Even though abstract expressionism died out several decades ago, robots are still chugging along dripping nihilistic pigment onto a cold, uncaring canvas. [Liat] and [Assaf] created a robot named The Originals Factory to create paintings in the style of abstract expressionism, a style of painting that is arguably best represented by [Jackson Pollock] and his ‘drip paintings.’
The build is surprisingly simple – there are four containers filled with C,M,Y, and K pigments. Pumps transport these paints to a print head mounted on an aluminum rail above a canvas. The software portion of the build is rather interesting. Instead of pixels, the image is rendered in ‘vixels’ – vertical lines of a specific length and color. Although we don’t see any examples of more precise work, [Liat] tells us The Originals Factory can be used to plot graphs on the canvas.
Check out a video of The Originals Factory squirting paint down a canvas after the break.
Veteran Thingiverse user Tony Buser has printed a model (intended to be an approximation of the fractal Hilbert curve) using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a support material. Once everything is printed and cooled, the PVA is dissolved away in a glass of water, leaving only the polylactic acid (PLA) model. This technique, when perfected, should allow RepRap-style FFF printers to produce objects with overhanging parts that are currently very difficult, or impossible, for them to print. Tony used two of MakerBot’s Mk7 extruders mounted on a Thing-o-Matic.
In the new episode of Robots Podcast we talk to Subramanian Ramamoorthy from the University of Edinburgh about the recent progress in walking robotics. We then speak with Felipe Brandão Cavalcanti, an Electrical Engineering student working on bipedal walking at the LARA lab at the University of Brasilia with Professor Geovany Borges. Ramamoorthy tells us about the recent advances in humanoid bipedal walking illustrated by Petman and the latest version of Asimo. In particular, we look at the history of the field with work from Mark Raibert, Russ Tedrake andDaniel Koditschek and how different areas, such as machine leaning and motion capture, come together to accelerate progress. Felipe Brandão Cavalcanti's project focuses on the study and implementation of gait generation and stabilization algorithms for small humanoid robots. He tells us how they hacked a humanoid toy to improve its balance and the importance of math in his work.To learn more about walking robotics read on or tune in!
This temperature display may not knock your socks off, but it’s a simple demonstration of how you can used vector graphics as a web readout for data (translated). [Luca] wrote this four page tutorial to help others, he makes it look really easy, and the sky’s the limit on eye candy once you get he basics in place.
The first step is to create the dynamic SVG (vector graphic) file using Inkscape that will be used by the webpage. This starts with a static background, in this case the grey parts of the thermometer which will not change. Over the top the blue parts were added, with just a bit of XML editing to give those parts a hook which will be used in the next step. The demo above will have a moving blue bar and changing numeric output to match data coming in from a temperature sensor.
An SVG file is just a text file that is rendered as a graphic when loaded. [Luca] shows you how to used the identifiers set up when making the graphic to dynamically change the size and value of the blue parts with server-side PHP before sending the graphic to the browser. With that in place you just need to give the PHP file access to the data. He shows how to use the Pachube API but you could just as easily get this via serial or otherwise.
Two years ago I wrote about what a delight it was to discover the UT-Austin School of Architecture’s Materials Lab when I was on campus there, and it seems appropriate to resurrect the topic in honor of our theme this month. Kevin Kelly just posted a roundup of major materials libraries around the USA over at Cool Tools, and I was surprised to discover that UT’s, which is decades old, was one of the first in the country.
Publicly accessible materials libraries are usually associated with universities, and there is at least one major subscription-based commercial materials library with branches in eight major cities. I’ve been poking around trying to find a geographic listing of materials libraries with no success, so I thought I’d throw this one out to the readers: Is there a materials library near you? If so, please share in the comments!
More:
Inspriational video from iamFIRST.com.
