Engineering to inspire

Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto!

…Or four things that Robots can do better

It’s Robocup week. That got us thinking about how zippy mechanoids kicking a little plastic ball could help us develop bigger and better zippy mechanoids.

robocup2

Why?

‘Cause it’s hard to deny that robots are quite possibly the future. .

As Hans Moravec said in his article: Rise of the Robots --The Future of Artificial Intelligence in 2008…

“I am convinced that the decades-old dream of a useful, general-purpose autonomous robot will be realized in the not too distant future. By 2010 we will see mobile robots as big as people but with cognitive abilities similar in many respects to those of a lizard. The machines will be capable of carrying out simple chores, such as vacuuming, dusting, delivering packages and taking out the garbage.

“By 2040, I believe, we will finally achieve the original goal of robotics and a thematic mainstay of science fiction: a freely moving machine with the intellectual capabilities of a human being.”

It’s 2010 now, and Moravec’s simple robots with lizard-like cognition are appearing here and there. While 2040 is still a while away, we wondered what could robots do for us. So we brainstormed, thought and fought over civet cat coffee and came up with four ways that robots could be used in the future.

Do Dangerous Things

Robots could be employed to do dangerous and repetitive jobs. Most often, you’ll see robots in Manufacturing where they “cut and shape fabricated parts, assemble machinery and inspect manufactured parts. Some types of jobs robots do: load bricks, die cast, drill, fasten, forge, make glass, grind, heat treat, load/unload machines, machine parts, handle parts, measure, monitor radiation, run nuts, sort parts, clean parts, profile objects, perform quality control, rivet, sand blast, change tools and weld.”

Or they’re used to investigate hazardous and dangerous environments such as the inside of a nuclear reactor. Just strap a robot with cutters, cameras, coreborers and sensors, and you’ve got a spy tin man (like The Pioneer robot).

Live Vicariously Through Them

Asimo by Honda

Asimo is a robot created by Honda that responds to human thought. Right now, the technology only allows us to raise an arm or a leg, and you’ve to put on a helmet full of electrodes that are connected to a massive computer. It works by reading your brain’s electrical impulses and converting them into signals that the Asimo robot can understand. So think “raise hand and wave” and the robot will do so.

We’re also thinking of a certain bald action hero -- Bruce Willis, anyone?

Be Our Pets

We’d be keeping robots as pets in the future. They don’t need cleaning up after or throw tantrums (unless their circuits are crossed), and they can do a lot of interesting things.

Like The Furby -- a Mogwai look-alike electronic pet that “starts out speaking entirely Furbish, the unique language that all Furbies use, but are programmed to speak less Furbish as they gradually start using English.” (from Wikipedia). This touched off a whole slew of robot pets that could do things that other pets couldn’t. Plus, they’re really huggable.

Also we might begin to socially interact with human-like robots in the future.

They could train us to handle awkward social situations or just provide companionship for humans, like MIT’s Nexi – a human-like robot that speaks and uses complex hand movements and facial gestures. Of now, the greatest stumbling block is believability, a robot still looks artificial (and creepy). But the Japanese have invented a robot that looks just like a human and acts like one too. Perhaps robot playmates will be hitting the store shelves soon?

Look Cool

‘nuff said…

What else could robots contribute? Leave it in the comments!

Take the Create2011 engineering challenge and tell us your vision of Future Mobility to win the grand prize of: A Nokia Experiential Journey in Beijing and Singapore! Check out our Facebook fanpage for exciting contests & giveaways!

Just who is: Terence Swee of Muvee

This is a day in the life of Terence Swee: the “deal-seeking missile” (aka CEO) for Muvee.

“…getting on calls, preparing presentations, reading blogs/news, playing with our products, facebooking, talking with colleagues in the US office and customer meetings during the day. This could start as early as 7am as it will already be 10am in New York. I then try to hit the gym or cook dinner in the evenings to de-stress and get some thinking time in before getting online again at 8pm (which is noon in Singapore) where emails and calls from my Singapore headquarters will start pouring in. I typically stay online till about 2am (6pm in Singapore, 10am in Germany) with a little TV + wine + chocolate breaks in between.”

Whew!

Of course, he wasn’t always a businessman, Terence is actually an engineer cum jazz pianist dosed with curiosity. It all came together when he designed beat detection and emotional index algorithms to map the emotional strength of music. Those algorithms ultimately became Muvee in 2001.

But how does it all gel together for him? That’s what we’re here to find out…

FYI, the man took part in the Langkawi Ironman where he swam 3.8km, biked 180km and ran 42km. Why? “Cos I enjoy eating but still need to fit in an economy class seat…and also for lifetime bragging rights.”

For the Love of Humanity

What happened on UCreateChange.com (3-9 May 2010)

We were going through our UCreateChange Fanpage last week. And we were particularly struck by this comment: “It's so good to know there is an Engineer group, other than Doctors without Borders.” on our wall.

Featured Video: Home Made Wind Turbine

Need power? Use this home made wind turbine that costs a little under $400.

It sounds expensive for developing countries. But according to the makers, most of the parts can be scavenged from scrap yards, which would considerably bring down the cost.

Build your own wind generator. Very affordable very efficient. This system provides a marvelous opportunity for self employment. Check out the Green Employment Channel at http://lifeandlove.tv/ Alternative energy can be created by individuals. In these times of massive job losses ideas like these could pay your mortgage.

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Subscribe to UCreateChange’s YouTube Channel!

Featured Video: The emotion behind invention

Dean Kamen never did complete school. That didn’t stop him from inventing things to help people. He built the Segway and now he’s building prosthetic limbs for war veterans – 20 years old war veterans with an arm or none.

This talk on his prosthetic arm is riveting and moving. Listen to it and understand why he does what he does.

Soldiers who've lost limbs in service face a daily struggle unimaginable to most of us. At TEDMED, Dean Kamen talks about the profound people and stories that motivated his work to give parts of their lives back with his design for a remarkable prosthetic arm.

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My to do list…

What happened on UCreateChange.com (15-22 Mar 2010)

Things to do (don’t forget, E!):

Buy LEDS for The Bedazzler – the Handheld LED-Incapacitator
Swipe plastic bags for my candle-powered hot air balloon. Don’t forget the candles!
Finish a Tabasco sauce bottle. Spicy. But my friend’s faces when the bottle disappears in water. Priceless!
Borrow the Batmobile for a spin.
Get Killer Gerbil to doodle on my chalkboard table
Scrunge ice cream sticks for stick bombs!
Change the world…. Hrmmph… need help on this one. Got ideas? Email me please.

I believe I can fly: On flight and flying machines

1-8 Feb 2010

Lemme ask you a question: “Have you wanted to fly?”

If not, then you’re missing out on the greatest of all human inventions – our ability to fly. Admittedly we fly seated instead of flapping our arms like birds, but it’s certainly better than being landbound… and as a pilot friend of mine once said: “Once you’re up there, you’ll never want to come back down.”

But we might soon find our wings clipped if we don’t figure out how to reduce the ecological cost of flying (and all things locomotive). That’s why we heart this electric plane that allows us to fly from Singapore to KL in a single bound and on $2 too! And in a fit of natural inspiration, they’ve took a leaf out of a tree and modelled a single-wing airplane after it. Apparently it flies pretty ok. If you want it to go down.

But flight isn’t just confined to airplanes. It goes down into the seas with this personal submarine that’s modeled after airplanes and uses aerodynamic principles to float, dive and glide through the seas. And the Russians once tried to cross-breed a tank with a plane with surprising results.

Here’s a weird application where we can levitate things with sound. Originally intended as a way to clean moon and mars vehicles, Acoustic levitation might just be the boost that concerts need to outflank each other.

Finally, we’ve posted up photos of the Singapore Airshow 2010 on our Facebook Fanpage. Y’know… just in case you didn’t make it out to middle-of-nowhere Changi Exhibition Centre.

Click on any photo to see our entire gallery! (Takes you away from this blog)

Terrex ICV: ST Kinetics

We’re at the ST Kinetics’ skatepark for mechanical monsters. It’s a large smooth concrete testing ground of log-like humps, mountainous inclines, curved swathes and a wading pool that’s twice a man’s height.

And we’re crawling over the army’s latest toy – The Terrex – like a bunch of ants.

The 24-ton (that’s 24,000 kg) armour-plated vehicle looks like two D-day barges bookending a kosong sandwich on eight “I’m-gonna-crush-you” wheels. There were discreet lumps on the edges of the vehicle. The roof turret with an unblinking camera swivelled around and around. Human heads encased in large headphones poked through two hatches.

They disregard the baking sun. And revved up the engine.