|
RECENT ENTRIES |
- • Launch of the Ares I-X - 10.30
- • Conflict in Pakistan - 10.28
- • Afghanistan, October, 2009 - 10.26
| August 12, 2009 | (Use j/k keys to navigate)  Email to a friend  Permalink |
More Robots
Scientists, students and corporations continue their work around the world in the field of robotics, persistently improving and redefining their capabilities, interfaces and roles in society. Unmanned vehicles fly above war zones, telerobotics give humans a broader virtual presence and humanoid robots gain more parity with humans, refining their movements and responses. Collected here are a handful of recent photographs of robotics in use around the world. [Previously on TBP: Robots] (36 photos total)
Picture of the iCub robot taken on July 1, 2009 during a presentation at the Bron research institute near Lyon, France, part of an EU-funded Robot Cub project. The iCub robots are about the size of three-year-old children, with highly dexterous hands and fully articulated heads and eyes. They have hearing and touch capabilities and are designed to be able to crawl on all fours and to sit up. (FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)
Japanese robotic scientists set up their service robot "Eraser" on June 30, 2009 on the eve of the "RoboCup," the world's largest robotic event, hosting 408 teams with 2,300 scientists and students, in Graz, Austria. Gerald Steinbauer, organizer of the event, said that the aim is for the engineers to build robots by 2050 which will be able to beat the world champion football team. (DIETER NAGL/AFP/Getty Images) #
In this April 3, 2009 photo, a robotic tail fin, whose actions are dictated by microprocessors housed in an attached Tupperware container, is seen in professor John Long's Vassar College science lab in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Long is among a small group of researchers worldwide building robots that can do things like shimmy through water or slither up shores to aid the study biology and evolution. They believe the practice is likely to grow as technological advances allow robots to mimic biological actions far better than before. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) #
Visitors gather to admire a robotic woman on display at a science and technology exhibition in Beijing on May 20, 2009. China is rapidly increasing its spending on research and development with funding growing by an annual average annual of 18 percent over the past five years. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
Japan's robot venture ZMP displays 1/10-scale platforms for automobile research and development called "RoboCar Z" during a press conference in Tokyo on June 9, 2009. The small vehicles with many sensors were made for research and development of autonomic driving, safety and energy-saving technology and for education of engineers. (TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images) #
Cooking robot "Okonomiyaki Robot" pours the ingredients for okonomiyaki (Japanese flour cake) over a heated cooking pan during its demonstration at the International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. The Okonomiyaki Robot, developed by Osaka-based robot system integrator Toyo Riki Co., can demonstrate the whole process of okonomiyaki cooking as stirring the ingredients in a bowl, pouring them on the heated cooking pan, turning the okonomiyaki over with spatulas and serves it on a plate and asking you what types of sauces and other condiments to go with it by using both arms. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) #
Rescue workers operate a hyper rescue robot "T-53 Enryu", developed by Japanese robot venture Tmsuk to remove debris, during a demonstration at Kitakyushu city in Fukuoka prefecture, western Japan on July 3, 2009. Kitakyushu Fire Department deployed the 2.8-meter tall, three-ton robot which can be operated manually by a person aboard it as well as by remote control to lift heavy objects with its two arms. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
A prototype of the X-47B Navy Unmannded Combat Air System (UCAS) sits on diplay at Naval Air Station Pax River Webster Field Annex in St. Inigoes, Maryland, on August 10, 2009. The X-47B, made by Northrop Grumman Corporation, was built to demonstrate the first-ever aircraft-carrier-based autonomous launches and recoveries. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) #
Humanoid robot KOBIAN displays a surprised expression during a demonstration at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, June 23, 2009. KOBIAN which can express seven programmed emotions by using its entire body including facial expressions has been developed by researchers at Waseda's Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, led by Atsuo Takanashi and robot manufacturer Tmsuk, based in Kitakyushu, southern Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) #
An Iraqi soldier walks past a remote operated bomb disposable robot unit at the Besmaya Combat training center on the outskirts of the capital Baghdad, on July 05, 2009. The Iraqi-run Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) School trains some 900 Iraqi Army EOD technicians per year. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images) #
In the lower center of this photograph, mounted on the blue platform, is the head of a silkmoth, including its brain and antennae, with electrodes linking the brain to the vehicle during an experiment at a laboratory in Tokyo on June 9, 2009. Japanese scientists at the Tokyo University's Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology found that motor commands sent to the vehicle in response to odour stimuli could be translated into signals to steer the machine in real time, in an experiment toward creating insect-machine hybrids. Potential future scernarios might include law enforcement technicians releasing a swarm of robot-moths to sniff out a distant drug stash. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images) #
A model holds up a robot, called "Be-Robot" at the International Robot Show in Taipei, Taiwan on August 5, 2009. The "Be-Robot" seen here, designed and made in Taiwan, is 9cm tall and can walk, kick and perform push-ups. It is priced at 12,000 NTD ($366) and is awaiting verification by Guinness World Records to replace its predecessor, the 15cm version, as the world's smallest humanoid robot. (REUTERS/Pichi Chuang) #
A technician adjusts a robot during a robot show at the Nankang World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan on August 5, 2009. There are 321 booths from 91 units taking part in this four-day exhibition which includes robot parts, controllers, education, house cleanning, and security robots. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images) #
More links and information
RoboCup - Official site
Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man - NYTimes.com, 7/25
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
#27 is proof that the robots are trying to brainwash us and take over.
