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.

THE R25 ROBOKIND LAUNCHING ON KICKSTARTER

ROBOKIND
R25 Humanoid Scheduled for a Kickstarter Campaign; will Teach Computer Science and much more!


The Robokind R25 humanoid is a revolutionary tool designed for several uses, including teaching computer science and for use in programs for autistic children. If you are benefactor who supports your local school systems and wish to make a gift to an educational factility at year’s end, this is a momentous opportunity! The R25 is scheduled to be available on Kickstarter starting Wednesday Oct 16, and it comes with course curriculum. One of its personalities linked to a curriculum includes about 50 interactive “vignettes” or modes for interacting with students. Pricing has been reduced to an affordable $2,700 for the robot itself. Courses that the robot can teach will run between $1,500 to $2,500. The Robokind team is developing a Kickstarter film to facilitate the product launch, so check it out Wednesday!

Will Russia Colonize The Moon?

Plan would put robotic explorers in the vanguard of a revitalized Russian push into the solar system.

 

Lunar Landers of the 1960s 

This drawing shows the scale of the Soviet LK lunar landing craft next to the American LM (lunar module). The LK never made it to the Moon, as the Soyuz program missions that would have carried it were cancelled. 

Wikimedia Commons

Russia should prioritize creating a moon base with full-time residents by mid-century, according to a plan created by Moscow State University, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the firm Roscosmos.

According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the proposal argues that Russia needs to get a geopolitical leg up on rivals for potentially sizable lunar deposits of minerals such as aluminum, titanium, and iron. It envisions a public-private partnership covering the roughly $816 million cost of a three-stage colonization effort.

First, from 2016 to 2025, a series of robotic explorers would go to the moon to make new and detailed surveys of mineral and water resources.
Then, between 2028 and 2030, manned expeditions would orbit the moon without landing (it's not explained why); and from 2030 to 2040, a series of manned missions would construct a permanent base for housing a “lunar astronomical observatory, as well as monitoring of the Earth.”

“The moon is the first step on the way to deep space,” Izvestia quotes Ivan Moiseyev, head of the Russia's Institute of Space Policy, because staging missions from the moon will be easier (and cheaper) than lifting heavy interplanetary payloads out of the Earth's gravity and atmosphere.
The Russian language article, "Russia will begin colonization of the Moon by 2030," was summarized in English last week by The Moscow Times.

Robots in society

Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, and 16% in North America, 1% in Australasia and 1% in Africa.^[61] 40% of all the robots in the world are in Japan,^[62] making Japan the country with the highest number of robots.

TOPIO

TOPIO ("TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot") is a bipedal humanoid robot designed to play table tennis against a human being. It has been developed since 2005 by TOSY, a robotics firm in Vietnam. It was publicly demonstrated at the TokyoInternational Robot Exhibition (IREX) on November 28, 2007.^[1] TOPIO 3.0 (the latest version of TOPIO) stands approximately 1.88 m (6' 2") tall and weighs 120 kg (264 lbs).^[2] Every TOPIO uses an advanced artificial intelligence system to learn and continuously improve its skill level while playing.^[3]

^{TOPIO, a humanoid robot, playedping pong at Tokyo International Robot Exhibition (IREX) 2009.}

As robots have become more advanced and sophisticated, experts and academics have increasingly explored the questions of what ethics might govern robots' behavior,^[64] and whether robots might be able to claim any kind of social, cultural, ethical or legal rights.^[65] One scientific team has said that it is possible that a robot brain will exist by 2019.^[66] Others predict robot intelligence breakthroughs by 2050.^[67] Recent advances have made robotic behavior more sophisticated.^[68] The social impact of intelligent robots is subject of a 2010 documentary film called Plug & Pray.^[69]

An android, or robot designed to resemble a human, can appear comforting to some people and disturbing to others

Vernor Vinge has suggested that a moment may come when computers and robots are smarter than humans. He calls this "the Singularity".^[70] He suggests that it may be somewhat or possibly very dangerous for humans.^[71] This is discussed by a philosophy called Singularitarianism. In 2009, experts attended a conference hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) to discuss whether computers and robots might be able to acquire any autonomy, and how much these abilities might pose a threat or hazard. They noted that some robots have acquired various forms of semi-autonomy, including being able to find power sources on their own and being able to independently choose targets to attack with weapons. They also noted that some computer viruses can evade elimination and have achieved "cockroach intelligence." They noted that self-awareness as depicted in science-fiction is probably unlikely, but that there were other potential hazards and pitfalls.^[70] Various media sources and scientific groups have noted separate trends in differing areas which might together result in greater robotic functionalities and autonomy, and which pose some inherent concerns.

