Press Releases

Smartplanet.com has the story:

Princeton University recently announced a new nanotechnology that has demonstrated the ability to triple the efficiency of solar cells by eliminating two of the primary reasons why light is reflected or lost. This breakthrough was achieved by applying a “nano-mesh” to plastics, which would make way for inexpensive, flexible devices, or even greatly improve the efficiency of standard photovoltaic panels, the researchers say.

The nano-mesh is designed to dampen reflection and trap light to be converted into electrical energy (existing technologies cannot fully capture light that enters the cell). Only 4 percent of light is reflected, and as much as 96 percent is absorbed, a press release noted. Its overall efficiency in converting light to energy is 52 percent higher than conventional cells in direct sunlight and up to 175 percent greater on cloudy days with less sun.

For reference, North Carolina’s Semprius Inc., a Siemens-backed venture, revealed a prototype of what it called the world’s best solar efficiency at 33.9 percent earlier this year. Princeton didn’t reveal its overall efficiency.

The full Princeton announcement here.

Robotics start-up LineBot started a Kickstarter campaign to get their Drink Runner bot out there. What it is:

On December 10, 2012, LineBot will launch a Kickstarter project to raise funds for Drink Runner, a line-following service robot that delivers individual drinks in total darkness non-stop for up to 4 hours per charge. Swarms of them act like a conveyor belt, shuttling drinks along a closed-loop course.

The full press release here and the Kickstarter page here.

The Japanese company ZMP Inc. has recently announced its intention to deliver a research tool called the ZMP Car Robotics Platform by April, 2009 at a meager cost of about $5.5K per unit.   The platform is a complete 1/10th scale vehicle.

The platform is comprised of a stereoscopic camera, NEC Corp’s image processing board, WiFi module, a gyroscope sensor, accelerometer, odometry internal sensor, laser range finder and infrared external sensor for ranging.  Its software will include Linux OS and an exclusive code for an image processor.  The client portion of the system will run on Windows as well as Linux and utilize the MATLAB / Simulink model-based development tool.

ZMP Inc., Car Robotics Platform

Although the platform is targeted at academic and business product research, clearly this ready-to-go platform has other applications in semi-structured environments.

The holistic embedded configuration of the Car Robotics Platform differs substantially from American companies that have encapsulated the autonomous functions to navigate vehicles and avoid obstacles.   Companies like TORC Technologies and Gray Matter Inc. are developing component technologies that can be applied to any vehicle but those products are intended for larger, more complex applications in less structured environments.   At a little over $5K per complete unit, ZMP offers a compelling alternative for smaller scale applications.

Sources:

• Robot Watch (Japanese)
  
• The Press Release (Japanese)
• TechOn (English)
  
• DARPA Urban Challenge Team Develops Autonomy-In-A-Box Product
• TORC Technologies Autononav Product Profile
• QuickMBA

When Stanford University won the DARPA Grand Challenge in ’05 the team made clear their philosophy that autonomous navigation should be treated as a software problem.  While other teams spent their resources on building custom hardware, Dr. Sebastian Thrun simply sent his Stanford team’s Volkswagen Touareg off to get converted to drive-by-wire using proven and commoditized technologies.  When he got it back, all that was left was to plug in his computers and start coding.

Software is a cheap medium on which to try different things without fear of cutting something too big or too small or accidentally reversing the polarities of some highly sensitive and expensive electronic device.  No.  If something isn’t built correctly in software, you just open it up in an editor, fix it, and try it again.

And if you want to build a robot to interact in the world, you’re going to make it small.  If you’re going to make it small, you’re going to care about things like computing power and battery life and other technical excise tasks.  The solution to this is to utilize the substantial computing power on your desk.  When SPC-101C came out last year, I lauded the client-server architecture that delegated the substantial computing requirements to the host computer.  The robot plays a sensing and interacting role for the host computer and is what lets your omputer move about in the world.

Surveyor Corporation clearly gets all of this.

They just announced a computer vision platform called Surveyor Stereo Vision System (“SVS”) that sells for a paltry $550.  It’s designed to let developers and researchers get straight to the business of stereoscopic vision research.  “We realize that in order to help accelerate the adoption of computer vision into the mainstream we have to remove the obstacles that hinder innovation. The last thing a computer vision developer wants to do is waste his time measuring voltage levels,” says Surveyor Corporation founder Howard Gordon.

