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.

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.

We all know that the fastest land animal is the cheetah, capable of running up to 120 km/hr in short bursts- but has it met its match in robot form? In terms of speed, the great cat faces little competition. Nevertheless, today, no legged robot is speedier than Darpas’s new Cheetah bot which can run 30 km/hr in cheetah-like fashion.

As its name suggests, the robot’s movements imitate those of fast-running animals in nature. Just as cheetahs do, the robot accelerates and increases its stride by flexing and un-flexing its back on each step. Currently, this cheetah bot’s still stuck on a treadmill in the lab, however, testing of a free-running prototype is planned for later this year.

Cheetah has been developed under Darpa’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (MP3) Program. Instead of being focused on a specific military mission, this program generally aims to improve the scientific framework for the design and fabrication of robot systems, through new engineering approaches.You may also want to check out the European flagship initiative:Robot Companions for Citizens which also aims to develop innovative research lines of research within robotics.

If you’re a fan of animal-inspired bots, check out a  seagull, penguin, and jellyfish from German robotics company Festo and for more information on innovative robotics research in Europe check out the FET Flagship initiative: Robot Companions for Citizens.

Developing a robot that’s capable of learning means that it can go beyond its machine programming and be taught from humans through simple observation, much the way children are. Giving a robot the ability to collaborate enables the robot to engage in teamwork activities with other humans. Emotional intelligence is of course another crucial component because emotions communicate vast amounts of information during any kind of interaction. The final component is perhaps the most crucial one: Thomaz explains, ¨A lot of research shows that people are really good at perceiving people’s intentions and goals from their actions. If I see you reach for a tool, I’m going to infer that you want that tool and think about why you want it. It’s a lot different than just seeing some pixels on a screen and inferring your hand is moving—a social robot needs to go further and understand why your hand is moving¨.

So what are these so-called social robots actually good for? They’re currently being tested for use as a treatment option for children with autism and they’re also being used in elderly care as exercise facilitators. Although they’re being referred to as social robots, nobody says you have to make friends with one of them! In fact, their perceptive abilities make them suitable for use in environments that may be highly unpredictable for example, oil spills or search and rescue missions.

If you’re interested in finding out about more on social robots, you can check out the European initiative:  Robot Companions for Citizens. Further information on this post can also be found in an article by the Kavli Foundation which aims to support scientists by promoting the public understanding of their work.

Militaries around the world view physical exhaustion of their soldiers as one of their main challenges, since soldiers often have to carry loads of up 50kg on their backs through rough, volatile terrain. So why not ease the load with the help of a four-legged robot?
We’ve mentioned this project in a previous post but now, in collaboration with Boston Dynamics, The Us’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agengy (DARPA) has given us a peek at the latest version of AlphaDog, also known as the Legged Squad Support System (LS3).

The LS3 did well in prior lab tests but now it’s been let out to play in the open air.  Previous models of the  robot were already able to overcome unexpected obstacles and carry a heavy load but perhaps the most impressive feature in the newest model is that the robot can now respond to certain commands, much like its live furry counterparts. It can also be “trained” to follow a particular person and it has sensors that allow it to distinguish between different objects such as trees and rocks. Being able to detect these obstacles, it can also make autonomous corrections in order to avoid them and continue on its path. This summer Alphadog’s expected to be tested on a course of over 40km while carrying a load of about 200 kg. Do you think it’s up for the challenge?

Alphadog is being developed for military purposes, but it’s not hard to envision other distinct applications for a biomimetic bot such as this one. This type of robot could be useful in a wide range of  situations that are often physically taxing for humans: search and rescue missions, space and deep sea exploration and assistance in natural disaster relief. This canine copycat is designed for land use, however other biomimetic bots are being created for both avian and aquatic applications. If you’re interested in the notion of combining nature’s age old principles with today’s cutting edge technology, you may want to check out the the European initiative, robot companions for citizens.

MIT researchers released Boxie into different environments around the university where it would autonomously engage in interactions with people that were hanging around. People could either agree to participate in Boxie’s documentary about MIT by pressing a green button on one of its sides or they could a make sad-sounding Boxie go away by pressing a red button on its other side.

Making use of its interactive robotic camera, Boxie can be used as an autonomous method for capturing structured documentaries and, while story gathering was the bot’s most overt goal, researchers at the media lab were also viewing the project from another perspective. The MIT Media lab is known to carry out research that is often considered unorthodox. Usually it focuses in on the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life.

¨We hope that this type of interaction that we studied will lead to simpler systems that may be more symbiotic with people… using this simple emotional tie to create better systems and better interactions for people¨ Explains the MIT representative in the video above.

What makes people favour a bot like Boxie over one that displays cold mechanical mannerisms and where might robots with this kind of gentle of behaviour be most useful?

If you’re interested in finding out more about new kinds of social robots, check out the European initiative, Robot Companions for Citizens.

The video above features a special performance of a Shakespearean classic put on by Texas A&M University several years ago. The students and professors involved in the production thought this would be a great way to see how people respond to and interact with robots.

