are many more, the unintended benefit is a reduction in carbon footprint.

And this is just the beginning. Robotic telepresence is merely one application in robotics. Here at RoboDynamics, while we remain very interested in robotic telepresence, our goal has always been to develop a platform that can support telepresence - but also - a myriad of other applications including commercial security, promotions and advertising, customer support, and even helping the disabled and elderly. You can check out my Google Tech Talks on robotic telepresence where I discuss some of these applications and our general roadmap as we develop these technologies.

The wedding robot

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:18:00 -0700

I'm sure this is something many of us have been waiting for - a Wedding Robot (yes, the thing you're detecting is sarcasm).

The Japanese robotics firm Little Island - of which I haven't heard of before - has introduced a Wedding Bot. Standing at approximately 27" tall, this robot is intended to greet your guests at the wedding. And since it sports a myriad of sensors and speech recognition technology, it will presumably tell secret tales about the groom to liven up your party. And best of all, it only costs $2,500.

Now go convince your wife (to be) that this is money well spent - better for exmaple - than the flower arrangements.

There is also an AI feature which is not described on the website, though I hope its not for any telepresence application.

Via CNET.

Recon Robotics introduces vehicle inspection robots

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:25:00 -0700

Recon Robotics is now introducing another cool robot - this one for under-vehicle inspections.

If you live in a large city then chances are that upon entering large (government) buildings your car has been subjected to an under-vehicle search. The basic procedure is that you're stopped at a checkpoint and security personnel use a mirror mounted to a long handlebar to inspect the under-carriage of your car. Recon Robotics is hoping to convince law enforcement to instead use their robot - which has cameras - and joystick it underneath the car for inspection. The joystick has a small LCD screen that displays the feed from the robot's camera.

I have always felt that this would be a great robotic telepresence application - but I'm not sure how likely adoption will be. In other words, how would you convince someone to give up a mirror you can buy for under $100 and instead use a robot - which is certain to cost at least 10x as much. Stay tuned.

Can robotics save humanity?

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:22:00 -0700

This is the story of Tweenbots (www.tweenbots.com) - the thesis project of NYU grad student Kacie Kinzer.

The premise is very simple: will New Yorkers assist a lost robot reach its destination. To determine this a ten inch robot capable of moving only forward was let loose on one side of Washington Square Park. A flag attached to it told the reader that the robot is supposed to reach the other corner of the park - and needs to be pointed to the right direction.

Results: not ony people pointed the Tweenbot in the right direction, they actually prevented the robot from harmful situations such as potholes. In Kacie Kinzer's words:

The Tweenbot’s unexpected presence in the city created an unfolding narrative that spoke not simply to the vastness of city space and to the journey of a human-assisted robot, but also to the power of a simple technological object to create a complex network powered by human intelligence and asynchronous interactions.

I highly urge everyone to head over to the Tweenbots website and read more about this extremely interesting experiment. This is by far the coolest thing that's come across my desk this year. Video after jump...