Solving the Rubik's Cube

Earlier this year, a 15-year-old kid set a new record by solving a 3x3x3 cube in merely 6.24 seconds. As I said before, that time is so short that the average person might not even have the time to take in what he has to do to solve the puzzle.

It’s not all about humans wanting to set a Rubik’s Cube record, though. There have also been a series of machines – robots, if you will – trying to pit their stuff against what humans have brought to the table. Arguably, at the end of the day, humans are still responsible for these machines. Remember Ruby the robot who was able to solve the cube in about 10 seconds? She got a lot of attention for her feat, which is not much compared to what Feliks was able to do, but excellent for a robot.

Ruby’s time on the podium has expired, though, with the creation of CubeStormer II. Not only has this machine set a new Rubik’s Cube record for robots – it also has beaten the humans! Taking only 5.35 seconds to solve the cube, CubeStormer II ought to be every Rubik’s Cube enthusiast’s role model.

CubeStormer II was designed and built by Mike Dobson and David Gilday, who must be grinning smugly about their creation, which, by the way, is constructed from LEGO. More info on the construction of CubeStormer II:

The mechanics are constructed entirely from LEGO, including four MINDSTORMS NXT kits, with the addition of a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone running a custom Android app as the robot’s brain. Both the MINDSTORMS NXT kits and the Samsung Galaxy SII use a variety of ARM –based processors.

Here’s something even more impressive:

Human speedcubers’ solve times only include the physical manipulation of the cube and don’t include some time which is allowed to “inspect” the cube beforehand. Times recorded by CubeStormer II are for the total solve including: image capture, software solution calculation and physical solve.

I guess that machines have won this round. In the meantime, humans can practice learning how to solve Rubik’s Cube in 20 moves.

Here’s CubeStormer II in action.

Photo via Steve Rhodes

Robot Mouth

There’s something to be said about robots and how they can definitely be used to make our lives better. Like this mute quadriplegic who was able to scratch an itch by himself for the first time in 10 years. Imagine not being able to scratch an itch! I would go nuts.

Then there are those robotic creations that I am just not so sure about. Like this robot mouth created by professor Hideyuki Sawada from Kagawa University in Japan. There really is no better description than that – robot mouth. The robot is a mouth. A robot mouth. I am still feeling the remnants of my freaking out as I watched this robot mouth in action, so bear with me.

Anyhow, this robot mouth is not without merit. For one, it is a rather accurate representation of the human mouth. From the lips to the oral cavity to the tongue (made of silicon) – this robot mouth has got it all! To complete the setup, there is even an air pump, which functions as the lungs. There is even a nasal resonance cavity. You get the picture. The creator of the robot mouth wants it to be as real as possible. For what purpose, I can only hope it is better than what Wolowitz did with the robot arm in one of TBBT episodes. And in case you need to be reminded of that, here is a clip from YouTube. (I would have loved to embed it, but the feature is disabled for this video.)

Going back to today’s freaky exhibit, the robot mouth has the ability to “listen” to itself speak. Basically, there is a feedback mechanism by way of a simple microphone. As it hears the sounds it produces, the robot mouth can make the necessary adjustments. Now I am not so sure as to what practical purpose this creation can have. I am pretty sure that the creator has something useful in mind, but for the life of me, I cannot think of it right now. Then again, I might just still be totally freaked out. After watching this video, you will understand why.

By the way, that is supposed to be a Japanese children’s song called Kagome Kagome. You can listen to the song over at Wikipedia, but do not expect to see a lot of similarity. Freaky or what?

The possibility is based on a notion dating back to 1971 when Berkeley electrical engineer Leon Chua arrived at the idea of a theoretical electronic component, “memristors.”

Memristors modify electrical currents depending on signals received, similar to transistors. The difference with memristors is that their behavior is based on how they were last activated.

Memristors, finally developed by scientists at Hewlett Packard using titanium dioxide in 2008, Indian scientists writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, outline how a memristor can now be manufactured using the blood of a human. Not only that, but the scientists in Gujarat explain how they have been successful in making memristors out of modified human blood cells.

Using a macroscopic experiment with a 10 ml. test tube of human blood at 37 Celsius (the average body temperature of a human) and two immersed electrodes connected to measuring electronics, the scientists were able to determine blood’s resistance varied in reaction to the applied voltage polarity and size, and the effect was “retained” for at least five minutes. Follow-up tests, displayed similar, positive, reactions, indicating the memristor effect was present even when flowing blood was used in the experiment.