Now, that may not be all bad, if they have cute chick robots like #5 and #23. Maybe they can figure out this health care thing.
This is just like one of my Japanese animes!
The Uncanny Valley strikes again.
simply awesome!!
#28 - Pretty amazing, uh?
Great shots, however I think there is one great robot missing here. It is a robo-suit, actually an exoskeleton which you can "wear" and it increases your strenght something like 5 times. Check "Japanese exoskeleton" or "cyborg farmer" on the web.
That robot moves together with your body by reading the electric impulses our brain sends.
Scary? Great? Science fiction? You tell me...
For all of you rightly concerned with the unwelcome use of armed robotics, I recommend reading Daniel H. Wilson's 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising.'
While only preliminary and hidden behind a veil of humour, it gives some interesting generic information to frustrate the deployment of robots.
It is unlikely that robots will take nefarious acts against humans of their own will in the course of the next ten years, but their creators have shown little restraint towards the use of violence. Be wary of 'unmanned' abuse and other remote destruction.
simply f*cked up!
half of them are for military use - the others eat sushi and play football!
great indeed! NOT
Re: Pic #30
Time to read Bill Joy's column once again.
'Why the future doesn't need us'
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html
Time to demand accountability from the firms that develop semi-autonomous killing machines. How can these guys possibly sleep at night?!
Very impressive, the most being #28 i had no idea that was possible! incredible.
Sadly too many are for war.
I, for one, welcome our new Cylon overlords!
Battlestar Galactica is a good show to watch. and robots will soon be the new iphone.
will someone please photoshop #18 and put a scanning cylon eye into it?
@jon: There are extreme examples, such as that posted by Lance, but even the actual use in #8 is amazing. Those particular 20 miles referenced in #8 take about 30 minutes to drive. Assuming the doctor has to drive 30 minutes to see each patient, think about how many more patients he can see and how much more efficient he can be by eliminating that lost time.
Critique: The reason that people design robots to do things like pick up sushi and play football is that these tasks are complex and make good benchmarks. What you learn while trying to create a robot that can play football can then be applied to robots designed for more practical tasks. You seem to have missed the point of the majority of these bots - they aren't designed to be immediately useful, they're designed to test and expand the limits of the technology.
Even picking up an object is very complicated, which designers of prosthetic limbs can tell you.
Is that Daft Punk robot head in center front of photo number 9?
The EATR sniper robot is missing!! If ppl really want to freak out you definetely need to look out for that one! O.O
#25 is disgusting
Basically you have the head of an insect embedded in a metal skeleton and it just maneuvers it with its neurones.
Awfully scary.
Where are the american robots???
Al hail the new robot overlords. Cant wait to see what Skynet scrapes together ;)
@29 Good point. We are a very long way away from the day that a robot could feasibly and economically replace a cook or a housekeeper - a robot performing these "simple" tasks are simply a proof of concept.
#23 freaks me out, especially given the recent NYTimes article about grown Japanese men who "date" pillows with cartoon images of prepubesecent girls on them. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html
Note that most of these these are some of the more interesting, photogenic, weirdest robots. Lots of robots are a bit more practical, and a bit more down to earth and boring.