(Via Nikolaus Correll)
While this won't matter to most readers of Robots.Net until a version with English subtitles becomes available for download, SVT's Akta Manniskor starts tomorrow, January 22nd. A ten hour series following the stories of a handful of "hubots" - human-like robots we might prefer to call androids - and the humans into whose lives they become entwined, the release of this Swedish production has been preceded by a bit of guerrilla marketing, and there is a making-of video available, also in Swedish of course.
Shermine of Universal Robots, a Danish company, writes to tell us about a light-weight robot arm and matching touch-screen controller they've just completed. We also got word of a new robotics and AI blog called NooTriX, check it out. For our LEGO fans, Simon tells us about WorldBricks, a website where you can download LEGO instructions and catalogs dating back to the 1950s. Guy Cefalu sent a link to the Element microcontroller for .NET developers. No specs on memory or CPU type yet but looks like a PIC. (bonus points to the first reader who posts instructions for using an open source compiler like SDCC with this one!) The Swirling Brain spotted an instructable for a tiny robot called the Roule_Robot, just 14g and 39x22mm. Finally, Colin Adamson wrote to tell us about the Kickstarter campaign for his OCULUS Surveillance and Telepresence Netbook Robot (which looks a bit like the old Evolution ER1). Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. And don't forget to follow us on twitter.
From the guys who brought you the C5 NXT Blimp, have a look at this awesome industrial color and size sorting plant commissioned by Dynaway. This model is used to demonstrate their manufacturing execution system.
It appears Justin Bieber got around at CES. So did the GeekBeat.tv crew, including to the XYBOTYX booth, where they recorded the XYBOT rolling around on a wooden platform.
In Robots Podcast episode #95 David Lane, Professor of Autonomous Systems Engineering and affiliated with the Heriot-Watt University Ocean Systems Laboratory (Edinburgh), talks with interviewer Per Sjoborg about his journey from research to business and back. He tells about how he got started first in offshore work then in robotics research, developing control software for autonomous underwater vehicles. He also tells how frustration with the lack of utilization of his work led he and his associates to start the company SeeByte, to commercialize it, and how having the U.S. Navy as their first customer proved very helpful towards the company's success. (Dr. Lane has much to say about the value of customer funding and customer focus for a startup.) Finally, he tells about his return to academia after finding the right person to take over the day-to-day details of running SeeByte, and how his experience in industry finds its way into his academic work.
Read On or Tune In
CES is nearly over, but we have a few more items to share. The Inventist SoloWheel, shown above, was panned by The Verge as having zero chance of making it to the mainstream
. As may be, pending further development, but the company provides an assortment of videos on its website. Without having tried it myself, I doubt it requires more skill than rollerblades. NEC showed its Communication Robot PaPeRo, a research prototype, not yet for sale, along with an Android app that allows users to control the robot remotely. There were Dancing Cats and Baby Seals, and a robotic vacuum cleaner that entertains while it works, and is itself cleaned out each time it docks. And last, but far from least, TechCrunch interviewed Bre Pettis of Makerbot about their new Replicator model, and the future of 3D printing.
You've probably already heard about the event wherein Justin Bieber was enlisted to introduce TOSY's new mRobo at CES, but you may not have learned much about the device itself or the company that makes it. mRobo is a combination music player and dancing robot. It can store 2 gigabytes worth of music in its own memory, or stream it via bluetooth, or simply listen. In any case, when there's music playing, it sprouts a head, arms, and legs and begins to dance in time to the beat. The price is set at $199, and you won't be able to get one until later this year.
The video above shows iRobot's Ava telepresence platform paying a visit to the crew of The Verge, in their trailer at CES. Other exhibitors of interest include Parrot, showing their AR.Drone 2.0, and Sphero, with their iPhone-controlled ball. More to come.
The video above is an informal (always with Cali Lewis), very upbeat interview with Gary Shapiro, CEO of the CEA, sponsors of CES. Besides Cali and crew, The Verge and Engadget are also prowling the floor at CES 2012, and IEEE Spectrum is also covering the event. All four sometimes talk about robots, and we know there are robots there, so we're hoping for decent coverage, the best of which we'll be passing along.
