Artists are often colorful personalities. This one, though, comes across as cool, precise and metallic - and is anything but extravagant. No wonder - after all, it's an industrial robot, one that will convert the Fraunhofer stand at CeBIT into an art studio.

Its artistic genius only emerges if someone takes a seat on the model's stool positioned in front of the robot: first, its camera records an image of its model; then it whips out its pencil and traces a portrait of the individual on its easel.

After around ten minutes have passed, it grabs the work and proudly presents it to its public. This robot installation was developed by artists in the robotlab group, at the Center for Art and Media ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, some of whom are now employed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe.

But how does this technical production aid manage to provide an authentic rendering of a person's facial expressions?

"We have used an image-evaluation process that essentially equips the robot with the sense of sight," explains Martina Richter, a scientist at IOSB.

"There is a camera mounted on the robot's arm that it uses first to take the person's picture." Edge-processing software seeks out the contrasts in the image and translates these to robot coordinates: to movements of the robot's arm.

For the researchers and artists, the main difficulty was to adjust the algorithm for image processing so that the sketched image would leave the impression of a portrait - and so that the high-tech artist would overlook the tiny wrinkles but would still render the eyes.

"We attach great importance to the artistic look of the drawings that results, but on the other hand, we have also equipped the robot with an automatic system that enables it to carry out all of the steps itself. With this installation, we have created an interface between art, science and technology," Richter is convinced.

The robot's everyday routine is less artistic, however: ordinarily, researchers at IOSB use it to analyze the optical reflection properties of various materials.

They shine light on an object - a reflector of the kind mounted on children's school bags or jackets, for instance - from various directions. The robot's arm circles the material sample in a hemispheric pattern, measuring how the object reflects light. Experts refer to this as a material's spatial reflection characteristics.

This helps design objects such as reflectors so that they return light in the most bundled way possible to the direction from which it comes - to a car driver, for instance.

Then the reflector emits a bright flash that draws the driver's attention to the child. The objective is different when it comes to paint effects on a car's own surface: The aim there is to display different hues to the observer depending on the direction of view.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Cambridge, MA (SPX) Feb 21, 2012 - A new technique inspired by elegant pop-up books and origami will soon allow clones of robotic insects to be mass-produced by the sheet. Devised by engineers at Harvard, the ingenious layering and folding process enables the rapid fabrication of not just microrobots, but a broad range of electromechanical devices.

In prototypes, 18 layers of carbon fiber, Kapton (a plastic film), titanium, brass, ceramic, and adhesive sheets have been laminated together in a complex, laser-cut design. The structure incorporates flexible hinges that allow the three-dimensional product-just 2.4 millimeters tall-to assemble in one movement, like a pop-up book.

The entire product is approximately the size of a U.S. quarter, and dozens of these microrobots could be fabricated in parallel on a single sheet.

"This takes what is a craft, an artisanal process, and transforms it for automated mass production," says Pratheev Sreetharan (A.B. '06, S.M. '10), who co-developed the technique with J. Peter Whitney. Both are doctoral candidates at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

Sreetharan, Whitney, and their colleagues in the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory at SEAS have been working for years to build bio-inspired, bee-sized robots that can fly and behave autonomously as a colony. Appropriate materials, hardware, control systems, and fabrication techniques did not exist prior to the RoboBees project, so each must be invented, developed, and integrated by a diverse team of researchers.

Less than a year ago, the group was using a painstaking and error-prone method to fold, align, and secure each of the minuscule parts and joints.

"You'd take a very fine tungsten wire and dip it in a little bit of superglue," explains Sreetharan. "Then, with that tiny ball of glue, you'd go in under a microscope like an arthroscopic surgeon and try to stick it in the right place."

"Until recently, the manual assembly process was the state of the art in this field," Sreetharan adds.

The same result can now be achieved-without human error-through locking mechanisms and dip soldering. The new process also enables the use of cured carbon fiber, which is rigid and easy to align, rather than uncured carbon fiber, which Sreetharan compares to "wet tissue paper."