#33 dug: The American robots are out there doing useful stuff, rather than looking shiny or cute in photographs (except the military robots that are in the photographs looking tough).
Can't you all see? #9 is a sign! Judgment day is coming!!!
Very nice!!
Love this pictures.
wow, with all the problems in the world and there's all this investment in robots that look hot and play football. sure, maybe it'll "expand" the technological limits, but i can't see how it will solve poverty, hunger, and environmental problems. someone enlighten me bc it seems our priorities are f*cked. looks like the world of Wall-E will soon be a reality
Fantastic display of robotic technologies around the work .
I don't know if this just happened by chance or not, but it kinda peeves me that all of the robots shown by US makers or in use by US persons are for the purpose of war. Every other robot had some other purpose, mostly for entertainment. Of course leave it to the US to take something that most of the other countries are using for entertainment/medical uses and turn it into a war machine.
I also get sacared, specially when I see shiny white plastic japanese robots. I guess I'm gonna sharp my axe.
Some of these robots, seem silly. However, remember how "silly" early airplanes looked a little over a 100 years ago? In just a short time, these silly robots will will be a thing of the past that our grand children will giggle at these pictures and roll their eyes. Of course, they may cry at the sight of these pictures if the Terminator scenario happens. Who knows???
Now I have think about joining John Connor's army... LoL
Can a robot dance like MJ?
I notice that Asimov's three laws of robotics are nowhere in evidence. ....yet.
Presumably, some disaster will have to occur for people to insist on the laws.
I don't suppose I need to recite them for this audience.
You are wellcome Robots... Folks? Kill him...
one day i hope my fears are obsolete.beeing a human.once.
Great to see all of these robots contribute to things in life that are truly important; love, health and inner peace.
Hello...
Very nice pictures, I have to say. There is also a flickr group from the RoboCup 2009 in Graz: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1161371@N23/pool/
Best from Germany
orkomedix
Number 36's face has more character than the dolly-looking ones previously. If I didn't have my glasses on I'd almost think 36 was a person. :)
Some of these don't really feel like robots to me, unless I misunderstood some of the mechanisms involved, say, in the rescue claw thing.
the future is here ( or at least in Asia). Prepare yourselves, the world is changing.
About #1: there is no "Bron research institute" - or there are many of them.
Bron is the scientific / research town of the Lyon area with universities, engineering & medical schools, many labs, etc.
The research team working on the iCub in Bron is the Robot Cognition Laboratory of the INSERM (=National Institute for Health and Medical Research) and Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University.
Only a matter of time until Skynet becomes self-aware.
The word "robot" is used so generically. Almost none of these are "robots" the way asimov etc talked about robots. There are three categories represented here:
1. Remote controlled machines. Like the IED robot, the hyper-rescue robot, the doctor in a box, etc.
2. Rote performer machines. A factory robot performs the same actions with no sensory input. Other machines take sensory input, compute action based on algoithm and perform action. No idea of learning or an open decision tree.
3. Robots. Maybe some of the football playing robots could learn, modify their learning based on outcome, modify their actions based on feeback through the acting "limbs" etc... the things that make us human, or at least animal.
Dug (comment 33): American robots are well represented here:
#3 for the study of marine biology
#4 for death
#6 for manufacture
#8 for death
#9 for entertaining death
#16 for death
#18 for death
#24 for death
#30 for death
See, we're very well represented.
I agree with Alex # 56. Its a sad reflection of what the U.S. has become that our technology is devoted to killing. Dwight Eisenhower's fears of the military-industrial complex realized.
The little guys in #14 look awfully frightened by the camera. :)
Alex, I sort of imagined that bomb disposal robots are intended for the opposite of death, but I might be weird like that.
The rise of the machines is coming and it s coming fast...
We have to start preparing the Resistance...
#28 Can they really do that??? This pic reminds me Back to the Future scene when Dr. Brown first met Marty back in the 50's with the "mind reading" device. On the other hand, these technologies are scarely exciting! Great pics as usual!
I've come to realize human kind is motivated by only two things: self preservation and lazyness. People want to live forever, sitting on their asses. We might even have a female slave and kill whoever goes against this utopia as a bonus.