Surveyor SVS’s straightforward approach can be explained in over-simplified terms as two socket streams sending video through a 802.11g radio.  This standard method of transmission allows for easy integration into lots of open source computer vision libraries including OpenCV.  To normal people, this just means that the disembodied cameras act like two high-end webcams that can do cool stuff like render the world in a 3D image you can see through red and blue glasses like the kind you wear at the movie theater.

Getting a pair of integrated cameras that can transmit video signals digitally throug 802.11g wireless protocols for $550 is impressive enough, but Surveyor SVS is also a complete mobile robot platform. “Surveyor is providing a great service to the industry by offering high-end technology at prices even a hobbyist can afford. I’m not quite sure how they pull it off, but I’m glad they do,” says Matt Trossen, founder and CEO of Trossen Robotics.

By comparison, Point Grey Research’s Bumblebee Stereoscopic camera sells for $1,500 and requires a firewire connection to a computer.

—

Disclosure:  Our affiliate sponsor Trossen Robotics sells Surveyor Corporation technology.

Sources:

• Press Release
• A Ready-to-Go Robot for Creative Programmers
• Matt Trossen: Robotics Must Become a Software Problem for Mainstream Adoption
• Stanley: The Robot that Won the DARPA Grand Challenge

Intel CTO and Ray Kurzweil Among Visionaries Headlining Singularity Summit 2008: Opportunity, Risk, Leadership

SAN JOSE, CA, August 29, 2008 – Singularity Summit 2008: Opportunity, Risk, Leadership takes place October 25 at the intimate Montgomery Theater in San Jose, CA, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence announced today. Now in its third year, the Singularity Summit gathers the smartest people around to explore the biggest idea of our time: the Singularity.

Keynotes will include Ray Kurzweil, updating his predictions in The Singularity is Near, and Intel CTO Justin Rattner, who will examine the Singularity’s plausibility. At the Intel Developer Forum on August 21, 2008, he explained why he thinks the gap between humans and machines will close by 2050. “Rather than look back, we’re going to look forward 40 years,” said Rattner. “It’s in that future where many people think that machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence.”

“The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century,” said computer scientist Dr. Vernor Vinge in a seminal paper in 1993. “We are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence.”

Singularity Summit 2008 will feature an impressive lineup:

* Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy, pioneering AI and robotics researcher
* Dr. Eric Baum, AI researcher, author of What is Thought?
* Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com, author of Robotic Nation
* Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, robotics professor at MIT, creator of Kismet
* Dr. Peter Diamandis, chair and CEO of X PRIZE Foundation
* Esther Dyson, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist
* Dr. Pete Estep, chair and CSO of Innerspace Foundation
* Dr. Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, author of Fab
* Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO of Novamente, director of research at SIAI
* John Horgan, science journalist, author of The Undiscovered Mind
* Ray Kurzweil, CEO of Kurzweil Technologies, author of The Singularity is Near
* Dr. James Miller, author of forthcoming book on Singularity economics
* Dr. Marvin Minsky, one of AI’s founding fathers, author of The Emotion Machine
* Dr. Dharmendra Modha, cognitive computing lead at IBM Almaden Research Center
* Bob Pisani, news correspondent for financial news network CNBC
* Justin Rattner, VP and CTO of Intel Corporation
* Nova Spivack, CEO of Radar Networks, creator of Twine semantic-web application
* Peter Thiel, president of Clarium, managing partner of Founders Fund
* Dr. Vernor Vinge, author of original paper on the technological Singularity
* Eliezer Yudkowsky, research fellow at SIAI, author of Creating Friendly AI
* Glenn Zorpette, executive editor of IEEE Spectrum

Registration details are available at http://www.singularitysummit.com/registration/.

About the Singularity Summit
Each year, the Singularity Summit attracts a unique audience to the Bay Area, with visionaries from business, science, technology, philanthropy, the arts, and more. Participants learn where humanity is headed, meet the people leading the way, and leave inspired to create a better world. “The Singularity Summit is the premier conference on the Singularity,” Kurzweil said. “As we get closer to the Singularity, each year’s conference is better than the last.”

