Just keep them away from the potato salad.

Researchers from a European research agency, Information Society Technologies, have developed mini-robots that act in a swarm, much like ants. Although these robots' cooperative behavior was inspired by the actions of the tiny ant, their ability to swarm could eventually take them to outer space.

By working together, these mobile small robots can accomplish physical tasks that an individual robot of much greater size could not manage, said Marco Dorigo of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, who coordinated the project. IST is also headquartered in Brussels.

These 5-inch robots, developed by researchers at Information Societies Technology in Europe, act together in a 35-robot swarm, mimicking ant behavior.

Nearly 5 inches wide, these mini-robots are packed with computing power, sensors, and actuators. Dorigo's team created 35 complete s-bots—the individual bots that make up one swarm.

In one experiment, the s-bots linked up in a bridgelike formation to pass over a hole in the ground. In another, they jointly carried objects too weighty for a single robot to handle.

Each robot's instrumentation includes a panoramic camera, sensors that detect sound, infrared light, temperature, and humidity, motors to operate its grippers, and WiFi and USB connections. The s-bots attach to one another using their grippers.

What could these robots do if they move beyond prototype?

"They could help in disasters—for instance, picking through earthquake rubble to find trapped people," Dorigo said. "They could also be built into homes and buildings, emerging when needed to check out the local environment by creeping along the floor, walls, or ceilings."

The s-bots are still far from real-world applications. Yet they have attracted the attention of some researchers as a possible means to help construct structures on other planets, he added.

When it comes to computer peripherals, $500 is a tough nut to make. Most people wouldn't expect to pay that much for a mouse, for instance. So it's hard to compete with a mouse, even if you tell people that your piece of hardware manipulates images and navigates virtual spaces quicker and more smoothly than the usual point-and-click method.

A company in San Jose, Calif., 3Dconnexion, has been marketing several control devices that let computer operators tilt, pan, zoom, and rotate 3-D images in a more or less intuitive manner. The company said it has been doing good business, although its prices have been high, at $499.

Hoping to reach a wider market for its products, 3Dconnexion has restructured its line of navigators and now is offering four models beginning at $99 and going to $399. (There is also a nonprofessional, or personal, license that offers the least-expensive model at $59 to put it in the hands of students, hobbyists, the technically enthusiastic, and the merely curious.)

Beyond the mouse: Controllers priced from $99 to $399 are designed to help an operator manipulate 3-D computer images more efficiently.

According to 3Dconnexion, the controllers work with more than 100 applications, including a variety of 3-D CAD systems and the new Adobe 3-D Acrobat viewer. They also work with the 3-D map software of Google Earth. The least expensive model, called the SpaceNavigator, operates in Windows. The other three, including the lightweight portable called the Traveler, are compatible with Linux and Unix, as well as Windows.

Each model has different function keys, but they all have a cylindrical control stick that looks like an inverted Dixie cup and fits in the hand. As the user spins, lifts, or tilts the cylinder, a CAD image on the screen will move in the corresponding direction.

The company also has introduced updated software, 3DxSoftware 3.0, with a new Configuration Wizard. Two older controller models, SpaceBall and SpaceMouse, have been discontinued, although they will continue to be supported through December 2009.

When the company's president, Rory Dooley, stopped by to give us a demonstration, the fluid movement reminded us of a video game. It may not be as energetic as the boxing simulator you see at the mall, but it seems to make the use of CAD and other 3-D graphics applications more efficient.

A 3Dconnexion controller isn't intended to replace a mouse, and with some software, like Microsoft Word, it wouldn't do as good a job. It is a supplemental tool. But then, as Dooley pointed out, that gives it additional, ergonomic benefits. The controller takes some of the work that a mouse does and shifts it to the other hand.

Yes, this robot could one day unload your dishwasher. But would it wash your windows?

By programming a robot with software that enables it to pick up objects it has never seen before, scientists at Stanford University in California say they're one step closer to creating a real-life Rosie, the robot maid from The Jetsons cartoon show.

The scientists want the robot to be capable of performing everyday tasks, such as unloading the dishwasher.

"Within a decade, we hope to develop the technology that will make it useful to put a robot in every home and office," said Andrew Ng, an assistant professor of computer science. He leads the wireless Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot, or STAIR, project.

"Imagine you're having a dinner party at home and your robot comes in and tidies up your living room, finding the cups that your guests left behind your couch, picking up and putting away your trash, and loading the dishwasher," Ng said.

Cleaning up after a party is just one of four challenges the researchers set out for the robot to tackle. They also want it to be able to fetch a person or object from another room at verbal request, show guests around a new environment, and assemble an IKEA bookshelf using several tools. (That last task is more than many humans can do.)

The true problem remains making the robot act independently, Ng said. Industrial robots can follow precise scripts to the point of balancing a spinning top on a blade, he said, but the problem comes when a robot is asked to perform a new task. The secret is in the software, Ng said.

Although this vehicle has three wheels, that's about the only way it resembles a tricycle.

