Forget drones, self-flying RoboBees may soon take flight

Washington DC, June 8Our skies are about to get a lot more high-tech as a team of researchers is developing robotic bees that can fly themselves. The Harvard University's National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported RoboBees project aims to create autonomous robotic insects capable of sustained, independent flight. Such robots could one day assist in reconnaissance, aid in remote communication or even act as artificial pollinators. Led by principal investigator Robert Wood, the researchers have designed increasingly sophisticated and tiny robots with a range of features that will one day soon enable autonomous flying. To do so the team required to advance basic research in a number of areas where they saw obstacles to realizing their vision: from micro-manufacturing methods and materials for actuation, to small-scale energy storage and algorithms to effectively control individuals and coordinated swarms of robots. The group's research led to breakthroughs in each of these areas. Highlights include new methods for manufacturing millimeter-scale devices based on lamination and folding; new sensors applicable to low-power and mobile computing applications; architectures for ultra-low power computing; and coordination algorithms for collections of hundreds or even thousands of robots to work together. The team was inspired by nature, specifically the incredible ability of small insects to self-launch, navigate and perform agile actions despite their small bodies. "Bees and other social insects provide a fascinating model for engineered systems that can maneuver in unstructured environments, sense their surroundings, communicate and perform complex tasks as a collective full of relatively simple individuals," Wood said. "The RoboBees project grew out of this inspiration and has developed solutions to numerous fundamental challenges -- challenges that are motivated by the small scale of the individual and large scale of the collective." Today's RoboBee weighs only 84 mg, roughly the same size and even lighter than a real bee, and represents a model of successful interdisciplinary collaboration. Wood estimates it will take another five to 10 years before the RoboBee might be ready for use in the real world. — ANI. Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/

Read More........→June 11, 2016

Bionic kangaroo produces its own energy, human gestures control every move

© Photo: Voice of Russia

A bionic kangaroo has been built and is producing its own energy. Festo, a German automation firm, has made the robotic animal listen to human gestures in order for it to move about. The robotic creature stores up and uses the kinetic energy from its own movements.

Weighing in at 15.4 pounds and topping off at about three feet, three inches tall the robot does not move as swiftly as its natural-born counterpart. Inventors took more than two years to develop the tech animal, with its body parts consisting of elastic tendons, pneumatics and servos to create enough energy to hop about as the animal's signature move. Inside of each leg is a pneumatic cylinder paired with an elastic tendon. When the robotic creature is switched on, the tendons are already pre-tensed and the robot leans forward in turn shifting its center of gravity. The creature's pneumatic cylinders release the tendons only once the perfect angle with the best velocity is achieved—then the robot jumps into the air. Moving the legs forward and lifting the tail are servos. It converts the kinetic energy from the jump into stored energy
when it executes its landing. In addition to the robotic kangaroo being able to generate its own energy, it uses lithium polymer rechargeable batteries, which can be taken out of the kangaroo to be charged up. Gesture-controlled, the team installed the robot with a Bluetooth device where it can communicate with the robot using a special bracelet, according to an article on cnet.com.au. The BionicKangaroo will not be made available for commercial use. This creation is rather a proof-of-concept that shows off how pneumatic and electric drive tech can come together to produce energy to both recover and store in the robot. Festo has created a short video for viewers to watch and see how the robotic kangaroo works in action. The short clip, which last for about three minutes, proves just how far technology has come. The video of the new creation can be viewed below, and can also be watched on Festo.com or YouTube. Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→June 09, 2016

'Next generation' humanoid robot revealed

"Next generation" humanoid robot revealed: Boston Dynamics has revealed the latest version of its Atlas humanoid robot, featuring eerily lifelike movements and reactions. This new generation of the Atlas robot – designed to operate both outdoors and inside – is specialized for mobile manipulation. Electrically powered and hydraulically actuated, it uses sensors in its body and legs to balance, with LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain, help with navigation and manipulate objects. This machine is 5' 9" tall (about a head shorter than the DRC Atlas) and weighs 180 lbs (81 kg), which is much lighter than its 330 lb (150 kg) predecessor from a couple of years ago.'Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net/

Read More........→May 11, 2016

Robots predicted to mate to produce superior offspring

© Flickr.com/ cgfaulkner/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0

British scientists believe it will take about 30 years for robots to start mating with one another to produce offspring, which will be even more advanced than their robotic parents intellectually, technologically and functionally. But just how far-fetched this picture of our not-so-distant future is? Russian engineers and futurologists have answered this question to the Voice of Russia.

Alexander Pelt: Russia has grown skeptical of endless finds that British scientists seem to be constantly coming up with. And indeed it is getting increasingly harder to believe in all those fantastic – bordering on absurd – discoveries that make headlines in the UK, the most recent being math-doing plants and homely women that can be bad for your liver. Now a British artificial intelligence engineer and novelist George Zarkadakis has revealed that in the near future androids could have sex, though not for pleasure, but essentially to reproduce and create “super” offspring. This may indeed happen, Russian futurologist Maxim Kalashnikov says, although the process will probably be very different from human procreation. “Robots don’t need to have sex as we know it to self-replicate. Robots are sexless as they are, so there’s probably no need to make them imitate human reproductive behavior. A robot with an artificial intelligence will be able to switch on production lines and build more of its kind.” Hence, we can’t really expect robot sex and birth-giving to resemble those typical of humankind. One of the possible ways for robots to self-replicate could be to have them swap software and print out their “children” on a 3D copier, which means the entire cycle from robotic “conception” to birth would take minutes. George Zarkadakis also says that sex could protect robots from viruses and make them more robust. The British visionary even predicted that robots might breed with humans, creating powerful hybrid species that could potentially have new amazing capabilities. Does it mean that Darwin’s evolution theory can be true for machines as well as mankind? Eduard Proidakov, an analyst with the Russian technological NGO Modernization, says this idea is too far-fetched because the human race itself has not been properly studied yet. “A human as a machine is a biological system that requires in-depth study. Thirty years is a short span. I suspect we are in for tremendous breakthroughs on how the human organism works. Perhaps we will be able to print out organs in 10-15 years. As for these hybrids, I don’t think it's a viable thought. They would be sort of cyborgs. I don’t think the human race will go that way.” In this sense, it’s worth remembering how ideas of Jules Verne were viewed during his time. His novels about travelling to the Moon and underwater exploits of the boat Nautilus were merely smiled at by 19th century scientists. So don’t be too surprised if you meet a hulking man in the street who will tell you in a metallic voice: “I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.” That’d just mean that British scientists have guessed something right for once and robots got their hands on 3D printers. Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→December 14, 2015

Russia Developing Terrorist-Killer Robots

Russian experts are developing robots designed to minimize casualties in terrorist attacks and neutralize terrorists, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.

By Dmitry Rogozin: Robots could also help evacuate injured servicemen and civilians from the scene of a terrorist attack, said Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry. Other antiterror equipment Russia is developing includes systems that can see terrorists through obstacles and effectively engage them in a standoff mode at a long distance without injuring their hostages, he said. Rogozin did not say when the equipment might be deployed by Russia's security and intelligence services. Human Rights Watch has criticized fully autonomous weapons, known as "killer robots," which would be able to select and engage targets without human intervention and called for the preemptive prohibition on such weapons. "Fully autonomous weapons do not exist yet, but they are being developed by several countries and precursors to fully autonomous weapons have already been deployed by high-tech militaries," HRW said in a statement on its website. "Some experts predict that fully autonomous weapons could be operational in 20 to 30 years," the human rights watchdog said. Voice of Russia, RIA. Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→December 14, 2015