Hi everyone, I’m Angelina and I’ve just jumped on board with GoRobotics as of late. I’m particularly inclined towards social cases and human-robot interaction, so I hope to bring you a lot of interesting stories on that front. I have a background in artificial intelligence (cognitive science) and so another thing I hope to do is to bring some of the interesting scientific developments into the public eye. Academic papers can be overwhelming even if you know the jargon necessary, so I hope to act as a translator and give you some tidbits of what’s going on in university robotics research.

In what has been an ongoing controversial move in the United Kingdom, police forces all over the nation will be able to draw on unmanned air drone robots for surveillance support. The units are remote-controlled and equipped with thermal imaging units, and they’ll set you back about $30,500. So far there is only one unit seeing action in the UK, and it’s already getting publicity for helping the police do their job.

The Merseyside police who happened to be lucky enough to have one of these $30,500 drones flicked on the thermal imaging on a tip that a suspected car thief was somewhere in the neighborhood. They managed to pinpoint the suspect from about three hundred meters away, and their actions also eventually led to the arrest of a second suspect shortly thereafter. Sky News has the coverage over here.

A young man was caught and arrested for breaking a law, which makes this a good day for robotics, and a good case for robots in a pragmatic, practical role. Still, speculation considers the increased use of robots within the police and military to be walking a rather fine line for safety, especially if future units are armed and are expected to operate with any sense of autonomy. Wired has an interesting article detailing the possible ways that police drones could be armed in the future.

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The video above is worth watching for two reasons. One, the amount of engineering and hard work put into these arms and legs is astounding. It should make any engineer applaud. Second, and more importantly, it shows people trying to fix a huge problem and pay back a debt we owe to the soldiers that defend our country.

The video is a segment from the US show “60 Minutes” that describes DARPA’s work into developing a prosthetic arm. It closely profiles the work done by Dean Kamen’s DEKA company in creating the world’s most sophisticated (and useful) arm, dubbed the “Luke” arm after the famous scene from Star Wars. Also shown is some cutting edge work at Duke University (just down the road from me!) on creating an arm that is controlled via electrical signals from the brain to the now missing arm. Pretty amazing stuff. It’s well worth watching. The point where Fred Downs describes what it was like to have a hand after 26 years is very moving. You can also read an accompanying article here.

I’m constantly reminded of my shortcomings as a blogger, especially with this story, as I don’t think I’ve ever posted about Vecna’s BEAR, or Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot. Regardless, the BEAR is a “humanoid” (well, it has a face and arms) robot that is designed to lift, carry, and extract humans from battlefield situations. It can carry up to 500 lbs with it’s hydraulic actuated arms, and either roll or walk via it’s unique independent tracks.

Robot Magazine posted a great article on the BEAR a while back, with lots of nice pictures of the early development of the system. CNet News has more details on the current status of The BEAR. Vecna is currently working on improving the BEAR’s ability to work alongside soldiers and navigate various environments. There’s video of the BEAR in action after the jump.

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Cornell University has won the 12th annual AUVSI Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. And, according to Cornell’s tweet, second place goes to University of Victoria and 3rd to University of Rhode Island. Interestingly, these three teams weren’t even in the top 5 of last year’s compeitors (pdf), so they seem to have put in a lot of work. You can read all of the team’s technical papers here. Cornell’s, U.Vic. and URI’s papers will make interesting reading for all the 2010 competitors with an ax to grind.

Congratulations to Nova, Aerius, and Ram-Boat ’09 and all the engineers behind them on a job well done.

After the jump are two recap videos from the 1st and 2nd days competition.

If you like this story, will you please Digg it? Thanks!

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Robotic Technology Inc. is working on a robot that is powered by biomass – grass, wood, or even dead bodies. The steam powered robot, which is being developed for the Pentagon under a Phase II SBIR grant, is designed for fuel itself off materials in its environment. While the title, “… could feed on dead bodies”, is quite sensational, the ability to power a vehicle using naturally occurring sources of fuel would be a big boon to military vehicles. The “Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot”, or EATR,

… will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an “external combustion chamber” burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

All that said, in Skynet’s view, what’s the difference between a dead and a live body? Questions to ponder.

Update: Ah ha! I feel vindicated now. RTI and Cyclone Power have issued a press release to combat the roumors that EATR will feed off of dead bodies. Interestingly enough, descriation of the war dead is a crime under the Geneva Convention.