Trend observations, analysis and future predictions since 2005
Category: Robot technology
Labs constantly invent new technology which we'll later find in robots in our daily lives.
Robots listens to gestures
Researchers at Brown University have created a robot that recognizes human gestures such as 'stop' and 'follow'.
Quadcopters set up ad-hoc wireless network
Researchers at Germany's Ilmenau University of Technology are developing flying quadcopter robots that can be used to form a self-assembling ad-hoc wireless network in the event of disaster. Built with off-the-shelf parts (including VIA's Pico-ITX hardware and a GPS unit) the robots are designed to provide both mobile phone and WiFi access -- and they can do it far more quickly than a technician on the ground might be able to.
The device comes in a kit for €300 (about $380), which includes all but the battery -- the batteries currently run around €1,000 (over $1200) and only offer up 20 minutes of flight time. Once the device has found a perch, however, it can operate for "several hours."
Humanoids for rent
Kokoro, a Japanese firm, offers Actroids for rent to greet customers and provide information in up-market coffee shops, office complexes, and museums or "old houses". The Actroid series has been jointly developed by Japanese entertainment firm Kokoro and Hiroshi Ishiguro, well-known for building a robot doppelgänger of himself. The clip below shows a video of the actroid Repliee Q1 from April 2007.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
Now for rent for events, in a five years more available in all countries and all languages, in ten years for consumers, and between 2020 and 2035 we will notice a steady increase of robots in our houses, at our work, in our streets.
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Robot hand with gentle touch grabs eggs
This robot hand, developed by the BioRoboticsLab at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, has three fingers, each with two segments, and is controlled by cables attached to a motor in the wrist. The motor is delicate enough that it can even handle objects as fragile as eggs, tomatoes and wine glasses. The egg example is demonstrated halfway through the video.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
Three fingers, it’s just the beginning. We will have artificial hands that will play violin, like no human can. Maybe not quite within ten years, but in 2035 it’ll be very normal that a robot can do what humans can.
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Energy efficient robot arm
This mechanical arm and hand uses no more energy than a couple of electric toothbrushes. The arm is supported by adjustable springs that counteract both its own weight and that of the object it is holding, so its motors need less power to hold and move objects. The smaller motors also make the arm lighter, and so less dangerous if it hits a worker.
The team at the BioRoboticsLab at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands that developed the device are now adapting their prototype for use in factories, and hope it could also improve artificial limbs.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
We keep working on imitating real people. All components currently being developed in laboratories will finally add up and between 2020 and 2035 we’ll be shaking hands with humanoids like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
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Robot makes use of surface tension
Robot puts cup in the dish washer
This robot, the Armar of the Institute for Process Control and Robotics of the University of Karsruhe, puts cups in the dishwasher.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
It’s very impressive to see how robots can copy our behaviour. However, dishwashers are designed to be used by humans. As soon as we can robotize this process we’ll start to design dishwasher differently, will they get a wholly different look. Perhaps there will be an installation below the ground, outside or in the attic. Or will everything be ‘blown clean’ piece by piece and cleared away immediately. Anything is possible, as long as we don’t see any dirty dishes and there is always a clean cup available. Maybe a nice design contest for Miele?
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Robot copies arm and hand movements
Robot implants hair super fast
Restoration robotics, Mountain View, San Francisco, US has developed a robot that can implant hair super fast. Using a 1mm thick needle the robot plucks healthy follicles one by one with a speed of 1000 follicles per hour. The robot uses different cameras, 3D imaging software and is mounted on an arm normally used to place microchips on circuit boards. After the 'harvest' is finished it's time for 'planting'. The patient sits down and the robot implants the follicles in their head. The whole process lasts about 5 hours. Furthermore this process has the benefit that the hair line can be discussed with the patient beforehand.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
In a society wherein knowledge is easily available for every generation, people want to look ever younger. In a year of fifty this trend will change when an ever-increasing part of society has grown up with knowledge that’s been available on command since they were babies. Then life experience will be definitive again. This type of robot technology can become very successful in the coming years. Currently at a clinic, around 2030 this robot will stop by your house. Ding dong, I’m here to transplant some hair.
Robot jumps 27 x higher than itself
This robot can jump 27 times higher than itself and breaks the old record of 17 times.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
Microrobots will soon be a normal part of life. The creators are thinking of applications for disasters where this kind of robot could take bumps easily, but I think that there’ll be many civil applications following. Think of cleaning the façade of a house: a swamp of microcleaners gets the job done in no-time. You grab from a bucket with a few hundred of them in it and throw them against the wall. Tracking and destroying dangerous spiders could also be an application. Or flying robots could chase dangerous insects and kill them. Or spreading out several microcameras allowing you to build up a 3D image of the area if you’ve never been there before.
If you can think of any other applications, let me know what they are!
E-skin makes robot’s skin soft
A team led by Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo in Japan is working on the development of a flexible skin for a robot. With this a robot can function far more normally in daily life. The "e-skin" measures pressure and temperature. The challenge is in the wires of the sensors that usually break when stretched. This "skin" can be stretched out a factor two and still function.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
While most people still need to get used to virtual characters, avatars or virtual colleagues, laboratories make maximum effort to produce physical, but artificial colleagues. However, it’ll take at least a generation before we’ll accept these humanoids in our midst.
Robot uses rat’s brain to moves
A robot that can think using rat's brains has been developed at the University of Reading. The robot can avoid objects without the use of additional support from humans or technology. The brains aren't physically located in the robot, but are kept in a food-rich environment. They communicate with the robot using Bluetooth.
Keepon robot dances in your rhythm
Marek Michalowski of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, and Hideki Kozima of the National Institute of Communications Technology (NICT) in Kyoto, Japan, programmed the squishy, yellow robot, called "Keepon", to pick out the beat in a piece of music and move along in time. It can also track the rhythmic motion of a person or another object and move in time to that. Inside the hollow robot's silicone body are motors, wires and a mechanical device called a gimbal that tugs it like a reversed marionette. Keepon responds by nodding, bobbing, twisting and shaking in time to audio or visual stimulation.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
Robots are the next step after the media context has grown up. That’ll take at least a year or ten, but then robots will slowly begin to enter our lives. They’ll also seem more and more natural. We might not be able to imagine it, but eventually robots will replace many dancing instructors. Human teachers will only take the best to a higher level. And then in hindsight this movie will only be a sweet, cute beginning.
Robot tosses a ball
This robot of the MIT balances on two wheels while he gracefully throws a ball.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
We’re getting the subtleties of natural movements more and more under control. Soon we’ll combine all the new insights and create robots of which we can’t see the difference at first glance. Only when we start talking to them we’ll be given our first clue. But as the decennia pass those doubts will disappear and robots can grow to be your best friends.
Prosthetic hand that can move each finger separately
The 'Fluidhand', tested at the Orthopedic University Hospital in Heidelberg, is a prototype of a prosthetic hand that can close around objects, even those with an irregular surface. The hand feels softer, is more elastic and more natural than current prosthetic hands.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
From all kinds of starting points we’re busy making artificial humans. Sooner or later these artificial humans will be given an individual life, they’ll act like people and we’ll treat them like people. Purely and simply because our brains can’t do anything else.