"Our new techniques allow us to use any material including polymers, metals, ceramics, and composites," says principal investigator Rob Wood, an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at SEAS and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

"The ability to incorporate any type and number of material layers, along with integrated electronics, means that we can generate full systems in any three-dimensional shape," Wood says. "We've also demonstrated that we can create self-assembling devices by including pre-stressed materials."

The implications of this novel fabrication strategy go far beyond these micro-air vehicles. The same mass-production technique could be used for high-power switching, optical systems, and other tightly integrated electromechanical devices that have parts on the scale of micrometers to centimeters.

Moreover, the layering process builds on the manufacturing process currently used to make printed circuit boards, which means that the tools for creating large sheets of pop-up devices are common and abundant. It also means that the integration of electrical components is a natural extension of the fabrication process-particularly important for the size- and weight-constrained RoboBees project.

"In a larger device, you can take a robot leg, for example, open it up, and just bolt in circuit boards. We're so small that we don't get to do that. I can't put a structural mechanism in here and have it serve no electrical function."

Pointing to the carbon-fiber box truss that constitutes the pop-up bee's body frame, Sreetharan says, "Now, I can put chips all over that. I can build in sensors and control actuators." Essentially, tiny robots can now be built by slightly bigger robots. Designing how all of the layers will fit together and fold, however, is still a very human task, requiring creativity and expertise. Standard computer-aided design (CAD) tools, typically intended for either flat, layered circuit boards or 3D objects, do not yet support devices that combine both.

Once the design is complete, though, fabrication can be fully automated, with accuracy and precision limited only by the machining tools and materials.

"The alignment is now better than we can currently measure," says Sreetharan. "I've verified it to better than 5 microns everywhere, and we've gone from a 15% yield to-well, I don't think I've ever had a failure."

The full fabrication process will be described in the March issue of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. Co-authors and collaborators, beside Whitney, Sreetharan, and Wood, include Kevin Ma, a graduate student at SEAS; and Marc Strauss, a research assistant in Wood's lab.

The Harvard Office of Technology Development is now developing a strategy to commercialize this technology. As part of this effort, they have filed patent applications on this work and are engaging with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and companies to identify disruptive applications in a range of industries.

The work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the National Science Foundation (through the Expeditions in Computing program), and the Wyss Institute.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Washington DC (SPX) Feb 20, 2012 - "Perhaps the earliest public demonstration of an electric motor," writes a team of researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, "involved the automatic rotation of a turkey on a spit over a fire" at a party put on by Benjamin Franklin in 1749.

Franklin's electrostatic motor was self-commutating, meaning that it was able to provide a continuous torque while it turned without requiring external electronics to control its progress.

Using artificial muscles, hyper-elastic materials that expand when a charge is applied, the New Zealand team has made a prototype for a self-commutating artificial muscle motor that does not require external electronics or hard metal parts.

The researchers describe the device in a paper accepted to the American Institute of Physics' journal Applied Physics Letters.

The team's proof-of-concept motor is controlled with carbon-based switches whose resistances change when they are compressed, which activates artificial muscles that rotate a shaft. The artificial muscles, in turn, are able to activate the switches by their movements.

All that is required to operate the device is a direct current input voltage. Among the advantages of these electrostatic motors compared to their harder, bulkier electromagnetic cousins, the authors write, is that they are capable of delivering higher torque, require low currents instead of high, and can have a flatter profile.

The new motor in its current state is inefficient, but the authors hope their prototype will open the door to a softer, lighter future for electrostatic motors, with applications in areas such as prosthetics and soft robots - applications well beyond "simply barbecuing poultry."

"Rotating turkeys and self-commutating artificial muscle motors" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters. Authors: Benjamin M. O'Brien (1), Thomas G. McKay (1), Todd A. Gisby (1), and Iain A. Anderson (1, 2).

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Vancouver, Canada (SPX) Feb 20, 2012 - New technology at the University of British Columbia makes it possible for a person to speak or sing just by using their hands to control a speech synthesizer. UBC researcher Sidney Fels says the gesture-to-voice-synthesizer technology mirrors processes that human use when they control their own vocal apparatus.

