Artificial Intelligence
Engineers find leaky pipes with artificial intelligence
September 6, 2011 7:20 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Exeter engineers have pioneered new methods for detecting leaky pipes and identifying flood risks with technologies normally used for computer game graphics and artificial intelligence. These techniques could help to identify water supply and flooding problems more quickly than ever before, potentially saving people from the traumatic experience of flooding or not having water on tap.
It's alive! Space station's humanoid robot awake
August 22, 2011 12:33 pm | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsGround controllers turned Robonaut on Monday for the first time since it was delivered to the International Space Station in February. The test involved sending power to all of Robonaut's systems. The robot was not commanded to move; that will happen next week. It is, however, tweeting now.
Football analysis leads to advance in artificial intelligence
August 18, 2011 10:48 am | News | CommentsComputer scientists in the field of artificial intelligence have made an important advance that blends computer vision, machine learning, and automated planning, and created a new system that may improve everything from factory efficiency to airport operation or nursing care. It is based on watching football.
IBM unveils chip that mimics human brain
August 18, 2011 7:13 am | News | CommentsToday, IBM researchers unveiled the company’s first neurosynaptic computing chips, which are designed to emulate the phenomena between spiking neurons and synapses in biological systems, such as the brain, through advanced algorithms and silicon circuitry.
MABEL: The world's fastest two-legged robot with knees
August 15, 2011 9:24 am | News | CommentsA robot in a University of Michigan lab can run like a human—a feat that represents the height of agility and efficiency for a two-legged machine. With a peak pace of 6.8 miles per hour, MABEL is believed to be the world's fastest bipedal robot with knees.
Wanted: 2011's Top Technologies
August 15, 2011 6:12 am | Blogs | CommentsThe editors of R&D Magazine have opened the nominations for the 2012 R&D 100 Awards competition, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the awards. If your organization introduced a new product this year, or is planning to, you can begin the entry process now.
Researchers create the first artificial neural network out of DNA
July 20, 2011 10:34 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Caltech have taken a major step toward creating artificial intelligence—not in a robot or a silicon chip, but in a test tube. The researchers are the first to have made an artificial neural network out of DNA, creating a circuit of interacting molecules that can recall memories based on incomplete patterns, just as a brain can.
Sandia donates historically significant robots to Smithsonian Institution
July 20, 2011 5:40 am | News | CommentsIn a nod to Sandia National Laboratories' contributions to the field of robotics, the Smithsonian Institution has obtained nine of Sandia's historically significant robots for its permanent collection at the National Museum of American History.
Engineers build a nanoscale device for brain-inspired computing
July 13, 2011 6:01 am | by Andrew Myers | News | CommentsResearchers at the Stanford School of Engineering have made a nanoelectronic synapse that might drive a new class of microchips that can learn, adapt, and make probability-based decisions in complex environments. The device emulates synaptic plasticity using phase-change material, and makes a leap past two-state transistors by demonstrating the ability to convey at least 100 values from each synapse.
Smart cars that are actually smart
June 14, 2011 4:50 am | by Emily Finn, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMIT mechanical engineers are working to develop a new intelligent transportation system (ITS) algorithm that takes into account models of human driving behavior to warn drivers of potential collisions, and ultimately takes control of the vehicle to prevent a crash.
Protecting medical implants from attack
June 13, 2011 4:11 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMillions of Americans have implantable medical devices. Most of these devices have wireless connections, so that doctors can monitor patients' vital signs or revise treatment programs. But recent research has shown that this leaves the devices vulnerable to attack. However, researchers from MIT and UMass developed a new system for preventing such attacks.
Faster computer graphics
June 10, 2011 7:34 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsDigitally mimicking the photographic blur caused by moving objects is surprisingly hard, but new research offers ways to make it easier.
Streamlined rules for robots
June 8, 2011 5:36 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsNew algorithms make it easier to write rules for distributed-computing systems, such as networks of sensors, servers, or robots.
