Posts Tagged ‘collective’

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August 13th, 2010

Robots: Distributed Flight Array - mp3

In this episode, we discover an aerial modular robot called the Distributed Flight Array. To talk about this, we have Raymond Oung from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.

Then, to celebrate aerial robotics, we’re holding a contest on flying robot noises for a chance to win a WowWee Bladestar.

Raymond Oung

Raymond Oung is lead researcher of the Distributed Flight Array project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich under the supervision of Prof. Raffaello D’Andrea (see previous ROBOTS interview).

The idea behind this project is to design a set of vehicles equipped with a single propeller and wheels that can drive around in search for fellow modules with whom to dock. Single modules are not stable but once assembled, the flight array is able to take-off and achieve coordinated flight. Modules then detach in-air, fall to the floor and repeat their search for other propellers.

The main challenge in this system is to come up with a distributed controller that can allow modules to work together to achieve coordinated flight. Because of its endless number of configurations, the distributed flight array is the perfect research and pedagogical testbed to study control theory for complex systems.

Contest

We were trying to imagine the sound of all of these propellers and then realized it would be fun to record the sound of some of the flying objects here at EPFL. If you manage to match the sound with the correct robot picture, we’ll be sending you a Wowwee Bladestar. If multiple correct answers are received, the winner will be selected randomly. The contest ends on the 27th of August and answers can be sent via email to info@robotspodcast.com or can be posted below this episode in the comments section.

WowWee Bladestar

Audio:

Noises of Flying Robots

Images:

1: Eyebot

2: Airburr

3: SMAV

4: Blimp

5: WowWee DragonFly

6: Eyebot



The correct answer was:
1 -> F
2 -> B
3 -> A
4 -> C
5 -> E
6 -> D

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For more information and videos of Ishiguro’s Telenoid R1 and the F1 Robocoaster in action, have a look at our forum.

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February 26th, 2010

Robots: Swarming Satellites - mp3

In today’s episode we speak with the lead scientist of the SPHERES project, Dr. Alvar Saenz-Otero from MIT, which aims at developing autonomous formation flight and docking control algorithms for nano-satellites. We then dissect a well known definition of a robot dating back to 1979.

Alvar Saenz-Otero

Alvar Saenz-Otero is lead scientist of the SPHERES project at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory in the US. SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) fulfill all the normal requirements of satellites in a small basketball-sized shape. This small size is what has allowed these robots to be tested in the lab, during parabolic flights and even on board the International Space Station (ISS).



The research question is how to make these satellites work together by flying in formations and physically connecting, or docking. Such swarms of satellites could be used to create giant telescope mirrors in space with nano-meter precision and assemble future space stations without the need for human spacewalks.

Saenz-Otero also describes more generally how you get your robot into the ISS and his plans to motivate students about science or pursue his dream of large swarms in space.

What is a Robot?

This week we look at a traditional definition of a robot, coming straight from the Robot Institute of America.  According to their 1979 definition, a robot is:

“A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks”

What’s interesting about this definition is how far we’ve come in the last 30 years in the development of robotics. In 1979 a robot was simply a manipulator used to move parts in pre-programmed motions, which brings to mind industrial robots used in factories. 30 years later robots are no longer simply manipulators, but can propel themselves in their environment, understand their surroundings and act accord to their particular situation and analysis of surroundings instead of simply enacting pre-programmed motions. This 30-year-old official definition no longer applies, so let’s try to figure out what robots mean to us today! Keep sending us your answers by email at info@robotspodcast.com and let’s get closer to an all-encompassing definition of a robot for the 21st century.

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Latest News:

As always, more information on this episode’s news including the Flyfire project, the artificial foot and Korea’s plans for R-learning can be found on the Robots Forum.

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September 25th, 2009

Robots: Emergent Communication - mp3

In today’s episode we deal with the question of communication, what it means, where it comes from, and how it can be applied to robots. We first speak with Sara Mitri, whose research spans both robotics and evolutionary biology and tries to answer basic questions on how communication evolved many millennia ago using high-tech robotics of the 21st century. We then speak with Prof. Jürgen Jost who is director of two research groups a the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences. He’ll be giving us his thoughts on the intentionality of robot communication.

Sara Mitri

Sara Mitri is a researcher working in collaboration with both the robotics-oriented Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, lead by Prof. Floreano at the EPFL in Switzerland and the biology-oriented Keller Group at the University of Lausanne. Mitri is studying communication and cooperation in social animals in an unconventional way. By using ground-based S-Bot robots to model biological agents, she hopes to be better able to control the various parameters of evolution than by using biological systems such as bacteria or insects.