#25 is awesome! The guy is SO lazy he even jumped the decision making part of robotics and replaced it with a natural implementation! It's like putting a human arm on a surgeon robot. Say, why don't we pick a whole human then, and have it do all the things we don't want to? Oh, wait, that's not robotics, that's underpayment.
Robots will operate the world :)
They will serve us, and the equality among humans will prevail
#56 is sad, but not true.
The only robot that I was really saddened by was #30. Diffusing bombs != death. But mounting guns on a robot is terrible.
Ok, so when do we start seeing a sexbot?
Zibblsnrt, your imagination is to commended. Unfortunately the altruistic use of bomb disposal robots cannot supplant the facts: the U.S. spends more on military technology (i.e., bombs, shells, explosives) & has exported more weaponry than any other nation.
@ Comment #31
Not so freaky after all:
http://www.robotliving.com/2009/01/29/eatr-robot-hunts-for-food/#comment-17119
#23 looks really cute ;), if i saw the photo and don't know that it's/she's a robot, i easily take her for a real girl
#30 is scary, reminds me of terminator or robocop "you have ten seconds to drop your gun, 9, 8, 7 ...."
But why US made warbots and japanase friendly or useful bots ?
Just goes to show
The more human like a robot is
the more useless it is.
wow
Are you Sarah Conner? (I'm just saying)
Those of you too ignorant to open your eyes and see things from another point of view, need enlightenment. Not all military robots carry weapons or kill people. As an EOD tech, my life has been saved numerous times by the same robots that you see in pictures 4, 16, and 24 above. We use them to disarm the bombs that have been placed by narrow minded people who are trying to kill us in war AND at home.
I am a member of Robocup team which we participated in Graz 2009 in middle size league . Is any body knows a university in U.S which is interested in this field so I can grant scholarship from them? it will be appreciated if some one could help me. in case please contact: sado_moin@yahoo.com
ironically i don't find the robots that look like people threatening, and i don't find the robots that remove some level of personal interaction to be damaging to society (like number 8).
But number 25's description sounds kinda scary to me. not because the technical achievement of using the head of a silk moth to control a robot is particularly perverse to me, but because i don't think robots should be involved with justice. I don't know why i feel this way. CCTV's that identify people automatically are not really any different. but for some reason 25's description seems wrong to me.
I find #23 downright creepy. Looks like it has the hands of 40 year old man with the face of a 9 year old girl. Where's their sense of proportion I wonder. Leonardo must be tossing in his grave!
Nice! Gives a nice overview of state-of-the-art in Robotics development. The promise has been prevailing since many years, but what will come remains to be seen. Final thoughts, still some decades to go until we have Robots that can take rational decisions..
photo #23: i'd totaly hit that :)
I like the one named Asimo. XD
Is it /really/ such a good idea to name a robot after Asimov?
But those are some really cool robots. =D
More evidence of the growing takeover. Humans prepare for the final battle versus machines.
C'mon, where're the Guts? Where's the sense of Adventure?
Hook up #25 to #27 or better still #30 !!!
...and let the FUN begin!!!
People please read number 29's comment!
They are not supposed to be very useful, they are helping us to solve technological issues.
Picking up sushi is not useful but it will allow us to design Robots that can pickup stuff without crushing or dropping them.
@39: How about a robot that automatically handles a farm by itself were people have a hard time working? how about more energy efficient motors that we'll help us with energy crisis and environmental issues.
Fantastic!
The unspoken but often thought about robot (and I'm positive is being worked on with great effort) will be the aaaahmmm "intimate partner robot". It will be the real money maker.
I love you John Connor... I'd kick robot arse with you anytime...
George (comment 73): I thank you for opening my eyes. Prior to your enlightening words, my narrow minded point of view was that every robot used by the military carried weapons AND killed people. Even the unarmed bomb disposal units shown above.
I also want to thank you for helping me realize those units are for disarming their bombs and not ours. It fills me with relief knowing the Indochinese Peninsula will continue to benefit from our unexploded munitions. It serves them right for trying to kill us in war and at home.
You are quite welcome Alex, it sounds like you needed to learn a little something about the world. As far as the munitions go, the robots above are not usually used for that. Those UXOs are disposed of by hand by people like me. What have you done today?
The AI to run these non-robot remotely operated machines is nearly here.
