Robots act as space station companions

6 hours ago

Japan's first robot astronaut, Kirobo, recently completed its first mission aboard the International Space Station.

Now, Mirata - a second robot that stands 34cm (13.4in) tall - is soon to take its turn space.

It's all part of a Toyota-backed project to try to understand how humans interact with robot companions capable of recognising faces and maintaining a conversation.

The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones met with both Mirata and Nigel Morris, chief executive of the marketing firm Dentsu Aegis Networks, which is also involved in the scheme.

Robot dog: can we kick it? The terrifying questions about the future of military robots

Boston Dynamics' demonstration of its new robot dog ends with the message that no robots were harmed in making it — but will it always be that way?

A lot  of questions may arise???

• There’s a moment, during the video demonstrating Spot the robot dog, where it seems to cower. It’s very brief — and almost certainly a combination of projection and the mechanisms that keep the dog upright — but does it matter?
• At the beginning of the video, a dog wakes up and walks down a corridor. It looks cute — especially for a robot created to carry weaponry for the US Army. It trundles down a corridor. And then a man walks out and kicks it.
• It’s supposed to be a demonstration of the power of the new dog, and its ability to withstand kicks. And it works — the machinery goes into overdrive to keep it standing up. But the whirr of its machines sounds a little like whimpering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w

• The video ends with a disclaimer, telling viewers that no robots were harmed in the making of this video".
• But kicking is the least of what little Spot will eventually be expected to withstand. Boston Dynamics’ robots are being created to eventually work as packhorses and scouts for the army, in difficult terrain. If kicking the little robot excites our sympathies — what should we think about sending it off to war?
• That will be an increasingly important question as artificial intelligence gets more and more clever, and as a result more likely to be both abused and abusive. It’s been a big week for robots — which will soon be staffing hotels and can learn to cook from YouTube — but one that comes at a time of increased concern about the possibilities of AI.

Meet the robots - the strange creations of Boston Dynamics

• Many of our brightest minds have voice worries about AI — Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, as well as representatives of Boston Dynamics’ owner, Google, recent signalled their concern about what it might mean for humans in an open letter.
• But as well as endangering humans, it could endanger the robots themselves. Defence groups and other researchers want to make their robots’ intelligence more and more clever — but in doing so they also make it more like us, and more likely to be afraid of the things we want them to do.
• For now, it’s the stuff of science fiction. But soon it will be fact, and as well as cooking for us the robots will be fighting our wars. But whose side will they, and we, be on?

ASIMO 

ASIMO, an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative MObility, is a humanoid robot designed and developed by Honda. Introduced on 21 October 2000, ASIMO was designed to be a multi-functional mobile assistant. With aspirations of helping those who lack full mobility, ASIMO is frequently used in demonstrations across the world to encourage the study of science andmathematics. At 130 cm (4 ft 3 in) tall and 48 kg (106 lb), ASIMO was designed to operate in real-world environments, with the ability to walk or run on two feet at speeds of up to 6 kilometres per hour (3.7 mph). In the USA, ASIMO is part of the Innoventions attraction at Disneyland and has been featured in a 15-minute show called "Say 'Hello' to Honda's ASIMO" since June 2005. The robot has made public appearances around the world, including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Miraikan Museum and Honda Collection Hall in Japan, and the Ars Electronica festival in Austria.

Development history

Honda began developing humanoid robots in the 1980s, including several prototypes that preceded ASIMO. It was the company's goal to create a walking robot which could not only adapt and interact in human situations, but also improve the quality of life. The E0 was the first bipedal (two-legged) model produced as part of the Honda E series, which was an early experimental line of humanoid robots created between 1986 and 1993. This was followed by the Honda P series of robots produced from 1993 through 1997, which included the first self-regulating, humanoid walking robot with wireless movements.

   The research conducted on the E- and P-series led to the creation of ASIMO. Development began at Honda's Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center in Japan in 1999 and ASIMO was unveiled in October 2000.

