Robotics rock
New features for digital music, new programs for Canadian developers
If anything proves that robots have migrated from science fiction to the mainstream, it’s Justin Bieber.
His appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show may have left some robotic developers scratching their head at the connection, but hey, this robot dances!
Bieber was at CES to help introduce the mrobo Ultra Bass (www.tosy.com/en/products/ personal-robots/ mrobo/), a portable speaker with the barest of robotic capabilities — it “dances” to the music it plays, and it responds to some wireless commands via Bluetooth.
mrobo, from Vietnam’s TOSY Robotics, (www.tosy.com/) was one of some two dozen robotic products and concepts shown at CES, many addressing the home entertainment and consumer electronic marketplace.
In the CES Robotics Techzone exhibit area, it was clear that robots are having a dramatic impact in many other sectors, (www.therobotreport.com) like manufacturing, undersea exploration, search and recovery, health care and medicine, and as the sci-fi writers first envisioned, space exploration.
Not at CES, but now in orbit, is Robonaut2, a unique humanoid robot that has a ticket on the International Space Station (ISS). (www.nasa.gov/station)
The remarkably dexterous robot is able to hold, lift and manipulate light and heavier weights far beyond the ability of any previous robot.
More importantly, it is seen as safe enough to work side-by-side with humans (and in a rather delicate environment like outer space.)
The military surely has its uses for robotic technology, too, but companies at CES emphasized a consumer orientation, not militaristic.
So Bieber was also seen touting Xybotyx (http://xybotyx.com), a company that released one of the very first commercially available consumer robots developed exclusively for Apple IOS platforms.
But the company says there is a lot more to come, including major changes to the very definition of mobile devices.
Perhaps a change in the definition of robot is needed, because they are being used by so many people in so many new ways. (www.everything-robotic.com/)
That’s why robotic educators, researchers and technologists in Canada have created a registered charity called First Robotics Canada. (www.firstrobotics canada.org/main/)
It regularly conducts and co-ordinates robotics competitions across the country, aimed at school-age students at the elementary, junior high school and senior high school level, and designed to celebrate success in science, technology and engineering.
Next month, for example, it’s holding its first event of the New Year, one of many that will make up the 2012 Robotics Competition season.
Some 32 teams from Ontario and Quebec schools will participate.
The federal government has made significant investment in the group, and the robotic competitions it stages across the country.
As another example, more than 400 middle and senior high school students from across Nova Scotia recently gathered for a championship robotics tournament where robotic vehicles with solar power were being worked on by several competitors.
Robots can inhabit the physical world, of course, but also the virtual online world, where lots of robotic information is available.
Robotshop.com (www.robotshop.com/ca/) is a new cloud computing service specifically designed for robots — and robot owners and builders.
The site and its related portals allow people to connect their robots, and other so-called “smart objects,” as well as monitor their status, and control them using an open API.
A related portal (www.myrobots.com/) will soon offer downloadable and cloud-based robotic applications and the robotics community will have the opportunity to participate in developing its own new products.
Back at CES, there were tools to help robot designers and developers of all ages on display. Called Cubelets, they’re mag netic blocks that can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires.
They can have wheels, lights, and respond to sound or temperature cues.
But instead of programming that behaviour, you snap the cubelets together and watch lifelike behaviours emerge.
Each cubelet has different equipment on board and a different default behaviour, and they act like our eyes and ears.
Just don’t play too much Bieber to them!