Researchers have built an inchworm-like robot so small you need a microscope just to see it.
In fact about 200 hundred of them could line up and do the conga across a plain M&M.
The tiny bot measures about 60 micrometers wide (about the width of a human hair) by 250 micrometers long, making it the smallest untethered, controllable microrobot ever.
"It's tens of times smaller in length, and thousands of times smaller in mass than previous untethered microrobots that are controllable," said designer Bruce Donald of Dartmouth University. "When we say ‘controllable,' it means it's like a car; you can steer it anywhere on a flat surface, and drive it wherever you want to go. It doesn't drive on wheels, but crawls like a silicon inchworm, making tens of thousands of 10-nanometer steps every second. It turns by putting a silicon 'foot' out and pivoting like a motorcyclist skidding around a tight turn."
Because it makes use of this innovative bending movement and is untethered, it can move freely across a surface without the wires or rails that restricted the mobility of previously developed microrobots. The caterpillar strategy also helped the researchers avoid a common problem in microrobotics.
"Machines this small tend to stick to everything they touch, the way sand sticks to your feet after a day at the beach," said Craig McGray of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "So we built these microrobots without any wheels or hinged joints, which must slide smoothly on their bearings. Instead, these robots move by bending their bodies like caterpillars. At very small scales, this machine is surprisingly fast."
To get around, the robot makes use of two independent microactuators – the robot's "muscles." One is for forward motion and the other for turning.
It doesn't have pre-programmed directions. Instead, it reacts to electric changes in the grid of electrodes it moves on. This grid also supplies the microrobot with the power needed to make these movements.
This microrobot and similar versions that could be developed might eventually ensure information security, inspect and make repairs to integrated circuits, explore hazardous environments, or even manipulate human cells or tissues.
This research will be presented in October at the International Symposium of Robotics Research in San Francisco. It will also be detailed in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Microelectrochemical Systems.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Researchers are teaching robots to interact intelligently with humans
Robots have been a part of research labs and automated factories for quite some time, but now some of them are playing hide-and-seek with scientist Alan Schultz.
Teaching this robot named George to find a place to hide and then hunt for a human playmate is a new level of human interaction rarely seen in robot design, according to Schultz.
The breakthrough with George and other pieces of machinery like him are that these machines must take cues from people and behave accordingly -- and that may just be the start of a real robot revolution -- giving them some humanity.
Cynthia Breazeal -- robotic life group director at MIT -- stated that "Robots in the human environment, to me that's the final frontier … the human environment is as complex as it gets; it pushes the envelope." Breazeal added "Robots have to understand people as people … right now, the average robot understands people like a chair: It's something to go around."
The nature of robotics is morphing from advanced software and mechanical gears operating remotely -- be it on the planet Mars, the bottom of the ocean, or on automobile assembly lines -- to working with and besides people. In fact, some robots may soon be operating on people themselves.
Researchers who are tying together humanity and robotics are creating robotic machines that do connect with humans in a more "thoughtful" way as opposed to "objects" to interact with on the basis of a mere physical reality. Huggable -- a teddy-bear robot that can monitor the physical health of sick children -- is one of the newer breed of humanistic robots. Some robots are even coaxing autistic kids out of their shells.
All of these newer humanistic robots are why George's hide-and-seek game is important. As a machine, George is not a breakthrough -- but he may be the beginning of an entirely new breed of robotic machines that interact with people, not deal with people as objects like chairs and tables.
Teaching this robot named George to find a place to hide and then hunt for a human playmate is a new level of human interaction rarely seen in robot design, according to Schultz.
The breakthrough with George and other pieces of machinery like him are that these machines must take cues from people and behave accordingly -- and that may just be the start of a real robot revolution -- giving them some humanity.
Cynthia Breazeal -- robotic life group director at MIT -- stated that "Robots in the human environment, to me that's the final frontier … the human environment is as complex as it gets; it pushes the envelope." Breazeal added "Robots have to understand people as people … right now, the average robot understands people like a chair: It's something to go around."
The nature of robotics is morphing from advanced software and mechanical gears operating remotely -- be it on the planet Mars, the bottom of the ocean, or on automobile assembly lines -- to working with and besides people. In fact, some robots may soon be operating on people themselves.
Researchers who are tying together humanity and robotics are creating robotic machines that do connect with humans in a more "thoughtful" way as opposed to "objects" to interact with on the basis of a mere physical reality. Huggable -- a teddy-bear robot that can monitor the physical health of sick children -- is one of the newer breed of humanistic robots. Some robots are even coaxing autistic kids out of their shells.
All of these newer humanistic robots are why George's hide-and-seek game is important. As a machine, George is not a breakthrough -- but he may be the beginning of an entirely new breed of robotic machines that interact with people, not deal with people as objects like chairs and tables.
Robots predicted to have rights 50 years from now
(NaturalNews) A recent report commissioned by the British government states that one day we may be giving the kind of rights traditionally reserved for humans to sentient machines. The report claims to have looked extensively at current trends into to gauge the situation 50 years from now.
One of 270 forward-looking papers sponsored by Sir David King, the UK government’s chief scientist, specifically looks at the value and rights robots could have in the year 2056. One paper covering robot rights was written by a management consultancy with assistance from an opinion research organization.