Scientists have demonstrated AI systems that learn instantly to walk. Once the hardware is here (multiprocessors are the key) you'll likely carry a portable being with you that is actually "smarter" than you are though it has different interests/outlooks, etc. These so called "robots" are just the mechanisms.
BTW the most important development displayed here, period, is the advance in human/machine communication. We'll have machines SOON that can make quadriplegics completely mobile. that can replace damaged nerve systems, that enable you to control remote vehiclesas if you were sitting in them etc. Scared yet? I am
I think the reason we don't see all the car-building robots is fear of industry spionage. I visited the Toyota factories 3 years ago, and they didn't allow us to take pictures of thair robots. Quite a shame, because they were probably the most impressive robots I saw on my trip to Japan - and I saw quite a lot of robots there.
I also can't help agreeing what Eric H also noticed: Where everyone else builds robots to save people or help people, the US is building war related stuff.
Hands up those who want to see photos of #22 and #23 in a bubble bath!
\o/ \o/ \o/
I’m sure that Americans and Americans alone produce nothing but military robots. Nevermind that this is a subjective collection of images, not an objective representation of reality (which is impossible anyway). I’m frankly sick and tired of this elitist/utopist and uninformed anti-Americanism that is so widespread today -- and I’m not even an American.
Well George, instead of repeating rhetoric, why not share some of your knowledge about the world and bring me up to speed. Please skip the claptrap, like how they hate us for our freedom or our way of life, and stick with hard facts.
And to answer your cutting retort, I clearly unsettled your imperious convictions.
All of these 'bots need to be covered in sensors. how on earth are they supposed to know their own center of gravity and their position in the world around them without that?
We are looking at the beginnings of the next phase of human evolution. We will one day be indistinguishable from the robots, but not in any silly 'Borg' way. We can use natural methods of energy and matter production to create these new beings, and I'm thinking an eventual melding with them will happen. Provided we don't kill each other off first with our pointless rivalry.
dangerous!
É can see armies of low-skilled unemployed people revolting... It's either that or we limit workhours and workdays for humans.
#25
Big Brother is coming folks.
I could ruminate over your words Alex, but you have taken up enough of my time. Yes, yes, you may make your comments about me now, but in the end, apathy wins.
Comment 91. Very well said!
Ha, Good Post on #3 Mr. Conner
i think the pictures are great
George, I'm disappointed, but not surprised, you chose to capitulate.
I suggest reading Vexen Crabtree's essay, "Why People Hate America: A Summary of Anti-Americanism." It is available online. Perhaps afterwards it may end your apathy & help us all reach an amicable settlement on this matter.
I suspect my boss is one of them . . .
preciso que me ajudem a construir alguma coisa robotica pra se apresentar na escola. não precisa ser necessariamente um robô pode ser objeto alguma coisa simples e que fosse util. e um projeto que seja apresentado na escola daqui 20 dias.
Obrigada.!
cool :)
i think the pictures are fabullus......i want to know about the more sites like this by which we can collect more pics.............
plz send the sites related to this on my e-mail id................
i am thankful to you.........
ASIMO (# 28), is my favourite robot forever, is awesome
wow their mad robots!!! love the work keep it Up!!!
awesome stuff!
the robots look sweet.
keep it up
Regarding photo #25. I for one can't wait for the development of the Brain in a Jar ruling class.
Lance,
I'm not sure where you are but I'm in the Appalachian Mounatins. We have robotics in many of our schools and colleges - though I'm more into molecular ecology. It would be very lovely to find a place where doctors were still two hours away.
Rachel
Fiquei encantada! Meus sonhos de menina se tornam realidade diante dos meus olhos! Minha única frustração - por enquanto - é estar distante de tudo isso. Mas vou inspirar meus alunos - sou professora de Filosofia - quero que eles vejam, já não precisam sonhar, que participem! Que criem! O BRASIL tem participação ativa nesse seguimento! Isso muito me orgulha! I'M BRAZILIAN TEACHER ! I'M HUMAN
Como disse ISAAC ASIMOV "O FUTURO COMEÇOU!!!!
wow
wow
Cool
i really like the first chinese girl that has the sash on she is the one that looks the most realistic and the most pretiest
iam very happy tosaw these pictures iam also build a 5 feet tall robot and it is still in progress karachi pakistan