iRobot Ava 500 Autonomous Telepresence Robot is Designed for Chatting

Business grows more global everyday and what was once done by a single corporation is now more likely to be spread over many small businesses. Ideally, managers and remotely-based employees would like a virtual presence at a location, but telepresence robots are often more like smartphones on remote-controlled sticks, so they lack a feeling of personal presence and naturalism. At the InfoComm 2013 Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida, iRobot, in collaboration with Cisco, have unveiled the Ava 500; a telepresence robot that combines auto navigation and a high-definition screen for a more natural telepresence.

According to a UCLA study, seven percent of communication is verbal and 93 percent is non-verbal. Beyond this simple fact, many people are much more comfortable working with others in person and a surprising amount of work is achieved through seemingly casual conversation. A chat while leaving a meeting can make a deal and a casual observation on a factory tour can break a seemingly insoluble problem.

Teleconference systems are meant to provide something like this, but specially-equipped conference rooms or carts are static and current telepresence robots have low definition video and are a bit like navigating a toy car.

iRobot has been working on the latter part of the robotic problem with its RP-VITA, which it markets for medical customers and uses an autonomous navigation system to simplify moving it about. However, the audiovisual quality was still lacking, so Cisco was brought in to mate iRobot’s Ava robotic platform with Cisco’s TelePresence EX60 21.5-inch HD resolution screen and camera to produce what it calls the first telepresence robot with high-definition video. The result is the Ava 500.

The idea is to go beyond desk and table-bound teleconferences and allow for a more personal presence and more natural interaction. According to iRobot, not only can the Ava 500 be used for meetings, but also presentations, factory tours, off-site management, “visits” by people in remote offices, and team collaboration. More importantly, it aims to allow users comfortable interaction with people at the remote location and carry on informal conversations where ideas are swapped.

Half of the equation is the Ava 500’s autonomous navigation system. Instead of the user piloting the robot around, it maps out its environment beforehand and remembers where things are and how to get from point A to point B safely and efficiently. An iPad interface is used to schedule and control the Ava 500 while the audio/video interface is a dedicated high-definition screen and camera on the user’s desk.

Transfer to the robot is seamless and direct without any complex on-screen searching and check in. The destination is selected by tapping a map or choosing a room or person from a list. Once the location is selected or a scheduled appointment time is reached, an available robot activates and heads for the destination on its own. As it travels, it senses people and other obstacles and tries to avoid them. If it’s in “public” mode, the user’s face is displayed on the screen. If it’s in “private,” it’s not.

Once at the destination, the user can control the robot from the tablet with little training and can even raise or lower the screen to accommodate others who may be sitting or standing. When finished, the Ava 500 automatically returns to its charging station. During the operation, security is provided by Cisco Aironet 1600 Series wireless access points.

The Ava 500 will available to select Cisco partners early next year. iRobot and Cisco are demonstrating the robot at the InfoComm 2013 from June 12 to 14.

The video below shows the Ava 500 in action

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T8 robot tarantula gives everyone the willies

Legged robot kits aren’t anything new, but unlike its competition, the T8 octopod comes with a disturbingly realistic 3D-printed exoskeleton that is sure to make an unforgettable first impression. Robugtix (a robotics company based in Hong Kong) is living up to its name with the lifelike robot tarantula, and it can be yours later this year for an introductory price of US$1,350.

The T8 is powered by 26 Hitec HS-35HD servo motors (three in each leg, and additional servos to wiggle its abdomen). This a fairly small servo type with low torque, so its performance is somewhat limited, but it keeps the cost down. The company says the first batch will ship September 30th.

The company is also offering a hexapod robot called the iitsii, but that one is smaller and doesn’t have the realistic shell. It’s made out of PCB and comes with 20 servos (which are even smaller and cheaper than those in the T8), and is therefore priced at a more affordable $250. This kit will be available August 31st.

Robugtix’s iitsii is a smaller, more affordable hexapod robot kit

Both robots come preloaded with the company’s Bigfoot Inverse Kinematics Engine to control the legs, body position, and walking gait. This means you won’t have to program the robot to move as realistically as a spider or ant, which would be pretty difficult and time-consuming to do yourself. The nice thing about inverse kinematics is the robot can tilt and shift its body menacingly while the legs remain still.

