SHORT NEWS OF ROBOTICS

*Astronauts to work on giant robot

• *After linking up with the international space station, Endeavour's astronauts got right to work Thursday unloading the parts they'll need to build a giant robot that will help maintain the orbiting outpost.

  astronauts Robert Behnken and Gregory Johnson were using the station's robotic arm to pull a pallet containing the Canadian robot, named Dextre, from Endeavour's cargo bay and install it temporarily on a station girder.

Intelligent arm wrestling robot
*An intelligent arm wrestling robot may sound like a contradiction but the Koreans have built one anyway. Geeks at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent System (IRIS) of Konkuk University have created ‘Robo Arm-Wrestler’, and gave it its first public outing at the recent Future Tech Korea 2005 show. The robot makes you feel like you are arm wrestling a real person, without the face-full of spittle, of course. The ‘smart’ robot considers your attitude, will-power and tenacity in deciding who wins. In other words, it lets you win sometimes, but it could really snap your arm off like a twig. Built to help old people exercise, I can see this baby getting beaten daily by walking sticks and Zimmer frames owned by grumpy, sore-loser geriatrics. Just build one that makes them tea and wipes their arses, would you? Arm wrestling –

*Astronauts for Spacewalk

*With power now flowing to the international space station's new robot, the astronauts aboard the linked shuttle-station complex started preparing Saturday for a spacewalk to assemble the giant machine.

On Friday night, astronauts used the space station's mechanical arm to grab onto and energize Dextre, bypassing a faulty cable that wasn't able to transmit power to the robot.

*robot pet "dog"

Do not afraid of dogs.If want a dog that doesnot bite and can play with you then this is the good news for you. A German university technische universitat Dramstadt has been working on the robot pet that can play with you.It is the robot with extra loaded artificial intelligence power.
*Robotics Taxi
RobuCAB is, a '4 seats automated people mover' developed by a French company and built from a 4 wheel-drive electric chassis with on-board PC. This autonomous vehicle follows the kerb and carries several embedded systems, with one camera on the path edge, another device tracking the angle and direction of the kerb, while others control the gearing and acceleration. robuCABs are not totally

*The violin-playing robot
This robot is a part of Toyota’s Global Vision 2020. The 152-centimeters (5-foot) tall two-legged robot is capable of playing violin. It makes use of its mechanical fingers to push the strings and plays the bow with its other arm. It touts 17 movable joints that endow it with the capability to conduct domestic duties and assist in nursing. The violin-playing robot responds to voice commands and boasts of advanced face recognition

*New Military Robot

Big dog is the mechanical mutt developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the U.S. military, the BigDog prototype is arguably the world's most ambitious legged robot. Its stability and awareness of its own orientation make it the first robot that can handle the unknown challenges of the battlefield. The Great Dane–size 'bot can trot more than three miles an hour, climb inclines of up to 45 degrees, and carry up to 120 pounds—even in rough terrain impenetrable to wheeled or tracked vehicles. But this one is just a puppy; Boston Dynamics expects the next iteration, ready this summer, to be at least twice as fast and carry more than twice as much.

*Robot psychologist

People affected by emotional problems are often reluctant when they're told to see a psychologist. Now, they can confidentially consult onlineIt will cost them €4.95 for one hour session (or about US$7.65 as of today). MindMentor has been developed by two Dutch psychologists specialized in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). The system was tested on 1,600 'customers' from over the world and 47% of them said they were satisfied after only one session.

*Squawkers McCaw Robot Parrot

Squawkers McCaw is the latest Fur Real friend and a robotic parrot. It is very realistic and a ton of fun. Extremely realistic movements.Very good voice recognition.Fullycustomizable with command&responses in your own voice.Looks almost like a real parrot.

*Rocky Mountain goat
The robot goat shown in the picture is to eat away the bad luck and frustration of the unlucky gamblers. It is used at the Edogawa Kyotei boat race course in Tokyo for those gamblers to feed this goat with their losing tickets. The intention behind of using this robot goat is to reduce litter inside the facility. Or else those losing tickets will end up of being thrown on the floor. This Rocky Mountain goat is 1.6-meter tall, has a thick coat of white fur and ticket-detecting sensors in its mouth. It can swallow at a rate of about 500 losing tickets per day.

