opinionated observations » Category: Experimental

Skylar Tibbits: Can we make things that make themselves?

Dru — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:01:28 +0000

MIT researcher Skylar Tibbits works on self-assembly — the idea that instead of building something (a chair, a skyscraper), we can create materials that build themselves, much the way a strand of DNA zips itself together. It’s a big concept at early stages; Tibbits shows us three in-the-lab projects that hint at what a self-assembling future might look like.

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Check out Swarmanoid, a Heterogeneous Robot Swarm

Dru — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:54:28 +0000

Swarmanoid is a heterogeneous robot swarm in which different groups of robots have different capabilities: some robots are specialized in manipulating objects and climbing, some in moving on the ground and transporting objects, and some in flying and observing the environment from above. This video presents the Swarmanoid project, a 4 year research project coordinated by Marco Dorigo and funded by the Commission of the European Union.

This video won the Best Video Award at the AI Video Competition.

More information at: http://www.swarmanoid.org/

A robot that flies like a bird

Dru — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:11:09 +0000

Plenty of robots can fly — but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts.

Sebastian Thrun: Google’s Driverless Car

Dru — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:54:36 +0000

Finally, what looks like some real progress getting driver-less cars moving onto the roads.

Watson & Artificial Intelligence

Dru — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:59:19 +0000

NewsHour Science correspondent Miles O’Brien goes head-to-circuit board with IBM’s computer Watson on the game show “Jeopardy!” to explore the limits of language and artificial intelligence for machines.