Showing posts with label robotics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robotics. Show all posts
Featured Company - Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics, originating from MIT, is a current developer of cutting edge robotics. This company is known for its DARPA-funded research, and it continues to produce products that are likely to revolutionize military operations in the future.WATCH FOR SPIES IN THE SKIES
As quickly as technology improves our security, it also endangers our privacy. Over the course of human history, one persistent dream has been that of flight. People enjoy watching birds soar through the air, and many marvel at Superman's aerobatic abilities. The Wright brothers used technology to achieve this dream, but technology might soon turn the open air into a source of fear instead of aspiration.
Take the ingenious Nano Hummingbird (from AeroVironment), for instance. With a built-in camera it could effectively aid humans in discovering hidden terrorists and trapped disaster victims. But in the wrong hands it could be used to spy on unsuspecting civilians. It can hover in front of windows to observe from a distance, or, if the window is open just enough, it could enter a room and land in a dark corner for longer periods of surveillance.
Another looming threat is a small quadrocopter with the ability to hack wireless networks. The toy-sized robot, named SkyNET (yes, that is its real name) by its creators, was demonstrated at WOOT '11 last month. The SkyNET drone can fly around a neighborhood via remote control. Once its target is found, it can land on the roof of a house or building near the wireless network. Then the drone uses on-board software to hack the network. Worst of all, the drone can use the compromised computers to form a botnet, adding to the resources of the person in control of SkyNET. If that was not enough, the drone can also track cellphones. All this, and the SkyNET drone costs just a few hundred dollars to build.
The SmartBird (by Festo) is a wondrous feat of engineering. Like the Nano Hummingbird it could be used for surveillance, especially scouting uneven terrain. If it were solar-powered, it might even be used to take close-up footage of migrating birds. Disguised among a flock of geese, it could also scan neighborhoods and stalk unwitting travelers.
Lastly, the figurative “fly on the wall” may soon become literal reality. Researchers at Harvard are designing robots that fly like insects and are of similar size. In recent years DARPA has been funding the development of mind-controlled insects. So far scientists have implanted computer chips in large beetles that enable remote control of their flight direction. With ever-shrinking electronics, it would not be too surprising to see remote-controlled flies in the next decade or so. What if they did this with stinging insects? As one commenter pointed out on Popular Science, an augmented wasp or bee might make the perfect assassination weapon. Scientists have also developed a tiny generator that harvests energy from an insect's beating wings to power the mind-control chip. In fact, the generator provides a surplus of energy. With a little electricity to spare, what else might DARPA want to add to these cyborg bugs? A camera, microphone, or tracking device? In the future, when espionage agents talk about bugs, they will mean real live bugs.
UPDATE (09-28-11): It seems the statement about a flock of geese was prophetic. The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, in Switzerland, is developing UAVs that are programmed to fly in flocks, just like geese.
UPDATE (09-29-11): UC Berkeley has a couple of robots that fly like giant insects.
UPDATE (09-29-11): UC Berkeley has a couple of robots that fly like giant insects.
Featured Company - AeroVironment
This company is based in California and was founded by Paul MacCready. AeroVironment specializes in flying machines, most notably unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and solar-powered airplanes. Innovation has been a prime goal of this company for something like forty years. This company created an all-electric, solar-powered airplane, named Solar Challenger, that successfully flew from France to England in 1981. No fuel! Think about that for a second: an international flight that used zero gallons of fuel. In the same decade, AeroVironment collaborated on the GM Sunraycer, a solar-powered car that won the first World Solar Challenge. Two of the most significant projects that AeroVironment has today are Raven and Global Observer. The Raven is a UAV that is small enough to be launched by hand. Over 13,000 have been made, and many of them are used by the United States military (especially in Iraq). Various foreign countries also use the Raven, such as the U.K. and Netherlands. Once launched, the Raven can fly for over an hour, reaching speeds exceeding thirty miles per hour and altitudes around two miles up.
The Global Observer is still in development, but it is very promising. It is a high-altitude UAV that should become a versatile alternative to some space satellites. Soaring eleven miles above Earth, the Global Observer burns hydrogen to power its four motors for up to a week. When it runs low on fuel, it will be relieved by a second Global Observer and land for refueling. It may require two UAVs to take the place of one satellite, but flying on hydrogen is cheaper than launching a huge rocket into space. Some of the desired uses for the Global Observer include spying on terrorists, capturing real-time data on weather and natural disasters, and serving as as communication relay.
AeroVironment's latest innovation is called the Nano Hummingbird. This miniscule UAV is capable of flying in any direction and hovering, just like a live hummingbird. It has a built-in camera for surveillance and weighs less than one AA battery. Its wingspan is only six inches long! The DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird is likely to generate controversy in the coming years. While such devices are great for spying on terrorists, the possibility exists of spying on local citizens (either by the government or other citizens). America has been struggling to find a satisfactory balance between security and privacy lately, and the Nano Hummingbird will not make that struggle any easier. But it will probably save some soldiers' lives and make their jobs a little safer.
Featured Company - Gridbots
Gridbots is a robotics company based in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded by Pulkit Gaur, who has been awarded a TED fellowship. His company focuses on developing robots that are “more intelligent” and can be used in everyday life. Gridbots' products range from smart surveillance cameras to telepresence robots. This company also makes educational robots; ones that are user-friendly and designed for experimentation. The Turtle, for instance, is called the “do it yourself robot,” and it is claimed to have an assembly time of just fifteen minutes. It is accompanied by visual programming software and preset behavior modes to make first-timers' experiences that much easier.
