Perpenduum » Robots

Lockwasher

David Goligorsky — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:25:29 +0000

Sculptural designs from Lockwasher (via ATG).

Robotic Lawn-Mowing Sheep

David Goligorsky — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:00:26 +0000

Check out this lumbering Styrofoam robotic remote-control lawnmower sheep from Carnegie Mellon:

If you need more Carnegie Mellon robots, check out my recent post on the Keepon.

BigDog, Quadruped Robot

Christian Eager — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:30:14 +0000

At the other end of the Uncanny Valley from Keepon is BigDog, developed by Boston Dynamics, with funding from DARPA.

It can best be described as a pack animal: about a meter in length, it walks at 4mph, climbs slopes up to 35°, and carries loads up to 340 pounds. Oh, and it’s creepy as all get-out.

Keepon

David Goligorsky — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:56:28 +0000

I subscribed to Ambidextrous, Stanford University’s Journal of Design. The magazine is edited by the Stanford Design community and receives content from contributors around the world. It’s a very well-done publication and I would recommend subscribing if you are a designer, engineer, scientist, anthropologist, interaction, UX, HCI, or really anything else because you’re bound to find these articles worthwhile.

Reading through issue nine, I was particularly impressed by a robot designed by Hideki Kozima in Kyoto and programmed at Carnegie Mellon by Marek Michalowski. It is known as Keepon (from Japanese kee for yellow and pon for bobbing). This robot is designed for interaction with humans, particularly children with developmental disorders such as autism. The little yellow dancing robot has been able to elicit social behavior from autistic children that was impossible to achieve from directed human interaction. Keepon has a microphone in it’s “nose” and two cameras for eyes along with four degrees of mechanical freedom that allow it to rotate, bob, pitch, and yaw. The software processes visual and auditory stimuli that allow the Keepon to invent dances when it hears music and engage eye contact with people, as well as other seemingly intelligent responses.

No, they’re not for sale unfortunately, but Keepon has danced to a song by Spoon on YouTube, leading to its debut acting role in an official Spoon music video.

Emotional Response

Dancing

Starring in the Spoon “Don’t You Evah” music video

This little yellow dancing robot has melded high tech, human interaction, emotional response, and high value seamlessly. I really hope this robot reaches the mass market.

You can actually read the whole article as a .pdf to preview Ambidextrous Magazine and you can follow the progress of Keepon via its website, BeatBots.org.

Must-Have Desk Accessory

David Goligorsky — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:00:21 +0000

Bunny Letter Opener:

Smart Parking Making Inroads In SF

David Goligorsky — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:43:35 +0000

Core77 pointed me to a NYT article about San Francisco’s ambitious plan to install smart sensors in parking spots. With the proliferation of smartphones, the high price of gas, and the mounting road rage associated with city driving, these smart parking sensors are just in time. Here are the key elements of the program from the NYT piece:

Drivers will be alerted to empty parking places either by displays on street signs, or by looking at maps on screens of their smartphones. They may even be able to pay for parking by cellphone, and add to the parking meter from their phones without returning to the car.

…and data from New York City traffic studies:

Not that New Yorkers need any reminders of their traffic problems, but a study released in June by Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group, reported that 28 percent to 45 percent of traffic on some streets in New York City is generated by people circling the blocks. The study also said that drivers searching for metered parking in just a 15-block area of Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side drove 366,000 miles a year.

Weekend Fun With Robots

David Goligorsky — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:25:03 +0000

What robot programmers do “outside” of work: