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robots.net
Recent robots.net articles
G-ROBOTS G-Dog
Doug Emes of the
DPRG
writes, "I saw the G-Robots
G-Dog review mentioned on the Austin Robot Group's email
list. This looks like a pretty cool robotic dog tabletop
platform." The review
by the folks at the Hacked
Gadget blog includes lots of photos and video of the G-Dog in
action. The G-Dog kit is small quadruped robot that uses 9 RS304MD
servos and a built-in microcontroller. The kit also appears to include a
remote-control unit and some type of Windows-based software for creating
autonomous behaviours. At present G-Dog is only
available
in Japan but AudioCubes
imports the G-Robot humanoid so they might be the place to watch for
a US release of the G-Dog.
BaR2D2 - A Mobile Robot Bartender
Inspired by a Radio-Controlled cooler, Jamie Price got
the idea to build a robot bar named BaR2D2.
The result is a robot loaded with sound-activated neon lighting,
motorized drawer for ice and mixers, and a rotating beer turntable that
rotates
beer bottles into position, where they are lifted to serving level by an
elevator. It's also equipped with a six bottle shot dispenser. The base for the
robot was constructed from an electric wheelchair obtained on
Craigslist for $75. A 12VDC, 35 AH battery provides power. Victor
883 Speed Controllers are used with differential drive steering.
While BaR2D2 needs to be controlled via radio at present, perhaps
someone will tackle an autonomous creation along these lines. Such a
beast would no doubt do
well in the ROBOEXOTICA
bartending robot competition.
Robots: 2008 New Year's Special
With 2008 history and the new year still in its infancy, Robots has assembled five
robotics experts to ask them two simple questions: What they saw as the
greatest achievements in 2008, and what we can expect for 2009. Dan Kara
from Robotics Trends shares
his insights into the robot marketplace, Terry Fong from the NASA Ames Research Center talks
about space robotics, Dario Floreano
from the EPFL gives a broad overview
from a research perspective, robots.net's own Steve Rainwater provides a
global overview and adds a hobbyist's perspective, and Minoru
Asada from Osaka
University focusses on what's been going on and what's yet to come
in Japan. Tune
in for a robotics review and preview!
AI, Robots, Life on Mars, and other World Changers
Each year Edge asks one question of the world's smartest people. This
year's question is, "What game-changing
scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"
John Tooby and Leda Cosmides predict that a general
artificially intelligent machine will remain elusive in their
lifetime but understanding why will unlock revolutions in science. Irene
Pepperberg expects the opposite, that we will build intelligent machines
once we discover the secrets of human
brain. Kevin Kelly believes he'll live to see true AI but probably not
a super-human intelligence. Nick Bostrom will live to see super-human
intelligence. He thinks machine intelligence most likely but points
out we might also find ways of enhancing our biological brains. Daniel
C. Dennett suggests that when a species starts asking this sort of
question, "the
snowball has started to roll, and there is probably no stopping it."
Rodney Brooks believes he'll live to see a definitive answer on whether or not there
is life on Mars.
Sherry Turkle believes she'll live to see the development of
social robots that people will want to spend time with.
Austin Dacey predicts the dawn of
carniculture, the growing of meat without the need to take it from
living animals. Thomas Metzinger expects to see humanoid robots provide
soul-travel for
selfless beings. A more pessimistic option comes from Carlo Rovelli
who expects to live to see, well, not much at all
that brings big changes to the world. There are hundreds of responses
from as many clever people, so check out the full
article and see which ones you agree or disagree with.
Music To Build Robots To
Gerald V.
Casale of DEVO has
teamed up with Moimir Papalescu and Petr Venkrbec of Die Alten Maschinen,
the electronic music pioneers of the Czech Republic. The first result of
this collaboration is a devolved electronic composition called "To Be or
Not". While not available on CD yet, the single is available on vinyl for
the retro crowd and from iTunes
or Amazon
MP3 Downloads for those who prefer their music in noncorporeal
form. We suggest hopping on over to Die Alten Maschinen's
MySpace page and listening to the new song right now.
The image above is the vinyl
album cover art, created by Czech artist Adolf Lachman. Yes, that robot is
using a DEVO hat as a flower pot.
Last Refreshed 1/7/2009 9:41:56 AM
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