Differing from its predecessors, ASIMO was the first to incorporate predicted movement control, allowing for increased joint flexibility and a smoother, more human-like walking motion. Introduced in 2000, the first version of ASIMO was designed to function in a human environment, which would enable it to better assist people in real-world situations. Since then, several updated models have been produced to improve upon its original abilities of carrying out mobility assistance tasks. A new ASIMO was introduced in 2005, with an increased running speed to 3.7 mph, which is twice as fast as the original robot. ASIMO fell during an attempt to climb stairs at a presentation in Tokyo in December 2006, but then a month later, ASIMO demonstrated tasks such as kicking a football, running and walking up and down a set of steps at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2007, Honda updated ASIMO's intelligence technologies, enabling multiple ASIMO robots to work together in coordination. This version also introduced the ability to step aside when humans approach the robot and the ability to return to its charging unit upon sensing low battery levels.

Abilities[edit]

ASIMO has the ability to recognize moving objects, postures, gestures, its surrounding environment, sounds and faces, which enables it to interact with humans. The robot can detect the movements of multiple objects by using visual information captured by two camera "eyes" in its head and also determine distance and direction. This feature allows ASIMO to follow or face a person when approached.The robot interprets voice commands and human gestures, enabling it to recognize when a handshake is offered or when a person waves or points, and then respond accordingly. ASIMO's ability to distinguish between voices and other sounds allows it to identify its companions. ASIMO is able to respond to its name and recognizes sounds associated with a falling object or collision. This allows the robot to face a person when spoken to or look towards a sound. ASIMO responds to questions by nodding or providing a verbal answer in different language and can recognize approximately 10 different faces and address them by name.

Mobility

ASIMO has a walking speed of 2.7 kilometres per hour (1.7 mph) and a running speed of 6 kilometres per hour (3.7 mph). Its movements are determined by floor reaction control and target Zero Moment Point control, which enables the robot to keep a firm stance and maintain position. ASIMO can adjust the length of its steps, body position, speed and the direction in which it is stepping. Its arms, hands, legs, waist and neck also have varying degrees of movement. The technology that allows the robot to maintain its balance was later used by Honda when it began the research and development project for its motorized unicycle, U3-X, in 2009. ASIMO has a total of 34 degrees of freedom. The neck, shoulder, wrist and hip joints each have three degrees of freedom, while each hand has four fingers and a thumb that have two degrees of freedom. Each ankle has two degrees of freedom, and the waist, knees and elbows each have one degree of freedom.

Impact and technologies

Honda's work with ASIMO led to further research on Walking Assist devices that resulted in innovations such as the Stride Management Assist and the Bodyweight Support Assist.

In honor of ASIMO's 10th anniversary in November 2010, Honda developed an application for the iPhone and Android smartphones called "Run with ASIMO." Users learn about the development of ASIMO by virtually walking the robot through the steps of a race and then sharing their lap times on Twitter and Facebook.

Specifications 

 LATEST ADVANCEMENTS IN ASIMO -2014

             

• MASS  -  50Kg
• Height - 130cm
• Width  -  45cm
• Depth  -  34cm
• Walking speed - 2.7Km/Hour 1.6 km/hour (carrying 1 kg)
• Running speed -  9Km/Hour
• Airborne time
  (Running motion) - 0.08 seconds
• Battery - Lithium ion 51.8 V / 6 kg 3 hours to fully charge
• Continuous operating time - 1 hour (running/walking)
• Degrees of Freedom - 57 (head: 3, arm: 7×2, hand: 13×2, torso: 2, leg: 6×2)

MIT's cooking up robots that can assemble themselves in the oven

It's 2050, and you're prepping the oven to bake your next robotic minion while a 3D printer spews out its components. Wait a sec... bake a robot? As strange as that sounds, there's already a group of MIT researchers developing the technology and the printable materials that can self-assemble into a robot when heated. Since we usually bake food and not robots (and this is all very new), the researchers are experimenting with different materials to find the best option. One is aluminum-coated polyster that folds or twirls itself to form the proper components inside an oven. The other is PVC plastic sandwiched between rigid polyester sheets full of cuts and slits -- upon heating, the PVC becomes deformed and the slits close, forcing the whole thing to bend and fold into place.

Also, the scientists are looking into developing a system that uses CAD files to create 2D patterns, as described in one of the two papers they published about the research. Obviously, the team's not going to develop the perfect material and method overnight, but MIT professor Daniela Rus says they ultimately hope to make it possible to create useful robots anytime.

