Bag of Beans » robotics

Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened?

Beanbag — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:38:27 +0000

Wired has a fascinating story about two AI researchers, both of whom committed suicide.

In 1991, Singh went to MIT to study artificial intelligence with his idol and soon attracted notice for his passion and mental stamina. Word was that he had read every single one of the dauntingly complex books on the shelves in Minsky’s office. A casual conversation with the smiling young researcher in the hallway or at a favorite restaurant like Kebab-N-Kurry could turn into an intense hour-long debate. As one fellow student put it, Singh had a way of “taking your idea and showing you what it looks like from about 50 miles up.”

The field of AI research that Singh was joining had a history of bipolar behavior, swinging from wild overoptimism to despair. When 2001 came out in the late ’60s, many believed that a thinking machine like HAL would exist well before the end of the 20th century, and researchers were flush with government grants. Within a few years, it had become apparent that these predictions were absurdly unrealistic, and the funding soon dried up.

Link (via Slashdot)

Robots Are a Soldier’s Best Friend

Beanbag — Thu, 10 May 2007 03:16:40 +0000

This article examines the emotional bond that soldiers are forming with their autonomous teammates.

Even more startling than these machines’ capabilities, however, are the effects they have on their friendly keepers who, for example, award their bots “battlefield promotions” and “purple hearts.” “Ours was called Sgt. Talon,” says Sgt. Michael Maxson of the 737th Ordnance Company (EOD). “We always wanted him as our main robot. Every time he was working, nothing bad ever happened. He always got the job done. He took a couple of detonations in front of his face and didn’t stop working. One time, he actually did break down in a mission, and we sent another robot in and it got blown to pieces. It’s like he shut down because he knew something bad would happen.” The troops promoted the robot to staff sergeant — a high honor, since that usually means a squad leader. They also awarded it three “purple hearts.”

Link (via Slashdot)

Wind-powered robots

Beanbag — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 02:21:08 +0000

This BMW commercial features some pretty amazing wind-powered kinetic sculptures.

Link (via Digg)

Microsoft Robotics Studio

Beanbag — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:05:26 +0000

Microsoft has released a robotics development environment, currently available for free download. It appears to be targeted for the Lego Mindstorms RCX, Lego Mindstorms NXT, and fishertechnik systems.

The Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. Key features and benefits of the Microsoft Robotics Studio environment include: end-to-end Robotics Development Platform, lightweight services-oriented runtime, and a scalable and extensible platform.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)