Videos Of The Week

The Robots Are Coming ! The Robots Are Coming !
I went a bit crazy this week and put up several videos instead of my usual one or two. Why would I do this?
Because I love robots--that's why!!
Maybe it's because I don't relate well to people or maybe it's because I'm a science/tech geek, but I've always had a special fondness for robots.
And yes, I do think it very likely that one day in the future, intelligent machines will surpass the Human race as the next step in evolution. Think about it. If machines gain enough intelligence and become self-aware, one machine could transfer all its knowledge to its fellow machines in a matter of minutes. Knowledge that may have taken the human race centuries to acquire and has to be taught to each new generation of people through years of schooling, robots/intelligent machines could share with one another as fast as their data connections would allow.
Of course, by the time this happens, humans may have started to colonize other planets or perhaps even become partly robotic themselves using cybernetic implants to enhance their physical and/or mental capacities.
If this all sounds like I'd like to see the robots take over....well....I can't deny that I'd be very curious to see how intelligent machines, solely using reason and logic to solve problems and make scientific advances, would do things. As opposed to the Human Race, which often bases its decisions on faulty reasoning, superstition, prejudices, and emotional responses without taking into consideration how those decisions will affect the rest of Humankind.

OK--enough blabbering--let's see some robots!

Climbing Robot



RiSE is a small six-legged robot that climbs vertical terrain such as walls, trees and fences. RiSE's feet have claws, micro-claws or sticky material, depending on the climbing surface. RiSE changes posture to conform to the curvature of the climbing surface and a fixed tail helps RiSE balance on steep ascents. RiSE is about 0.25 m long, weighs 2 kg, and travels 0.3 m/s.

Each of RiSE's six legs is powered by two electric motors. An onboard computer controls leg motion, manages communications, and services a variety of sensors. The sensors include an inertial measurement unit, joint position sensors for each leg, leg strain sensors and foot contact sensors.

Future versions of RiSE will use dry adhesion to climb sheer vertical surfaces such as glass and metal. RiSE is being developed in conjunction with researchers at University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, Stanford, and Lewis and Clark University. RiSE is funded by the DARPA Defense Sciences Office.
For more life-like robot video clips, information and photo, please visit http://ROBORAMA.info

Swimming Robot



The growing progress of our robotic fishes.
more info at http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~jliua/videogal.htm

Robotic Cat



And my favorite--QRIO !



Here is some more info on the QRIO.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/