Meet Kuratas, the million dollar robot which weighs four tons, shoots when you smile and is controlled by iPhone :

• Kuratas can be controlled by motion sensor technology in the one-man cockpit or through any phone with a 3G connection .
• As well as auto targeting your enemy it is easy for those looking for sweet vengeance - the robot's heavy artillery fires 6,000 bullet per minute when the pilot smiles .

A Japanese electronics company has unveiled a 13ft super-robot which can be controlled by an iPhone.But be careful with the jokes if you are on the phone to the pilot as the robot, made by Suidobashi Heavy Industry in Tokyo, brings a whole new meaning to ‘trigger-happy’.'Kuratas' is fitted with a futuristic weapons system, including a gatling gun capable of shooting 6,000 BB bullets a minute,which fires when the pilot smiles.

•  Kuratas, made by Suidobashi Heavy Industry, can be controlled either through the one-man cockpit or from the outside using any smartphone connected to the 3G network.
• The robot, which is set will go on sale for £900,000, has around 30 hydraulic joints which the pilot moves using motion control.

As it is made to order the style conscious buyer will not have to worry about sticking to the grey exterior - it comes in 16 colours, including black and pink, and for an extra £60 they will sort you out with a cup holder.

Simple touch: All you need to remote control the robot is a 3G connection and works particularly well with iPhone's touchscreen .

You can also use the MasterSlave control system where you move a tiny version of the Kuratas - with an iPhone strapped to its back - to get the life-sized one to follow your bidding.

Here come the robot lawyers

The lawyers of the future may be less J.D. than R2D2.

The law profession is being reshaped by new automation technologies that allow law firms to complete legal work in a fraction of the time and with far less manpower. Think IBM's "Jeopardy!"-winning computer Watson -- practicing law.

"Watson the lawyer is coming," said Ralph Losey, a legal technology expert at the law firm Jackson Lewis. "He won't come up with the creative solutions, but when it comes to the regular games that lawyers play, he'll kill them."

That means potentially huge cost savings for clients, though it's not so promising for law school graduates looking for work.

The good news for lawyers is that no one thinks the profession can be automated entirely. But lots of legal work is already being computerized by some firms, including the drafting of simple contracts and the search for evidence in reams of documents.

Winston & Strawn is among the law firms that have adopted legal review technology known as predictive coding. Lawyers mark up relevant information in a subset of documents and feed that to a computer program that uses it as a basis for analyzing the entire data set. The software then surfaces potentially relevant evidence for review by lawyers.

In a recent study, the firm found that its software was more effective than human reviewers in surfacing relevant documents, and helped it complete the review process in about a third of the time.

"I don't think that the significance of this has caught on yet," said John Rosenthal, a partner at Winston & Strawn. "Probably less than 5% of the complex cases in the civil system are using these technologies."

That could soon change. A federal court ruling in a 2012 case authorized the use of predictive coding, paving the way for wider adoption. And the amount of data that lawyers have to review has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade due to the widespread use of email and text messages. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said last May that 90% of the world's data had been produced in the preceding two years.

"The amount of stuff you have to get through to find that core group of documents has exploded, even though the amount you present to a jury is similar," said Tim Harkness, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Industry experts say computers will soon be able to perform even more advanced legal functions than document reviews.

In a paper released last year, Josh Blackman, an assistant professor at South Texas College of Law, wrote that artificial intelligence programs will "in the not-so-distant future" have the ability to advise on whether to file a lawsuit, predict how it might be resolved and even draft portions of legal briefs.

But computers practicing law isn't necessarily a good thing. For instance, Blackman wonders who is responsible if clients get bad advice.

Self-Portrait by Freshly Cleaned Opportunity Mars Rover in March 2014

This self-portrait of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows effects of wind events that had cleaned much of the accumulated dust off the rover's solar panels. It combines multiple frames taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) through three different color filters from March 22 to March 24, 2014, the 3,611th through 3,613th Martian days, or sols, of Opportunity's work on Mars.

For a comparison to what the rover looked like before a series of cleaning events in March, see a similar self-portrait taken Jan. 3 through Jan. 6, 2014

With the cleaner arrays and lengthening winter days, Opportunity's solar arrays were generating more than 620 watt-hours per day in mid-April 2014, compared to  less than 375 watt-hours per day in January 2014.

This image is presented as a vertical projection in approximately true color. The mast on which the Pancam is mounted does not appear in the image, though its shadow does.