Presently, there are quite a number of studies which are investigating human-robot relationships. The recently completed European project SERA (Social Engagement with Robots and Agents ), aimed to advance the social acceptability of robots by collecting data on real-life, long-term relationships of subjects with robotic devices. A current European project, LIREC (Living with Robots and Artificial Companions), is also geared towards investigating social interaction with robots yet, some scientists suggest we look elsewhere than the lab for clues on how to improve our experiences with robots….

Literature, theatre and film portray a vast array of human relationships.  An Immortal literary icon like Shakespeare was an expert in unraveling the many aspects of human behaviour. Similarly, today’s roboticists have become very interested in picking apart the smaller components of human interactions in order to make our future experiences with robots as comfortable and natural as possible. From operas to poetry, artistic productions expose all sorts of human relationships in great detail but how can we extract useful information from such works and apply it to robotics?

Researchers from the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Vienna, Austria suggest we do the following:

First, identify relevant scenes from various media. This could include anything from Greek tragoidia to modern day classics like metropolis and ET, however they suggest selected scenes be centred around characters which are engaged in a servant-master relationship. Those scenes would then be carefully analysed; identifying who does what, when and looking at the reactions that ensue. Next, they recommend different types of behaviours be categorized. This could result in categories of behaviours that are important to consider for robot demeanor but may otherwise be left out of conventional psychological typologies ( for example unobtrusiveness). Finally, this information should be integrated into existing personality models for humanoid robots.

For more information on this, you may want to have a look at the paper: Robots as Companions: What can we Learn from Servants and Companions in Literature, Theater, and Film? This paper is part of the proceedings from FET 11  (the European Future Technologies Conference and Exhibition 2011) which also featured Robot Companions for Citizens as one of the 2011 Flagship Initiatives.

What will the next generation of robot helpers look like? If you’ve got a vision,
now’s your chance to show us what you think! First Prize is a 2 week placement at the prestigious Sebastian Conran design studios in London and a selection of the best entries will be exhibited at the Living Machines conference in Barcelona in 2012.

You’re free to draw, sketch, paint or make a 3D computer model of a robot companion in any of these 4 environments:

1 The healthcare environment – a larger robot that has the strength to
lift/carry a person. Possible uses could include bed to wheelchair or wheelchair
to car aids, transfer to and from the bathroom, walking and washing assistance.

2 The home environment – a general-purpose household assistant that might
carry out tasks such as food preparation, tidying, cleaning as well as social
activities such as game playing.

3 The outdoor environment – A medium sized robot designed to travel over a
variety of terrains, carry, act as a guide or perform tasks such as gardening
or operate as a guard/warning device.

4 The active environment – a robot companion to support and maximize healthy
aging. With the ability to socialize, learn skills such as golfing, dancing,
monitor sleep/activity/medication/entertainment patterns and preferences,
coach and encourage.

Your designs should show robot companions interacting with people, emphasizing that future robots are there to support humans, not replace them!

How To Enter

You can submit up to 4 individual submissions, group work is also encouraged.
The submission date is Friday  March 3rd, 2012. Please use the SHU digital drop box to send in your submissions. All submissions and questions regarding the competition should be addressed to: Professor Ian Gwilt (i.gwilt@shu.ac.uk).

Create your designs on an A3 format (landscape or portrait). Remember to indicate
which environment your robotic companion is designed to operate in. Label any particular devices, characteristics, materials, capabilities or attachments that your robot companion might have. Please submit your designs digitally as a PDF. You will need to rescan your submission if you have created it off the computer, as we will only accept digital submissions.

At first glance it’s a generic plastic mask fixed in front of a projector. Switch it on and you’re looking at the most realistic ¨talking head¨ yet. Researchers from the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS) at the Technische University in Munich have collaborated with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan (AIST) to create a life-sized talking head, the Mask-bot.

While talking heads already exist, this one is the first to project a 3D image of a human face on a plastic mask, making it appear more realistic than previous 3D heads that display cartoon-like faces. However, Mask-bot’s more than just a pretty face, it’s a rather articulate artifact- when one of the Mask-bot’s creators,  Dr. Takaaki Kuratate, says the word ¨rainbow¨ Mask-bot responds with a concrete explanation of the phenomenon “When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow”. Via computer control, the Mask-bot is capable of speech and highly realistic facial movements.

Mask-bot can readily be applied in a variety of settings including events like video conferences. It is also a powerful text to speech converter, able to reproduce content typed via keyboard – in English, Japanese and soon German. Above and beyond these applications, its creators hope that Mask-bot will serve as a platform to help further investigate human-robot interaction.

Profesor Gordon Cheng, chair of ICS at the Technische University, is a robotocist that is highly involved in this type of research. He is also a current consortium member of Robot Companions for Citizens, a European initiative that aims to develop and safely deploy robots to assist us in our daily living. Due to the fact that robots are becoming increasingly present in societies around the world, robotocists who are conscientious about their work believe it’s critical to assess all aspects of human-robot interaction.