With two wheels in front and one in the back, the Brudeli 625L combines features of a four-wheeled vehicle and a motorcycle, according to its inventor, Geir Brudeli. It could become street legal in the United States sometime this year.

The Brudeli 625L is a little bit auto and a little bit motorcycle, with a smidge of all-terrain vehicle thrown in for good measure. And it could become available in the United States this year.

Brudeli said he wanted a design that melds motorcycle, small car, and off-road four-wheeler. The result: a unique-looking vehicle with two motorcycle tires in front that slant at 45-degree angles to the ground when the bike is stopped. This construction allows the rider to lean into corners—as if on a motorcycle—at high speed without spinning out of control or rolling over, Brudeli said.

His team members at Brudeli Tech AS in Hokksund, Norway, used the computer-aided design package from SolidWorks in Concord, Mass., for component design.
Brudeli expects to begin shipping the Brudeli 625L in 2007, primarily to the United States and European markets.

Scientists and researchers involved in the TeraGrid project met face-to-face, many for the first time, at an Indianapolis conference late last year devoted to the grid.

The TeraGrid marries the supercomputing power of eight institutions: the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Chicago-Argonne National Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Purdue University, Indiana University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The grid offers more than 100 teraflops of computing ability. That's 100 trillion floating point operations per second, or about the same computing capability as 28,000 desktop computers.

Scientists use the grid to conduct complex experiments like modeling climate, predicting earthquakes, and forecasting weather, said Sebastien Goasguen, a senior information technology research scientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. He was the conference co-chair.

For example, the San Diego Supercomputing Center led a project that simulated a 7.7 magnitude earthquake along the San Andreas Fault. The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, working with researchers at the University of Oklahoma, developed weather forecasts that accurately predicted thunderstorms within a 20-mile radius and within 30 minutes of when they actually occurred, Goasguen said.

By creating 3-D animated visualizations, George Karniadakis, a professor of applied mathematics at Brown University in Providence, R.I., used the grid to study the way blood flows through arteries. Because the 3-D models required more computer memory than a single computer could provide, the computations for this model were distributed across the TeraGrid, he said.

Man is not a machine, thank goodness.

Machines, like robots and computers, can only carry out tasks or solve problems that are rooted in algorithms—a mathematical set of rules the robot follows. But because humans aren't powered by calculation, students sometimes have a hard time grasping the complex and abstract concept behind machine programming, according to José Manuel Benítez Sánchez. He's a professor in the department of computing sciences and artificial intelligence at the University of Granada in Spain.

To make it easier for his students to think about the brains behind the machine, the professor has developed a soon-to-be-launched Web site that delves into algorithm theory in an easily explainable way. It will also include an interactive component so that students can put to use what they've learned.

"It will be an environment for the live run of algorithms, easy to use and quite intuitive," Benítez Sánchez said.

Robots running amok and destroying property may be a staple of science fiction films, but they aren't welcome in factories, warehouses, or any other places where automatic guided vehicle forklifts—essentially, robot forklifts—are used.

Now Transbotics, a Charlotte, N.C., manufacturer of those forklifts, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., are working together on sensors to help robot forklifts negotiate obstacles and home in on warehouse pallets. With the sensors, robot forklifts could maneuver, load and unload pallets, check out the space remaining in a truck they're unloading, and track the number of pallets that still need handling, according to a statement from NIST.

Robot forklifts can see objects in their way—after a fashion—with the help of sensors that take colored images and with computer software that interprets those images.

The experimental system is composed of two optical devices and software. One optical device measures the properties of scattered laser light to get information on objects in the way of the forklift, NIST said. The second device essentially pans the scene and then reconstructs it in colored images that indicate proximity to an object. That device can also return information as a 3-D data-point cloud.

Software sends device data—like the colors or point-cloud info—to the robot forklift's control center for interpretation by software there.

Catform and Catstamp, a suite of software for design, simulation, and costing of sheet-metal components, is now compatible with Catia version five release 17. The suite is from Forming Technologies Inc. of Oakville, Ontario.

A maker of engineering analysis software, Ansys Inc. of Southpointe, Pa., has released version 1.1 of its Icewave electromagnetic compatibility and interference analysis software.

PTC of Needham, Mass., has released a version of its PDM software, Windchill PDMLink 8.0, which can run on HP Integrity servers powered by Intel titanium 64-bit processor architecture.

Geometric Software Solutions of Research Triangle Park, N.C., has released GeomCaliper for Pro/Engineer version 2.0. It measures and checks the wall thickness of Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3-D models.

Altair Engineering Inc. of Troy, Mich., has released its RADIOSS transient, nonlinear computer-aided engineering software for the Windows Server 2003 platform.

Comsol of Burlington, Mass., has introduced a new acoustics module in the Comsol multiphysics analysis product line.

MSC.Software of Santa Ana, Calif., has formed a partnership with Incat of Novi, Mich., a product lifecycle management maker. Incat will now support and provide MSC.Software's applications.

home | features | breaking news | marketplace | departments | about ME back issues | ASME | site search

© 2007 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers