Every year, Telluride, a small mountain town in Colorado, attracts an international roster of scientists from several disciplines for three weeks of intensive discussion and exchange of ideas about neuromorphic engineering, a rapidly expanding research field that promises to bridge the gap between the lifeless silicon of computer chips and the very much lively brain-based biological systems. This year is not an exception: the Telluride workshop is now in full swing and will continue until July 19.

What is special about this year’s edition is that the workshop, organised by the Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, celebrates its 20^th anniversary and the sense of historical perspective is more perceptible than ever. The workshop was founded in 1994 by Christoph Koch, Terry Sejnowsky, Rodney Douglas and others. Merely five years before that, the concept of neuromorphic engineering was for the first time introduced by Carver Mead and many discussions at this year’s workshop revolve around what has been achieved in the past years and what future contributions we can expect in the next 25 years.

One of the major goals of the workshop is to reduce the distance between senior and junior researchers in the field of neuromorphic engineering, and this year students participating in the workshop have a chance to interact with some of the most important contributors to the field. The workshop includes numerous background lectures on a variety of topics in systems and cognitive neuroscience, practical tutorials, hands-on projects and interest groups. There are six topic areas this year ranging from human auditory cognition and neuromorphic Olympics to embodied neuromorphic architectures of perception, cognition and action.

Other priorities of the workshop include the encouragement of collaborative activities emerging from the workshop and the promotion of neuromorphic engineering as a self-sustaining research field.

The event is sponsored by some of the biggest players in neuromorphic research worldwide including the Convergent Science Network Project, which, among other things, contributed eight scholarships for European applicants. You can always learn more about the application requirements and other activities supported by CSN HERE.

Neuromorphic engineering was included in this year’s top 10 Breakthrough Technologies report published by MIT Technology Review. Read this article to learn why neuromorphic engineering matters and how brain-based computer chips are preparing to revolutionise computing as we know it.

The 3^rd Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems will be held this year from 30 July to 1 August in Milan. As has become a tradition, the three-day event, organised by the Convergent Science Network, will be hosted at a fantastic venue consistent with the spirit of the conference: the Da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology, one of the largest technology museums in Europe.

The conference will be packed with fascinating talks on a variety of topics related to the development of technologies at the intersection of living and artificial systems, including six plenary lectures from some of the most distinguished experts in the field. The plenary lectures will be complemented by nearly 20 short talks on diverse topics such as soft robotics, active sensing, neuromechanics and others.

You can find out more about the plenary speakers HERE and check out the full conference programme HERE.

This year, the Living Machines conference will be preceded by a one-day satellite event, hosted by the Italian Institute of Technology and consisting of a series of research-oriented workshops. Learn more about the workshops HERE.

We are looking forward to seeing you this year!

Crabs know their way around the ocean floor. These crawling creatures live in all the waters of the world, so if we want to learn something new about underwater exploration, it might be a good idea to take some cues from them. And this is precisely what a research team at the Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology did.

After two years of investigation, the team, led by Bong-Huan Jun, developed Crabster CR 200, a car-sized robot inspired by crustaceans and designed to survey shipwrecks and other areas of scientific interest.

But why bother creating a crab robot – although let’s admit it: a giant mechanical crab needs no justification – when we have some pretty advanced conventional ROVs that have already proven their reliability in most kinds of underwater exploration?

The main reason is that underwater exploration sometimes requires navigating in turbulent waters where strong currents sometimes reach 1.5 meters per second – enough to destabilise any conventional ROV. In addition, propulsion systems used in such vehicles tend to raise clouds of disturbed sediment, often completely obstructing the view of the ocean floor.

Source: KIOST

Hopefully, Crabster will become a game changer. Crawling on its six articulated legs, this sea monster can resist strong currents and does not disturb the ocean floor as much as other ROVs. Crabster’s four rear legs have four degrees of freedom, while the front two have six. And although the front legs and currently only used for walking, the researchers envision them as transformable manipulator arms, which can serve to grab objects of interest within 1.8 meters reach and store them in a front compartment, fashioned as an extendable crab mouth. With many legs Crabster also has many eyes: the robot is equipped with 11 optical cameras as well as with sonars – all of which makes him the real king of the ocean floor.

