Cyborg Monkeys

Link to monkey eating via robot arm. Third robotic limbs? Sign me up!

NXT not doing it for you?

How about Roomba? Still no? Well this site looks pretty neat. I've only poked around a bit on it, but I think I know where my summer's going to go: Building robots.

The perfect woman

Lonely? Single? Robots?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wYWAlg8Do&feature=user

Follow up to Prof. Gregory's Talk

Thanks again to Prof. Paul Gregory for his great talk today! I wanted to post a few of links related to things that Prof. Gregory mentioned. First, recall the functionalist idea that you can build a mind out of any sort of material that "gets the job done". A classic-proof-of-concept for functionalism is the tic-tac-toe player that Danny Hillis built from Tinkertoys. (The idea that functionalism may get you no farther than tic-tac-toe is one of the themes of our course.) Second, the Story of Mel is a delightful example of how the best programmers exploit what has come to be called the leaky levels concept. Finally, Wikipedia has a pretty good entry on the Frame Problem that Prof. Gregory and I discussed.

Faster Bluetooth access with NXT_Python

Here is a modified version of the mary.py example we've been using to test our Bluetooth setup in NXT_Python. The modification is to construct a Bluetooth socket directly on the MAC address of a known host brick, without searching for available devices.

Lawnbots...

Check this out from Slate.com

Slimebots!

Today's discussion of the remarkable slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum reminded me of the strange and wonderful work of Andy Adamatzky (dig the wig). Andy uses a different slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, to model, let us say, "non-traditional" computation.

This video is pretty much straight out of the Clark text. Cockroach robots...

Robobug Goes to War

Just in time for our Tuesday (11AM, May 7, Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons) lecture by Ron Arkin, this article describes the coming deployment of tiny, insect-like robots for reconnaissance on the battlefield.

Modular robot reassembles when kicked apart

A CSCI 250 alum sent this link, about a modular robot that reassembles itself after it's kicked. It reminds me of the work of Cornell scientist Hod Lipson (who spoke here last year). "Kickable" robots have become something of a cottage industry!