‘Companion’ robot represents the future in nursing home care
The new face of nursing home caregivers has rolled into the Silverado Senior Living Center in Cypresswood. It’s called the Companion, and California-based InTouch Health is hoping this robot will alleviate the country’s shortage of doctors and nurses by allowing for virtual visits across hundreds of miles.
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Nine-eyed robots are go
Nine-eyed robots are go ROBOTS should have eyes in the back of their heads as well the front. Researchers in the US say a robot’s navigation skills could be vastly improved by giving it ‘omni-directional’ vision.
A robot on the move must be able to sense whether it is travelling in a straight line or spinning on the spot. But telling the difference is difficult with just a single camera for an eye. Yiannis Aloimonos, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland in College Park, says the best way to understand the problem is to imagine seeing the world through a cardboard tube.
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ScienceDaily News Release: People Are Robots, Too. Almost
People Are Robots, Too. Almost Popular culture has long pondered the question, ‘If it looks like a human, walks like a human and talks like a human, is it human?’ So far the answer has been no. Robots can’t cry, bleed or feel like humans, and that’s part of what makes them different.
But what if they could think like humans?
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Carnegie Mellon Will Induct Four Robots into Newly Established Robot Hall of Fame
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Carnegie Mellon University will induct four robots into its newly established Robot Hall of Fame(TM) in a ceremony at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center at 8 p.m. Monday, November 10.
The robots to be honored fall into two categories–robots from science and robots from science fiction. Their creators or others with a close relationship to the robots will attend the ceremony to accept a certificate in their honor.
The Robot Hall of Fame was established earlier this year to honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, along with their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.
A Robot Hall of Fame Web site will be unveiled at the induction ceremony. The goal is to create a permanent, interactive exhibition involving robots that will educate and entertain a wide variety of audiences.
A panel of experts, each serving for a two-year term, will choose robots in each category to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
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The next selection of robots for induction into the Robot Hall of Fame is scheduled to take place in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Oct. 13-16, 2004.
Contact: Anne Watzman
412-268-3830
Carnegie Mellon Will Induct Four Robots into Newly Established Robot Hall of Fame
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Carnegie Mellon University will induct four robots into its newly established Robot Hall of Fame(TM) in a ceremony at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center at 8 p.m. Monday, November 10.
The robots to be honored fall into two categories–robots from science and robots from science fiction. Their creators or others with a close relationship to the robots will attend the ceremony to accept a certificate in their honor.
The Robot Hall of Fame was established earlier this year to honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, along with their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.
A Robot Hall of Fame Web site will be unveiled at the induction ceremony. The goal is to create a permanent, interactive exhibition involving robots that will educate and entertain a wide variety of audiences.
A panel of experts, each serving for a two-year term, will choose robots in each category to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
[…]
The next selection of robots for induction into the Robot Hall of Fame is scheduled to take place in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Oct. 13-16, 2004.
Contact: Anne Watzman
412-268-3830
CIOL : News : A robot for every home?
Worldwide robot sales in the first half of ’03 were up by 26%, says a survey. 50,000 household robots are already in operation, and a tenfold increase is expected by ’06.
BANGALORE: The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has released its 2003 World Robotics survey, which says that robot orders in the first half of 2003 were up by 26%, the highest level ever recorded. Growth rates reached 35% in North America, 25% in Europe and 18% in Asia.
There are now at least 770,000 robots at work, including 350,000 in Japan, 233,000 in the European Union and about 104,000 in North America.
Robots are coming to our homes too. At the end of 2002 more than 50,000 autonomous vacuum cleaners and lawn-mowing robots were in operation. By the end of 2006 a tenfold increase is predicted.
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Home invasion fuels robot explosion
In the first six months of the year, there was a 26 percent jump in demand for robots as more of the machines were employed in industry and in homes.
According to a new report from the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics, 80,000 robots were sold globally between January and June. “These figures indicate that a strong recovery is in sight,” the report said, noting that the global robot market contracted by 12 percent last year.
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The biggest use for robots today remains in industry, with about 770,000 out of 1.4 million active robots in the world currently used for manufacturing. Half of the planet’s industrial robots are in Japan, 230,000 are in the EU and just 104,000 are in North America, the survey said. However, in two years there will be about 875,000 units in use globally, with 333,000 in Japan, 303,000 in the European Union and 135,000 in North America, according to the World Robotics survey.
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Other interesting commentary in the study included a prediction that service-oriented and household robots will soon become more commonplace and that sales of these kinds of machines are on the way up. “They will not only clean our floors, mow our lawns and guard our homes but they will also assist old and handicapped people with sophisticated interactive equipment, carry out surgery, inspect pipes and sites that are hazardous to people, fight fire and bombs and be used in many other applications,” the report said.
In 2002, sales of “domestic robots,” which mainly include automated lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners, jumped to 33,000 from 20,000 the year before. By 2006, there will be as many as 400,000 vacuum-cleaning robots in service globally and 125,000 smart lawnmowers.
In terms of entertainment, sales of robotic toys, like Sony’s AIBO dog, should reach 1.5 million by 2006, or almost three times the current 550,000 level.
Ananova – ‘Emotional’ robot goes on display
A pioneering robot capable of showing emotions is to go on public display for the first time.
The machine, called eMo, will greet and interact with visitors to Birmingham’s Thinktank from October 25.
As well as expressing a range of emotions from anger to happiness, eMo is also programmed to respond to the moods of people it meets.
Visitors will be challenged to guess eMo’s mood, receiving a nod and smile if they are right and an angry shake of the head if they are wrong.
eMo’s has been created by Sheffield University Professor Rod Sharkey – who is best known for his role as a judge on the BBC’s Robot Wars.
He hopes the robot will provide some fun, but says it could also be a serious research tool.
Prof Sharkey said: ‘Such machines may one day play an important role in our lives – actually responding to our moods.
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New Scientist: Martial arts robots hit Asian tech fair
Japan Corporate News Net : CEATEC Japan 2003: From Sumo to the Martial Arts, a New Generation of Compact Robots Fights it Out at CEATEC Japan
Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 10, 2003 – (JCN Newswire) – Enormous advances are being made in compact robot development, particularly humanoid robots, so mobile and graceful in motion that they might be called beautiful. CEATEC Japan 2003 is giving visitors a look at a future world in which humans and robots coexist to make lifestyles more convenient and abundant.
Wind River Systems, Inc. is exhibiting ‘morph 3,’ a compact humanoid robot that adopts the company’s real-time operating system, VxWORKS (R), and is installed with 13 sub-CPUs (central processing units) in addition to its main CPU. A total of 138 pressure sensors and 30 compact motors allow morph 3 to not only walk on two feet, but also give it the flexibility to perform karate forms, back flips and defensive positions. This robot was designed by a team led by Dr. Takayuki Furuta, chief of the Future Robotics Technology Center at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan.
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