What this means is that the scientists concluded they can create microscopic devices which, when used, would behave similarly to microscopic memristor manufactured by semiconductor materials akin to those in silicon chips.

Next, the scientists plan on creating a a micro-channel version of the flow memristor device integrating several to carry out particular logic functions. Success with these tests could lead to circuitry linking human tissue and nerve cells to electronic devices, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye.

While still in its early stages, the idea that humans could be outfitted with bioengineered blood cells which interact directly with electronics is both amazing and frightening. Every advance in science invariably could lead to one using something designed for good in dastardly ways the creators never envisioned possible.

What do you think? What positive and potentially negative, effects could the technology described above have when implemented?

SpaceDaily

Have you given thought to driving a car controlled only by one’s thoughts?  If the work of German researchers come to fruition, driving with one’s mind will soon become a reality.

Raúl Rojas, an AI professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, and his team have released video demonstrating how a driver can use their brain to steer a car, known as BrainDriver.  According to the researchers:

“After testing iPhone, iPad and an eye-tracking device as possible user interfaces to maneuver our research car, named “MadeInGermany,” we now also use Brain Power. The “BrainDriver” application is of course a demonstration and not roadworthy yet, but in the long run human-machine interfaces like this could bear huge potential in combination with autonomous driving.”

What are the benefits of such an application?  BrainDriver could conceivably be the type of technology to allow disabled and paralyzed people to gain more mobility in the future, among many other individuals.

Giving BrainDriver a test, the researchers took their thought-controlled car to a former airport in Berlin, Templehof.

Lest you think that BrainDriver is something you can head down to your local car modification shop and have installed today, the researchers note that BrainDriver is not quite ready for everyday use.

What do you think of BrainDriver?  Aside from the above, what positives and negatives do you see from its use?

Slashdot

What your eyes see is the face of Affetto, a new child robot platform.

Created by Hisashi Ishihara, Yuichiro Yoshikawa, and Prof. Minoru Asada of Osaka University in Japan, Affetto has the ability to make realistic facial expressions, allowing humans to interact with it (why would you want to?) in a more natural (oxymoron?) manner.

The spawn of Prof. Asada’s JST ERATO Asada Project, Affetto is the result of advances in “cognitive developmental robotics,” an area of robotics determined to to understand human intelligence using robots.

Affetto, modeled after a one- to two-year-old child , will be utilized to study early stages of human social development.  Earlier attempts to do so have failed due to the lack of a realistic child-like appearance and incorrect facial expressions.  This has led to to robot caregivers not attending to the robot in a natural way.  The last sentence seems so odd, but yes there do exist robot caregivers attempting to interact with robots in natural ways.

Desire to see how Affetto can interact with caregivers?  Check out this video:

Did the video scare you at all?  Are you frightened by some of the advances in robotics, such as Affetto and his future companions?

The competition is called Antimov Competition, and it was held last October 16 in Boulder, Colorado. The concept behind the competition is to create robots that complete trivial tasks “in the most inefficient and laborious way possible.” Additionally, the robots need to destroy themselves while completing the tasks.

For someone who absolutely loves watching the MythBusters blow things up or set things on fire, I had a lot of fun watching some of the videos sent in as entries. The event was actually held live, but many participants submitted video entries, partially due to fire restrictions. Here’s the video entry that bested all the others.

A robo-waiter setting things on fire, taking itself down as well – how can you go wrong? I envy the kid I kept hearing in the background! Now he probably wants a robot like that for his next birthday party!

Now here’s a video of the winning live entry.

Believe it or not, the people behind this winning entry are kids aged 13 and 11 – the children of the guy behind the flaming robo-waiter in the first video. Talk about passing on talent to your offspring!

These robots may be “fails” in the eyes of Asimov, but judging by the reaction of the viewers (yours truly included), they are definitely “wins”! Definitely worthy of the Dept. of Awesomeness, don’t you think?

Oh, and just in case you need a refresher course on the Laws of Robotics, here:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

This year marks the 24th annual Dragon*Con – it was founded in 1987 – and it will be held in four Atlanta hotels: Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta Hilton and Towers, Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, Westin Peachtree Plaza.  The four-day event is packed with all sorts of activities – more than enough to satisfy your geeky appetite.  From music to science fiction to fantasy to seminars to parades – participants will get to experience these in Dragon*Con.

