robot-apocalypse
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A restaurant in China lets robots do a lot of the work
Let's face it, the Robot Apocalypse is near. Just a few days ago, we met A.L.O Botlr, a robot from the high-tech Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, California that acts as a butler. Naturally, the food industry, as important as it is, couldn't stay behind, so here's where a new restaurant in China comes in. Simply called Robot Restaurant, the place, located in Kunshan, China, has over a dozen androids in its staff. Some of them are waiters, others cook and a couple greet customers as they come in -- sorry, everyone, no booze-carting servers here. Robot Restaurant's owner and founder, Song Yugang, that his peculiar staff members can understand about 40 "everyday sentences," making them smart enough to interact with human customers. Most importantly, he adds, "They can't get sick or ask for vacation. After charging up for two hours they can work for five hours."
Carnegie Mellon's Chimp robot is reporting for duty, sir
See that guy? He's for real. He's also from Pittsburgh. A team of wizards from Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center is presently building a new "human-scale" robot in order to compete in DARPA's Robotics Challenge. Part of its charm revolves around the rubberized tracks on its feet as well as on the extremities of each of its four limbs -- not surprisingly, these are engineered to help it maneuver in some pretty sticky situations. According to the institution, it'll move much link a tank, but it'll also be able to chug along on the treads of just two limbs when needed, such as when it must use one or more limbs to open a valve, or to operate power tools. Oh, and in case you're curious, CMU has affirmed that it'll "be able to perform complex, physically challenging tasks through supervised autonomy," which sounds precisely like the kind of vague description an ill-willed robot would explain to its master before completely taking over his / her life. Just sayin'.
Poll: Engadget Expand asks: What should robots be helping us with?
We're just a few days away from Expand, and all of us are insanely excited about the agenda we have lined up. To get you pumped for our Sunday morning session with Chris Anderson (CEO, 3D Robotics and former editor-in-chief, Wired), Steve Cousins (CEO, Willow Garage) and Marc Raibert (President & Chief Robot Lover, Boston Dynamics) we have a little thought experiment for you. Read on to take our short and sweet robotics poll...
Heroes in a half shell: autonomous robot sea turtles in development
Sure you could have a robot assist you around the home, or even one that'll make factories friendlier, but we'll opt for a robot sea turtle any day of the week. The Swiss folks over at ETH Zurich are working on making that a reality with the Naro-Tartaruga, a turtle-inspired machine that would swim efficiently while carrying cargo in its shell. It's currently a cylindrical aluminum vessel with a couple of flippers, but concept designs include that totally bad-ass bot in the image above. The turtle-bot has a top speed of over 7 knots, so it'll handily beat any real sea turtle in a race, and the big torso has enough space for battery and sensors that are necessary for autonomous function. The fins on the turtle have a fully three-dimensional mechanism -- there are three actuators per fin, and each actuate the fin axle independently. The end goal is for the development of underwater autonomous vehicles, which will hopefully bring us one step closer to SeaQuest DSV. In the meantime, we'd like one just so we can freak the hell out of our cats.
Bots edit Wikipedia, clean up your nonsense
Wikipedia, a triumph of human effort, knowledge and collaboration... or so we thought. Turns out that along with the tens of thousands of brains regularly editing the online encyclopedia, hundreds of bots also patrol the virtual aisles keeping us in check. Some of the bots take care of the boring stuff -- organizing, formatting and other admin. Others correct the wrongdoings of wiki-villains, such as removing off-topic vandalism and naughty language. In the beginning, pages were even created by select bots, pulling data from various sources to create bare bones records for our keystrokes to flesh out. They do a pretty good job, but there are fears that a rogue bot will one day ruin a lot of hard work, although due to the privileges needed it would have to be an inside job. So now you know -- the machines not only have access to the largest single collection of human knowledge, but they edit it for us too. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster
So you've survived the robot revolution and you're waiting for either a full-blown apocalypse, or Mr. Anderson. But how are you going to kill time when our new masters are eating controller PCBs for breakfast? With a steampunk joystick, of course. Jason Torchinsky from Jalopnik has done just that, making an Atari 2600 controller by repurposing a power seat control switch panel from a 1980s Oldsmobile. It's no Avenger Controller Elite, but it certainly does the job, and due to a standardized wiring layout it's functional on other hardware of the same era. And for all you MAME heroes, Jason says it would be no more complicated to hook it up to a PC or Mac using a USB keyboard encoder. Follow the source link for a neat walkthrough of the project and jump over the break to see a video of the seat switch in action, shot in the mancave of yesteryear. Update: We've removed the video at the owner's request, but you can check it out at the source link below.
