It's sexy to look like Jesus, if you're an engineer, that is. My Berkeley friend was telling me about this guy. Apparently he can build ANYTHING. Perhaps my favorite part is the Misc section of his website, specifically under "Random notes" where he writes "To build and install the opengl version of geda/pcb (which is awesome)..." and then reveals the code. I can't say that I know what the opengl version of geda/pcb is, but I know that it's got to be awesome!
Morgan Quigley (above), Stanford PhD in Artificial Intelligence, collaborates with Willow Garage, a Silicon Valley robot factory. ROS is Willow Garage's software platform (which stands for both Robotics Operating System and Robotics Open Source), based on a system built by Quigley. Every Linux software distribution throughout time has had a name consisting of two words. Willow Garage's ROS distribution version is called the "Box Turtle" because if you work on your computer just to test the basics, you write code for a turtle running around a box.
Willow Garage is basically a charity for robots, as it's primarily funded by it's founder, Scott Hassan, one of Google's earliest lead architects. Some philanthropists save starving children and empower women, some rescue cats, some build robots to help save lives...and fold towels. Willow Garage picks 10 universities and research centers to lease their robots for two years, under the condition that they do cool stuff with it. On May 4, 11 recipients of PR-2 Beta robot were revealed out of 78 applicants. Berkeley, one of the winners, received recent media buzz after dropping the YouTube video of the PR-2 prototype folding "previously-unseen" towels. The PR-2 Beta is more polished than the prototype, but functionally about the same.
According to one of the 11 ten PR-2 Beta robot recipients: "If you download the towel folding app, it will fold your towels. If you download the ironing app, it will iron your shirts. If you download the cooking app, it will cook for you. None of the apps are available yet; but that's the future." The PR-2 Beta is designed primarily to perform various household tasks and retrieve objects. MIT plans to have their robot follow human orders without any back-talk.
Repairing Humans and Feeding Them
Beyond laundry, scientists are building micro-robots that travel through your bloodstream to deliver drugs exactly where you need them. Significant progress in machine learning has occurred in recent years. Computer algorithms are able to identify objects with much precision. The applications for image recognition are endless-- If a sock is inside out, if a scalpel is about to hit a blood vessel, if your car is about to hit a bicyclist in the street (these examples are all new, actual advancements in artificial intelligence).
Researchers in the field are largely operating in uncharted territory. Some of the challenge isn't if they can make it, it's if they can dream it. Most members of the general public, however, when directly questioned what they'd like robots to do, reportedly said they simply want a robot that will make them a sandwich. I shit you not.
Fierce Military Technology Slash Cool Toy
Some of the same scientists who brought us the towel-folding robot also worked on the autonomous robot helicopter. The robot actually learned by observing experienced copter pilot, Garett Oku, fly the 4-foot model device via remote control. Advances in object recognition coupled with such advances in autonomous flight could potentially save the lives of military men and women.
Another application for this drone technology is one hella sick toy. Check out what the engineers at Parrot have rolled out.
Battle Dance: Do the Robot
While there are people actually working on sex robots, I'm referring to the dance move. My best friend Bunz, Duke Law '10, and I are newly inspired and determined to learn how to tectonic dance.
Cool Robot Infographic
Who would I be if I left you without one?
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