02 January 2009Robots: 2008 New Year's SpecialFor our New Year's episode, we'll be giving you an overview of the trends in robotics for 2008 and an insight into next year's developments with five experts in robotics from different backgrounds and continents. We speak with Dan Kara from Robotics Trends about the robot marketplace, Terry Fong from the NASA Ames Research Center, Dario Floreano from the EPFL, Steve Rainwater from robots.net and Minoru Asada from Osaka University.
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Latest News: Instead of our traditional news item we made a short year-end review of the biggest news items of 2008 in our forum. Let us know what was your biggest news of 2008!View and post comments on this episode in the forum |
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Robots: 2008 New Year's Special
19 December 2008Robots: Robot ToysIn the spirit of the holiday season, today's episode is all about robots as toys. We speak to Mark Tilden, robot designer at WowWee Robotics, about designing robots for children, and what he thinks that scientists and researchers can learn from the toy industry. We are also holding a contest to give away his latest creation, the Femisapien, to one of our listeners, so read all about it below.Mark Tilden  Mark Tilden is a true robotics lover, having built thousands of robots of all shapes and sizes in the last few decades. During the first part of his career he pioneered BEAM robotics (which stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics), a philosophy of building robots based on simple analog circuits and control instead of highly-complex systems, leading to low-cost and efficient systems. His bio-inspired bots manage to walk, crawl, roll or shake in complex environments using only a few transistors and basic sensors.
After working at the University of Waterloo in Canada and subsequently at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Tilden's research eventually evolved into toy design when he was hired as a consultant for WowWee robotics in Hong Kong. His RoboSapien humanoid robot was controlled using only 28 transistors, and has sold in the millions. In our interview Tilden tells us about the difference between robotics in scientific research and in the toy industry. He also speaks about his latest creation, the Femisapien, and how he hopes to interest young girls in the field of robotics. Christmas Contest: Win a WowWee FemiSapien 
Guess what our Femisapien did on her first weekend in Switzerland for a chance to win one! Answers can be posted on our forum as a description, video, drawing or picture until Thursday the 1st of January noon (GMT). The closest guess wins and the most creative posts will be encouraged. A short video will be posted on the 2nd of January to reveal the winner and the correct answer.
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Latest News: Further information on the robots mentioned in this episode on the Robots robot forum, including robot actors, dancers and performers around the world, a web version of the "Japan: Robot Nation" show, and a list of our favorite last minute robot Christmas presents as well as other recommendations for the holiday season around the web. View and post comments on this episode in the forum |
27 November 2008Robots: Robot MusiciansThis episode focuses on robot musicians, starting with our first guest Gil Weinberg who is the Director of Music Technology at Georgia Tech. With his wooden robot drummer Haile, he's been evolving a new beat for the future of music. Our second guest, Atsuo Takanishi describes the Waseda Flutist, a robot that mimics human lungs, vocal chords, and lips to accurately play the flute.Gil Weinberg 
Prof. Gil Weinberg is the Director of Music Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where his research has been bridging the musical and scientific worlds. From his PhD on, he's been investigating the use of technology to expand musical expression, creativity, and learning and then bringing his ideas to the public with concerts, museum exhibitions and festivals. His most well know projects include the Beatbugs, electronic percussion instruments which when networked can allow newbie musicians, and even children, to collaborate and create living tunes. In another project, he's working to create an Accessible Aquarium for the visually impaired to perceive the dynamics of life in a fish tank through auditory cues.
In this episode we concentrate on his latest compositions in music technology, Haile the robot drummer and Shimon the Marimba player. Haile has also been touring the world, playing with human teachers and even evolving its own beats to reach robotic improvisation. Haile, is esthetically elegant with its wooden structure and can play faster than a human at a rate of 15 HZ. Finally, Weinberg gives us his view on robot-musician interactions and the possible opening of a new music genre. Atsuo Takanishi  Prof. Atsuo Takanishi has been designing robots for decades. From robots meant to help the medical industry, such as the Oral Rehabilitation Robot or the Clinical Jaw Movement Training Robot, to bio-mimetic robots such as the Emotion Expression Humanoid Robot or the Rat Robot, Takanishi's lab excels in designing advanced and feature-rich platforms.
Takanishi Lab's 15-year foray into musical robots has yielded the Anthropomorphic Flutist Robot, a robot capable of playing the flute at the level of an intermediate human flutist. Now in it's 4th version, the robot mimics many of the mechanisms used by humans to play the flute, such as 3DOF lips, a vibrato and a complex mechanical tongue capable of advanced flute techniques such as the double tonguing technique. Check out the video below: Links:
Latest News: Visit the Robots Forum for links and discussions about
Evolution Robotics, iRobot's Warrior 700 and the ethics of military robotics presented in the podcast.
