The latest "BigDog" 4-legged military robot "pack mule", moves with an astonishing animal fluidity. Creepy, spooky, amazing... what word best suits? It's real. But turn your sound way down. There is no commentary anyway, and BigDog sounds like a chainsaw.
Follow story here.
Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Exoskeletons and Thought Recognition
Thought-controlled Exoskeletons are on the way. The technology already exists.
Rapidly evolving, sophisticated exoskeletons have arrived. My favorite is Sarcos exoskeleton. No need for a joystick or hand controls. You just wear it, and it mirrors your actions.
You can pump a couple hundred pounds, run, box, dance and carry heavy loads up stairs. It doubles as an autonomous robot. If it can't do so already, it would be a simple step to program it. While in the robotic suit, carry out a series of actions, save, then step out. Switch to autonomous mode and the robot will repeat what you have taught it.
Like all computer tech, these suits will continually drop in price and become ever more sophisticated. Soon they'll park in the garage next to the car or maybe take up a corner in the living room waiting for intruders.
But here's the obvious next step: This technology is also primed to make the link between thought and superhuman abilities.
As exoskeletons fluidly respond to thought, paralysed, speechless people will walk, talk and navigate. Exoskeletons will spill from military applications to industry and then to consumers to become superhuman extensions of our bodies.
Follow news on thought controlled exoskeletons here.
More on thought controlled technology here:
Google Search
Google Video
Google News (not much as of March 2009, but worth checking over time)
Rapidly evolving, sophisticated exoskeletons have arrived. My favorite is Sarcos exoskeleton. No need for a joystick or hand controls. You just wear it, and it mirrors your actions.
You can pump a couple hundred pounds, run, box, dance and carry heavy loads up stairs. It doubles as an autonomous robot. If it can't do so already, it would be a simple step to program it. While in the robotic suit, carry out a series of actions, save, then step out. Switch to autonomous mode and the robot will repeat what you have taught it.
Like all computer tech, these suits will continually drop in price and become ever more sophisticated. Soon they'll park in the garage next to the car or maybe take up a corner in the living room waiting for intruders.
But here's the obvious next step: This technology is also primed to make the link between thought and superhuman abilities.
Thought Recognition
Thought recognition systems directly translate brain signals into action. Eric Ramsay, a man completely paralyzed except for his eyes is translating his thoughts into speech, a monkey's leg movement brain signals control a robot across the planet, and another monkey mentally controls a robotic arm to feed itself.As exoskeletons fluidly respond to thought, paralysed, speechless people will walk, talk and navigate. Exoskeletons will spill from military applications to industry and then to consumers to become superhuman extensions of our bodies.
Follow news on thought controlled exoskeletons here.
More on thought controlled technology here:
Google Search
Google Video
Google News (not much as of March 2009, but worth checking over time)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Amazing Rough Terrain Robot
The six legged RHex Robot, from the makers of BigDog is designed for extreme terrain. It can seemingly go anywhere. Stairs, over rocks, through mud, swim through water, run through fields... If it gets stuck it just goes crazy until it's moving again. Kinda cute too. At least until hoards of them begin marching from our desktop fabricators only to be turned into zombies by the latest botnet.
See the video links.
See the video links.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Emotional Reactions to Robots
At first I thought it was just me. Watching a recent video of a new 'pack-mule' robot (nicknamed BigDog) being tested by the US military, I suddenly began feeling pity.
I know it's just a machine. But during testing inside a small room, when a researcher kicked it to demonstrate how it recovers with an animal-like fluidity, I was secretly wishing it would kick back. But it also moves like 2 torso-less people trying to move a couch. That made me laugh.
Both of those responses came directly from the animal-like motion. And this highly complex movement is a sign of how advanced robotics is becoming.
This discussion on Digg has several posts describing emotional reactions to the vid.
Update: Mar 17 2008 Check out BigDog on ice, snow, climbing over cinder blocks, jumping and more.
Want to see more creepy robot motion? See the tree climbing robot that moves and looks like a cockroach that recently crawled out of university research labs. Others move like spiders and snakes.
Also consider face recognition. Indeed, all of the senses, abilities and aptitudes found in nature are being reproduced and implanted into machines.
Robots of all kinds will very soon be everywhere while getting smarter very fast.
Marshall Brain's excellent read on the approaching impact of robots can be found here.
I know it's just a machine. But during testing inside a small room, when a researcher kicked it to demonstrate how it recovers with an animal-like fluidity, I was secretly wishing it would kick back. But it also moves like 2 torso-less people trying to move a couch. That made me laugh.
Both of those responses came directly from the animal-like motion. And this highly complex movement is a sign of how advanced robotics is becoming.