"It's like playing a musical instrument that plays voice. Applications could include new forms of musical expression and aids for people with speaking disabilities," says Fels, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science and director of the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC).

Fels presented the technology last week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver.

Fels and his team used special gloves equipped with 3-D position sensors that locate the hand in space. Certain glove postures are associated with certain areas in the audio spectrum.

The right-hand glove has sensors to detect bending so when a user closes her hand, it creates consonant sounds. Opening the right hand produces vowel sounds in the same fashion as a vocal tract does when the tongue moves. The left glove controls stop sounds - like the consonant 'B'.

The researchers developed a set collection of gestures that are mapped to consonant sounds. The right glove controls vowels by its location in space horizontally and also controls pitch by its location in space vertically.

"Other possible applications for this discovery are interfaces to make certain tasks easier such as controlling cranes or other heavy machinery," says Fels, whose research interests include human-computer interaction, biomechanical modeling of the upper airway, speech synthesis, and neural networks.

Co-investigators for this project are UBC School of Music Asst. Prof. Robert Pritchard and Johnty Wang, a UBC electrical and computer engineering masters student and concert pianist.

To date, there have been seven international performances with musicians playing a set of pieces written specifically for the expressive capacities of this particular instrument. "It takes about 100 hours for a performer to learn how to speak and use the system," says Fels.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Cambridge, MA (SPX) Feb 20, 2012 - About 15 years ago, MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima had the idea to develop a programmable, wirelessly controlled microchip that would deliver drugs after implantation in a patient's body. This week, the MIT researchers and scientists from MicroCHIPS Inc. reported that they have successfully used such a chip to administer daily doses of an osteoporosis drug normally given by injection.

The results, published in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine, represent the first successful test of such a device and could help usher in a new era of telemedicine - delivering health care over a distance, Langer says.

"You could literally have a pharmacy on a chip," says Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT. "You can do remote control delivery, you can do pulsatile drug delivery, and you can deliver multiple drugs."

In the new study, funded and overseen by MicroCHIPS, scientists used the programmable implants to deliver an osteoporosis drug called teriparatide to seven women aged 65 to 70. The study found that the device delivered dosages comparable to injections, and there were no adverse side effects.

These programmable chips could dramatically change treatment not only for osteoporosis, but also for many other diseases, including cancer and multiple sclerosis. "Patients with chronic diseases, regular pain-management needs or other conditions that require frequent or daily injections could benefit from this technology," says Robert Farra, president and chief operating officer at MicroCHIPS and lead author of the paper.

"Compliance is very important in a lot of drug regimens, and it can be very difficult to get patients to accept a drug regimen where they have to give themselves injections," says Cima, the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering at MIT. "This avoids the compliance issue completely, and points to a future where you have fully automated drug regimens."

Achieving precision
The MIT research team started working on the implantable chip in the mid-1990s. John Santini, then a University of Michigan undergraduate visiting MIT, took it on as a summer project under the direction of Cima and Langer. Santini, who later returned to MIT as a graduate student to continue the project, is also an author of the new paper.

In 1999, the MIT team published its initial findings in Nature, and MicroCHIPS was founded and licensed the microchip technology from MIT. The company refined the chips, including adding a hermetic seal and a release system that works reliably in living tissue. Teriparatide is a polypeptide and therefore much less chemically stable than small-molecule drugs, so sealing it hermetically to preserve it was an important achievement, Langer says.

The human clinical trial began in Denmark in January 2011. Chips were implanted during a 30-minute procedure at a doctor's office using local anesthetic, and remained in the patients for four months. The implants proved safe, and patients reported they often forgot they even had the implant, Cima says.

Chips used in the study stored 20 doses of teriparatide, individually sealed in tiny reservoirs about the size of a pinprick. The reservoirs are capped with a thin layer of platinum and titanium that melts when a small electrical current is applied, releasing the drug inside. MicroCHIPS is now working on developing implants that can carry hundreds of drug doses per chip.