Crabster remains in the testing stage and, as you can see in the video, is still rather slow and cannot operate without a power cord. Last summer the robot was put to test in natural conditions for the first time, and soon we might see Crabster explore a real 12^th Century shipwreck in the Yellow Sea.

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.

This week, from March 10-11, over 2000 people from a variety of sectors involved in research, innovation and science gathered to take part in the 2nd Innovation Convention. The event, held this year in Brussels, is a key initiative of the Innovation Union, which aims to make Europe a more innovation-friendly environment – an idea that lies at the core of the European Union’s 2020 strategy.

This year’s Convention attracted a whole range of inspirational speakers from top CEOs to young innovators and provided a platform to debate and inform innovation policies as well as a great networking opportunity.

A remarkable highlight of this year’s convention was a special selection of “Innovation Showcases” which gave the visitors a chance to explore a number of interactive demonstrations related to some of the most fascinating ideas, products and services such as 3D-printing, nanotechnology and supersonic transport. It is worth noting that the majority of the showcases were made possible – directly or indirectly – by EU-funded research projects. The field of robotics that excites us most was represented this year by the efAA project, which develops new ways of having meaningful social interactions with robots. The showcase featured an iCub robot that engaged visitors in a social musical game.

The closing ceremony was marked by the announcement of the European Capital of Innovation (iCapital) prize, which this year went to Barcelona “for introducing the use of new technologies to bring the city closer to citizens”. The prize was established by the European Commission as a means of encouraging cities to make efforts to promote innovation and improve the quality of their citizens’ lives.

Developed by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Carnegie Mellon University, this pioneering technique combines recent advancements in tissue engineering, 3D printing and microrobotics. The scientists used magnetic fields to remotely enable these tiny robots – fashioned as a sort of microscale tweezers – to move one cell at a time, change its orientation and place it where needed with a precision and at a scale we previously thought to be unimaginable.

Credit: S. Tasoglu et al./Nature Communications

The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that, unlike other existing bioprinting methods, this technique allows for precise modification of tissue architecture and is easily reversible. In other words, if before a misplacement of a cell-containing droplet could ruin the process in a blink of an eye, now a micro-robot can remove the misplaced droplet and place it where it belongs. This is the first time that cells are manipulated one by one in a 3D printing process with a full control of time and position.

Bioprinting and tissue engineering, for some time now, have been pushing the boundaries of our imagination by promising to bring about the possibility of creating new donor organs as well as devising new therapies and testing drugs using way more practical cell-based models. Thanks to micro-robots this possibility has just become one step closer.

By analysing videos of 59 animals in steady motion, the researchers have discovered that most animal propulsive structures are surprisingly finely tuned as they bend at the tip in a way that shows very little variation across taxonomic groups, fluid medium and size – with the bending angle ranging from about 15° to 40°. No matter whether it is an insect, a bird, a fish, a mollusk or a cetacean, these newly discovered bending rules of propulsion apply to practically all of them.

The study suggests that this unique kinematic property of natural propulsors was independently reinvented again and again through evolutionary processes in entirely different groups of animals – a phenomenon that the authors of the study attribute to the advantages that bending propulsors imply for energy efficient thrust production.

The results of the study may open new possibilities in the design of biologically inspired propulsion systems, such as Robojelly, a Navy-funded robot jellyfish we featured in one of our previous posts, or its big brother Cyro, both of which have already confirmed the importance of flexible propulsors in underwater vehicles.

Sandia Lab’s Gemini-Scout
Credit: Randy Montoya

The December DARPA trials saw possibly the biggest congregation of state-of-the-art humanoid robots ever. The DARPA Robotics Challenge was launched in 2012, after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown vividly demonstrated how unpractical our most advanced humanoid robots were for disaster response. Since then, things have improved considerably: robots have learned to climb ladders, open doors, turn valves and even drive vehicles. But are they ready to survive a full-scale rescue mission?

Everyone who watched the trials knows that the answer is a resounding “no.” Even the most devoted robotics aficionados might have felt slightly uncomfortable watching some of the best robots struggle for minutes to perform such a mundane task as opening a door. The winning S-one robot, created by the Google-owned Japanese robotics company Schaft, although doing extremely well overall, still failed to climb out of a vehicle after driving it ­– something that would have easily sabotaged a real rescue mission. In short, the trials have shown not only how much we have done, but also how much there is still to be done.