The Summit was founded in 2006 by long-term philanthropy executive Tyler Emerson, inventor Ray Kurzweil, and investor Peter Thiel. Its purpose is to bring together and build a visionary community to further dialogue and action on complex, long-term issues that may transform the world. Its host organization is Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization studying the benefits and risks of advanced artificial intelligence systems.

Singularity Summit 2008 partners include Clarium Capital, Cartmell Holdings, Twine, Powerset, United Therapeutics, KurzweilAI.net, IEEE Spectrum, DFJ, X PRIZE Foundation, Long Now Foundation, Foresight Nanotech Institute, Novamente, SciVestor, Robotics Trends, and MINE.

Robotics Trends has just announced the line up for the Robo Development Conference and Expo ’08, to be held November 18-19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  SciVestor Executive Director, and RobotCentral contributor Jonas Lamis has been named as a Featured Speaker for the event.  Details are available here.

Intelligent Sensor Technologies 2010 to 2020: Impact and Implications for the Development Community

Track: Enabling Technology

Over the next decade, intelligent sensor technologies will perform increasingly important tasks in our vehicles, homes, workplaces, neighborhoods and even our bodies. Ubiquitous sentinels of behavior, sensors will dramatically reduce inefficiencies in the ways we work and live. However their emergence will also raise challenging questions of privacy, security and liability. In this session, Jonas Lamis, Executive Director, SciVestor Corporation, will present a cross-industry analysis of emerging sensor platforms and the implications on the development community. Key sensing concepts and companies will be examined and how applications that integrate sensors will enable our society. This session will also address the adoption challenges that these technologies will face as the public and political process becomes attuned to their emergence.

SciVestor Executive Director Jonas Lamis narrates the Autonomous Vehicle Roadmap that was presented at RoboBusiness 2008. This presentation is based in part on Robot Central’s observations, research, and opinions of emergent technologies from the DARPA Grand Challenge series of competitions. It highlights progress and challenges in the technologies necessary to facilitate civilian autonomous vehicles. Mr. Lamis discusses a plausible technology-driven autonomous vehicle roadmap from 2010 – 2020. The presentation highlights several emerging technology vendors including Velodyne, ibeo, Grey Matter, and TORC Technologies.

—

Jonas Lamis contributes to Robot Central, focusing on the business aspects of the robot economy. He also authors the weblog Singularity University and is an advisor to the Singularity Institute on Artificial Intelligence. Mr. Lamis is also the editor of Architecture and Governance Magazine, and writes and speaks frequently on enterprise software technologies.

Due to a configuration error at Robot Central the email subscription system delivered an email comprised of 50 posts.  The problem has been fixed.  We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused our subscribers.

Semifinalist ”Cybervan” Perfecting New Life-Saving Technology in
San Antonio

ANN ARBOR, Mich.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 17, 2007–A DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge National Qualifier, Team Cybernet, is en route to Victorville, California, to compete in the final stages of the competition. The team is spending the remaining time before the main event perfecting the “Cybervan,” in San Antonio, Texas.

The 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge is the third in a series of competitions DARPA has held to foster the development of autonomous robotic ground vehicle technology simulated military supply missions in a mock urban area. Beginning on October 26th semifinalists will compete for a chance to reach the finals and contend for $3.5 million in prizes.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to compete against the world’s leading innovators in this very important endeavor, and are grateful to DARPA for the opportunity to serve our men and women in uniform,” said Chuck Jacobus, Team Cybernet Leader. “At the heart of the countless hours and exceptional innovation dedicated to this effort by every member of Team Cybernet is a shared commitment to removing service personnel from harm’s way. The Cybervan is a practical solution to a very dangerous problem.”

Team Cybernet, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is committed to delivering tomorrow’s military solutions today. By converting an 11-year old Chrysler minivan into a sophisticated autonomous “bot,” Team Cybernet’s solution can be applied to the similarly-aged fleet of military vehicles in the field today. Comprised almost entirely of professionals from Cybernet Systems Corporation, a woman-owned American research and development company, the self-funded Team Cybernet added $45,000 of mostly commercial off-the-shelf materials and countless hours of intellectual capital to develop the “Cybervan.”