Because the chips are programmable, dosages can be scheduled in advance or triggered remotely by radio communication over a special frequency called Medical Implant Communication Service (MICS). Current versions work over a distance of a few inches, but researchers plan to extend that range.

Consistent results
In the Science Translational Medicine study, the researchers measured bone formation in osteoporosis patients with the implants, and found that it was similar to that seen in patients receiving daily injections of teriparatide. Another notable result is that the dosages given by implant had less variation than those given by injection.

Once a version of the implant that can carry a larger number of doses is ready, MicroCHIPS plans to seek approval for further clinical trials, Farra says. The company has also developed a sensor that can monitor glucose levels. Eventually such sensors could be combined with chips that contain drug reservoirs, creating a chip that can adapt drug treatments in response to the patient's condition.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Boston MA (SPX) Feb 20, 2012 - Robots could one day navigate through constantly changing surroundings with virtually no input from humans, thanks to a system that allows them to build and continuously update a three-dimensional map of their environment using a low-cost camera such as Microsoft's Kinect.

The system, being developed by researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), could also allow blind people to make their way unaided through crowded buildings such as hospitals and shopping malls.

To explore unknown environments, robots need to be able to map them as they move around - estimating the distance between themselves and nearby walls, for example - and to plan a route around any obstacles, says Maurice Fallon, a research scientist at CSAIL who is developing these systems alongside John J. Leonard, professor of mechanical and ocean engineering, and graduate student Hordur Johannsson.

But while a large amount of research has been devoted to developing one-off maps that robots can use to navigate around an area, these systems cannot adjust to changes in the surroundings over time, Fallon says: "If you see objects that were not there previously, it is difficult for a robot to incorporate that into its map."

The new approach, based on a technique called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), will allow robots to constantly update a map as they learn new information over time, he says.

The team has previously tested the approach on robots equipped with expensive laser-scanners, but in a paper to be presented this May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in St. Paul, Minn., they have now shown how a robot can locate itself in such a map with just a low-cost Kinect-like camera.

As the robot travels through an unexplored area, the Kinect sensor's visible-light video camera and infrared depth sensor scan the surroundings, building up a 3-D model of the walls of the room and the objects within it. Then, when the robot passes through the same area again, the system compares the features of the new image it has created - including details such as the edges of walls, for example - with all the previous images it has taken until it finds a match.

At the same time, the system constantly estimates the robot's motion, using on-board sensors that measure the distance its wheels have rotated. By combining the visual information with this motion data, it can determine where within the building the robot is positioned. Combining the two sources of information allows the system to eliminate errors that might creep in if it relied on the robot's on-board sensors alone, Fallon says.

Once the system is certain of its location, any new features that have appeared since the previous picture was taken can be incorporated into the map by combining the old and new images of the scene, Fallon says.

The team tested the system on a robotic wheelchair, a PR2 robot developed by Willow Garage in Menlo Park, Calif., and in a portable sensor suite worn by a human volunteer. They found it could locate itself within a 3-D map of its surroundings while traveling at up to 1.5 meters per second.

Ultimately, the algorithm could allow robots to travel around office or hospital buildings, planning their own routes with little or no input from humans, Fallon says.

It could also be used as a wearable visual aid for blind people, allowing them to move around even large and crowded buildings independently, says Seth Teller, head of the Robotics, Vision and Sensor Networks group at CSAIL and principal investigator of the human-portable mapping project.

"There are also a lot of military applications, like mapping a bunker or cave network to enable a quick exit or re-entry when needed," he says. "Or a HazMat team could enter a biological or chemical weapons site and quickly map it on foot, while marking any hazardous spots or objects for handling by a remediation team coming later. These teams wear so much equipment that time is of the essence, making efficient mapping and navigation critical."

While a great deal of research is focused on developing algorithms to allow robots to create maps of places they have visited, the work of Fallon and his colleagues takes these efforts to a new level, says Radu Rusu, a research scientist at Willow Garage who was not involved in this project. That is because the team is using the Microsoft Kinect sensor to map the entire 3-D space, not just viewing everything in two dimensions.