Robot Dog
Sony launched the new AIBO Entertainment Robot, now taught to understand Spanish as well. Named ERS-7M3, the AIBO is also available in a limited edition Champagne Brown (model ERS-7M3/T) color that looks very attractive. Enhanced software now means that the AIBO can say more than one thousand English words.

It also has a newly introduced short term memory mapping and news reads through RSS. If your pet dog can bring the newspaper every morning, then why not have the AIBO fetch news whenever it's updated? This looks to be the most interesting feature of the new model.

Robot-fish
This one is a robo-carp you can observe at the London Aquarium. It’s a self-guided robot-fish who use artificial intelligence and sensors to avoid obstacles . It’s a 50cm long common carp, swimming with thei living counterparts.

make robot by our tricks

Design your own robot
Your mission is to construct robots

1. 

1. Basic tricks of making robots for your kids

make a hygrometer Robot for kids

• Attach two thermometers back to back with carpenter's glue. If the thermometers have plastic backings, use epoxy glue instead of carpenter's glue.
• Allow glue to dry.
• Drill a hole through the two thermometers at the top of the mountings.
• Drill a hole at the wooden dowel's top.
• Attach the thermometers to the dowel with a 1.5 inch (3.75 cm) wood screw, placing the washer between screw and dowel. Do not tighten the screw all the way. The thermometers should swing freely around.
• always make a special out frame for this
• A toy "Robot tank"
  You will need a wooden cotton reel, a small wood saw, a large rubber band about 100-120 mm in circumference, a stick or pencil about 10-15 cm long, a small (shorter than reel diameter) nail, and a slice from the base of a candle with a hole in the center.

  What you do:
  This is an old traditional children's toy that still fascinates. Use a tenon saw or similar to cut a V-shaped groove across the center of one end of the reel, then thread the rubber band through the hole in the reel. Slip the nail through the rubber band and settle it into the slot. Slip the candle slice over the rubber band at the other end, and put the stick through the rubber band. Wind the stick around until the rubber band is quite tight, then put the cotton reel down and watch it run.

  • Measuring electricity .hand made robot.
    This is a simple gadget to detect electricity when it flows.
    You have a matchbox tray, a long piece of fine enameled copper wire, and a compass. Put the compass in the matchbox tray, coil the wire gently around the tray, always going in the same direction, and put it on a table, with the compass needle parallel to the coils of wire. When a current goes through the wire, it makes a small magnetic field, which may be able to make the compass needle twit.
  • Making a Leyden jar .hand made things.
    You will need a foam ("disposable") cup, some aluminum foil, and an insulating surface. Wrap the inside and the outside of the foam cup with aluminum foil, but keep the two covers from touching each other. Leave a small "tag" of aluminum foil on the outside to allow "earthing" for charging by induction. This involves charging a rod, placing it inside the cup (not touching the aluminum!) and then touching the outside foil by way of the tag. Take your hand away, and then remove the rod: the cup is now charged.