You’ll also need to buy the Robugtix Controller (an extra $85) and a single 4 x AA 4.8V NiMH rechargeable battery pack, which unfortunately aren’t included with the kit. The controller uses a wireless Xbee module to relay commands to the robot, which is essential if you’re going to have it creep around corners to prank friends and family. And if you’re interested, you’ll probably want to pre-order now as both robots will go up in price after the early bird special.

Be sure to check out the robots in action in the following videos, and keep an eye on Robugtix’s website in the coming weeks for videos of the robots walking and photos of the T8′s internal structure.

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Robot astronaut Kirobo headed for ISS in August

In what may not be the most historic event in space exploration, but may be the cutest, Toyota has announced that the Kibo Robot Project’s “robot astronaut” Kirobo will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 4. Unlike its human counterparts, the 13.4-in (34 cm) tall humanoid robot will travel aboard an unmanned Kounotori 4 cargo spacecraft launched from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Center atop a H-IIB rocket. Once at the ISS, Kirobo is scheduled to conduct the first-ever robot-human conversation experiments in December.

Weighing only a kilogram (2.2 lb), Kirobo is one of two humanoid verbal-communication robots built by the Kibo Robot Project; a partnership that includes Dentsu, the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, Robo Garage, and Toyota. It’s based on the commercial Robi kit robot with modifications for operating safely in zero gravity, face recognition and, according to its developers, the ability to recognize emotions. Toyota provided the speech-recognition software while Dentsu programmed the robot’s speech content as well as being responsible for overall project management.

Kirobo won’t have much to do on board the ISS at first, aside from uttering its first words in space, because it will be awaiting the arrival of Commander Koichi Wakata in November or December. Until then, conversation with Kirobo will be somewhat limited because it only speaks Japanese.

Formal conversation tests are slated to begin in December. Meanwhile the backup ”ground crew” robot Mirata will be used to verify the experiments and help troubleshoot any problems that Kirobo may encounter, as well as fulfilling public relations duties. The development partners hope that lessons learned in the experiment will help in improving their own robots. . Kirobo is expected to return to Earth in December 2014.

The video below (in Japanese) shows Kirobo going through its paces.

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Rosphere spherical robot could be rolling up for work to monitor and tend crops

If you see what looks like a hamster ball rolling around a cornfield, it doesn’t mean that someone’s pet is incredibly lost. It may be an experimental robot developed by the Robotics and Cybernetics Research Group at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) called Rosphere. The spherical robot can propel itself over uneven ground and may one day be rolling up for work in fields to monitor and tend crops.

Spherical robots aren’t new. There have been a number built over the years for use in military operations, security, and experiments in space exploration. Rosphere’s approach is to take the simplicity of the sphere to make a robot that is low cost and a bit more general purpose. Its spherical shape gives the robot the ability to handle rough terrain, yet is safe to use around humans and delicate crops.

Mechanically, the Rosphere prototype is remarkably simple. The researchers compare the robot’s “mechatronics” to a hamster ball, which it strongly resembles except for the rubber ridges on the outside and the mechanical workings inside. Like a hamster making a ball roll by running up the sides to shift the center of gravity, the Rosphere uses an eccentric pendulum rotating on an axle to roll and steer itself.

The pendulum consists of ballast hanging by an arm from the ball’s axle. This ballast incorporates the robot’s battery and the axle carries Rosphere’s Wi-Fi antennas and electronics package. The pendulum has two rotational degrees of freedom along the transverse and longitudinal axes. By controlling the pendulum’s swing, the robot can roll forward and backward and steer.

UPM sees the main application for Rosphere being in precision agriculture. That is, instead of tending crops by broadcasting pesticides and fertilizers and dealing with a field as a whole, small robots can tend the individual plants like a gardener. Robots like Rosphere would be able to move about crops without damaging them, making close-up examinations of local conditions and precisely applying pesticides and fertilizers.

Tests of Rosphere were conducted on a farm where it was put up against rough terrain and different soils while testing for moisture and other environmental variables. Afterwards, it was tested at the Parque del Retiro of Madrid to see if it could operate safely with people. According to UPM, the results have so far been satisfactory.

The project results were published in Industrial Robot.

The video below shows Rosphere in action.

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Computer as Smart as a 4-Year-Old?

Artificial and natural knowledge researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have IQ-tested one of the best available artificial intelligence systems to see how intelligent it really is.

Turns out it’s about as smart as the average 4-year-old, they will report July 17 at the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Conference in Bellevue, Wash.

