C-Enduro vehicle sets off
Credit: National Oceanography Centre

Several decades ago, Earth observation satellites transformed how we keep track of changes on our planet. Now we are rapidly crossing a new technological threshold that will allow us to pick up even the most subtle variations in the environment.

Imagine swarms of autonomous robots roaming the globe by land, sea and air, together producing the ultimate picture of what is going on on our planet. This great vision is already becoming a reality – or at least with respect to the sea.

Recently UK scientists have unleashed an entire fleet of autonomous marine robots to travel about 500 km across an area of southwestern UK. The fleet comprises 4 types of vehicles, including both underwater and surface ones. The great thing is that all the vehicles rely on renewable sources of energy, thanks to which they can spend months offshore without any human intervention.

Instruments on board the vehicles record key parameters of the ocean, ranging from the temperature of the water to the density of plankton populations. Equipped with GoPro cameras, the robots are also expected to take some spectacular shots of marine life.

The Exploring Ocean Fronts project is led by the National Oceanography Centre and is already referred to as the most ambitious of its kind in Europe. The project is now in phase two, in which several vehicles are attempting to track acoustically tagged fish. The goal is to get an insight into the daily habits of marine life, which, believe it or not, we know very little about. The obtained information will inform future decisions regarding ocean management, including those directed at achieving sustainable fisheries.

Potential benefits of such massive robot observation missions, of course, go way beyond that. For instance, a better understanding of how the ocean varies over time and space can immensely benefit climate and weather research.

Information can be scary, and even more so when we find ourselves humbled by its immensity. In a press release issued earlier this week, the European Commission has once again demonstrated that it is not afraid of big data. Quite the opposite, Europe is more than ever ready to embrace it – a gesture, which is reflected in Europe’s strong bet on research projects like CEEDs, which uses big data to enhance human cognition and improve problem solving.

In a previous post, we already discussed CEEDs and the eXperience Induction Machine (XIM), the heart of the project, located in the SPECS lab at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. The press release singles out CEEDs as an example of successful and highly promising big data research initiative.

Although XIM has so far mainly been applied to visualising brain (BrainX3) and historical (Bergen-Belsen reconstruction) data and will certainly bring about a huge qualitative change in how scientists work with tremendous amounts of information, the integration of this technology into more down-to-earth application fields seems imminent.

The press release reports that early interest in the XIM technology is already coming from several museums in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the United States, where it could potentially help with gathering and reacting to feedback from visitors. This naturally applies to many other public spaces such as shops, libraries and concerts. The CEEDs team is also conducting negotiations with several public, charity and commercial organisations to further extend the scope of application of the platform.

The CEEDs project coordinator Jonathan Freeman, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London pointed out that “anywhere where there’s a wealth of data that either requires a lot of time or an incredible effort, there is potential.” In science, whole disciplines, from satellite imagery inspection to oil prospecting and astronomy, could benefit immensely from this novel approach to processing information.

With projects like CEEDs, Europe is working its way towards a new data-driven economy, a long-time goal, which the European Commission is now actively promoting across national governments. The European approach towards big data is perhaps best expressed in the words of the vice-president of the European Commission Neelie Kroes: “Big data doesn’t have to be scary. Projects like this enable us to take control of data and deal with it so we can get to solving problems. Leaders need to embrace big data.”

You can also read this article to learn about some other exciting big data projects backed by the European Commission.

Credit: Human Brain Project

Last week, the eyes of the scientific community were fixed on the € 1.2 billion Human Brain Project (HBP) as more than 150 European neuroscientists raised concerns over the project’s management in an open letter to the European Commission.

One of the two Europe’s Flagship Initiatives, the HBP spans 112 research institutions across 24 countries and was launched last year with the grand vision of creating a long-needed ICT infrastructure for future brain research. Not without controversy, the project adopted a bottom-up approach to build a computer simulation of the brain based exclusively on the fundamental understanding of neurons and their interactions.

The public outcry is not surprising given that the project has been surrounded by heated discussions from the very beginning when a number of labs refused to be part of the project because of its narrow focus on ICT and an apparent lack of basic neuroscience. Now many researchers fear that the inevitable failure of the project will cause a wave of adverse reaction to neuroscience undermining the future of the field.

The letter was largely driven by the recent changes made in the project plans for the next stage, which limits the role of cognitive scientists who pursue the difficult task of understanding the brain on the level of thought and behaviour. Now the labs working in this direction are to be repositioned from the project’s core to what is known as partnering projects (PPs). The concern is that, while the resulting computer simulations may not be completely useless, without a more pronounced theoretical component they will fail to elucidate brain functions.

A detailed review of the second stage by the EU commission is scheduled for January 2015 and the letter’s authors hope to bring the attention of the reviewers to the flaws in both science and management of the project. The second stage is expected to receive € 100 million over the course of 2 to 3 years, with a 50/50 split between the CP and the PPs.