Mitri’s recent articles in Current Biology and PNAS have been receiving a lot of media attention. Partly because of the resulting new scientific insights, but also because of the work’s unusual and powerful method. While retaining many of the real-world complexities present in biological systems, Mitri’s robotic models allow complete access to all model parameters. And there is another key advantage: Today very little is known about the evolution of phenomena like communication, because they leave no trace in the fossil record. By conducting artificial evolution, Mitri’s work allows to reconstruct part of that missing evolutionary history and shed light on the origins of communication in all animals, from simple cells to us humans.



Jürgen Jost

Jürgen Jost works at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzip, Germany where he directs two research groups on Geometry, Analysis and Theoretical Physics and on Complex Structures in Biology and Cognition. As an expert in complex systems, Prof. Jost tells us about one of his interests, communication of all types. The Robots podcast had a chance to meet him at the European Conference on Complex Systems this year where he raised the question “Can Robots Communicate?” and is this communication intentional.




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Latest News:

For impressive videos of Joules, the robotic tandem bike partner, the world’s first Robotic Bed and Boston Dynamic’s Precision Urban Hopper head over to the robotics forum!

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May 8th, 2009

Robots: Collective Coverage and Self-Assembly - mp3

In this episode we look in depth at two shades of robot coordination, multi-robot area coverage and self-assembling robots.

Our first guest, Nikolaus Correll, is a postdoc at MIT in the US. He presents his past research on swarms of minuscule robots to inspect reactor turbines and his latest research on cooperating networks.

Our second guest, Rodrich Gross, will be speaking about his slightly larger swarming robots, or swarm-bots, which are able to join forces to achieve tasks which require strength or large size, by creating a multi-robot organism.

Nikolaus Correll

Nikolaus Correll is a post-doctoral associate at the Distributed Robotics Lab, MIT CSAIL, where he works with Daniela Rus on a wide variety of multi-robot systems. His latest work includes distributed robotic gardens and mobile wireless ad-hoc networks. Besides creating multi-robot systems, Correll has been looking to monitor and control groups of animals such as cow herds and cockroaches in nature.

In this episode, we’ll be looking in depth at the conclusions of his PhD thesis at the EPFL under the supervision of Alcherio Martinoli on how a group of tiny sugar-cube size robots could be used to inspect a jet turbine engine (see video below). Correll will present the trade-offs between having purely reactive robot controllers or robots that plan and how collaboration between the robots affects the performance of the system.



Roderich Gross

Roderich Gross is currently a postdoc at the EPFL. His research interests span computational biology, robotics, and swarm intelligence. His current work, continuing from previous work at the Free Brussels University, focuses on self-assembling robots such as the Swarm-Bots which can attach to each other to form larger robotic systems. This can allow them for example to cross a large gap, go over hills or carry heavy objects in a manner similar to ants (see video below). In this interview Gross describes his research and talks about cooperation, self-assembly and division of labor in robot teams and the potential emergence of artificial life.



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Latest News:

For more information on this week’s news, including Festo’s Robot Penguins, robot theater actors and the interactive disc jockey robot visit the Robots Forum.

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October 10th, 2008

Robots: Warehouse Robots - mp3

In this episode we sit down with Raffaello D’Andrea, professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and founding member of Kiva Systems, to speak about their Kiva robotic warehouse system. We then continue with the second quarter of Jack Graham’s sci-fi story, Selkies.

Raffaello D’Andrea

Prof. Raffaello D’Andrea is an expert in multi-robot systems, leading the Cornell Robot Soccer Team to four world championship wins at the international RoboCup competition. After ten years of assistant and then associate professorship at Cornell University, D’Andrea crossed the lake to take a position as full professor at ETHZ in Zurich.

Not satisfied with research however, D’Andrea has applied his knowledge to industry, and is co-founder and Engineering Fellow at Kiva Systems. He describes for us Kiva’s Mobile Fulfillment System, a revolutionary robotic warehouse concept that uses hundreds of mobile robots to fetch items for workers, increasing efficiency and looking really cool in the process!



Besides creating robots for research or industry, D’Andrea is also a creator of dynamic sculpture. His robotic art has appeared at various international venues, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Venice Biennale. In an attempt to spread his passion and get students thinking about robotics outside the laboratory, D’Andrea is teaching a project course at ETHZ in which students design and build a dynamic sculpture purely for public display.



Selkies

Science Fiction author, Jack Graham from lonesomerobot.com treats us to the second quarter of his story “Selkies”. As a flash back, the first episode introduced roboticist Mangan, his sea-lion pet Cato and the team of seal-like robots called selkies which work in the depths of the ocean to clean up waste. In this episode, Jack, further pushes us into the ambiance of his futuristic world where unexpected visits and disappearing selkies create the intrigue.

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Latest News:

More links and discussions on Cyberdyne’s exoskeleton, the fly-controlled robot and the new robots exhibited at CEATEC in the Robots Forum.

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