The UIC team put ConceptNet 4, an artificial intelligence system developed at M.I.T., through the verbal portions of the Weschsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Test, a standard IQ assessment for young children.

They found ConceptNet 4 has the average IQ of a young child. But unlike most children, the machine’s scores were very uneven across different portions of the test.

“If a child had scores that varied this much, it might be a symptom that something was wrong,” said Robert Sloan, professor and head of computer science at UIC, and lead author on the study.

Sloan said ConceptNet 4 did very well on a test of vocabulary and on a test of its ability to recognize similarities.

“But ConceptNet 4 did dramatically worse than average on comprehension­the ‘why’ questions,” he said.

One of the hardest problems in building an artificial intelligence, Sloan said, is devising a computer program that can make sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts-the dictionary definition of commonsense.

Commonsense has eluded AI engineers because it requires both a very large collection of facts and what Sloan calls implicit facts-things so obvious that we don’t know we know them. A computer may know the temperature at which water freezes, but we know that ice is cold.

“All of us know a huge number of things,” said Sloan. “As babies, we crawled around and yanked on things and learned that things fall. We yanked on other things and learned that dogs and cats don’t appreciate having their tails pulled.” Life is a rich learning environment.

“We’re still very far from programs with commonsense-AI that can answer comprehension questions with the skill of a child of 8,” said Sloan. He and his colleagues hope the study will help to focus attention on the “hard spots” in AI research.

Study coauthors are UIC professors Stellan Ohlsson of psychology and Gyorgy Turan of mathematics, statistics and computer science; and UIC mathematical computer science undergraduate student Aaron Urasky.

The study was supported by award N00014-09-1-0125 from the Office of Naval Research and grant CCF-0916708 from the National Science Foundation.

[ScienceDaily]

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Improving the white cane

MONASH UNIVERSITY

Harvesting waste heat from power stations and even vehicle exhaust pipes could soon provide a valuable supply of electricity. A small team of Monash University researchers working under the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) has developed an ionic liquid-based thermocell. Thermocell technology is based on harnessing the thermal energy from the difference in temperature between two surfaces and converting that energy into electricity.  Led by Monash University researcher and Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Doug MacFarlane and Monash University PhD student Theodore Abraham, the collaborative project developed the thermocell device with the highest power outputs yet reported and no carbon emissions.  The new thermocell could be used to generate electricity from low grade steam in coal fired power stations at temperatures around 130°C. This would be implemented by having the steam pass over the outer surface of the hot electrode to keep it hot while the other electrode is air or water cooled.  Professor MacFarlane said the breakthrough included the development of a novel ionic liquid-based redox electrolyte. “We have found that it can work at elevated temperatures typical of important heat sources, as opposed to water-based systems, which cannot operate at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius,” Professor MacFarlane said. “The device offers the possibility of a cheap and flexible design suitable for harvesting waste heat in the 100- to 200-degrees Celsius range.” PhD student Theodore Abraham said that by using heat already produced in industrial processes that would otherwise be untapped, the thermocell is an attractive method of relieving some of the present reliance on fossil fuels. “The major benefit of a thermocell is that it harnesses energy that is already readily out there; you’re just harnessing energy that is otherwise lost to surroundings,” Mr Abraham said. Mr Abraham was supervised by Dr Jenny Pringle of Deakin University who said the development was a significant achievement for a PhD student. “The advance we made with this system was that we are generating more electrical energy than any previous power cell in this temperature range,” Dr Pringle said. ACES Director Professor Gordon Wallace said that it took a multitude of skills to tackle complex issues as encountered here. “Our unique research environment within ACES provides an opportunity to acquire these skills in a cutting edge research environment,” Dr Wallace said.

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Improving the white cane

The most reliable navigation tool for people who are blind, the white cane, is set to be enhanced by a new gadget built by six Curtin University PhD students.

The white cane has been a successful innovation for decades, and by using special multi-sensor array technology, the Indoor Navigation Project will enable people who are blind to sense their surroundings beyond the cane’s tip.

A new multi-sensor device will help blind people by telling them what is exactly around them from wall to wall.

Image: Karin Hildebrand Lau/Shutterstock

Project leader Dr Iain Murray of Curtin’s Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering said the gadget would resemble a smartphone and would sense an entire room’s features, build a virtual map of it and communicate this to the user.