This discussion on Digg has several posts describing emotional reactions to the vid.
Update: Mar 17 2008 Check out BigDog on ice, snow, climbing over cinder blocks, jumping and more.
Want to see more creepy robot motion? See the tree climbing robot that moves and looks like a cockroach that recently crawled out of university research labs. Others move like spiders and snakes.
Robots Are Evolving In Chunks
High quality reusable intelligent robot functions are hitting the market. Both the legwork of BigDog and the stability of the 2 wheeled Segway base have been adopted by the US military.Also consider face recognition. Indeed, all of the senses, abilities and aptitudes found in nature are being reproduced and implanted into machines.
Robots of all kinds will very soon be everywhere while getting smarter very fast.
Marshall Brain's excellent read on the approaching impact of robots can be found here.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
The Evolution of Lego? Self Replicating Robots
Out of Cornell rises a self assembling/ replicating robot composed of independently functioning cubes allowing it to assume a range of three-dimensional shapes. Each cube is preprogrammed with step-by-step instructions on how to replicate the robotic structure.
(This is part of a developing story about the rise of personal desktop fabrication and replicators).
Dismissing any doubt that self replicating machines are possible, the modular design with intelligence built into each module, points a way to self-repairing, assembling and replicating robots.
The research team has set it's sights on a molecular version. The cubes, like molecules, are held together with magnets that turn on and off. Like biological life forms, they (crudely) replicate in 2005 and programmed to stop reproducing after 2 generations.
Imagine scaling the size of this self replicating design down in half each year. Increasingly complex structures, detail and properties would emerge. Each new generation would be exponentially more capable. Every 3 1/2 years the modules would shrink to one 10th the size. The cubes are now about 10 centimeters square. By 2010 the modules would be about smaller than the ball of your pen. By 2015 they would approach the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Each with equal or greater computational power than they have now, loaded with sensors and new properties.
Each module could become a pixel in the construction of an object. Kind of like those "Pin Art" toys that you press to your hand, face or some object. It would form itself from instructions and be able to walk, roll, climb and move about. Perhaps even swim or fly. And replicate as long as the supply of modules lasts.
It's absolutely conceivable because Technology is inherently self-accelerating. In an ever quickening loop, the power of technology naturally accelerates in speed, magnitude and scope while dropping in cost.
Beyond that is the doorway to manufacturing with molecules. At the molecular scale it would be capable of producing perfectly designed objects, energy sources, even food. It is a very powerful existence proof of what is on the near horizon.
The movie (accelerated 4X) is eerie to watch. It's easy to imagine a clutter of cubes picking themselves up and walking towards you.
Updated News Here
(This is part of a developing story about the rise of personal desktop fabrication and replicators).
Dismissing any doubt that self replicating machines are possible, the modular design with intelligence built into each module, points a way to self-repairing, assembling and replicating robots.
Applications
More complex robots are possible. Adding grippers, cameras, new sensors etc. would allow the assembled robot to see, hear, move... A robot could assemble and reassemble itself into a new structure to deal with novel events.The research team has set it's sights on a molecular version. The cubes, like molecules, are held together with magnets that turn on and off. Like biological life forms, they (crudely) replicate in 2005 and programmed to stop reproducing after 2 generations.
Implications
Nanomachines: Lipson is interested in making these machines at microscale. That could drive major advances in Nanotechnology because huge numbers of robots are needed to manufacture things at a molecular scale. Self-replication is how biology does it.Imagine scaling the size of this self replicating design down in half each year. Increasingly complex structures, detail and properties would emerge. Each new generation would be exponentially more capable. Every 3 1/2 years the modules would shrink to one 10th the size. The cubes are now about 10 centimeters square. By 2010 the modules would be about smaller than the ball of your pen. By 2015 they would approach the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Each with equal or greater computational power than they have now, loaded with sensors and new properties.
Each module could become a pixel in the construction of an object. Kind of like those "Pin Art" toys that you press to your hand, face or some object. It would form itself from instructions and be able to walk, roll, climb and move about. Perhaps even swim or fly. And replicate as long as the supply of modules lasts.
It's absolutely conceivable because Technology is inherently self-accelerating. In an ever quickening loop, the power of technology naturally accelerates in speed, magnitude and scope while dropping in cost.
Beyond that is the doorway to manufacturing with molecules. At the molecular scale it would be capable of producing perfectly designed objects, energy sources, even food. It is a very powerful existence proof of what is on the near horizon.
The movie (accelerated 4X) is eerie to watch. It's easy to imagine a clutter of cubes picking themselves up and walking towards you.
Updated News Here
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