"This opens up exciting new possibilities in robot research and engineering, as the old-school 'flatland' assumption that the scientific community has been using for many years is fundamentally flawed," he says. "Robots that fly or navigate in environments with stairs, ramps and all sorts of other indoor architectural elements are getting one step closer to actually doing something useful. And it all starts with being able to navigate."

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Karlsruhe, Germany (SPX) Feb 20, 2012 - Mobile robots have many uses. They serve as cleaners, carry out inspections and search for survivors of disasters. But often, there is no map to guide them through unknown territory. Researchers have now developed a mobile robot that can roam uncharted terrain and simultaneously map it - all thanks to an algorithm toolbox.

Industrial robots have been a familiar sight in the workplace for many years. In automotive and household appliance manufacture, for example, they have proved highly reliable on production and assembly lines. But now a new generation of high-tech helpers is at hand: Mobile robots are being used in place of humans to explore hazardous and difficult-to-access environments such as buildings in danger of collapsing, caves, or ground that has been polluted by an industrial accident.

Equipped with sensors and optical cameras, these robots can help rescue services search for victims in the wake of natural disasters, explosions or fires, and can measure concentrations of hazardous substances. There's just one problem: Often there is no map to show them the location of obstacles and steer them along navigable routes. Yet such maps are critical to ensuring that the high-tech machines are able to make progress, either independently or guided by remote control.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe have now developed a roaming land robot that autonomously reconnoiters and maps uncharted terrain. The robot uses special algorithms and multi-sensor data to carve a path through unknown territory.

"To be able to navigate independently, our mobile robot has to fulfill a number of requirements. It must be able to localize itself within its immediate surroundings, continuously recalculate its position as it makes its way through the danger area, and simultaneously refine the map it is generating," says graduate engineer Christian Frey of the IOSB.

To make this possible, he and his team have developed an algorithm toolbox for the robot that runs on a built-in computer. The robot is additionally equipped with a variety of sensors. Odometry sensors measure wheel revolutions, inertial sensors compute accelerations, and distance-measuring sensors register clearance from walls, steps, trees and bushes, to name but a few potential obstacles. Cameras and laser scanners record the environment and assist in the mapping process.

The algorithms read the various data supplied by the sensors and use them to determine the robot's precise location. The interplay of all these different elements concurrently produces a map, which is updated continuously. Experts call the process Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, or SLAM.

Mobile robots face an additional challenge: to find the optimal path that will enable them to complete each individual task. Depending on the situation, this may be the shortest and quickest route, or perhaps the most energy-efficient, i.e. the one that uses the least amount of gasoline.

When planning a course, the high-tech helpers must take into account restrictions on mobility such as a limited turning circle, and must navigate around obstacles. And should the environment change, for example as a result of falling objects or earthquake aftershocks, a robot must register this and use its toolbox to recalculate its route.

"We made our toolbox modular, so it's not difficult to adapt the algorithms to suit different types of mobile robot or specific in- or outdoor application scenarios. For example, it doesn't matter what sensor set-up is used, or whether the robot has two- or four-wheel drive," says Frey.

The software can be customized to meet the needs of individual users, with development work taking just a few months. Frey adds: "The toolbox is suitable for all sorts of situations, not only accident response scenarios. It can be installed in cleaning robots or lawnmowers, for example, and a further possible application would be in roaming robots used to patrol buildings or inspect gas pipelines for weak points."

From March 6-10, the IOSB researchers will be demonstrating their mobile robot technology at the CeBIT trade fair - visit them at the joint Fraunhofer booth in Hall 9 (Booth E08).

Research News February 2012 [ PDF 0.4MB ]

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Kesennuma, Japan (AFP) Feb 17, 2012 - High-tech fluffy seals that respond to human touch are the latest weapon in the battle against depression for survivors of Japan's tsunami disaster.

"Paro" is being offered to people made homeless by the disaster and is offering a much-needed bit of affection with his burbling noises and the appreciative flapping of fins when he comes into contact with people.