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21 November 2008Robots: Bio-inspired LocomotionIn our 13th episode we talk with biologist Robert Full from UC Berkeley about the research he's been doing on animal locomotion and how his insights have been inspiring engineers to create robots. We then talk to expert Auke Ijspeert from the EPFL on his insight on bio-inspired locomotion.Robert Full  Prof. Robert Full is the director of the Poly-Pedal Lab at UC Berkeley where he has been interacting with engineers, biologists and mathematicians for the interdisciplinary study of locomotion in animals and robots.
By studying how cockroaches run over complex terrain or how crabs can run in sand, he's inspired roboticists to create the RHex robot with open-loop control and bouncy legs capable of running along in rough terrain. With the running out of the way, Full then looked at climbing animals such as geckos and the Van der Waals forces which allow their hairy feet to cling to a wall. The resulting bio-inspired dry adhesives have been covered in Talking Robots by Prof. Ron Fearing and Prof. Mettin Sitti. However, what happens when a gecko slips or even falls? After a quick inquiry from an engineer about the use of gecko tails, Full found the answer by discovering that geckos can actively use their tail to stabilize and even do controlled gliding! Finally, Prof. Full presents his view on bio-inspired engineering, the use of robots for biologists, and the amazing compliance and robustness of living creatures still unachievable by robots. Auke Ijspeert  Prof. Auke Ijspeert is a long-time colleague of Full, meeting at countless conferences and exchanging visits to each other's labs on both sides of the Atlantic. As professor of the Biologically Inspired Robotics Group at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, he is involved in many bio-inspired robotics projects such as the Salamandra Robotica, and has been featured in a Talking Robots interview on his work. Ijspeert tells us a bit about Full's work as seen by the scientific community, and what he thinks are Full's most important contributions to the field of robotics.
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Latest News: Visit the Robots Forum for links and discussions about the
Death of the Phoenix Lander, World's largest robotic truck and Honda's assisted walking prototype presented in the podcast.
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07 November 2008Robots: Androids, Human Presence and the Uncanny ValleyThis episode covers android science and human-robot interactions with expert Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka. After the interview we feature the last installment of Jack Graham's Selkies story, as well as a poll on the future of Androids.Hiroshi Ishiguro 
Hiroshi Ishiguro is Professor of the Department of Adaptive Machine Systems, and the group leader of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University.
If you've ever seen an Android robot in the news, it probably came out of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. Starting from the robotic replicate of his then 5 year old daughter, Prof. Ishiguro then went on to model a female android after Ayako Fujii, the NHK news announcer. Finally, his latest robot Geminoid, which is a close copy of himself, is able to replaceits creator in lectures and interviews. His robots are highly actuated to give them human like facial expressions and reflexes. However, because the AI needed to interact in a human-like manner is not always advanced enough, Prof. Ishiguro has been looking to partially teleoperate his robots. Another approach investigated is to make his robots autonomous by having them perceive and react to their world thanks to networks of cameras and microphones. Using these robots as a tool, Prof. Ishiguro has been exploring the field of Android Science, which looks at both the appearance and behavior of humanoid robots and their impact on human robot interactions. In particular, he is looking to verify the existence of the uncanny valley and to explore how to make androids which sufficiently resemble humans to be likable. On the more philosophical side, his androids open the door to understanding what human presence really means. Survey   What is your take on androids? Will androids ever become indistinguishable from humans, both in looks and behaviour? Will they become unrecognizable like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, or remain awkward like Data from Star Trek? Take the poll on the Robots forum!
Selkies In this last installment of the Jack Graham's Selkies story Mangan sets his Selkies free with a new schooling algorithm in a sea full of sharks. Will this new generation of robotic swimmers escape the jaws of the sharks? Tune in to find out... Links:
Latest News: As always, you can find more info on the robots mentioned in this episode on the robot forum, including what may be your future robot
housemaid, Australia's anti IED robot SPIKER as well as videos and a slideshow of 25 years of CMU's Field Robotics Center.
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Published: 5.6.2008/dm Last update: 19.12.2008/mw
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AboutRobots is the podcast for news and views on robotics. In addition to insights from high-profile professionals, Robots will take you for a ride through the world's research labs, robotics companies and their latest innovations. New episodes are released every two weeks, on Fridays at 9am GMT. Next episode: Friday, 16th of January 2009 Subscribe to feedSubscribe to Robots using iTunes or other podcatchers by clicking on the following links:
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