66 Teams of high school students have converged upon New York to participate in a battle of technology called the FIRST Robots regional championships. Every year, team must construct a robot capable of performing certain tasks, all the while being under attack by the other robots. Also, to encourage teamwork, the groups are allowed form 3-way alliances with other teams.

“Robotics is popular not just because of practical applications like self-driving cars, but because it captures the imagination of both scientists and the public,” said Henry Kautz, president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

In only 6 months, a student team from Okinawa has successfully created a pneumatic power-suit made from pipes and aluminum. They've called their project Skeletonics. Alas, the Skeletonics exoskeleton isn't a true power suit.  It functions purely through the muscles of the human operator, and doesn't rely upon any other power source.

Alas, the suit doesn't seem good for much beyond playing Rock, Paper, Scissors and chasing people through the streets.

As the project is still ongoing, the team plans to outfit their skeleton with armor plating. The daily article on the link above contains a nice rundown of current U.S. military projects trying to create a power suit for soldiers, which should appear on the battlefield within 5 years.

First, GPS maps rendered most people lazy about learning how to navigate with a map. Now, students at Olin College have developed a robot, named LockCracker, that could do the same for burglars. Actually, they designed their robot to help people who have forgotten their combinations.  

But, you know...their device has tons more interesting applications.

(H/T PhysOrg)

Check out the picture down below. See the guy on the right? He's not a guy. His name is Geminoid DK, the third of a series of androids created by professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University and his team at Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute.

Geminoid DK was constructed to resemble Henrik Scharfe, an associate professor of Aalborg University in Denmark.

Ishiguro maintains that the group's purpose for the Geminoid is to further understand the "emotional affordances" in human-robot interaction.

Oh Japan, is there no end to the robotic awesome you produce?

The New York Times has a great article summarizing current trends in AI spreading throughout the economy. Computer AI has become so advanced that it's now starting to replace and automate higher-level jobs. Case in point, back in 1978 a lawsuit against CBS forced the company to spend $2.2 million to hire a team of lawyers and paralegals to sift through 6 million documents for several months.

Fast-forward to today.  In January 2011, a company called Blackstone Discovery in Palo Alto, helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000 and, of course, taking FAR less time.

Some law bloggers have noted the difficulty for recent law graduates to find jobs, noting that perhaps the trend is due to the bursting of a higher education bubble combined with the current economy. That probably is also the case, but this truly cost-cutting technology probably foreshadows that those ...

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As many techno-philes are aware, the TED conference is currently underway this week in Long Beach, California. While we're awaiting the latest batch of inspiring TED videos, Google has given attendees a treat...the opportunity to ride in a self-driving Prius.  

Google declared back in the October 2010 that their stated goal was to free up human productivity by eliminating their need to drive. In addition, they hope to take crucial steps towards a fully-implemented automated driving system that would increase safety by leaps and bounds. Obviously, being a drunk matters not at all if your car does the driving all by itself.

One of the unique aspects of Google's automated car project is that it isn't funded or incentivized by DARPA or any other agency.  This is Google acting on its own. 

Here are some of the latest videos released.  In the video, Google emphasizes that ...

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University of Arizona researchers are working with the Department of Homeland Security on an Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-Time...which is their torturous way to use the acronym AVATAR to describe their system.  

Avatar's job will simply be to detect lies by scanning your facial features.  In particular, the machine will detect eye dilation and eye movement, two signs of lying.  A microphone will listen to what you say, but also how you say it.  The new machine currently is undergoing tests.  

We at Logic-Cool are airport security skeptics in light of the highly invasive procedures now in place. TSA has yet to announce the successful prevention of any terrorist attacks, nor have they ever arrested a single terrorist in all the years of its operation. They have reported success in finding smuggled drugs.

Ladies and gentemen, I present Avatar:

Originally funded by the U.S. military, California firm TiaLinx has created a radar robot that can hear a human breathe through a solid concrete wall. The new Cougar20-H radar robot will potentially help rescue workers detect survivors after future natural disasters, such as the recent earthquake in New Zealand.  In addition, the new radar robot will be used to scan cars crossing the border. The new robot will be controllable out to 300 feet with a laptop and will make its debut next month.

CEO Fred Mohamadi of TiaLinx states:

“Originally the products were developed to be able to detect unexploded ordinance, in road, off road. As time went out and we could really master the technology, we could even detect the slightest movements."

 

I'm a bit late noticing this development, but better late than never. The U.S. military's premiere research agency DARPA wants two new kinds of robots: one that can run faster than the fastest humans and another one agile.  Wired has a good article as well.

The winner of the contract is Boston Dynamic, a spin-off company from MIT that began building robots that can maneuver like animals.  They will base the first robot off a cheetah and the second will be humanoid.

The CHEETAH will not only be able to chase down human targets, but will be a rescue "animal" as well...able to turn sharp corners, highly uneven landscapes and even potentially running into burning buildings to rescue people caught in a fire. 