Environmentally friendly robots will feed the flowers they trample
Dr Jonathan Rossiter, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol's Department of Engineering and Mathematics, has snagged a two-year research grant of over £200,000 to develop robots that decompose once their mission if complete. This means instead of our automaton friends rusting away, devoid of purpose, they could return gracefully (and more importantly non-toxically) back to mother earth. Not only would this be a boon to the environment, but scientists would no longer need to track and retrieve their mechanical progeny once it reached the end of its usable life, further sparing resources and allowing mass deployment. At least we know, when the day comes, the planet won't be harmed.
James Cameron to create sparks with Robogeddon on Discovery Channel
Fresh off his return from the briny deep, James Cameron is set to create a television show for the Discovery Channel called Robogeddon. Similar to BattleBots and Robot Wars, the program will feature a competitive death match of sorts, where robots tear each other to shreds in pursuit of being the last machine standing. In addition to Cameron's participation, the show will also feature the stamp of Mark Burnett -- famous for such reality television titles as Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice. It's also said that Donald Hutson, the two-time Super Heavyweight Champion of BattleBots, will be among the show's competitors. No date is set for when we'll see the sparks fly, but if you want to get in on the ground floor, might we suggest hitting your local scrapyard?
US Navy Fire Scouts will automatically spot pirates, give 30 seconds to comply
War. What is it good for? Well, if new use of technology by the US Navy has anything to do with it, finding Pirates for a start. By upgrading its existing Fire Scouts with new 3D laser imaging tech, it's hoped that the drones will be able to recognize the small ships used by these unscrupulous seafarers. The system, known as LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging, also known as LADAR) uses millions of laser pulses reflected off an object to create the three-dimensional image, which could then referenced against known pirate ships from a database. Ultimately, human operators will make the final call, to avoid any ED-209 style mis-understandings. That said, if you're taking the dingy out past the Californian breakwaters this summer, you might want to keep the stars and stripes in clear view, as that's where the Navy will be running its initial trials.
AI system programs a game with a suspicious theme
All right; we're done. Throwing in the towel, getting the heck outta Dodge and all that. The robot apocalypse is coming to a head faster than we thought, and it's time for us to move to our safe-hut deep in the jungles of Malaysia. Goodnight, everyone!Michael Cook, a computer scientist at Imperial College London, has created an AI system that designs games -- clever, complex, slightly sadistic games -- and he has named it Angelina. Angelina has used "co-operative evolution" to make Space Station Invaders, an 8-bit platformer about a scientist trying to escape a space station full of aliens and homicidal robots. Cook provided the graphics and sound effects for Angelina, but still, we have to wonder how comfortable he is with that particular in-game scenario.We just spent the past 10 minutes playing a game designed by a computer, and we enjoyed it. This is of course all a part of the machines' master plan -- get us complacent, then wham. Lasers everywhere. Either that or we can expect a flood of educational games about adopting children from third-world countries any day now.
