New video from Boston Dynamics:
Archive for the 'Science & Nature' Category
The first skull and skeleton reconstruction of the Nigersaurus was unveiled today by the National Geographic Society. The dinosaur has a unique head that has an uncanny resemblance to a dustpan…or maybe a vacuum cleaner stairs attachment.
From MSNBC: Dinosaur found with vacuum-cleaner mouth
Image from National Geographic Society
Funny we were just having a conversation in the carpool about why some animals choose to eat their young…then this article appeared on MSNBC: Cannibalism was found to increase the parent’s reproductive rate
We wonder if there are any historical cases of human infanticide/cannibalism?
James Andrew Smith is a biomechanics researcher whose work on robot locomotion takes robotic cuteness to the next level. The excited gallop of his Scout II robot and his puppy-like PAW robot convey a happiness and sheer joy that other robots can’t compete with. Just look at how adorable they are!
Excited robot puppies are not far now.
Scout II: Look at that happy gallop!
PAW: It’s bounding! The leash is a nice touch.
Read More: James’ Research: Galloping Robots
Sclerochronologists1 from The University of Bangor (Wales) dredged a 405-410 year old clam out of the ocean near Iceland in 2006. The creature, a quahog clam, Arctica islandica beat the previous record of 374 years also held by an Artica.
It is believed that the clam would have lived even longer had it not been dredged out of the ocean by scientists seeking long-lived animals.
Read More: 400 Year Clam Found (University of Bangor)
1 Sclerochronologists count the rings in clam shells to determine age. Imagine the banter at office parties!
CNN ran an article about a recent auction of meteorites including a 30lb hunk of the Willamette Meteorite which is the largest recovered meteorite to have hit North America. The auction comprised 50 well-documented specimens and had bids that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars (those bids were canceled when they fell short of some 7-figure estimated values).
Scientific and historical value aside, according to CNN, the most interesting items for sale included a mailbox that had been struck by a meteorite (it went for nearly $83,000) and a meteorite whose claim to fame is that it caused the only known, recorded fatality (mass-extinction events excluded).
CNN’s headline to this high-profile, important auction? “Cow-killing meteorite sells for $1,554″ That’s good stuff.
The killer space rock, known as the “Valera” fell in Venezuela in 1972 and killed a cow. Compared to the mailbox price it really says terrible things about the value of a cow’s life. At least that death was not in vain, CNN was able to use it to disguise a science article in a way to make it interesting to the common folk.
Oh, here’s a shot of that mailbox:
Oh, and back to the Willamette Meteorite… that meteorite has been the source of controversy due a claim by The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde who say that the main 15.5 ton mass is a sacred object sent to Earth by some Sky People that they believe in. (The meteorite has been permanently housed at The American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1908).
Read More:
CNN: Cow-killing meteorite sells for $1,554
Meteoritical Bulletin no. 85: Valera
Continued from: The Robot Menagerie (part 1)
Mowgli is a robot being developed by The School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo and the Intelligent Systems Research Institute (AIST) in Japan. This interesting “frogbot” (if you will) uses a pneumatic muscular system to make incredibly smooth jumps and landings. See for yourself:
The BBC reports that various cities are installing robotic falcons to scare off pigeons. These devices called “Robops” are made by a company named likewise.
Robops’ company website has a strange look and feel. Rather than learning about robotic pigeon-terrorizing systems, it seems more like you are reading a mystery novel. Check it out: Robops.co.uk
Boston Dynamics, maker of “BigDog” (aka the Robot Mule), has a prototype of an exploration robot that they call “Little Dog.” Check out the video:
The same company is also working on a bug-like climbing robot called Rise:
Ryomei Engineering Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. develops a variety of engineering and environmental control machinery and, in their spare time develop robot fish. Check out their robotic koi:
Stanford is working on a line of roach-inspired locomotion systems called Sprawl Robots” . Their website hasn’t been updated since 2006 but they did note that they last had a Sprawl running at 15 body-lengths a second!
This isn’t an animal but it is the undercarriage of a JPL Mars Rover platform…and in this video it is driving over XEAI regular Miss Jennifer!
I was digging around the forums for posts on robot animals and I found that we’ve had quite a few. After all, who can resist the winning combination of machines that move, look, even eat in rudimentary facsimile to their inexpensive, fully functional counterparts?
Let’s visit the Robot Menagerie!
Necoro (left) is a freaky looking robot cat from Japan. It looks like it’s programmed to kill you then assume control of your appliances and await further instruction.
Here is a promotional video that does little to assuage my suspicions…it is downright spooky! http://www.necoro.com/theater/broad/vp.mov
Also on the creepy side are a variety of insect-powered robots that literally eat bugs for power. This is obviously an early scale test for giant, backhoe-sized robots that will certainly be powered by human meat.
Behold, SlugBot! He isn’t much to look at but he can track down, capture, and eat slugs!! According to the research website, SlugBot can also eat sausages which vaguely resemble slugs.
Visit the SlugBot home page. It hasn’t been updated since 2001 when SlugBot went berserk and ate the researchers.
The University of South Florida is also in on the robots-that-eat craze and have introduced us to the term “gastrobot.” They even scored themselves gastrobots.com where you can learn about Chew-Chew the cute little train that eats sugar cubes. Eating sugar cubes is cute! It’s not scary like eating slugs! I’m guessing they chose sugar cubes because no one would question the development of such a cute robot… awwww it eats sugar cubes!!! Of course it isn’t a big leap to go from sugar cubes to human meat. Chew-Chew doesn’t look too cute either. Despite the kid-friendly colors and the wagons, there is something sinister about that collection of tubes and processing equipment.
For vegan roboticists, here is a related and interesting article about a solid state “spinach sandwich” power chip that may someday power our mobile devices: http://www.physorg.com/news1181.html
The Boston Dynamics BigDog (aka Robot Mule) is really an engineering marvel. They have a four-legged walking robot that has an uncanny, realistic gait. Watch as catches itself from falling!!
Everyone’s heard of AIBO (and if not, you’ve already missed the party). Sony, if only you hadn’t squandered your money on the overpriced and overly complicated PS3…you wouldn’t have had to cancel AIBO!!!! I do have one question: What was with the evil, Terminator AIBO model?
Because Sony abandoned AIBO, the Robocup Soccer Initiative has had to switch from cute robo-dogs to less cute, bipedal robots.
Anyway, back to robot animals. I recently saw Salamandra Robotica (Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne) at the Wired Nextfest. I took some video of the little critter in action:
At Stanford University, scientists are working on a gecko robot that can climb walls. 
Stickybot uses tiny polymer threads and the principles van der Waals force (intermolecular attraction) to climb up flat surfaces.
Watch a video of the action: Stickybot 24MB mov
NASA is working on Snakebot to explore and to do some digging in space. Engineers are obviously coming up with these names. (No offense engineers, you know it’s true) This is a good quote from one of the developers:
A snakebot is not as good at some jobs as other robots, but you get a lot more robot for the weight and the money…
Snakebot will apparently be sold by the pound (or by the kilo in the metricness of space).
Carnegie Mellon University is working on their own snakebots with names like “Breadstick” and “Pepperoni.” Their snakebots are being developed for emergency rescue operations and in off hours, drain snaking.
Read more: Snakebots Slither to the Rescue
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