Some of the most popular events in Dragon*Con are:

• Robot Battles^TM, which is actually the second oldest robotic combat competition in the world.  It’s a no-frills affair compared to other similar events, but the competition draws a lot of attention.
• The Annual Dragon*Con Parade is going to be held on the 4th of September at 10 am in Downtown Atlanta.  Anyone can watch, but you have to be a member to march in the parade (costumed, of course).

Many of the events are restricted to members, so if you’re interested in becoming one, check out the Dragon*Con Store and get yourself a membership – sales started yesterday.

It’s not all about having fun, though.  The convention is known to extend a helping hand to charities. This year’s Dragon*Con is going to help out The Lupus Foundation of America – Georgia Chapter.

So is anyone going?

For that reason, and for the joy of combining the Rubik’s Cube with robotics, we present CubeStormer from RoboticSolutions.

The claim is that this Lego Mindstorms RCX Speedcubing Robot can solve any 3³ in under twelve seconds. The video shows this: I’m happy to take their word on the machine being handed random cubes.

Just brilliant.

Kinda makes your human attempts at solving the cube rather futile, eh? Never mind. You can always dress up as a Rubik’s Cube instead.

Via

Trust the adult industry to be at the forefront of technological innovation. Over at the recently concluded AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, robotics company TrueCompanion unveiled its Roxxxy sex robot. The robot is touted to be as close to human as possible.

[S]he … knows your name, your likes and dislikes, can carry on a discussion and expresses her love to you and be your loving friend. She can talk to you, listen to you and feel your touch. She can even have an orgasm!

Roxxxy, said to have been developed over several years, is supposedly an anatomically correct robot that can respond to user interaction based on a pre-programmed “personality.” You can order anything from a conservative to a more outgoing personality. Roxxxy comes in five, actually: conservative Frigid Farrah, caring Mature Martha, outgoing Wild Wendy, adventurous S&M Susan, and naive Young.

Roxxxy has an articulated skeleton, and can move much like a person. The robot also has a mechanical heart that circulates coolant throughout its body. She cannot walk independently, though. Creator Douglas Hines says Roxxxy is connected to the Internet wirelessly for updates, and to send emails to her mate.

Roxxxy snores, talks back, and does a whole lot of other things reserved for private conversation. And yes, she even talks about football–she’s a Man Utd fan!

A male version, called Rocky is also in the works.

Roxxxy is priced between $7,000 and $9,000, and comes with a laptop. TrueCompanion is now accepting orders, and is now available in the US and Europe.

Imagine having to plug in your robot at the end of each day. That would be tedious, wouldn’t it? And it would defeat the purpose of having a machine that should be autonomous in the first place. There have been research that looked into robots plugging themselves into the wall outlet when running low on charge. Most systems relied on a visual approach, but that necessitated customizations to the wall outlet itself, such as patterns and color schemes.

New development by Intel Labs Seattle with its Marvin robot looks into robots plugging themselves into unmodified wall outlets by seeking out the AC electrical field. Our electrical systems, after all, run an alternating current that has a certain pattern–60 cycles per second, or 60 Hz. So electrical current sensing should be a fairly straightforward task for a robot.

In my mind, though, what could make it better is if the robot can plug itself into different types of outlets (American, Euro, Asian, etc.), and different frequencies (some countries use 50 Hz).

Now imagine if you have an electric car that can plug itself in to recharge the moment you drive up your garage.

This four foot tall robot not only looks fantastic but seems to be highly functional, thanks to some nifty systems and programming by its creator, Dave Shinsel.

There’s a ton of video over at Dave’s YouTube page which really gives a flavour of what Loki can do.

Loki has remote control and logistics over Wi-Fi, vision processing, speech recognition, indoor pathfinding and basic artificial intelligence.

Lots of data on the web site if you’re inclined to have a go creating your own Loki. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the show.

Via

“Created for entertainment purposes. It is made to dance and entertain people at conventions and parties.”

It’s a radially symmetrical four-legged robot that’s operated from two modified Wii Nunchucks. It has taken two years of “hobby” time to get to this point and probably cost around $1,000 in parts/replacements.

It’s made from some custom-cut steel plate, copper, aluminum tubing, brass, a 7.4V 1100mAh lithium-polymer battery, a pair of XBee radio modules for communication (has a range of around 20 feet), Pololu micro SSC board and eight HX12K servos.

Check out the video below or Drew’s Flickr photo set.

I’d kind of hoped that the robot had some of its own sensors on board so that it would avoid objects, but to be honest the level of control Drew has over it makes up for that. Next project perhaps?

Drew’s Robots (via)