The expo, hosted during the trials, was a different story. While humanoid robots were giving an insight into the future of disaster-response robotics, other robots were showing more mature down-to-earth applications. The expo area featured, for instance, a modular snake robot showcased by the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, which moves around by wiggling its body, just like a real snake. The robot can be used in emergency situations for gaining visual information, say, in a collapsed building. One of the advantages of this biomimetic body structure is that snake robots can climb pipes and other structures that are virtually inaccessible to any other robot. You can see some of the amazing things this robot can do HERE.

Another example of a real-world success in disaster-response robotics that appeared in the expo is the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory’s Robo Sally. This semi-humanoid wheeled robot along with another similar robot manufactured by HDT Robotics could be seen in an attempt to stabilize a dummy victim and use a stretcher to evacuate it. Operated by a human wearing sensor gloves and a virtual reality headset, Robo Sally’s sensitive hands also allow her to perform extremely dangerous tasks, such as defusing a bomb, with no risk for the operator. You can see Robo Sally in action and read more HERE.

From November 6–8, nearly 5000 of Europe’s top researchers, engineers, industry representatives, politicians, journalists, entrepreneurs, and students gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania to share insight and future visions for the future of ICT in Europe. The global event also provided  an inspiring setting for the discussion of European ICT policy as well as networking opportunities for business, research, and innovation groups.

The event —the largest in Vilnius during Lithuanian’s presidency of the EU Council— folds into a greater European initiative: the EU Horizon 2020 programme. This visionary plan, combines EU funding for both scientific research, and innovation. This year’s event included: an international conference, an exhibition, a networking session, an investor forum and events for students and junior researchers.

The exhibition involved over 180 participants from the ICT community. CSN (the Convergent Science Network) was well received with an exhibit co-organized by the project efAA (Experimental Functional Android Assitant, – EU Robotics Unit of DG Connect- ). The interactive installation titled “The Machine and I“ displayed graphics and drawings that provided futuristic visions of robots and their roles in human society. The project efAA, represented at ICT 2013 by the research group SPECS - UPF – Barcelona and by IIT, the Italian Institute of Technology, gave the iCub a chance to express it’s musical side as it entertained exhibit visitors through musical games as the DJ droid.

Over 40 international presenters covered various topics: from broadband Internet to cybersecurity and nanomaterials to artificial modeling of the human brain. Students and junior researchers had the opportunity to meet many of the conference speakers and other ICT-savvy representatives, later sharing their experience through social media.

The investor forum provided a perfect place for small and medium-sized ICT business owners and entrepreneurs to present their projects to investors, participate in special training programmes, and discuss key issues with business experts and corporate investors.

Events like this get just about everyone thinking: how will future technologies change the lives of those in generations to come?

While creepy, crawly, or just plain gross, insects are in fact the object of many scientists’ affections.Those involved in the field of biomimicry are attempting to figure out exactly how some of these fascinating critters have honed in on some pretty amazing skills.

Take the honey bee, for example. It’s an animal robotocists just can’t seem to get enough of these days. We featured a previous post on Harvard’s Robobee — a tiny little robot actually inspired by both bees and flies. Whats so great about these bugs? They’re speedy, energy efficient little creatures that can get wherever they need to go with nothing more than paper-thin wings — It doesn’t get much better than that when it comes to sophisticated locomotion!

A recent study carried out by out by researchers from The Vision Centre and The University of Queensland Brain Research Institute in Australia, describes how bees manage to land so gracefully. Because insects’ eyes aren’t wide-set like ours, they can’t gauge distances the same way we do. From a bee’s perspective, if the view of an object is expanding too quickly as it’s approaching, the insect knows it’s got to start hitting the breaks. If the view of the object is still expanding slowly, the bee knows it can speed up because it’s got a ways to. So the name of the game when it comes to bee landing is to keep the expansion of that image constant — that’s the only way they can guarantee a seamless touch-down.

Based on the bee strategy, researchers came up with a mathematical model for guiding landings.This finding could prove to be very useful in the development of robotic air crafts that currently rely on costly and cumbersome radars and sonars. An effort to copy how bees land may only require a simple vision-based system relying mainly on simple video cameras.

If you want to learn more about bio-inspired flying machines, check out the TED talk above by Dr. David Lentink, a participant in the Convergent Science Network’s Living Machines Conference and the Barcelona Cognition, Brain and Technology Summer School (BCBT).