that don’t,” according to Morgansen.
“That has implications for what will
happen in a group of vehicles. Can one
vehicle make the rest of the group do
something just based on its behavior?”
Like the live fish, the robotic ones
communicate with each other, in this
case using low-frequency sonar. Test
results showed that although only about
half of the transmitted communications
actually get through, the Robofish
programming allowed them to accomplish their task anyway. The next step
will be to let them loose in the ocean,
where they will be programmed to
trail a remote-controlled toy shark.
Ultimately, they could be dispatched
to explore caves and ice-covered
waters, track whales, map regions of
pollution, or harass baby seals.
Walk Like a Man
Most bots walk in the rigid,
clunky movements that are typical of
industrial machinery, toy robots, and
people who buy their shoes at
Wal-Mart. This differs from the much
more fluid way humans generally
move, which basically consists of
falling forward in a controlled
manner. But, in pursuit of a PhD,
Robot “Flame” walks like a human.
Photo courtesy of TU Delft.
researcher Daan Hobbelen of the
Delft University of Technology (TU
Delft) has developed an advanced
robot, called Flame, that
demonstrates that a robot can be
human-like, energy-efficient, and
highly stable. The overall goal is to
provide insight into how people walk,
which ultimately can be applied
to helping people with mobility
problems via improved diagnosis and
rehab. Flame employs seven motors,
a balance organ, and some proprietary algorithms to ensure a high
level of stability. The robot can, for
example, apply the information
provided by its balance organ to place
its feet slightly farther apart to
prevent falling. According to
Hobbelen, Flame’s advanced ankles
have already provided motion scientists
with advanced insight into how the
complicated joint works. For details,
visit www.dbl.tudelft.nl.
TP-Bot Wins Award
The award-winning TP-Bot 2008.
Photo courtesy of LEGO.
LEGO’s 2008 Earth Day Building
Challenge was to create a
MINDSTORMS NXT robot that “could
be used to help maintain a healthy,
sustainable environment.” The
Champion’s Award went to Dino
Martino’s TP-Bot 2008, which helps
save energy and the environment via
the efficient dispensing of toilet
Robytes
paper. The bot is compatible for use
by up to five different people
(presumably not all at once), and it
includes a scanner (to which users
present an access pass and a
four-digit secret code) and a paper
dispensing system. It even monitors
how much toilet paper is left on the
roll. Can’t you feel the greenhouse
gases abating already? For info on
this and others in the winners’ circle,
visit mindstorms.lego.com/news/.
New Hall of Fame Inductees
The Raibert Hopper.
Photo courtesy of MIT.
In case you missed it, the 2008
inductees into the Carnegie Mellon
Robot Hall of Fame ( www.robothallof
fame.org) are the Raibert Hopper,
NavLab5, LEGO® Mindstorms, and Lt.
Cmdr. Data. The Hopper (shown in the
photo) was developed in 1983-84 for
experiments on active balance and
dynamics in legged locomotion. Named
for its developer, Marc Raibert, the
one-legged bot could hop in place or
run at a top speed of 2.2 m/sec ( 4. 8
mph). Congrats to all. SV
SERVO 08.2008 9