Neato Robotics' XV-21 vacuum sucks up pet hair and allergens, looks like a new-age SNES
Sure, iRobot may have a strong presence in the impending robot apocolypse world of autonomous vacuum cleaners, but lest we forget about the others like Neato Robotics. The company's introducing the retro-futuristic XV-21 Pet and Allergy Vacuum for those of us wanting rid our domains of sniffle-inducing dust particles. Although the XV-21 looks similar to last year's XV-12, it features a new filter for improved airflow and suction, which Neato claims will catch three-times as many tiny bits around your domain as its normal kit. If that wasn't enough, the cleaner is also loaded with newly developed bristled brush to aid in sweeping up the likes of pet hair while keeping its noise levels to a minimum. If you're ready to leave the cleaning to the bots, this little guy is set to hit shelves in late April for $429 alongside a $60 Pet and Allergy kit packed with the filter (30 bucks on its own) and brush. Current Neato owners shouldn't fret either, as the add-ons are compatible with all of the company's vacuums, requiring only an upgrade to the latest firmware via USB. You'll find the full details in the press release after the break.
DARPA's 'Avatar project' aims to give soldiers surrogate robots, make James Cameron proud
In a fevered mash up of blockbuster films directed by James Cameron, DARPA is looking to put soldier controlled bi-pedal robots on the battlefield. Think Terminator meets Avatar. The agency has set aside $7 million of it's $2.8 billion 2012 budget to develop an "Avatar program" that will "develop interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier's surrogate." DARPA isn't talking about simple remote control rigs, either -- these 'bots are being designed to clear rooms, and facilitate sentry control and combat casualty recovery. The new budget also sets aside $4.1 million to design laser countermeasures to protect military weapons, well, lasers -- ensuring that the future's robot soldiers will be nigh indestructible when they rebel against their human hosts.
Programmable robots coming to Korean stores, will assimilate your Android phone
South Korea loves its robots. While the country prepares them to teach the kids and guard its prisons, smartphone-compatible models are now propping up shelves in hobbyist shops. Dongbu Robot (previously Dasarobot) is launching several new products for wannabe bot engineers, but it's the Google OS-compatible HOVIS kits that caught our eye. While we already know Android-powered bots can make a mean cocktail, these kits will get new features programmed to them through a phone's Bluetooth and WiFi connections. The basic wheeled model can be upgraded to fully-fledged legs, while Dongbu Robot is working alongside the country's SK Telecom network to offer speech recognition as the first software add-on, with plans for education and home security all in the pipeline. The price of sowing the seeds of the Robopocalypse? Around $620 for the starter model. Sound like too much? Well, there's always Romo.
SSTL designs cheap radar satellite, UK government kicks in £21 million to build it
While we have an innate fear of the eye in the sky (and the role it'll play in the coming robot apocalypse), there's no doubt that observation satellites do a lot of good -- from recording weather and climate changes to helping coordinate relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has plans to beef up planetary monitoring capabilities with its new NovaSAR satellite, and the company just received £21 million from the UK government to make it happen. NovaSAR works using synthetic aperture radar, so it can see through clouds (unlike optical satellites) and offers its services for £45 million -- or 20 percent of the cost of existing space radar platforms. With governmental funding in hand, SSTL can begin to develop and build its first such satellite, and the plan is to put it in orbit in two or three years. If NovaSAR does what it's been designed to do, SSTL hopes it can sell and launch enough of them so that any place on earth can be under its gaze in less than 24 hours. We're all for improving disaster relief efforts, but if you spy these sats overhead on a clear night, we recommend keeping an ear to the ground in case they're guiding an army of Alpha Dogs your way.
Foxconn chairman signs letter of intent for 'intelligent robot kingdom,' we cower in fear
It looks like FRIDA and friends are about ready to get comfy over at Foxconn. Following the company's August announcement that it would infiltrate its ranks with one million robots in the next three years, Focus Taiwan is reporting that the manufacturer's parent company, Hon Hai, is moving forward on its plans to build an "intelligent robotics kingdom" in the Central Taiwan Science Park. Chairman Terry Gou reportedly signed a letter of intent with Taichung mayor Jason Hu last Saturday, confirming its plans to erect a plant dedicated to the production of robots and automation equipment. That robo-mecca is expected to draw some serious scratch, with an estimated production-value boost of NT$120 billion (about $4 billion) and the creation of 2,000 jobs. How many of those positions will be filled by headless automatons remains to be seen.
