„Rollin' Justin“

The mobile humanoid roboter, named "Rollin' Justin", with its compliant controlled light weight arms and its two four finger hands is an ideal experimental platform for current research issues, such as the capability to carry out complex manipulation tasks.The newly developed mobile platform allows the long range autonomous operation of the system.The individually movable, spring born wheels match the special requirements of “Justin's” upper body during manipulation tasks. PMD sensors and cameras allow the 3D reconstruction of the robot's environment and therefore enable Justin to perform given tasks autonomously.
Click here for more information!

If it's to be a bit more professional

"For 15 years I had been looking for the ideal programming language for robotics. Until I found LabVIEW..."

But what is LabVIEW?

National Instruments launched LabVIEW Robotics 2009, a new version of the graphic system design software providing a standard development platform to design autonomous robot control systems.

»»» More information: www.ni.com/labview/whatis/

There's something going on in robot town

Image: Gaetan Lee / Science Museum

Are we on the way to robot town? The Science Museum in South Kensington shows what robots are capable of today:

»»» http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/robotplayground/


And the site has an interesting blog about other scientific issues and questions as well:

»»» http://sciencemuseumdiscovery.com/blogs/collections/



Rover 'Jet 1', 1948 (Science Museum / Science & Society)

Robot etiquette

Robots have feelings as well...

(reeaaaally???)

»»» http://brainybots.com/

The South Korean government is preparing a “Robot Ethics Charter” to guide future interactions with our robotic friends...


Image: BBC News

»»» The BBC also took a look at the problem...

The South Korean government has identified robotics as a key economic driver and is pumping millions of dollars into research.

"The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to develop strong intelligence in the near future," the ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said...

A future for 'brainy robots'?

Here's something regarding this question:

»»» http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk


Image: Volker Steger/Science Photo Library

Some scientists think robots like Gordon will be everywhere in the future. 'Integrating a biological brain into a robot is an enormous step that opens up a whole new area for robotics and artificial intelligence,' says Kevin Warwick.

Other robot experts believe that keeping brain tissue alive for long periods is too tricky. 'It's an interesting idea, but I think it's more likely that effort will go into making better artificial brains,' says Murray Shanahan.

Robots with a brain

Image: Diem Photography/University of Reading

... as intelligent as a common rat - or: Intelligence is hard to copy.

»»» http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/ratbrains/

Gordon is a very special robot. Controlled by a dish full of rats' brain cells, he's helping scientists to understand how our brains work. Antenna explores the science behind Gordon, what he might tell us about the brain, and what his creation could mean for the future of robotics...

Looks like I was a bit hasty...

For a better understanding: Lego Mindstorms is the name of a product series by the toy manufacturer Lego, containing a programmable Lego brick (RCX = Robotics Command system, or NXT) as well as electric motors, sensors and Lego Technic components (toothed wheels, axes, hole beams, pneumatic parts, etc.) to design and program robots and other autonomous and interactive systems.

Ok, though I'm not a child anymore:


Image source: www.educatec.ch


... well, ok, this is not mine...

but this is what it could look like :)

... not at all childish, don't you think?

Google on the moon?

Google is sponsoring a competition called the Lunar X Prize. The competition is open to privately funded groups. The groups are charged with a task that's easy to describe, but very hard to achieve. They must launch a vehicle that can journey to the moon, land safely on its surface and deploy a mobile robotic device. The winner could receive more than $20 million. Several teams have already joined the competition. The race is on!



Further information:

»»» http://science.howstuffworks.com/google-lunar-challenge.htm

»»» http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

How you control an excavator arm

Now we go into the details and find the scientific world...

Modeling and controlling an excavator's arm

Authors: Daqing Zhang, Qinghua He, Peng Hao, HaiTao Zhang

22nd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction ISARC 2005 – September 11-14, 2005, Ferrara (Italy)

Controlling of excavator’s arm is an important and basic task in autonomous research of hydraulic excavator at present, but the behavior of the excavator’s arm is dominated by the nonlinear dynamics of the hydraulic actuators. To find a feasible way to control excavator's arm and realize autonomous excavation, firstly, Full kinematic and dynamic models of the excavator arm, regarded as a planar manipulator with three degrees (boom, dipper and bucket) of freedom...



The experimental robotic excavator


Further information:

»»» www.baufachinformation.de

»»» free PDF download