Remote control vehicle

A remote control vehicle is defined as any vehicle that is remotely controlled by a means that does not restrict its motion with an origin external to the device. This is often a radio control device, cable between control and vehicle, or an infraredcontroller. A remote control vehicle or RCV differs from a robot in that the RCV is always controlled by a human and takes no positive action autonomously.

                                                                                 

Scientific[edit]

Remote control vehicles have various scientific uses including hazardous environments, working in the deep ocean, and space exploration. RCV is used by police to detect bombs,or some chemicals,etc. It detects chemicals or whatever with its high-power sensors. The majority of the probes to the other planets in our solar system have been remote control vehicles, although some of the more recent ones were partially autonomous. The sophistication of these devices has fueled greater debate on the need for manned spaceflight and exploration. The Voyager I spacecraft is the first craft of any kind to leave the solar system. The martian explorers Spirit and Opportunity have provided continuous data about the surface of Mars since January 3, 2004.

Jason is the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's deep water explorer and can withstand depths of up to 6,500 feet. The Scorpio ROV is a British submersible that rescued the crew of the Russian AS-28 on August 7, 2005.

Military and law enforcement[edit]

Military usage of remotely controlled military vehicles dates back to the first half of 20th century. John Hays Hammond, Jr., invented and patented methods for wireless control of ships starting in 1910. Soviet Red Army used remotely controlledteletanks during the 1930s in the Winter War and early stage of World War II. There were also remotely controlled cutters and experimental remotely controlled planes in the Red Army.

Remote control vehicles are used in law enforcement and military engagements for some of the same reasons. The exposure to hazards are mitigated to the person who operates the vehicle from a location of relative safety. Remote controlled vehicles are used by many police department bomb-squads to defuse or detonate explosives. See Dragon Runner, Military robot.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have undergone a dramatic evolution in capability in the past decade. Early UAVs were capable of reconnaissance missions alone and then only with a limited range. Current UAVs can hover around possible targets until they are positively identified before releasing their payload of weaponry. Backpack sized UAVs will provide ground troops with over the horizon surveillance capabilities.

Recreation and hobby[edit]

See Radio-controlled model. Small scale remote control vehicles have long been popular among hobbyists. These remote controlled vehicles span a wide range in terms of price and sophistication. There are many types of radio controlled vehicles. These include on-road cars, off-road trucks, boats, airplanes, and even helicopters. The "robots" now popular in television shows such as Robot Wars, are a recent extension of this hobby (these vehicles do not meet the classical definition of a robot; they are remotely controlled by a human). Radio-controlled submarines also exist.

Recently, Sony Ericsson released a remote control car that could be controlled by any Bluetooth cell phone. Radio is the most popular because it does not require the vehicle to be limited by the length of the cable or in a direct line of sight with the controller (as with the infrared set-up). These also include remote controlled helicopters

Combat robots to become Russian army new recruits

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_30/Combat-robots-to-become-Russian-army-new-recruits-1788/

        

Russia's newly established military robot design lab has finally gone into operation, Oleg Bochkarev, deputy head of Russia's governmental Military-Industrial Commission told ITAR TASS news agency. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin was the first to have announced plans to set up a new laboratory at the Degtyarev arms factory in Kovrov last year planning to attract private investors to experiment and create prototypes that could join the troops if passing tests.

According to Rogozin, the robots will save lives: "We have to conduct battles without any contact, so that our boys do not die, and for that it is necessary to use war robots," he said. The idea was backed by Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, who urged engineers to make robots combat ready by 2015-17, instead of initially scheduled 2020.

In 2012, Russia's Advanced Rsearch Foundation was created to deal with robots, space defense and supersonic technology.

This January Rogozin claimed the Foundation was working on a super sensitive Avatar-style robot which adjusts to human behavior and which humans can operate from inside. Rogozin, however, urged researchers to generate new ideas, rather than using already existing Western developments.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_30/Combat-robots-to-become-Russian-army-new-recruits-1788/