After days of non-stop racing, a humanoid machine named Robovie-PC finished the world's 1st 26 mile marathon for robots. Standing a whopping 16 inches tall and weighing 5.3 lbs, "Robovie - PC" managed to finish the course in roughly 55 hours.  

Spectators were treated to a thrilling finish as the marathon's previous strong horse "Robovie - PC Lite" seemed to lock-up and freeze after building a comfortable lead over the robots.  This allowed the 2nd ranked "Robovie - PC" to race ahead to the finish line.

As one might guess, "Robovie - PC" and "Robovie - PC Lite" are created by the same company Vstone Co.

 

Microscopic robotic assembly and rearrangement of DNA just took a great leap forward.  Oxford physicists have successfully created a molecular robot (also called a nanobot or nanite) that can move in any direction along a branched track. Previously, control of such small machines had been impossible. 

The Oxford team built a molecule-sized "motor" with legs that allows it to walk instead of wander about randomly.  The next step involves the researchers teaching the nanobots to move between locations and pick up ingredients.

(h/t Instapundit)

NASA will be sending a robotic butler to the International Space Station on the Thursday launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The now famous Robonaut 2, which made its television debut during the Superbowl, will be tasked with pretty much everything. One of the astronauts' missions will be figuring out what the $2.5 million robot is capable of in the first place.

The U.S. military's premier research agency revealed that its new hummingbird spybot has passed its first flight test. The little bird-sized robot promises to revolutionize intelligence gathering, and probably other battlefield tactics as well. Remember, the Predator began as a surveillance craft too.

The bird appearance is meant to disguise it from enemy forces, though military planners admit that hummingbirds look out of place in most regions outside of the Americas. 

Earlier in the Great News Buffet 02/10/2011, we listed DARPA's robotic hand, a prosthetic which they've decided to fast-track tp the market. PhysOrg has a great rundown on another robot hand called the DART. Created by researchers at Virginia Tech, this mechanical hand is so identical to a human hand in function, that it's even possible to type on a computer keyboard about 30 words/minute if a person had two. The average human typing speed is 33 words/minute.

The researchers not only intend to make it available as a prosthetic, but the DART hands will likely be the hands of humanoid robots intended to assist the elderly.

 

Now that the mild-toned Watson has demonstrated his dominance of Jeopardy, what comes next? IBM executives have entered discussions with major corporations to answer that exact question. In the near future, when you call in for technical support, the "person" you hear might be Watson instead of a worker in India.  I bet when many readers were watching Watson pwn on Jeopardy they didn't think his story would have much relevance to them.  Think again.  You might just run into Watson in some unexpected places. 

Watson's very first assignment will be to help doctors diagnose patients. The skills displayed on Jeopardy are actually highly transferable to a medical setting.  Doctors need to collect a list of symptoms and then come up with a possible diagnosis.  Now, Watson will help them.

The A.I. will next appear at help desks in stores or on the phone at technical support ...

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Oh, Japan...Is there nothing you can't get a robot to do?  Four robot athletes will vie head-to-head along a 26 mile endurance "course" in Osaka, February 24th. The video shows the four contenders running practice laps for the media. You even get to see one of the little guys fall over and pick himself up.

Japan's space agency JAXA has announced plans to send a robot companion to the International Space Station who will provide "comfort and companionship" to lonely astronauts and use Twitter to communicate with the ground. When it's not chatting up a storm, the Japanese android will be responsible for creepily watching the astronauts while they sleep, as well as monitoring their health and anxiety levels. 

Dear Japan, as a frequent consumer of your culture (particularly Anime) I know you're capable of making the robot look like this.

Please don't make it look like this. Here in America, this is the best we can do.

Well, fellow humans, Day 3 has come and gone. IBM's Watson artificial intelligence has utterly crushed both human Jeopardy champions Kenn Jennings and Brad Rutter, and there was no John Conner to save them. The final scores read Watson $77,147, Ken Jennings $24,000 and Brad Rutter $21,600.

IBM plans to donate all of Watson's winnings to charity. We've been following Watson's journey at Logic-Cool with great interest, here, here and here. In other little known news, IBM will turn 100 this June.

IBM's Watson artificial intelligence steamrolled his mortal opponents in the 2nd round of this 3 day match. Yesterday, was a tie. However, the mellow-voiced supercomputer flabbergasted his human rivals and the host by betting cryptic dollar values, such as $6,435, to which Alex Trebek responded, "I won't ask."

Alas, humankind put up a good fight...now on to world domination. Watch and weep, fellow humans.

IBM's "Watson" artificial intelligence tied with human contestant Brad Rutter on the 1st day of a three-day match on Jeopardy with a score of $5,000. Trailing behind, Ken Jennings finished the 1st round with $2000. Jennings had previously won 74 consecutive Jeopardy matches, as well as beating Watson in the practice match leading up to the face-off. The two men had faced off with Watson previously back in January also.

Watson displayed in impressive knowledge of Beatles songs, but displayed some errors, sometimes repeating wrong answers from the previous players. Unfortunately, the erstwhile A.I. has no ability to hear the human players, so he isn't able to take their incorrect answers into account. I'm sure he would have "terminated" them otherwise.