"If we make conscious robots they would want to have rights and they probably should," said Henrik Christensen, director of the Centre of Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Although the rights of robots and the emergence of thinking machines has been the subject of quite few books and movies in recent times, one of the most immersive has been the work of Dr. Isaac Asimov -- who wrote of a society where robots were fully integrated and essential in the everyday lives of people and the planet.
In Asimov's books, there were three laws of robotics that governed machine life. The three rules were: robots could not injure humans, they must obey orders and they protect their own existence -- in that specific order.
Currently, robots and machines are now classified as inanimate objects without rights or duties. But with the emergence recently of artificial intelligence software that continues to increase in complexity -- and they have been known to mimic parts of human consciousness -- the report argues that there may be calls for the rights of human beings to be given to these machines.
One of 270 forward-looking papers sponsored by Sir David King, the UK government’s chief scientist, specifically looks at the value and rights robots could have in the year 2056. One paper covering robot rights was written by a management consultancy with assistance from an opinion research organization.
"If we make conscious robots they would want to have rights and they probably should," said Henrik Christensen, director of the Centre of Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Although the rights of robots and the emergence of thinking machines has been the subject of quite few books and movies in recent times, one of the most immersive has been the work of Dr. Isaac Asimov -- who wrote of a society where robots were fully integrated and essential in the everyday lives of people and the planet.
In Asimov's books, there were three laws of robotics that governed machine life. The three rules were: robots could not injure humans, they must obey orders and they protect their own existence -- in that specific order.
Currently, robots and machines are now classified as inanimate objects without rights or duties. But with the emergence recently of artificial intelligence software that continues to increase in complexity -- and they have been known to mimic parts of human consciousness -- the report argues that there may be calls for the rights of human beings to be given to these machines.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Robot
A robot is a machine designed to execute one or more tasks repeatedly, with speed and precision. There are as many different types of robots as there are tasks for them to perform.
A robot can be controlled by a human operator, sometimes from a great distance. But most robots are controlled by computer, and fall into either of two categories: autonomous robots and insect robots. An autonomous robot acts as a stand-alone system, complete with its own computer (called the controller). Insect robots work in fleets ranging in number from a few to thousands, with all fleet members under the supervision of a single controller. The term insect arises from the similarity of the system to a colony of insects, where the individuals are simple but the fleet as a whole can be sophisticated.
Robots are sometimes grouped according to the time frame in which they were first widely used. First-generation robots date from the 1970s and consist of stationary, nonprogrammable, electromechanical devices without sensors. Second-generation robots were developed in the 1980s and can contain sensors and programmable controllers. Third-generation robots were developed between approximately 1990 and the present. These machines can be stationary or mobile, autonomous or insect type, with sophisticated programming, speech recognition and/or synthesis, and other advanced features. Fourth-generation robots are in the research-and-development phase, and include features such as artificial intelligence, self-replication, self assembly, and nanoscale size (physical dimensions on the order of nanometers, or units of 10-9 meter).
Some advanced robots are called androids because of their superficial resemblance to human beings. Androids are mobile, usually moving around on wheels or a track drive (robots legs are unstable and difficult to engineer). The android is not necessarily the end point of robot evolution. Some of the most esoteric and powerful robots do not look or behave anything like humans. The ultimate in robotic intelligence and sophistication might take on forms yet to be imagined.
The term robot first appeared in a 1920 play by Czech writer Karel Capek, R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots. In the play, the robots eventually overthrow their human creators. The Czech word "robota" means "forced labor".
A robot can be controlled by a human operator, sometimes from a great distance. But most robots are controlled by computer, and fall into either of two categories: autonomous robots and insect robots. An autonomous robot acts as a stand-alone system, complete with its own computer (called the controller). Insect robots work in fleets ranging in number from a few to thousands, with all fleet members under the supervision of a single controller. The term insect arises from the similarity of the system to a colony of insects, where the individuals are simple but the fleet as a whole can be sophisticated.
Robots are sometimes grouped according to the time frame in which they were first widely used. First-generation robots date from the 1970s and consist of stationary, nonprogrammable, electromechanical devices without sensors. Second-generation robots were developed in the 1980s and can contain sensors and programmable controllers. Third-generation robots were developed between approximately 1990 and the present. These machines can be stationary or mobile, autonomous or insect type, with sophisticated programming, speech recognition and/or synthesis, and other advanced features. Fourth-generation robots are in the research-and-development phase, and include features such as artificial intelligence, self-replication, self assembly, and nanoscale size (physical dimensions on the order of nanometers, or units of 10-9 meter).
Some advanced robots are called androids because of their superficial resemblance to human beings. Androids are mobile, usually moving around on wheels or a track drive (robots legs are unstable and difficult to engineer). The android is not necessarily the end point of robot evolution. Some of the most esoteric and powerful robots do not look or behave anything like humans. The ultimate in robotic intelligence and sophistication might take on forms yet to be imagined.
The term robot first appeared in a 1920 play by Czech writer Karel Capek, R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots. In the play, the robots eventually overthrow their human creators. The Czech word "robota" means "forced labor".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
