Robot Living

Last year  the state of Nevada passed a law, making it legal cars drive themselves in Nevada.  As of March 1 2012, researchers may apply for a special license, allowing them to test the robotic vehicles on open roads.

To mark these cars, they will be given a red license plate.

Once the testing is completed, they will then get a neon green license plate.  Testing could take several years.

Shown here is Johnny Cab, the robotic taxi from the movie  Total Recall.

Woah, robot cars are coming.

Link via (Singularity Hub)

Wildlife officials in Utah have beefed up the war on poachers and are now using robotic deer to help catch the poachers.

In Utah, hunting is not allowed after dark.  To catch the poachers, officials place the deer near the side of the road and then hide nearby.  A remote is then used to make the deer’s head and tail move in a lifelike manner.

Sargent Briggs from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources states:

I’ve seen an individual shoot it with a 30-06 (rifle) and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t go down after he hit it five or six times.  It can be really entertaining.

Those caught hunting after night fall in Utah can get up to 6 months in jail and or a $1,000 fine.

Get your own robotic deer from Custom Robotic Wildlife for only $1400.  Other robotic animals such as elk, turkeys and foxes are also available.

Check out the video below as wildlife officials try to catch poachers.

Link via (Boston.com)

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We previously posted about this project in 2007 in a post called Eye-bot, and boy has a lot happened since then.

Swarmanoid is a research collaboration between various European agencies like the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS) and is  funded by the European Commission.

The latest Swarmanoid video just won an award from the AAAI 2011 Video Competition.  Check after the break for the video.

The Swarmanoid project continues to expand on the work of the Swarm-bots project.  The Eye-bot, the Foot-bot and the Hand-bot all work together to comprise the elements of the Swarmanoid project.

The Foot-bot is the basic wheeled foot soldier in this operation.  They can dock with each other and dock with as well as carry the Hand-bot.

The Eye-bot is a quadrotor capable of sticking to the ceiling and is the eyes of the project.

The Hand-bot can dock with the Foot-bot, use it’s two grippers to climb and also has a rope laucher that can attach to the ceiling.

All three different robots can communicate with each other and work in harmony to retrieve a book from a book shelf.  Quite amazing work here.

Link via (Hizook)

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With no human coach at the controls, Virginia Tech's robot soccer team dribbled, passed, and scored its way into the 2010 RoboCup "kid-size" semifinal in Singapore. The tournament founders' goal is a robot team that will defeat the human World Cup champs by 2050. ©Max Aguilera-Hellweg/National Geographic Used with permission.

An upcoming article from the August edition of National Geographic talks about humanizing robots and how they will soon be everywhere humans are.  The article talks of many robots, including the Roomba from iRobot and some from Carnegie Mellon, like Snackbot, the snack delivering robot.  It also has some great photos from all over the world, including one of Bina48.  Shown above is one of the photos from the article, of the Virginia Tech robot soccer team.

Below is an excerpt from the article by Chris Carroll.

The Actroid androids are part of a new generation of robots, artificial beings designed to function not as programmed industrial machines but as increasingly autonomous agents capable of taking on roles in our homes, schools, and offices previously carried out only by humans. The foot soldiers of this vanguard are the Roomba vacuums that scuttle about cleaning our carpets and the cuddly electronic pets that sit up and roll over on command but never make a mess on the rug. More sophisticated bots may soon be available that cook for us, fold the laundry, even babysit our children or tend to our elderly parents, while we watch and assist from a computer miles away. 

“In five or ten years robots will routinely be functioning in human environments,” says Reid Simmons, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon.

Such a prospect leads to a cascade of questions. How much everyday human function do we want to outsource to machines? What should they look like? Do we want androids like Yume puttering about in our kitchens, or would a mechanical arm tethered to the backsplash do the job better, without creeping us out? How will the robot revolution change the way we relate to each other? A cuddly robotic baby seal developed in Japan to amuse seniors in eldercare centers has drawn charges that it could cut them off from other people. Similar fears have been voiced about future babysitting robots. And of course there are the halting attempts to create ever willing romantic androids. Last year a New Jersey company introduced a talking, touch-sensitive robot “companion,” raising the possibility of another kind of human disconnect.

In short: Are we ready for them? Are they ready for us?

Are you ready for the robots that will soon be everywhere?

See  the photos in the August 2011 issue of National Geographic, available on newsstands July 26.

Also, see more photos at the National Geographic website or check out the full article online at National Geographic.

While the real word cup continues, the International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games is now over. Besting out teams from the United States and South Korea, China has won the International Humanoid Robot Olympic Gamesthat was held recently in Harbin, China.

Link via (Shanghaiist)