human-robot interaction

• In recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and especially in robotics we can observe a tendency towards building intelligent facts that are meant to be social, to have ‘human social’ characteristics like emotions, the ability to conduct dialogue, to learn, to develop personality, character traits, and social competencies. Care, entertainment, pet and educational robots are conceptualised as friendly, understanding partners and credible assistants which communicate ‘naturally’ with users, show emotions and support them in everyday life. Social robots are often designed to interact physically.
• Upper and lower limb robotic tools for neuro-rehabilitation are effective in reducing motor impairment but they are limited in their ability to improve real world function. There is a need to improve functional outcomes after robot-assisted therapy. Improvements in the effectiveness of these environments may be achieved by incorporating into their design and control strategies important elements key to inducing motor learning and cerebral plasticity such as mass-practice, feedback, task-engagement, and complex problem solving.
• Examples include research conducted in JPL's , including such disciplines as , and In addition, there are several areas in technology research, including , and Planetary Protection.
• In 1970 only two manufacturers existed in the United States, namely the American Machine and Foundry (AMF) Versatran and the Unimation, Inc. Unimate. These robots, still in the forefront today, were just emerging and gaining acceptance in 1970, with approximately 200 industrial robots at work in the U.S., and an amassed 600,000 hours on the job, a negligible amount considering that the total U.S.blue collar work force puts in 200 million hours each day. However more than seventeen types of robots are now available in the U.S. at least twelve of which are manufactured in this country. They range from minirobots with payloads of only a few ounces and reaches of less than a foot to the larger universal robots which can handle payloads of up to 150 lbs., reach 3 ½ ft., and move at speeds up to 3 ft./sec. Recent additions to the U.S. arsenal are the Burch Control robot with a payload capacity of 6000 lbs. Industrial robots are easily reprogrammable, operatorless handling devices that can perform simple, repetitive jobs that require few alternative actions and minimum communications with the work environment. They are well suited to handling parts that are red hot or feezing cold, and they can function in corrosive, noxious or extremely dusty atmospheres that would be injurious to human beings. Passage in the United States of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 has provided strong impetus for the use of industrial robots. As discussed in a recent article in Assembly Engineering Magazine (Ref.1), the Act currently states that a human being cannot place his hands within punch press dies to load or remove parts, and it is imminent that OSHA standards will be extended to cover other fabricating and assembly machines, such as staking presses, spot welding machines, riveting machines, holding and clamping equipment, electron component Inserting equipment, and automatic screwdriving machines. In many cases the cost and time to retool an existing operation to conform to the standards will be prohibitive compared to the cost and time required to purchase and program an industrial robot to perform the potentially dangerous operations.
• This special issue presents nine articles. Novel strategies covered in this issue encourage more natural movements through the use of virtual reality and real objects and faster motor learning through the use of error feedback to guide acquisition of natural movements that are salient to real activities. In addition, several articles describe novel systems and techniques that use of custom and commercial games combined with new low-cost robot systems and a humanoid robot to embody the " supervisory presence" of the therapy as possible solutions to exercise compliance in under-supervised environments such as the home.
• A great set of design and construction articles awaits the curious robot builder at where discusses theory and implementation of line tracking, dead reckoning, drive trains, motor drive, motor control, and microcontrollers. Tossed into the mix are articles discussing basic electronics including understanding how resistors, current, and voltage are related, how transistors work, mechanical switch debouncing, DAC construction, and ideas about projects cases. Ibrahim's articles are well-written and include theory right along with the nuts and bolts of schematics, source code, and troubleshooting.
• An summarizes recent developments in the electronic noses. The latest variety sensors to give machines a sense of smell are based on conducting polymers that produce electrical signals in response to certain chemicals. The human nose, which is not particularly capable, as noses go, can detect about 10,000 different chemicals, known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Often, a single unique scent is the combination of hundreds of different VOCs. Early electronic sensors could only detect single chemicals. The most recent polymer noses are printable organic semiconductors that can "differentiate between basic classes of odors, such as acids, alcohols, amines, and thiols" allowing them easily sniff out the difference between wine and vinegar. There are still some bugs to work out before this technology becomes commercially available. For more, see our older articles on the the NIST Nosend the Northwest builders will be testing their metal Saturday and Sunday at the North West Model Hobby Expo, where Western Allied Robotics will be holding its annual local tournament. Cash prizes of $100 will go to winners in the 1-, 3-, 12- and 30-pound categories.
  
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Robot Artificial Intelligence

• Learn about Robot Artificial Intelligence

The simplest definition of a robot could be "a mechanism which moves and reacts to its environment", and there are many robot starter kits which use this definition in some form. The simplest of these I have seen is a fact file type book with a tray of electric and simple mechanical components together with an envelope of card board press out parts and stencils allowing the construction of a variety of wheeled and legged mechanisms which are crudely able to interact with the environment.

• The "human-like" robot concept embodied as a Personal Assistant has been around since the beginning of this century. Only recently have the necessary technical advancements in engineering, fabrication, electronics, computers and software allowed the development of a flexible, articulated "human-like" machine to be affordably manufactured

robot used in outer space

• The Canadian government chipped in $1.1 billion to develop a jointed construction crane that astronauts use to position themselves and large pieces of equipment during ISS construction. The Mobile Servicing System, better known as Canadarm 2, is a larger version of the space shuttle’s long robot arm, and its reach is eight feet longer. The space station arm was developed to move objects of more than 200,000 pounds. Or it can delicately move suited astronauts, plucking them up from the airlock and transferring them to designated work areas and back again, like a mother cat relocating kittens. The arm moves along a track built into the truss. Inside the station, astronauts use closed-circuit TV to guide the crane. Unlike the shuttle arm, Canadarm 2 has force sensors to provide an artificial sense of “touch” and an automatic collision avoidance system

• Limits Of Life In The Atacama - a three year project to develop technologies and techniques to enable robotic astrobiology while also conducting scientific investigation of life in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.