The official response, released by the HBP two days after the letter, shows signs of disposition and openness to dialogue. The response states that “the members of the HBP are saddened by the open letter” and invite the signatories to engage in direct discussion with the project leaders. Importantly, the response strongly suggests that cognitive neuroscience and other basic research will have an increasingly crucial role in the project as the required ICT platform comes into place.

Lots of researchers still firmly stand by the project arguing it’s a long-needed change in brain research. You may also be interested in reading this article defending the project by Richard Frackowiak, the co-executive director of the HBP.

What is clear is that the HBP has not managed to entirely unite neuroscientists, but when it comes to such grand projects this is not as surprising as it may seem. The management might need to become more consensual and we can only hope that HBP will continue its 10-year journey to unravel the universe inside our heads.

Source: Aldebaran Robotics

Five years have passed since Aldebaran Robotics announced an ambitious joint project with over a dozen leading French research centres to make France one of the few countries to have developed an advanced humanoid robot. Finally, the robot, named Romeo, made its long-awaited debut at the Innorobo robotics fair, which was held earlier last month in Lyon.

Aldebaran Robotics hit the big time with its famed Nao robot, which immediately conquered the love of the robotics community, and it was only a question of time before Aldebaran would face the challenge of creating a larger and more capable robot. Romeo, who stands 1,40 meters tall and weighs around 40 kg, however, is not just an enlarged version of Nao and, although not without some synergy between the two projects, the researches had to develop in many ways a very different humanoid.

Romeo was conceived as a personal assistant to elderly and disabled people and will have to move in an everyday environment and, in theory, perform such tasks as fetching objects, take out the trash and monitor the owner’s health, mood and behaviour.

Safety was a major concern when designing the physical platform, for a bigger robot implies bigger risks, and so Aldebaran set about developing a robot that neither looks dangerous, nor is a danger. In this regard, the project has made some important advances: unlike most humanoids, which rely on gears to power their joints, Romeo’s joints – and most importantly leg joints – are based on a very light and low-friction backdrivable mechanism consisting of screws and cables, which offers more control over the robot and is considerably safer and cheaper. A good example of a backdrivable robot is the WAM arm from Barrett Technology.

Romeo, of course, still remains in the development stage, which was fairly obvious at Innorobo. So far, the robot seems to have limited mobility and cognitive capabilities, and it might be too early to talk about how Romeo stands up to what was promised at the beginning of the project. Some parts of the robot will be almost definitely improved along the way: Romeo’s hands, for instance, now have four fingers each and just one degree of freedom, which allows him to perform only a basic grasping motion – clearly not enough to perform most of the tasks envisioned for the robot.

Source: Aldebaran Robotics

Aldebaran hopes that Romeo will start working at aged care facilities by the year 2017 or, at the latest, by 2019. And, although it might seem unrealistic – given the rumoured cost of Romeo at around $ 330.000 – Aldebaran has plans for commercialising the robot by offering it to hospitals and nursing homes and eventually to individuals.

For more information on Romeo, you can read this article.

The European Commission recognizes Robotics as a key industry for the future of Europe

The European Commission has recently agreed to launch a Public Private Partnership in Robotics (PPP) between academia and industry for 2013. 

The initiative aims to  help Europe-based companies take a larger share of the global robotics market which is valued at  an annual 15.5 billion euros!

Vice President of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, stated that “A strong robotics industry is key to Europe’s future competitiveness. Growing our robotics industry means new jobs and a strong European manufacturing sector. ” In fact, the commission maintains that three million jobs are created or maintained worldwide as a result of using one million industrial robots.

Specific goals of the PPP aim to promote the growth of domestic and professional service robot markets and to reach out to new users and markets. The PPP will also contribute to policy development while addressing ethical, legal and societal issues concerning the use of robots.

As an important step in the process,  A recent survey, carried out in each of the 27 member states, examines public attitudes towards robots including public perceptions, acceptance levels and worries and reservations among EU citizens over 15 years of age.

Results of the survey show that the majority of EU citizens have a positive view of robots with percentages as high as 88% in countries such as Denmark and Sweden. According to the study, Europeans’ positive attitudes on robots are based on the notion that they are helpful  because they can assist humans in tasks that may be too difficult or too dangerous for us to do.  However, the study also pointed out that Europeans believe robots require careful management and the fear that they might steal people’s jobs is still present.  

When it comes to where Europeans think robots should be used, sectors such as: space exploration , manufacturing , military and security and search and rescue tasks were most prevalent. On the flip-side,  people were more hesitant to favour the use of robots for the care of children, the elderly or the disabled however, results also demonstrated that few Europeans have had personal experience with robots and that, the common conception of a robot tends to be that of a machine used in the workplace rather than a human-like machine that helps in the home.

