November 22nd, 2009

The surgeons of tomorrow: Miniaturized robots that go inside you

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 4:28 pm

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Nanotechnology, Robotics

Tags: Bot, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

Before the advent of laparoscopic or keyhole surgery in the 70’s, operations such as a stomach bypass or gall bladder removal required large incisions and long periods for recovery. The next chapter further minimizes the invasiveness of surgical procedures via robots that are millimeters in size that infiltrate our bodies through the ears, eyes and lungs, to take tissue samples, deliver drugs, or install medical devices.

Brad Nelson, a roboticist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EHT) in Zurich, recently told New Scientist; “It’s not impossible to think of this happening in five years. I’m convinced it’s going to get there.”

Hurdles to overcome include the development of new mechanisms for propulsion and power supply on a miniature scale, which are also prerequisites to the loftier idea of nanoscale medical robots swimming in our bloodstream.

Read the rest of this entry »

October 13th, 2009

Resilient cockroach-inspired robot survives large falls, dashes off

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 10:12 pm

Categories: Energy & Environment, Engineering & Innovation, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Science & Nature

Tags: IEEE Spectrum, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

IEEE Spectrum writes of a small resilient robot created by Paul Birkmeyer and Prof. Ronald Fearing at the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab at UC Berkeley.

Aptly called DASH (Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod), the six-legged insect-inspired robot can reach speeds of 1.5 meters per second and is flexible/strong enough to be dropped from a height of 28 meters without breaking. A single DC motor powers the legs and a small servomotor to slightly deform the robot’s body, allowing it to make turns.

DASH was created using a fabrication process called smart composite microstructures, or SCM. Developed by UC Berkeley researchers, the process is quick, inexpensive, and purpose-built for the design challenges of microrobots.

SCM allows for complicated, functional folded structures that move using elastic deformation rather than through the use of traditional mechanical elements like pin joints or bearings. It integrates large flexible joints, created by a laser micro-machining and lamination, with novel actuators. The result is a robot made up of composite materials that can not only withstand a drop from a tall building, but also immediately dash off, undamaged.

DASH is but one of several ongoing projects underway at the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab. For instance, check out the synthetic gecko adhesive which cleans itself during use, as the natural gecko does. Or the Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) Project, an effort to develop a 25 mm (wingtip-to-wingtip) device capable of sustained autonomous flight.

Among the goals of the researchers is to; “Harness features of animal manipulation, locomotion, sensing, actuation, mechanics, dynamics, and control strategies to radically improve millirobot capabilities.”

September 18th, 2009

New protocol enables interoperability among telesurgical systems

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 12:07 am

Categories: Computers & Internet, Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Robotics

Tags: Interoperability, SRI International, Teleoperation, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

The growth in teleoperation systems has achieved a critical mass that has led researchers to explore ways to collaborate, share facilities and access each others’ telerobotic devices.

Nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Credit: SRI International

The international consortium used a new software protocol called the Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol (ITP). According to a paper- Breaking the Interoperability Barrier Through Emerging Standards- detailing the research, until now,
 systems
 that allow for the operation of robots over a distance have
 used
 their
 own
 ad‐hoc
 methods
 for
 network teleoperation.
 The new protocol is fully open and meant for sharing. It was cooperatively developed by the University of Washington and SRI International, a non-profit that operated its M7 surgical robot for this demonstration.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 20th, 2009

Machine learning coupled with 'rich interaction' may make computers a partner, not a product

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 9:59 pm

Categories: Computers & Internet, Robotics, Uncategorized

Tags: Computer, Productivity, Chris Jablonski

Researchers at Oregon State University are hoping to improve artificial intelligence with a project the uses “rich interaction” to teach machines when they make mistakes.

Their work would allow for ordinary users who spot a computer’s errors to be able to step in and explain directly to the machine the logic it should be using.

The scientists claim that the project is based on an idea that is one of the latest advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence– A computer that not only learns from its own experiences, but also listens to the user, tries to combine what it “hears” with its internal reasoning, and automatically updates its code in order to avoid making the same mistakes again.

The result is a computer that wants to “communicate with, learn from, and get to know you better as a person,” say the OSU scientists.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 13th, 2009

Flapping 'nano' aircraft takes flight

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 4:54 pm

Categories: Defense & Security, Engineering & Innovation, Robotics, Science & Nature

Tags: Aircraft, DARPA, Nano Air Vehicle, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing, Chris Jablonski

Engineers at Aeronvironment (AV) of Monrovia, California, have demonstrated the world’s first successful flight of the smallest ever self-powered, rudderless, aircraft with flapping wings.

The nano air vehicle (NAV) is modeled after a large insect or small bird, such as a hummingbird. It can hover indoors under radio control and without wires. “It is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, as well as forward and backward,” says the company. (See the video at end of the post).

Nano Air Vehicle Concept (Credit: Aeronvironment)

The NAV carries its own power supply and operates by using two flapping wings, which also function as the rudder, elevators, ailerons and engine. “It’s extremely complicated and technically challenging to come up with ways to control an aircraft with two flapping wings,”  AV’s Matt Keennon recently told Discovery News. “But this is the closest anyone has come to a rudderless, flapping aircraft.”

Read the rest of this entry »

August 4th, 2009

'Flight simulator' for flies sheds light on visual processing

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 12:15 am

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Robotics, Science & Nature

Tags: Fly, Flux Field, Borst, Chris Jablonski

Despite its tiny limited brain, a blowfly performs difficult aerial maneuvers with speed and precision with the help of eyes that can perceive 100 images per second as discrete sense impressions, compared to about a maximum of 25 for human eyes.

