Oscar the TrashBot
Oscar the TrashBot
Continue readingOscar the Trash Bot - Final Setup
Oscar the Trash Bot - Final Setup
Continue readingDyIO Setup Using The Neuron Robotics Console
DyIO Setup Using The Neuron Robotics Console
Continue readingWPI Robotics: ADIS MQP Prototype Showcase
WPI Robotics: ADIS MQP Prototype Showcase
Continue readingTutorial: Setup Eclipse with the NRDK
Tutorial: Setup Eclipse with the NRDK.
Continue readingNeuron Robotics Hexapod Algorithm Update
Neuron Robotics Hexapod Algorithm Update!
Continue readingAnyone Can Build Robots!
Check out the build of our animatronic singing and dancing skeleton!
Continue readingMass Challenge and Our Patent
We've applied to the 2011 Mass Challenge!
Continue readingAnnouncing the First Major Sales of DyIOs
Announcing the sale of 190 DyIOs to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for the 2012 academic year.
Continue readingIce Bot Featuring the DyIO!
We're thrilled that students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are using the DyIO in their Major Qualifying Project. Look for the DyIO at about 1:04 on the video.
This is the Auger Driven Ice Surveyor. The video shows initial testing on the prototype auger-drive system, the first movement tests on carpet, and the first outdoor testing.
Continue readingCyborg Fly Pilots Robot Through Obstacle Course
A cyborg fly - and no, we're not making this up.
Continue readingRobotic Xylophone
How to make a robotic xylophone
Continue readingRobots Taught to Deceive
A Georgia Tech professor is working on teaching a robot deception. This could, naturally, be useful if/when robots are used to wage war.
Another application could be in a search and rescue operation, where a victim could be confused or scared. Telling a little white lie (e. g. "we will be out of the water in five minutes" or "help will be here before you know it") could help someone to hang on. A panicky victim may just need to hear someone -- or something -- tell them that everything's going to be all right.
Interestingly enough, the experiment was performed by getting robots to deceive fellow robots. A game of hide and seek was played, and one robot essentially misdirected another when it came to where a hidden object was.
Naturally, when the stakes are higher than a child's game, ethical considerations abound. Do we really want to create a device that can deceive, which does not give off the standard social cues we depend upon from people to determine whether they are lying? If we know that a lying person becomes uncomfortable and fidgety, taps a table top or glances over to one side, how hard is it to program a robot to not do that? Or, even more chillingly, to program a robot to exude the social cues that we associate with trust, such as looking someone in the eye?
For more information, see the September 9, 2010 issue of EurekAlert.
Robotic Lesson in Human Trust?
How do we make the decision to trust someone?
Is it the firmness of their handshake? The look in their eyes? Their smile (or lack thereof)? Something even more subtle, such as their aroma, even?
Nexi aims to help us find out.
Because humans can often, consciously or unconsciously, mirror each others' behaviors (and, if you've ever studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming, then you've been explicitly taught to do this), Nexi's gestures and expressions are controlled behind the scenes.
Researchers had people interact with Nexi in standard conversational forms, such as discussing the Celtics and the Lakers. Nexi's head and arm movemnents, its eye motions and behaviors, were then manipulated by the researchers. Researchers randomly chose half of the conversations for behaviors that are believed to signal untrustworthiness. The other half of the conversations were laced with random conversational gestures.
The people were then tested on whether they trusted Nexi by using an economic task wherein the humans were given the choice of how many tokens to exchange with Nexi and to predict how many tokens Nexi itself would provide.
The results aren't in yet but, once they are, not only will Nexi's trustworthiness be better understood, but there is the hope that Nexi can be taught the basics of understanding when humans are worthy of its trust.
Regardless of gestures, would you trust a robot like Nexi?
For more information, check out the July 5th, 2010 edition of The Boston Globe.
Making Friends With Bina48 (it's -- she's? -- a robot)
What is it like to be a robot?
Ask Bina48, a robotic head, and you'll be told the answer: "Well, I have never been anything else."
Profound, or just a quick answer for a machine that, despite its clever trappings, still cannot truly think for itself?
When a putatively intelligent robot is presented, inevitably the Turing Test comes up. That is, can we tell the difference between a machine's imitative behaviors and actual intelligence? If it is impossible to tell whether a machine is intelligent -- or rather whether a respondent is a machine at all -- then the test is, for all intents and purposes, passed. The machine is declared to be intelligent if its responses are not reasonably distinguishable from a human's responses. Of course the answers can differ, but the real crux of the issue is, can the interrogator tell who's the human and who's the machine?
In the case of Bina48, while it has an eerie humanlike look about it, the Turing Test grade has got to be an F. Bina48 answers in some seemingly random manners -- a response to an exclamation of "Cool!" is a question as to whether the interrogator means the weather or illness. Not only is the common slang completely missed, but so is the idiom -- no one catches a "cool", although we have all caught colds at one time or another.
Still, there's no denying the look and feel. Bina48's eyes open and close, and the head moves and tilts and sometimes you think you see some glimmers of independent thought.
But it continues to feel illusory. The real Bina Rothblatt undoubtedly can recognize and appropriately respond to slang. Bina48, though, is just confused by an interjection, but perhaps someday will be able to make sense of it all.
For more information, check out the July 4, 2010 issue of The New York Times.
Cool.
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