If you’re interested in new kinds of European Robotics projects, check out Robot Companions for Citizens which aims to develop robots to help tackle some of Europe’s critical societal challenges. The innovative Robotics  project is striving for a 1 billion euro grant from the European Commission and the competition has now come down to the wire! Click HERE for more information.

You can also follow the Robot Companions for Citizens Facebook page.

Electro sensors inspired by fish who navigate their way through murky waters, robots that dance with the honeybees, and artificial muscles and blood vessels making their way into modern medicine. These are just a few of the research topics that were discussed at this year’s Living Machines Conference that took place from 9th to the 12th of July in Barcelona, Spain.

Chairs of the session  Paul Verschure, from Pompeu Fabra University and Tony Prescott from the University of Sheffield, welcomed delegates to one of Barcelona’s architectural gems; Antoni Gaudí’s La Pedrera building.

During 4 consecutive days, leading scientists in the fields of Biomimetics and Biohybryd systems gathered for pre-conference workshops, lectures, poster sessions, exhibitions and open panel sessions to present their work and discuss issues related to the development of real-word technologies inspired by biological systems.

The first day finished off with a panel-lead discussion centred on the question: why study nature? Co-chair Tony Prescott got dialogue flowing by providing two general reasons: to build technologies that could be useful in solving current challenges, and to better understand nature itself.  While the speakers and audience engaged in the discussion agreed that these are likely the main motives, other interesting opinions surged through out the conversation.

According to Barry Trimmer who specializes in Neurobiology at the University of Tufts,  by attempting to understand nature’s complexity, a biomimetic approach may allow us to bypass the limits of human creativity.

Toshio Fukuda who specializes in Micro-Nano Systems Engineering at Nagoya University is often inspired by particular functions or geometric shapes found in nature to help make devices such as the artificial blood vessels he works on more efficient.

Conversely, as a mechanical engineer specialized in aerodynamics, David Lentink  is not so much interested in biomimetics as an outfit for a design, but rather in specific principles which might make sense from an engineering point of view ¨ We don’t want to look at the final detail of a bird wing to make an aircraft because it’s simply too complex, but some of the principles are extremely useful and they allow scientists to really think outside the box.¨

While a biomimetic approach often involves studying some of the most puzzling aspects of nature scientists have yet to wrap their heads around, there are still many things nature can’t do. ¨ Biological systems satisfy many constraints at one time so they may not be optimal for any one function that we may want to imitate. Flight is a great example because we can do things by optimizing that birds just can’t do and we can exceed the capabilities of birds with jets and planes that we build,¨explained Frank Grasso, director of the Biomimetic and Cognitive Robotics lab at Brooklyn College, New York.

However, Dieter Braun, who specializes in Systems Biophysics at Ludwig Maximilians University, pointed out that it’s really a two-way learning stream and just because ¨evolution did not invent the bicycle¨ nature still has plenty of tricks to teach us and we need not be afraid of its complexity.

Check back to find out more on what what was shared during the 2012 Living Machines Conference; proceedings from the conference will be published in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNAI/LNCS).

SHOAL is a European research project that aims to produce a network of robotic fish to monitor pollution in aquatic environments.The project is being lead by BMT Group with support from several European universities and institutions which are focused on 5 specific aspects of SHOAL development:

The BMT Group will focus on the development of Artificial Intelligence for the robots. This will involve the development of intelligence for individual fish as well the development of swarm intelligence so that various fish will be able to function as a network. To accomplish this, researchers will apply two different types of biologically inspired algorithms. The robots must be able to quickly adapt to any changes in their environment much the way groups of foraging ants do, thus, one of the algorithms used is based on Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) while the other algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), is based on the behaviour of flocks of birds or schools of fish.

Responsible for robotic development, the team at the University of Essex has been working with other technical partners to come to ensure that every component of each robot is optimally designed.

The Tyndall National Institute is in charge of developing chemical sensors for the robots. They plan to develop instruments such as oxygen and nutrient sensors that go far beyond the state of the art by making them suitable for real world application as opposed to simple lab trials.

The University of Strathclyde will handle hydrodynamic research. Their work will ensure that the robots’ mobility and locomotion will be optimal and they will also produce models to further understand how pollution spreads in underwater environments.

Thales Safare, which specialises in acoustic and communication products will be responsible for producing the special equipment the robots will need to interact with each other underwater while reporting back to land in real time.

Water pollution is something that costs everyone  a lot. Currently, levels of pollutants in harbors are only measured about once a month through a expensive and time consuming procedures. Researchers working on SHOAL hope that these types of robots might encourage a more proactive approach to water pollution “The idea is that we will use robot fish, which are in the harbour all of the time, and constantly checking for pollution,” explains Luke Speller, senior scientist at the BMT Group in an article by the BBC.