“A cane is beneficial for going up and down stairs or detecting if obstacles are right in front of you, but is not capable of telling you if something is more than a metre or two away,” Dr Murray said.

“What we are developing is a multi-sensor device for people who are blind, who are also often hearing impaired, to tell them what is exactly around them from wall to wall.”

Dr Murray said five students will each take on the development of one type of sensor, whether it be sensing the change of velocity, images or noise. The sixth student will be responsible for pooling the sensors into one gadget, which will ultimately contribute towards building a map of the indoor environment including both moving and non-moving objects.

“While many indoor locations already have a map that people who are blind can use to find their way around, they don’t allow for change and can therefore be quite dangerous,” he said.

“For instance, a conference room is forever changing, the chairs are always set up differently and people will move around. We are developing a map system that can adjust for these movements, and then upload this new data to a network for the next person who is vision impaired to enter the room and use on their own device.”  

The five research projects will develop sensors to do the following:

• Determine the direction and distance a user walks whilst indoors along with identifying features such as stairs and inclines.

• Extract the edges of paths and obstacles using stereoscopic cameras, classify what they are, and build a map of the environment using image processing techniques.

• Pick up audio cues to help locate and track moving objects from a mobile receiver.

• Allow for efficient methods of communicating map and sensor data across networks, to ensure data is available before a user collides with an obstacle (in less than 1/6 of a second)

• Enable efficient methods of security and trust within networks, to eliminate risk of leading the blind into dangerous situations. 

Once obstacles are identified, a map will be constructed using a Building Information Modelling system suitable for the vision impaired, developed in the sixth research project.

Dr Murray said building owners do not need to put in any infrastructure for this technology, as the sensors discover everything required for the maps.

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News Shark-repelling wetsuits created

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

MONDAY, 22 JULY 2013

Share on emailShare on print This is the 'warning' wetsuit, which makes the user appear highly visible and unpalatable to sharks. Image: SAMS A Western Australian company has used pioneering research by leading University of WA shark experts to develop wetsuits designed to confuse sharks or render surfers invisible to the predators. The world-first shark repellent suits are based on discoveries by Associate Professor Nathan Hart and Winthrop Professor Shaun Collin, from UWA's Oceans Institute and School of Animal Biology, about how predatory sharks see and detect prey. The suits use a specific combination of colours and patterns to deter the creatures. One design - known as the ‘cryptic' wetsuit - allows the wearer to effectively blend with background colours in the water, making it difficult for a shark to detect or focus on the wearer. The other design - the ‘warning' wetsuit - makes the user appear highly visible by using disruptive and high contrast banding patterns to make them appear totally unlike any normal prey, or even as an unpalatable or dangerous option. The designs also come in the form of stickers for the undersides of surfboards. A UWA team led by Professors Collin and Hart - regarded as world authorities in the field of shark sensory systems - collaborated with biotechnology company Shark Attack Mitigation Systems to translate complex research data on the vision, neurology and behaviour of predatory sharks into an effective product. SAMS founder and director Hamish Jolly, who initiated the project following a spate of fatal shark attacks along the WA coast, said that while the company could not claim the suits were a failsafe protection against shark attacks, results from initial testing of the wetsuits in the ocean with wild sharks had been ‘extraordinary'. "We believe they certainly can assist without necessitating any additional equipment or cost other than what is already being used," Mr Jolly said. Professor Collin said he and fellow researchers were striving to understand shark behaviour and the role of different senses in the hope of protecting both humans and sharks. "We believe that an understanding of the basic neurobiology of the sensory capabilities of sharks is essential to translating this knowledge into ways to help the public reduce the risk of shark attacks," he said. He added that the integrated vision research which led to the suits' development would not have been possible without the financial assistance of the WA Government's State Innovation Vouchers Program, which funded the collaboration. Testing of the suits will continue but in the meantime, SAMS has issued a license for use of the patented technology to wetsuit company Radiator, and expects the technology to be incorporated into a wide range of water sport products all over the world. More information about the suits, the science behind them and the testing - including video footage featuring engagement with a 4m tiger shark - can be found at the SAMS website.

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New way to predict power faults

Melbourne researchers have invented and patented a way of detecting and locating potential electrical faults along large stretches of power line before they occur.

The invention was inspired by a boyhood interest in electric fishes, such as the black ghost knifefish.

The patented detection system, already being employed by local electricity companies, could help prevent the major discharges that lead to sparking and blackouts, says Dr. Alexe Bojovschi, a post-doctoral fellow in electrical and computer engineering at RMIT University.

