Robot Innovation

It is pretty clear that we areslowly winning the challenge of producing a humanoid style robot generally ableto do physical tasks and generally look and behave in a somewhat human manner.  It is a case of a science fiction inspiredinitiative that suffers from the problem of relevance.

The first question is to ask ‘whybother’?  What conceivable task can sucha device do that would justify the natural overhead involved in maintainingmobility and the rest of it?  Of courseat some point, that overhead will become inconsequential to the machines actualcapability so it may not matter.

Of course, everyone thinks thatwe all need to have a dedicated servant.   Yet it seems a waste to do that.

Are Humanoid helper robots are coming soon?

MAY 06, 2011

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/05/humanoid-helper-robots-are-coming-soon.html

In July 2010, Nextbigfuture had a Sander Olson interview ofroboticist Dennis Hong. Dennis Hong's dream for 2020 is to see theCHARLIE H robot being used in millions of households as a robot helper. 

Forbes has a recent feature on Dennis Hong and his humanoid robotCharli.

New robot wave using open source software and hardware

The new wave of robots work is taking place on open-source hardware andsoftware so more innovators can play a role. IRobot designedAVA, a customizable robot with a tablet computer "head" and awheeled-column body, to serve as a development platform for robotics,like Linux for computers.

AVA's "brain" consists of either a Google Android tablet oran iPad. Angle, who sees potential for home security and medical reminder apps,as well as downloadable personalities, says, "A huge community couldcreate apps that add utility to AVA."

AVA will join PR2, a human-size robot that Silicon Valleycompany Willow Garage introducedin 2010. The dual-armed, wheeled PR2 is powered by ROS, an open-source robotoperating system WillowGarage has distributed free since 2007. The closely held firm has donated 11PR2s to institutions around the world and sold 5, and wants to encourage app development.One early program from UC, Berkeley taught the robot to fold socks and towels.

Willow Garage PR2 robot, iRobot AVA, Charli and other robots

Hong's lab in Virginiarecently designed an 18-inch-tall humanoid that can be built in a few days withstandard parts, including a 1.6 gigahertz Intel Atom processor, gyroscope andaccelerometer for stabilization and 2-megapixel camera for object recognition.A ready-made version costs $12,000, a bargain compared with the fortunestypically spent on research robots. (WillowGarage's PR2 costs $280,000 to $400,000.) 

Called DARwIn-OP--the OP is for Open Platform while the rest stands for DynamicAnthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence--the robot represents the mostcomprehensive effort yet to coordinate robotics research amongU.S.universities.

Willow garage's PR2 and the stealth-mode Heartland Robotics workwere featured recently.