The  HRP-4C Humanoid  robot was developed by The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) of Japan and Kawada Industries. As you can see above, this robot can put on quite the show! Created mainly for entertainment purposes, this robot has even hit fashion runways! Actroid- DER3, developed by Osaka University and the robotics company Kokoro, is also being used for similar purposes.

Another pretty face below- the mask bot which uses a simple projection of a real human face to achieve its life-like appearance, was developed by AIST and  the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS) at the Technische University in Munich .

Some humanoids can even play music! Check out a robot released by Toyota back in  2007 that can play the violin.

A joint project between the MIT Media Lab and Drexel University put on this performance using 4 HUBO robots which were developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Many robots are developed for use as research platforms. Nao, developed by Aldebaran is currently being used in all sorts of research at elementary schools, hospitals and universities around the world.

MIT Media Lab’s Nexi is giving researchers insight into human-robot interaction. While it couldn’t pass for a human, the robot does manage to display rather convincing facial expressions.

CB2 is another robot developed by Osaka University. Similarly to the iCub (developed by the European RobotCub consortium), it expresses child-like behaviours and learning abilities to help researchers study human cognitive development.

Of course there are plenty more humanoids out there! What’s your favourite android?

The video above by Reuters features some of the robots that were on display at this year’s INNOROBO Conference in Lyon, France. A recent article in the BBC which featured the conference suggests that it may be time we forget about the idea of robots as companions however, some of the robots displayed in the video above seem like they could provide valuable human accompaniment to suit a variety of human needs.

The article quotes Willow Garage representative Tim Field as saying “It would cost $5m to design and create a robot which was capable of flying and landing an airplane, but even if you gave me $50m, I could not make something that could naturally reach into my pocket and take out my keys.” Of course, Field has a point. We are far off from being able to create machines like Star Wars’ C3PO and R2D2 who’s actions appeared as intuitive as their human masters. However,  Keenan Wyrobek,  another Willow Garage representative, is working hard to develop the software and hardware a robot would need to carry out such a task, explaining that similar to the way that personal computers have become part of our every day lives, both at work and at home, the company envisions robots as having a similar future. In fact, the company’s own PR2 robot seems to be fitting into everyday life seamlessly; you can check it out  fetching beers,  playing pool and cleaning up with the use of a cart.

It’s important to remember that different robots are intended for different purposes. The first robot featured in the video above is all show. One of its creators Will Jackson, explains to the BBC that he’s not expecting this robothespian to get dirty doing domestic chores, “This will never clean the house, it will not clean the floor, it will never do the dishes. That kind of notion for a service robot we think is completely wrong. It will never be a viable economic thing to have this kind of robot performing domestic service functions. Forget about it.¨ Nevertheless,  irobot has made a fortune with their Roomba vacuum and the company has newly introduced  Scooba, which can wash floors and clean pools.

Other recently successful domestic bots include ones that can mow the lawn  and  even ones that function as  cat litters! Of course non of these robots are humanoid but who’s saying they should be? With robots becoming increasingly ubiquitous and studies showing a demand for different types of domestic bots, why shouldn’t researchers be spending the extra effort to make robots that are more like companions and less like clumsy machines? For example, the simple addition of a Skype feature to a mobile robot can provide its user with the companionship of a family member who might be far away.

As nations around the word face the challenges associated with an ageing population, experts suggest robots could provide important support in urban environments and the healthcare sector. The notion of a robot companion is not to play God by creating walking machines that reflects ourselves, as Will Jackson suggests in the BBC article, but rather to refine robotic technology so that it can assist society in the broadest way.

If you’re interested in European robotics research, check out this idea of a robot companion.

For anyone who’s a Charlie Chaplin fan, this scene from the 1936 film Modern Times is a must watch! When Chaplin’s forced to give it a go as this feeding machine’s first customer he’s treated to a lovely meal…all over his shirt as well as numerous ensuing side dishes of slaps to the face!

Thankfully, even those in the film deem the machine as being ¨impractical¨ but poor Chaplin suffers a mental breakdown as a result of this and other embarrassing scenarios with abusive machines. Could some sort of feeding assistant like this ever be practical? The creators of Bestic think so!

Bestic is a robotic feeding assistant developed by Sten Hemmingsson. Affected by Polio in his early teens, it became difficult for Hemmingsson to continue feeding himself independently and being fed by another person was something that affected his self esteem in a very negative way. Since he wasn’t able to find anything on the market that suited his needs, he began looking into other options. In 2004 Hemmingsson began collaborating with engineer Ann-Louise Norén to produce the first prototype of the Bestic feeding assistant in 2005. After four prototypes and a successful evaluation carried out by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Bestic is now on the market!

You can see the Bestic in action in the video below or check out their website for further information.

What other ways could robots help us lead more independent lives? Check out the European Flagship initiative: Robot Companions for Citizens for some ideas.