"It's so cute. It coos when I rub it," said 10-year-old Kosei Oyama, "Because of the tsunami, we have fewer things to play with than before."

Tsuyako Kumagai, a 47-year-old housewife, said her friends in temporary houses are happy with Paro as a substitute for the pets that were swept away by the gigantic waves.

"Many of my neighbours don't want to have new pets because they don't want to remember," Kumagai said. "For them, pets used to be their family."

The seal robots have been made available to people living in temporary houses erected in a baseball stadium in the port town of Kesennuma, an area badly hit by the tsunami last March which killed 19,000 people on the coast.

For many, things now are a little better than they were, but a long way from perfect.

"I lost what I had built in my life," said Hiroshi Onodera, 51, whose nephew died and whose house was swept away.

Onodera is now living with his mother in a prefabricated house and feels isolated from his community.

"When we were in the emergency shelter, there were a lot of people staying together, but since we have moved to each of our temporary houses, we are separated and having a stressful time," he said.

"So, it's great to have this kind of place, where we can be healed mentally," Onodera said, referring to a community building where the robot creatures are available for short-term loan.

The seal, which is equipped with tactile and audio sensors, has already been used in hospitals and nursing homes as a therapeutic aid for older people suffering from depression or dementia.

Organisers of the scheme are also offering other fixes to disaster victims, including workout robots and a prototype of a high-tech head massager, and even have a reception desk staffed by an android.

"It's important for residents to maintain communication," said Kazuhiro Kojima, a researcher at Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, a public research institution, which developed Paro.

A huge jump in the number of people suffering depression and mental health difficulties was recorded in the wake of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, with the loss of homes identified as a key cause of suffering.

According to the government, some 325,000 people are still living in temporary housing, mainly in northern Japan, nearly a year on from the devastating earthquake-tsunami.

Many lost their homes in the catastrophe, while others were forced from their villages by radiation that leaked from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant when its reactors went into meltdown.

Researchers say technological solutions can help lessen the mental impact of the disaster.

"We hope robots will provide residents here with an opportunity to rebuild their community," Kojima said. "Mental support will become a very important issue here. I hope robots can help."

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Yokohama, Japan (AFP) Feb 10, 2012 - A Japanese-developed robot that mimics the movements of its human controller is bringing the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" one step closer to reality.

Users of the TELESAR V don special equipment that allows them not only to direct the actions of a remote machine, but also to see, hear and feel the same things as their doppelganger android.

"When I put on the devices and move my body, I see my hands having turned into the robot hands. When I move my head, I get a different view from the one I had before," said researcher Sho Kamuro.

"It's a strange experience that makes you wonder if you've really become a robot," he told AFP.

Professor Susumu Tachi, who specialises in engineering and virtual reality at Keio University's Graduate School of Media Design, said systems attached to the operator's headgear, vest and gloves send detailed instructions to the robot, which then mimics the user's every move.

At the same time, an array of sensors on the android relays a stream of information which is converted into sensations for the user.

The thin polyester gloves the operator wears are lined with semiconductors and tiny motors to allow the user to "feel" what the mechanical hands are touching -- a smooth or a bumpy surface as well as heat and cold.

The robot's "eyes" are actually cameras capturing images that appear on tiny video screens in front of the user's eyes, allowing them to see in three dimensions.

Microphones on the robot pick up sounds, while its speakers allow the operator to make his voice heard by those near the machine.

The TELESAR -- TELexistence Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot -- is still a far cry from the futuristic creations of James Cameron's "Avatar", where US soldiers are able to remotely control the genetically engineered bodies of an extra-terrestrial race they wish to subdue.

But, says Tachi, it could have much more immediate -- and benign -- applications, such as working in high-risk environments, for example the inside of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, though it is early days.

"I think further research and development could enable this to go into areas too dangerous for humans and do jobs that require human skills," he said.

Japan's famously advanced robot technology was found wanting during the crisis at Fukushima, where foreign expertise had to be called on for the machines that went inside reactor buildings as nuclear meltdowns began.