Specific flight patterns are simulated by controlling optical "flux fields" presented to the fly. Credit: Max-Planck Institute for Neurobiology

How these flies can process optical stimuli fast enough to suddenly change direction, stand still in the air, and make precise, pinpoint landings, is a subject that has baffled a group of scientists at the Cognition for Technical Systems or CoTeSys in Munich, Germany. To find an answer, they’ve created a “flight simulator” to investigate what goes on in the brains of flies while they’re flying.

By tethering and studying these insects as they experience virtual scenarios presented to them on a small wraparound screen, the researchers aim to put similar capabilities in human hands.

The simulator works by presenting diverse patterns, movements, and sensory stimuli to a blowfly held in place by a halter.  The fly has implanted electrodes that register the reactions of its brain cells as it whizzes around virtual objects. The researchers observe and analyze the data using a fluorescent microscope.
Read the rest of this entry »

June 27th, 2009

Robo-furniture eats household pests

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 10:48 am

Categories: Energy & Environment, Robotics, Science & Nature, Uncategorized

Tags: Robo-furniture, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

Robotic furniture that eat vermin, like mice and flies, are a part of a design project at the Royal College of Art, London.

Designer James Auger is exploring a new breed of domestic robots that he says can sit comfortably at an intersection of products and pets.  While some may balk at the morbid aspect of his creations, his aim is to “define various robot ‘raison d’etre’; the roles, behaviours, interactions and forms that might enhance their chances of securing a place in the human home.”

New Scientist reports that Auger built five domestic robots with the help of long time collaborator and fellow designer Jimmy Loizeau. “Each can sense its environment, has mechanical moving parts, and can perform basic services for its human hosts, such as telling the time or lighting a room.” You can see all the carniverous robots in a photo gallery.

Robotic Lampshade from Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robot Series (Credit: James Auger)

The robots gain energy by luring in pests that are digested by an internal microbial fuel cell.  According to New Scientist this exploits the way microbes generate free electrons and hydrogen ions when oxidizing chemicals for energy. Electronics can be powered by directing the electrons around an external circuit before reuniting them with the ions. Read the rest of this entry »

June 12th, 2009

Robotic ferret to detect hidden drugs and weapons

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 8:26 pm

Categories: Defense & Security, Engineering & Innovation, Robotics

Tags: Container, Substance, Scanners, Robots, Hardware, Peripherals, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

The monumental task of inspecting containers that come in to and out of seaports and airports may get a bit easier with a new type of robot being developed to detect drugs, weapons, explosives and illegal immigrants concealed in cargo containers.

Credit: Hammer411 via Flickr

Dubbed the ‘cargo-screening ferret,’ the device has been in development since early 2008 at the University of Sheffield, and is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

According to a press release, the ferret (sorry no image available as of time of writing) will be the world’s first cargo-screening device able to pinpoint various illicit substances and the first designed to operate inside standard freight containers.

When placed inside a steel freight container, the ferret will attach itself magnetically to the top, and then automatically move around and seek out contraband using a suite of sensors that are more comprehensive and more sensitive than any currently employed in conventional cargo scanners. It will send a steady stream of data back to its controller.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 2nd, 2009

Agriculture ripe for change with robot farmhands

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 2:28 pm

Categories: Energy & Environment, Engineering & Innovation, Robotics, Science & Nature

Tags: Laser, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

Farmers across the developed world did away with the backbreaking part of the work during the 19th century with the introduction of equipment like tractors and combines. Now, evolving technology is poised to make industrial agriculture greener and more efficient with the use of robots.

This tractor is fitted with a laser perception pod on top of its cab and a control system so it can navigate orchards autonomously (Credit: CMU/Tony Stenz)

It’s a real possibility according to Tony Stentz, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics institute. He recently told New Scientist three reasons why: first, mobile robots have now proved able to cope with complex outdoor environments; second, the price of production has fallen; and, finally, society should now see robot laborers as a benefit not a curse. (As for his last point, automating seasonal farmhand work is one thing, but the thought of unmanned tractors navigating a field is another as it may have some old-fashioned tractor operators up in arms.)

The technology that allows for mobile robots to find their way across unfamiliar, changing terrain such as groves of trees has its roots in DARPA autonomous car events. And the groundwork for a vision-based algorithm that guides a harvester by tracking the line between cut and uncut crop with a 3D laser ranging scanner, was developed over a decade ago by Stentz and his team.

Read the rest of this entry »

March 25th, 2009

Nanorobot for Brain Aneurysm

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 4:49 pm

Categories: Computers & Internet, Health & Medicine, Nanotechnology, Robotics

Tags: Gradient, Vessel, Nanotechnology, Manufacturing, Team Management, Semiconductors, Emerging Technologies, Management, Hardware, Chris Jablonski

The idea of nanorobots floating throughout our arteries to fight diseases and deliver drugs is migrating from science fiction to medical fact, at least in virtual 3D simulations. Nanorobotics pioneer Adriano Cavalcanti and his colleagues report progress with their nanorobot control design (NCD) software which helps them simulate the behavior of future nanorobots. (Readers may recall the influenza virus as an example covered here). The team released a new paper that proposes a model for how a nanorobot should help with the early detection of cerebral aneurysm.

In the abstract they write: “To illustrate the proposed approach, the nanorobots must search for protein overexpression signals in order to recognize initial stages of aneurysm. An advanced nanomechatromics simulator, using a three-dimensional task-based environment, is implemented to provide an effective tool for device prototyping and medical instrumentation analysis.”

Noteworthy, they point out that this development was the result of a highly collaborative effort and a synthesis of several advanced technologies: “The current study establishes proteomics, nanobioelectronics, and electromagnetics as the basis to advance medical nanorobotics.”

Read the rest of this entry »