About
some random stuff I find interesting today ....
Accounts
Click here to check if anything new just came in.
November 30 2011
European Robotics Week and IDSIA Robotics
This year's European Robotics Week sponsored by the EU though one of its Framework Programmes (EUnited Robotics) is currently underway and there is a lot of things to see and do. Labs offering demos and presentations as well as hands-on workshops about the on-going robotics research in Europe. A new webpage www.robotics-labs.eu was started where one can check out the various labs and for some of them even be able to see live webcam feeds.
For IDSIA we did not get a webcam, but we nevertheless uploaded a movie about us and our current activities. Enjoy the film after the jump.
September 21 2011
Summer School 2011
Also this year I had the chance to attend a summer school, after ISRIS in 2009 and 2010 school at JAIST, I was going to this year's Hands On Summer School on Neural Dynamics Approaches to Cognitive Robotics in Guimaraes, Portugal.
This school focused on the idea of Dynamic Neural Fields (similar but according to the presentations more powerful than Neural Network approaches) and how to use them in various robotic systems. The presentations, mainly given by researchers from the University of Bochum and Minho, ranged from computer science to neuroscience and included various applications, such as on mobile and humanoid robots (including the Nao and ARoS, a humanoid (upper body) robot built at Minho). The school ended with a project to be implemented (and yes there is a video of ARoS after the jump).
The summer school was held at the University of Minho, which is situated in Guimaraes, the first capital of Portugal, set in a scenic landscape with rolling hills. For a full week we, about 50 students and instructors, were there to learn about NeuroDynamic Fields and robots. After the morning classes and lunch, exercises were held to use the theory in practice, and for the end of the school we were grouped and started working on different robotic projects.
ARoS Robotic Platform
Together with Martin Stoelen, I worked on the ARoS robot platform available to us at Minho. ARoS is an anthropomorphic robot, which consists of a 7DOF arm and a Barrett 3Finger hand attached as end-effector. It uses 2 FW cameras for computer vision and is aimed to be used in Human-Robot-Interaction research tasks.
In our project a joint construction task was used in which the human and the robot need to work together to construct a small toy. The interaction is forced by placing the wheels only within the humans reach and the nuts only within the robots workspace. Therefore to finish the construction the human and the robot need to hand over pieces to their counterpart. DNF were used in layers to represent a cognitive architecture somewhat human-brain-inspired to decide on the current state of the construction task, the workspace, the human's intention and the action to be performed by the robot. Here you can see the robot in action:
There is also a screencast about the activation of the neural fields, have a look at it but it might not make too much sense without further explanation. If you wanna know more just drop me an email.
August 31 2011
What the iCub Does During Holidays
Leo here at IDSIA has been working on a really nifty nice demo of what you can do with the iCub simulator, if you are willing to get your hands dirty and go into the code. The following video shows the outcome.
iCub Dancing Rave
How cool is that?! This is the simulator with a changed dome and some nifty floor tiling. Okay the sunglasses I think is scripted but the rest is using a beat detector which sends the commands via YARP to the simulator.
February 16 2010
January 26 2010
NASA to investigate VASIMR propelled lunar tug concept
NASA is to investigate a VASIMR propelled lunar tug concept according to a procurement synopsis it published last week. The video above can be found here along with other videos about the tug concept. The NASA synopsis says:
Studies will be conducted to evaluate a Lunar Tug concept utilizing Variable Specific Impulse Magneto-plasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine capabilities from Low Earth Orbit to Lunar Orbit and libration points.
The VASIMR was conceived by former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz and developed through his Ad Astra Rocket company. Chang Diaz's company and Houston, Texas based-MEI Technologies released a press release last week qouting MEI's chief executive Ed Muñiz saying:
"Ad Astra's impressive technology coupled with our payload integration capabilities will ultimately result in innovative cargo and supply mechanisms, greater access to resources and broader support for robotic and human missions in space," [emphasis added]
The text above, italicised by this blog, indicated something interesting was going on. Hyperbola is still waiting for a response to its request for an interview. New propulsion technologies have been mentioned by NASA administrator Charles Bolden as a focus for the space agency
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