Tachi said a "safety myth" had grown up around atomic technology, preventing research on the kind of machines that could help in the wake of a disaster.

But he said his kind of robot technology could help with the long and difficult task of decommissioning reactors at Fukushima -- a process that could take three decades.

A remote-controlled android that allows its user to experience what is happening far away may have more than just industrial applications, he added.

"This could be used to talk with your grandpa or grandma living in a remote place and deepen communications," he said.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:20 AEST Baltimore MD (SPX) Feb 07, 2012 - To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers.

U.S. defense agencies, which have funded this research, are supporting the development of bug-size flyers to carry out reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and environmental monitoring missions without risking human lives. These devices are commonly called micro aerial vehicles or MAVs.

"For military missions in particular, these MAVs must be able to fly successfully through complex urban environments, where there can be tight spaces and turbulent gusts of wind," said Tiras Lin, a Whiting School of Engineering undergraduate who has been conducting the high-speed video research. "These flying robots will need to be able to turn quickly. But one area in which MAVs are lacking is maneuverability."

To address that shortcoming, Lin has been studying butterflies. "Flying insects are capable of performing a dazzling variety of flight maneuvers," he said. "In designing MAVs, we can learn a lot from flying insects."

Lin's research has been supervised by Rajat Mittal, a professor of mechanical engineering. "This research is important because it attempts to not only address issues related to bio-inspired design of MAVs, but it also explores fundamental questions in biology related to the limits and capabilities of flying insects," Mittal said.

To conduct this study, Lin has been using high-speed video to look at how changes in mass distribution associated with the wing flapping and body deformation of a flying insect help it engage in rapid aerial twists and turns.

Lin, a junior mechanical engineering major from San Rafael, Calif., recently presented some of his findings at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics. The student also won second-prize for his presentation of this research at a regional meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"Ice skaters who want to spin faster bring their arms in close to their bodies and extend their arms out when they want to slow down," Lin said. "These positions change the spatial distribution of a skater's mass and modify their moment of inertia; this in turn affects the rotation of the skater's body. An insect may be able to do the same thing with its body and wings."

Butterflies move too quickly for someone to see these wing tactics clearly with the naked eye, so Lin, working with graduate student Lingxiao Zheng, used high-speed, high-resolution videogrammetry to mathematically document the trajectory and body conformation of painted lady butterflies. They accomplished this with three video cameras capable of recording 3,000 one-megapixel images per second. (By comparison, a standard video camera shoots 24, 30 or 60 frames per second.)

The Johns Hopkins researchers anchored their cameras in fixed positions and focused them on a small region within a dry transparent aquarium tank. For each analysis, several butterflies were released inside the tank. When a butterfly veered into the focal area, Lin switched on the cameras for about two seconds, collecting approximately 6,000 three-dimensional views of the insect's flight maneuvers.

From these frames, the student typically homed in on roughly one-fifth of a second of flight, captured in 600 frames. "Butterflies flap their wings about 25 times per second," Lin said. "That's why we had to take so many pictures."

The arrangement of the three cameras allowed the researchers to capture three-dimensional data and analyze the movement of the insects' wings and bodies in minute detail. That led to a key discovery.

Earlier published research pointed out that an insect's delicate wings possess very little mass compared to the bug's body. As a result, those scholars concluded that changes in spatial distribution of mass associated with wing-flapping did not need to be considered in analyzing an insect's flight maneuverability and stability.

"We found out that this commonly accepted assumption was not valid, at least for insects such as butterflies," Lin said.

"We learned that changes in moment of inertia, which is a property associated with mass distribution, plays an important role in insect flight, just as arm and leg motion does for ice skaters and divers."

He said this discovery should be considered by MAV designers and may be useful to biologists who study insect flight dynamics.

Lin's newest project involves even smaller bugs. With support from a Johns Hopkins Provost's Undergraduate Research Award, he has begun aiming his video cameras at fruit flies, hoping to solve the mystery of how these insects manage to land upside down on perches.

The insect flight dynamics research was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.

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