Tesla Model S to get faster Sport edition, leave sedan in the dust
Tesla looks set to offer another slightly more aggressive, slightly faster model alongside its Model S sedan [pictured]. The high-performance, zero-emission (and tentatively-named) Model S Sport packs a larger battery, extending its single-charge range to 300 miles. Green Car Reports adds that it'll even get optional aerodynamic wheels adding another 20 miles to the car's range. Acceleration has also been boosted, with 0 to 60MPH cut to under 4.6 seconds in the sporty upgrade. This should be the perfect vehicle for evading capture in the gasoline-poor robopocalyptic future. The Sport is reportedly set to launch alongside the standard Model S next year.
Scientists attempt to give spark of life to all-synthetic metal cells
Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it can't; at least that's what a Scottish research group is hoping as it attempts to create reproductive synthetic cells made completely from metal. At this stage, the idea of sentient metallic life remains a distant sci-fi dream, but researchers at the University of Glasgow have already birthed iChells -- inorganic chemical cells. These bubbles, formed from the likes of tungsten, oxygen and phosphorus, can already self-assemble, possess an internal structure, and are capable of the molecular in-and-outs expected of its biological counterparts. Researchers are still tackling how to give these little wonders the ability to self-replicate, and possibly evolve -- further cementing our doom post-Robot Apocalypse. Check out our future synthetic overlord's first steps in a video after the break.
My Keepon drops by for a brief hands-on, we can't handle the cuteness (video)
See that little dude up there? That's My Keepon, and it should look familiar if you're a fan of Spoon or keeping up with autism and related human interaction research. It was just about four years ago when we glimpsed the original dancing research robot by BeatBots dubbed Keepon, and now the $50 toy version we'd been teased is finally set to make its debut this holiday season. Considering its Pro sibling costs nearly $30k, we were curious to see how well this version made by Wow! Stuff would keep the original's essence in tow. To find out, we spent some time with a pre-production unit and had Marek Michalowski, co-inventor of the robot, walk us through it. %Gallery-133464%
Robopocalypse coming soon to a theater near you, Spielberg to smother it in PG
The Robopocalypse is coming -- just not in the way you'd dreaded. DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox have joined movie-making forces to reanimate Daniel H. Wilson's fictional (for now) literary account of a future, robot-helmed doomsday. The studios have thrown some guy named Steven Spielberg behind the lens of this cinematic cautionary tale, and plan to scare the bejeezus out of us all when it premieres July 3, 2013 -- that's if we make it past the Mayan end of the world. No casting was mentioned in the project's announcement, so we'll continue to cross our toes in the hopes a certain daytime show couch jumper and film star-turned-pilot don't join in on the blockbuster fear-mongering.
LG Hom-Bot 2.0 Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner hands-on (video)
Smile, you're on Vacucam! LG's Hom-Bot (RoboKing in the US) was zipping around its own special playpen on the stage at the company's IFA booth today, picking up the occasional speck of dust and using its dual cams to spy on bloggers and Germans, while also diligently avoiding a plastic family dog along its ten-square-foot cube of real estate. The bot's Smart ThinQ technology enables it to interact with an Android or iPhone app, which you'll use to watch a live video feed from its built-in cam, send it rolling to a specific point in the house in "Patrol" mode, or adjust settings. You can also log in remotely, assuming your Hom-Bot is powered up and has a WiFi connection. Official US and Euro pricing and availability hasn't been announced yet, but an LG rep suggested we'll see it in the €500-700 range (about $710-995 US). Cameras and interactivity are nice and all, but that's a lot to spend on any vacuum cleaner. Today's trade show sneak peek is probably the closest we'll be getting to this pricey little vac, so roll past the break for some super action footage.%Gallery-132520%