Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Where Berlin goes to forget: welcome to the robo pub

John Hooper in Berlin

Saturday February 2, 2002

The Guardian

The bartenders in the club on the corner of Münzstrasse are all just under seven feet tall. One serves wine and spirits; another, beer. The third will provide you with a range of snacks in packets. The bartenders in the club on the corner of Münzstrasse are machines.

Everything, in fact, in the Automaten bar is – as its name suggests – automated. I don’t know for sure, but it could be the world’s first robot hostelry.

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BBC News | SCI/TECH | Robot toys are tops

Monday, 28 January, 2002, 13:43 GMT

Bionicles have captured childrens’ imaginations

Remote-controlled robot creatures have scooped best toy award at the UK annual Toy Fair in Docklands, London.

Bionicles are made by Lego and come with their own website, which tells the tale of their fight with evil forces on the island of Mata Nui.

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news.telegraph.co.uk – Robot stars ‘will be the top earners by 2010’

By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent

Filed: 18/01/2002

IN an age when the manufactured celebrity has become commonplace, scientists made a grim prediction for the future of showbusiness yesterday.

By 2010, the world’s highest earning actor, pop star or model will be a synthetic “celeb-bot”, whose looks, voice and personality are generated by computers.

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Ananova – Nasa tests Mars robot builders

Story filed: 16:38 Thursday 10th January 2002

The first construction workers on Mars may be robots.

Nasa has been testing a team of rovers which work together to lift heavy objects into place over rough terrain.

Each machine thinks independently so it can react to its partner’s movements, reducing the chances of equipment being dropped.

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SONY | Robot Box

About SONY, AIBO ERS-220, ERS-2100, and RoboCup2001 .

Robodex 2002

The ROBODEX Executive Committee formally announced today that ROBODEX 2002 will be held. This will be an exposition of robots as partners for human beings-personal robots that embody state-of-the art robotics. The Expo will be held March 28 to March 31 (Thursday to Sunday) in 2002, at Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall in Yokohama Minatomirai area.

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CONTACT: Atsushi Machida

ROBODEX Office public relations office (Brandex Inc.)

e-mail: machida@brandex.co.jp Tel: +81-03 3564-2361 Fax: +81-03 3564-5238

Robots – Royal Institution

Have a look to this web site !

Video (RealPlayer): http://www.channel4.com/

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Anatomy of an Android investigates the way robots have been developed to assist humans. But as the level of sophistication of these robots rockets ahead are we humans being left behind? The machines we have designed and built are taking on more and more tasks for themselves. If we have designed robots to be better, faster and stronger than us, who will be best suited to thrive in the technological world of the future? The adventure begins with perhaps the most famous robots of all – Androids – machines built in the image of the human body. If such machines have a number of physical advantages over humans, and can think for themselves, what does this mean for the future of the human race?

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Humans dominate this planet because of their intelligence but what do we mean when we say ‘human intelligence’? The first step is for robots to be able to experience the world around them. Things that Think explores what it must be like for a robot to ‘see’ its surroundings using ultrasonic sensors – but it doesn’t stop there – other sensors can be used to equip robots so that they can cope with environments which we can’t even see. But being able to see is not enough. Robots need to be able to react both with their environment and with us, on a human level, and to do so, they need to be given an artificial form of our own intelligence. This lecture shows how the science of cybernetics is using artificial intelligence to bring robots to life.

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Business 2.0 – Web Article – Robot eats slugs to generate power

By CNET News.com Staff, December 12, 2001

By Graeme Wearden

Scientists are close to releasing a commerical model of a slug-hunting robot that is powered by the slimy creatures it catches. The four-wheeled SlugBot uses image sensors to tell the difference between slugs, snails and worms, and then picks up the prey with its claw arm.

Researchers at the University of the West of England in Bristol have spent just under $300,000 to develop SlugBot. Commercial models, when available, are expected to sell for around $1,400.

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vnunet.com Sony Aibo 4

It’s a dog’s life.

RRP £1,320.00

By Jason Jenkins [06-12-2001]

We have looked at Sony’s Aibo twice before and have been impressed each time. Aibo is a robot that can respond to commands, interact with its environment and develop a limited personality based on its experiences.

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The mouth is now dominated by a tiny digital camera a little like a webcam. There’s also a switch that can be used to praise or scold Aibo for its behaviour, and a set of LEDs which shine blue if the dog’s happy, and red if it’s angry. There’s an additional group of LEDs on its back.

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The details of Aibo’s character are stored on a Memory Stick. It needs special pink Memory Sticks that support a particular kind of copy protection to stop the software on them appearing on the internet as free downloads.

Sony has a Wireless WiFi (802.11b) card available as an optional extra for around £250. With this, and the right software (which is more money still), you can control the dog directly from your computer. It’s possible to create your own tricks, which are then downloaded to the Memory Stick for the creature to perform.

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