Featured Company - Festo
Some companies are currently pushing the limits of new technology and design solutions. They are developing futuristic, exotic products to meet the needs of a world that demands extreme engineering. One of these companies is Festo, an industrial engineering and design company in Germany. Of primary interest to this blog is the Bionic Learning Network, a part of Festo that specializes in designs “inspired by nature” and collaborates with universities and other companies.
Festo's Bionic Learning Network has created some really cool products that challenge everyday views of robotics. Take the “bionic handling assistant” for example. Robotic arms are usually rigid, powerful, and jerky in their movements. Festo's alternative (whose appearance resembles the tentacles of Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2) is instead elegant, gentle, graceful, pneumatically powered, and was inspired by the elephant's trunk. Other projects created by Festo include modular robots, flying robot penguins, 3D printers, moving walls, flying robot jellyfish, and ion-propelled lighter-than-air robots that are reminiscent of Naboo starships. Can you imagine being able to honestly cite work on “bionic plasma drives” and flying robot penguins for your job history? What fun those Germans are having!
Another remarkable invention from Festo is the SmartBird. This feat of biomimicry is uncanny. The lightweight robotic bird has a mounted camera and flaps its wings like a real bird. This product has obvious applications in reconnaissance. The possibility, or perhaps inevitability, of robotic avian spies reminds me of a movie scene. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the heroes are followed by a flock of birds. One of them exclaims, “Spies of Saruman!” Maybe someday such a situation will be replicated in the real world. Imagine terrorists peering out of a cave, sighting a flock of birds and muttering to themselves, “Spies of America!”
THEY COST AN ARM AND A LEG
Prosthetic limbs. When an arm or leg is lost—either by amputation or injury—it cannot be regenerated as some salamanders are able to do. Our ability to regrow body parts is limited to our fingertips. The only option for an amputee is to get an artificial appendage, made of plastic and metal rather than flesh and bone.
Prostheses are no longer limited to amputees, though. People with paralysis are getting involved. Multiple patients in Austria have chosen to have their hands amputated and replaced with prosthetic ones. They had nerve damage in their arms, rendering their hands paralyzed and useless. They could have endured years of surgery and rehabilitation with little chance of success. But circuits and software are more easily and reliably manipulated than nerves and sinew. So those patients chose the option with a greater chance of success and shorter recovery time.
Artificial body parts are helping many people. A tiny camera can be placed inside or near the eye and connected to brain, some day giving sight to the blind. Carbon-fiber “feet” can enable an amputee to race with Olympic sprinters. Faulty hearts have been replaced with inorganic ones. Soon artificial kidneys might become available. But what if prostheses become better than natural parts?
In the future, prosthetic technology will continue to improve and be more widely used. Given the progress that has already been made, it is not unreasonable to speculate that someday a bionic hand will be superior to a fully functional, natural hand. Those patients in Austria made a logical choice: they exchanged useless hands for functional ones. If, some day, you are better off exchanging your properly working hand for a much more capable and versatile—albeit artificial—hand, would you? Natural appendages degrade with age, but inorganic parts can be updated and replaced with relative ease. Customization could be easy, too. Instead of a hand, you could have a tentacle, claw, multi-tool, or even scissors. How about eyes? Would you trade one or your eyes for a cybernetic one that could see infrared and ultraviolet light? Would you give an eye for an eye that could see in the dark and through walls? Maybe far in the future we will have whole prosthetic bodies available.
ELECTRONIC CLAY
Switching between tools can be tedious. It would be great to have just one wrench that grows or shrinks to fit any nut or bolt. A screwdriver that can change between flat and Phillips at the press of a button. One day, far in the future, programmable matter will make that possible. Programmable matter refers to microscopic robots that communicate with each other and move around to form macroscopic structures, similar to the behavior of ants joining together to form bridges. The structure can take on almost any form, such as a wrench or screwdriver. Each robot is an independent, mobile computer that is instructed and powered wirelessly. When not activated, the programmable matter might resemble sand or clay; Carnegie Mellon University researchers like to use the term “claytronics”. On command, the tiny robots rearrange themselves into a designated structure and increase the strength of their electric bonds for structural rigidity. If you have enough programmable matter, then you can make much more than small tools.
Sculpture art might be revolutionized by this technology. As an artist completes a sculpture, the structural information can be saved and shared over the internet. Anyone else with programmable matter can download the sculpture's form and have an exact claytronic replica as easily as one might print a painting today. If programmable matter could change color, texture, and firmness, then it could replace just about every household item. Imagine furniture that can morph into any shape. Whenever desired, a living room could melt and reshape into a dining room, bedroom, etc. With advanced claytronics, a one-room apartment can have the functional versatility of a mansion. Why stop at furniture? Perhaps such a room could simulate any imaginable environment, indeed an achievement very close to the holodeck as seen on the Enterprise. With color and continuous motion, conventional video games and 3D television would become obsolete. Who knows what the military might do with this technology?
The potentially extreme versatility of claytronics has interesting consequences for the economy. Most inedible products in the private market could be replaced as programmable matter can take any form. Much of the manufacturing industry could eventually go out of business or adapt to producing claytronics. Although expensive at first, claytronics might save money in the long run with their multipurpose capabilities. What would our economy be like when people just download whatever products they want?
By the time claytronics are widely used, perhaps brain scanning and analysis technologies will have been sufficiently developed to easily “read minds”. Combining these technologies would allow someone to mentally visualize an object and have it created in the physical world out of programmable matter. If thoughts could be linked to matter in such a way, the possibilities would be endless. Physical avatars could make telepresence more realistic than ever before. How cool would it be to manipulate your environment just by thinking? But what if someone else manipulated that environment? In the wrong hands, claytronics could create real life supervillains. Sinisterly programmed artificial intelligences could get out of control with shape-shifting bodies. Although this technology is in its infancy right now, “grey goo” and “terminators” might someday become real threats.
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