Robots figure more prominently at this year's CES than ever before. Among the many presenters are Modular Robotics, whose Cubelets are shown above, and XYBOTYX, developers of the XYBOT, a small two-wheeled balancing device that turns an iPhone into a telepresence robot.
"as a testbed for robotic intelligence and navigation software",as the page states.
This video shows observations of a lizard jumping, followed by application of the techniques for use of a tail for stabilization to robots. (Via Automaton)
The mailbox has been filling up with interesting stories lately, like a pair of conflicting papers from the Current Directions in Psychological Science journal. One claims that Darwin was wrong to suggest that facial expressions have innate connections to particular emotions, while the other supports the idea that facial expressions evolved to communicate emotional states, playing a crucial role in survival. There's also new evidence that chimps have a theory of mind, which has implications for the development of language. If all this talk of mind and emotion is too boring, Hank Pellissier over at IEET, wrote a piece Sexbots for Women, pondering why only males are assumed likely to desire sex with androids. The Swirling Brain noticed a Huffington Post story on Google's cloud robotics initiative. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. And don't forget to follow us on twitter.
The Robot Film Festival will soon begin accepting submissions for the 2012 competition.
The Navy Research Lab has completed testing of a Balloon-launched UAV that in turn launches smaller UAVs. They're calling the project ADD (Autonomous Deployment Demonstration) A balloon carried an UASUSA Tempest UAV to 60,000 feet. On each of the Tempest's wings, a smaller CICADA Mark III autonomous glider was mounted (CICADA stands for Close-In Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft). The smaller UAVs were then launched and autonomously navigated to within 15 feet of predetermined waypoints. The goal is demonstrate that the robots could provide a low cost way of placing precision located sensors for reconnaissance. For more photos of the operation, see the Navy's press release
It was an amazing NXT year, to be sure! |
| (© by bazmarc |
I never played beyond the Beta. While I did play, it was fun… sad to see that they just couldn’t make it viable (aka, pay for itself).
LEGO Universe to close in 2012
Online game will close on January 31, 2012. The LEGO Group’s digital offerings will continue to develop over the coming years.
November 4, 2011 – The LEGO Group today announced that it will close LEGO® Universe, an MMOG (massively-multiplayer online game) that has been in operation since the autumn of 2010.
In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.
“The LEGO Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss,” said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, LEGO Universe. “Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game.”
Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A further expansion in the digital area will mainly be based on similar partnerships.
“The development of our digital offerings continues to be a very important element in our strategy,” said Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President, LEGO Group. “We have more than 20 million visitors on www.LEGO.com every month, and LEGO video games are among the bestselling children’s video games with sales of more than 60 million units in the last five years. Through our experience developing and running LEGO Universe, we have gained a lot of valuable insights, and we have a very strong foundation for future development in the digital area.”
As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the ‘Play Well Studios’ in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.
Thank to The Brothers Brick for the notice.
Only five months after joining Google, Java creator and former Oracle employee James Gosling has announced that he’s leaving the search giant to become the Chief Software Architect for Liquid Robotics, a new firm that develops robots for maritime applications.
Gosling posted about the move on his personal website:
I’ve surprised myself and made another career change. I had a great time at Google, met lots of interesting people, but I met some folks outside doing something completely outrageous, and after much anguish decided to leave Google.
Liquid Robotics primarily develops Wave Glider, an autonomous robotic vehicle that is packed with sensors, powered by solar panels and wave action, and that uploads the data it collects to the cloud. Gosling described Wave Gliders in the Gulf of Mexico that are being used to monitor water chemistry. According to the Liquid Robotics website, the Wave Glider harvests energy from the environment in order to “travel long distances, hold station, and monitor vast areas without ever needing to refuel.”
Liquid Robotics Wave Glider
DARPA Concludes Nano Air Vehicle Program – Watch the video. ‘nuff said.
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Updated on January 27, 2012 10:10 PM UTC. Entries are normalised to UTC time.
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