To learn more about Team Cybernet or Cybernet Systems Corporation, please visit www.cybernet.com.

CONTACT: Cybernet

Lee Hudson, 202-715-1554
Lee.Hudson@dittus.com
or
Kevin Tang, 734-474-2612
media@cybernet.com

In a move consistent with the coalescing of robotics market players, Braintech has released a version of its vision software VOLTS-IQ ™ SDK that is designed to work with Microsoft Robotics Studio.

According to their site,

Braintech specializes in the expert design and integration of artificial intelligence for Vision Guided Robotic (VGR) software and solutions. [Their] applications are used for manufacturing and Internet based support and include quality inspection, process control and complex assembly.

That may be true, but this move to support Microsoft Robotics Studio portends the moving into the service and personal robotics space. Babak Habibi, Braintech’s CTO, states: “We are passionate about our approach to robot vision that is centered on providing actionable information to robots. This contrasts with traditional vision libraries, which provide numerous low level functions but burden the developer with the task of figuring out how to link and configure these functions to produce usable vision information such as an object’s type or position. With the VOLTS-IQ SDK, robotic developers can focus on the evolution of a product or project as opposed to getting bogged down in the details of which edge detection method or image filter to use”. (AMEN BROTHER!)

I viewed a demonstration of the Vi_Tracker software and studied the API. This software is fantastically easy to use. VOLTS-IQ’s compatibility with Microsoft Robotics Studio will open up some interesting doors to the next generation of application developers.

The demonstration video shows a user circumscribing a target object in the video stream and Vi_Tracker instantly following and tracking it. The software does a really good job of keeping up even with partial occlusion. It also maintains the orientation of the target object.

My personal experience with a more arcane method of training vision software affords me the appreciation for VOLTS-IQ’s on-the-fly train-and-track algorithm. Usually, there is a bit of training time that can be expected–sometimes the training takes days and many samples of the object. In this case Vi_Tracker did it instantly.

Now if we could only get Erector (Meccano) to create an API to Spykee! An “open” Spykee with a Microsoft Robotics Studio / Braintech / Skilligent combination would provide for an incredibly robust and inexpensive platform on a standard PC!

This is some cool software I can’t wait to play with.

Other Photos:

Press Release:

• Braintech Releases New Vision Software for Service Robots

The world is abuzz with today’s news that Google will back the Lunar X Prize. The $30M prize money is broken out into a $20M Grand Prize, $5M Second Prize, and $5M in bonus prizes. The offer is good through 2012 after which the grand prize will drop to $15M through 2014. After that, the bet’s off unless Google wants to extend it.

To win the Grand Prize, a team needs to land a spacecraft on the moon and drive around for at least 500 meters, and send back “specific” video and images to earth. For second place, a team needs to land a robot, drive around on the moon, and send back some data. Bonus prize money will be given based on the performance of some bonus tasks such as finding water ice or man-made artifacts such as Apollo stuff.

Reference:

• Google Sponsors Lunar X PRIZE to Create a Space Race for a New Generation, $30 Million Purse to be Awarded to Winners

I’ve got two Pleo “First Hatch” dinosaur robots on allocation from Ugobe this fall. One for the kiddies and one to sell on eBay [Send your preemptive bids to jonas@robotcentral.com]. At 9am CT this morning, Ugobe sent out the following announcement stating an unquantified time delay in shipment of Pleo 1.0 due to a reconfiguration of battery strategies. The new configuration will allow batteries to be swapped out and charged independently of the robot.

Ugobe is still committing to having Pleos in my hands “by the holidays”. There were a limited number (2000 I believe) First Hatch units available from Ugobe directly, and an unspecified quantity available through retail partners. One thing is for sure, this delay will dramatically reduce the number of units on the market for the holiday buying season. Those who are lucky enough to get one, will find a robot in high demand.

Dear Pleo™ Fans,
During pre-production testing, the UGOBE™ team encountered some significant problems with Pleo’s battery life. We solved these problems in a way that I think you will appreciate: all Pleos, including First Hatch Pleos, are now designed to have an easily removable battery and an external charger for the battery. That means that with multiple batteries and chargers, you can keep Pleo going for hours on end. However, implementing this design change will delay production. We are working hard to make sure everyone who has ordered a Pleo will receive one by the holidays.I know how much you are looking forward to having Pleo in your life so I know this delay is frustrating. At the same time, I hope that you are as excited as I am about this design change. I’ll post some video or photos soon, so you can see it yourself. Your enthusiasm for Pleo continues to be an inspiration as we work through these challenges to deliver the life form we’ve all been waiting for.