“Internationally, this is very important. Last year, blackouts left 620 million people in India without power for a couple of days and cost the US economy more than US$120 billion. Electric sparking has been blamed for major bushfires in Australia.”

Alexe is one of 12 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government through the Inspiring Australia initiative.

The patented detection system is alredy being employed by local electricity companies could help prevent major discharges that lead to sparking and blackouts.

Image: gyn9037/Shutterstock

He says he got the idea on how the electromagnetic signatures of potential faults could travel in the power networks from the ability of electric fishes to transmit and receive electromagnetic radiation.

Our power networks, many of which were built at least 50 years ago, are ageing and deteriorating just at the time when they are being overloaded with new appliances, Alexe says. “All it takes is a salt deposit or a build-up of lichen to provide a conductive path on an insulator, and you enhance the likelihood of electrical discharges.”

The patented wireless sensing technology can be mounted to the power poles to detect the discharge signature in the power network. The sensors can be used to locate the fault point by translating the time of arrival of the signature into a measure of distance.

Alexe and his project managers Associate Professors Alan Wong and Wayne Rowe have established a company, IND Technology (www.ind-technology.com.au), to commercialise the system.

At present, IND Technology is offering the technology as an early-fault-detection service to electricity companies in Victoria online 24 hours a day. “The system provides a dynamic picture of the health of their power networks,” Alexe says. “But this is a worldwide issue, so the company has the potential to expand globally.”

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There's still hope for green oil

Despite the claims of some, commercially viable fuels from algae have not yet been developed. But newly trialled native algae species provide real hope, a Queensland scientist has found.

Dr Evan Stephens and the team at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, in collaboration with Germany’s Bielefeld University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, have identified fast-growing and hardy microscopic algae that could prove the key to cheaper and more efficient production of the alternative fuel.

With the help of these native species, Australia could potentially become an oil exporter like Middle East by devoting just 1% of its land to algae farms.

“Previously, the main focus has been looking for oil-rich algae, but usually these are not fast-growing and they are tastier to predators – like microscopic scoops of icecream,” said Evan, manager of the Solar Biofuels Research Centre at the University of Queensland.

“The integration of new technologies means we can turn a broad range of algae into bio-crude oil that can be processed in existing oil refineries, so now the success of the industry comes down to rapid growth and low production costs,” he said. “A major new frontier is in the biology and developing new strains – and we’ve already made significant advances through the identification of high efficiency strains that have really stable growth, as well as being resistant to predators and temperature fluctuations.”

Evan and the team identified hundreds of native species of microscopic algae from freshwater and saltwater environments around Australia. They then tested these strains against thousands of environmental conditions in the laboratory, creating a shortlist of top performers.  The researchers are currently putting the algae through their paces at a pilot processing plant at Pinjarra Hills, Queensland, which was opened in April by Premier Campbell Newman.

The project has garnered international and domestic investment, including Finland’s Neste Oil, global engineering company KBR, Siemens, the Queensland Government and Cement Australia.

Traditionally, algae have been grown for health foods, aquaculture and waste-water treatment. In recent years, algae oil has become the focus of an emerging biofuel industry. Its production is still expensive however, and viable commercial production has not yet been achieved in Australia or overseas.

“If we devoted just 1% of our land mass to algae farming, we could theoretically produce five times more oil than we currently consume and potentially become an oil exporter, rather than an importer,” said Dr Evan Stephens

Image: Fresh Science

“While we know that we can produce algae oil that is even higher quality than standard petroleum sources, we are working to increase the efficiency of production with the ultimate aim being to compete with fossil fuels dollar for dollar,” Evan said.

He said it was important to get the economies of scale right before commercialising algae biofuels.  “There are unfortunately a few people out there making ostentatious claims, but it is important to be realistic and the industry is clearly maturing. There are still important challenges in science and engineering to be overcome to achieve the high efficiency needed to compete with conventional petroleum.”

According to Evan, the algae biofuel industry holds great promise for Australia, whose climate and land are well suited to algae farming.

“If we devoted just 1% of our land mass to algae farming, we could theoretically produce five times more oil than we currently consume and potentially become an oil exporter, rather than an importer – we could be like the Middle East,” he said.

Evan Stephens is one of 12 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government through the Inspiring Australia initiative.

Editor's Note: Original news release can be 

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