Robotics/Bug-Like Robotic Drones

Big Eyes, Tiny Hairs (credit: JJ Harrison via Wikimedia)

Micro air vehicles, or MAVs, make for a tantalizing option for intelligence and surveillance agencies looking to surreptitiously gather information or deliver surveillance devices without being seen. But MAVs--usually modeled after small birds or insects-- are notoriously unstable in flight and difficult to maneuver in cluttered environments. So the Pentagon is handing out research contracts to make the DoD’s little robotic bugs more stable by making them more bug-like. Specifically, the DoD wants big bulging bug eyes and hairy wings for its MAVs.
The main problem with MAVs has to do with the way they respond (or don’t respond) to dynamic environments--things like shifting or gusting winds, moving bodies, and other variables that have to be accounted for in realtime. MAVs are tiny, so there’s not a lot of space for computing assets or sensor payloads, and that leads to a sort of intractable problem: how can engineers make these things smaller and more capable while also adding increased situational awareness and better in-flight processing?
When facing a tough problem like this a little biomimicry never hurts, and that’s exactly where the Pentagon is looking with its recent contracts. If two research stipends recently handed down are any indication, the micro-drones of the future may have tiny hair-like sensors all over their bodies and big, compound eyes.
The cilia-like hairs will serve to keep the drones’ hovering and flight stable by sensing changes in air flow at the tiniest levels. That means the drone could sense a wind gust coming shortly before it arrives, allowing it to compensate for the change in circumstance. It would also aid in maintaining overall stability during flight, as the MAVs central processor would possess a constant awareness of--and the ability to manipulate--the boundary flow layer of air surrounding the drone as it hovers and flies.
The bug-like compound eyes would similarly help MAVs navigate in cluttered spaces by increasing the amount of visual data available to the drones’ processors. An on-board minicomputer would process images in realtime, using those visual cues to automatically avoid obstacles and navigate cleanly and efficiently.
[credit:Danger Room]

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Robotics/Friendly Humanoid Robot Asimo

I'm Going Where? Wikimedia Commons

Honda says that the Asahi Shimbun report is "speculative." "Although Honda hopes that ASIMO will someday be a helper to people, at this point the robot is solely a research and design project," a Honda spokeswoman said.
A couple camera-toting robots have been tooling around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where radiation levels are still making it unsafe for human workers. Now Japanese media are reporting the crews are getting their first humanoid counterpart.
Technology, Rebecca Boyle, ASIMO, cleanup, fukushima daiichi, humanoid robots, japanese earthquake, nuclear reactor, robots
Honda is aiming to redesign Asimo, its 4-foot-tall humanoid robot, so it can join workers at Fukushima Daiichi, according to Japanese media. Asimo would need tires or caterpillar tracks instead of its delicate legs, and the robot would also need updates to its arms so they can move as smoothly as a human’s, according to the newspaper Asahi Shimbun (reported by AFP).
Since it was introduced a little more than 10 years ago, Asimo has been a robot ambassador of sorts, used mostly to spur robotics research and development. The robot greets children at science museums and has even met heads of state. But it has not been tapped for such difficult labor before.
Asimo can easily shake hands, carry a tray and push small objects, but it would need motorized shoulders, elbows and wrists to get more human-like moves, the paper says. It’s not clear what Asimo would be doing inside the Fukushima plant, but it would likely go into radiation hotspots where it remains dangerous for humans to enter.
Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors have been leaking radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling systems. Workers are being exposed to high levels of radiation while trying to make repairs. Japanese elderly have even offered to do the job, to spare the younger workers from harmful radiation. But a human-like robot would clearly be a better alternative.

[via AFP ]

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