We’ll update you in a few weeks – as soon as we know more about when we can ship. If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQs below. And make sure to stop by PleoWorld.com to see our new webisodes and participate in forum discussions.

Sincerely,
Caleb Chung

FAQS
Q: How does the external battery and charger work with Pleo?
A: The battery goes in the same place in Pleo as before (his belly), except that now it is designed to be removed
easily and frequently. Once removed, the battery is charged in the external charger, then placed back in Pleo
once fully charged.

Q: Why did you change to the external charger design?
A: As we neared production, we encountered some difficulties with Pleos charging consistently. Combined with the
input you have given us about wanting multiple batteries that were easy to remove and charge, we decided that
solving our charging problems and answering the call for an external charger was paramount.

Q: Why are you delaying shipment?
A: In pre-production testing we encountered problems getting Pleo to charge correctly. Implementing design
changes to resolve the charging issue has led to the delay. We’re working hard to make sure everyone who has
ordered a Pleo will receive one by Christmas time.

Q: What do you mean when you say that Pleo will arrive “by the holidays”?
A: Integrating the necessary changes into the Pleo design has pushed back production, and we are unable to
ship Pleo in October as planned. However, you will receive your Pleo by Christmas time.
We felt it was best to let you know of the delay as soon as possible.

Q. Can I still order a Pleo and receive it before Christmas?
A: After the success with pre-orders, UGOBE.com has completely sold out of Pleos, however our retail partners
still have Pleo allocations available.

Still have questions? Contact us.

®2007 UGOBE, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

TALON EOD

WALTHAM, MA, August 29, 2007 – Foster-Miller , Inc., a QinetiQ North America company, announced today that the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division (NAVEODTECHDIV) in Indian Head, MD, has raised the ceiling of its $257 million IDIQ (indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity) contract to $290 million and ordered another $37 million of TALON® EOD robots and replacement parts. Total funding actually released from this contract now stands at $165 million.This is the second major funding award for TALON robots announced this month. Foster-Miller announced the receipt of delivery orders totaling $51 million against the Robotic Systems Joint Program Office (RSJPO) IDIQ contract administered by the Naval Air Warfare Training Systems Division (NAVAIR) for TALON robots and replacement parts two weeks ago.

NAVEODTECHDIV is the single service manager for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and purchases EOD robots for the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. The RSJPO procures some EOD robots, but also supplies non-EOD TALONs to other parts of the military and staffs the Robot Hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Once again, we thank NAVEODTECHDIV for its continuing support of our TALON robots,” Dr. William Ribich, president and CEO said. “We join with them in their determination to provide our troops with all the equipment they need for their vital missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

About Foster-Miller

Foster-Miller, Inc., is a technology and product development company with an international reputation for delivering innovative products and systems that perform under the most demanding conditions. The firm was founded in 1956 by three graduates of MIT who believed there was a need for a company that could solve clients’ difficult technical problems through first-class analysis and design. Foster-Miller is certified to Aerospace Quality Management Standard AS9100 and has SW-CMM Level 3 software certification from the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. In November 2004, Foster-Miller became a wholly owned subsidiary of QinetiQ North America.

About QinetiQ North America

QinetiQ North America provides world-class technology and responsive solutions to U.S. government customers. More than 5,300 engineers and technologists work in partnership with customers to develop innovative technology solutions to meet the challenges of national defense, homeland security and information access. QinetiQ North America is part of QinetiQ Group plc, one of the world’s leading defense and security technology companies. For more information, please visit www.QinetiQ-NA.com.

[According to the Naval Joint Robotics Website Tech Database, these puppies go for about $60K a pop which is about 600 robots. That’s a lot of gear. Excellent.–Ed.]

Related articles

• Iran Claims To Have Downed Another U.S. Drone
• God of War? A Profile of Foster-Miller’s new MAARS Robot