Honing household helpers
May 26, 2011 5:55 am | by Emily Finn, MIT News Office | News | CommentsImagine a robot able to retrieve a pile of laundry from the back of a cluttered closet, deliver it to a washing machine, start the cycle, and then zip off to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. This may have been a domestic dream a half-century ago, when the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence first captured public imagination. However, it quickly became clear that even "simple" human actions are extremely difficult to replicate in robots. Now, MIT computer scientists are tackling the problem with a hierarchical, progressive algorithm that has the potential to greatly reduce the computational cost associated with performing complex actions.
'Jeopardy!'-winning computer delving into medicine
May 23, 2011 6:25 am | by Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press | News | CommentsIBM is still perhaps two years from marketing a medical Watson, but Columbia Univ. medical school professor Dr. Herbert Chase, who is working with the company to adapt the computer for medical tasks, says its ability to understand plain language and access medical history and symptoms might mean quicker diagnoses and treatments.
Robot engages novice computer scientists
May 6, 2011 4:44 am | News | CommentsLearning how to program a computer to display the words "Hello World" once may have excited students, but that hoary chestnut of a lesson doesn’t cut it in a world of videogames, smartphones, and Twitter. One option to take its place and engage a new generation of students in computer programming is a Carnegie Mellon Univ.-developed robot called Finch.
Speeding swarms of sensor robots
May 3, 2011 4:11 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA new MIT-developed algorithm ensures that robotic environmental sensors will be able to focus on areas of interest without giving other areas short shrift.
Caterpillars inspire new movements in soft robots
April 27, 2011 5:52 am | News | CommentsResearchers have been examining the diverse behaviours of caterpillars to find solutions for the new generation of search and rescue soft robots.
Learn, adapt, respond: DARPA’s electronic neural networks take shape
April 8, 2011 7:53 am | News | CommentsDARPA's Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program aims to fundamentally alter conventional designs by developing biological-scale neuromorphic electronic systems that mimic important functions of a human brain. So far, SyNAPSE has successfully demonstrated all the core hardware, architecture, and simulation. Now, the agency plans to build prototypes.
Robot Flexes Human-like Dual-Arm System
April 8, 2011 5:26 am | Articles | CommentsMotoman Robotics’ (West Carrollton, Ohio) SDA-series robots have human-like flexibility and movement to perform assembly, handling, machine tending packaging, and part transfer applications that formerly could only be done by humans.
Robot Handles Small Parts, Assembly Tasks
April 8, 2011 5:22 am | Articles | CommentsIn March, FANUC Robotics, Rochester Hills, Mich. introduced the M-3iA, a delta-style, parallel-link robot designed to maximize speed and flexibility for assembly, small part handling, and picking applications.
Military Robots to Mimic Human, Animal Traits
April 8, 2011 5:17 am | Articles | CommentsNamed after the fastest land animal, Cheetah is a four-legged robot under development by Boston Dynamics of Waltham, Mass., which features a flexible spine, articulated head and neck—and potentially a tail—that will run faster than humans.
Business Robot Provides Eyes and Ears for Remote Workers
April 8, 2011 5:12 am | Articles | CommentsThe Anybot QB is a telepresence robot from Anybots, Inc . , Mountain View, Calif., that enables users to work remotely through a Web interface and have "eyes and ears" at their work environment.
To Connect with Humans, Robots Must Act Like Humans
April 8, 2011 5:07 am | Articles | CommentsHow can robots use non-verbal communication to interact more naturally with humans? Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, found that when robots move in a more human-like fashion, with one movement leading into the next, that people can not only better recognize what the robot is doing, but they can also better mimic it themselves.
NASA's humanoid robot unveiled on space station
March 17, 2011 5:38 am | News | CommentsAstronauts at the International Space Station unpacked Robonaut on Tuesday, more than two weeks after arriving at the space station. Prying open its “coffin”, the crew was surprised to find the robot was missing. They soon found the ‘bot in front of a work station, already attempting to gain system control, HAL 9000-style.
