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Researchers at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research are working on a new mathematical model to mimic the human brain's ability to identify objects. The model can predict human performance on certain visual-perception tasks suggesting it’s a good indication of what's actually happening in the brain. Researchers are hoping the new findings will make their way into future object-recognition systems for automation, mobile robotics, and other applications.

In its latest episode, the Robots Podcast interviews the lead researcher of the Distributed Flight Array and one of my colleagues at the ETH Zurich's IDSC, Raymond Oung. The Distributed Flight Array (DFA) is an aerial modular robot. Each individual module has a single, large propellor and a set of omniwheels to move around. Since a single propellor does not allow stable flight, modules move around to connect to each other. As shown in this video of the DFA, the resulting random shape then takes flight. After a few minutes of hovering the structure breaks up and modules fall back to the ground, restarting the cycle. As most projects at the IDSC, the DFA is grounded in rigorous mathematics and design principles and combines multiple goals: It serves as a real-world testbed for research in distributed estimation and control, it abstracts many of the real-world issues of the next generation of distributed multi-agent systems, and it provides an illustration for otherwise abstract concepts like distributed sensing and control to a general public. For more information on current work, future plans and real-world applications, read on or tune in!

When we first reported on the Willow Garage PR2 robot, it was just a prototype. Earlier this year, Willow Garage started their beta program, which gave eleven lucky organizations two year access to PR2 robots in exchange for furthering work on open source robotics software. Now we've received word from Willow Garage that the PR2 is officially for sale to anyone who wants it. This is not a toy or hobby robot, of course, so don't expect a small price tag. The full retail price is $400,000 per unit. However, if your organization can demonstrate a proven track record in developing open source software and making contributions to the robotics community, you can get a hefty $120,000 discount on your PR2. For more see our previous stories on Willow Garage and the PR2.

NI LabVIEW Robotics is a software package that provides a complete suite of tools to help you rapidly design sophisticated robotics systems for medical, agricultural, automotive, research, and military applications. The LabVIEW Robotics Software Bundle includes all of the functionality you need, from multicore real-time and FPGA design capabilities to vision, motion, control design, and simulation. Watch an introduction and demonstration of LabVIEW Robotics.

The Nippon Institute of Technology, with Harada Vehicle Design, ZMP, and ZNUG Design, have developed a humanoid robot about the size of an elementary school student for educational purposes.  The university adopted 35 of ZMP’s e-nuvo WALK robots in 2004 for a 1:1 student-robot ratio.  Whereas the e-nuvo WALK (the educational version of NUVO) is quite small, the new robot is tall enough to interact with its environment in a more meaningful way.  Students will demonstrate the robot at elementary and junior high schools, as well as care facilities.  The goal is to improve student learning by raising awareness of bipedal robot technology and its connection to math and physics, while also giving them hands-on experience with the bot.  Additionally, by visiting care facilities the university students will come to understand the real-world needs and applications for robots.

Robots mean many things to many people, and National Instruments offers intuitive and productive design tools for everything from designing autonomous vehicles to teaching robotics design principals. The NI LabVIEW graphical programming language makes it easy to program complex robotics applications by providing a high level of abstraction for sensor communication, obstacle avoidance, path planning, kinematics, steering, and more.

On Monday, National Instruments announced one such platform. It's called LabView Robotics. In addition to LabView, the popular data-acquisition application, the package includes a bunch of tools specific to robotics. It can import codes in various formats (C, C++, Matlab, VHDL), offers a library of drivers for a wide variety of sensors and actuators, and has modules for implementation of real-time and embedded hardware. NI says engineers could use the package to both design and run their robotic systems. 

Simulation enables people with a personal computer to develop very interesting robots, cars, spaceship, and an enormous range of scientific effects with the main limiting factors becoming time and imagination. A novice user with little to no coding experience can use simulation; developing interesting applications in a game-like environment.

During the Google IO event, two new great features of the popular Android OS were announced. The most important from a robotics point of view is the Android Open Accessory standard that is Arduino based and enables Android devices to integrate with hardware via usb (or bluetooth in the near future). You can read more in the posts on engadget.com and robots-dreams.com (where the video is from). Also engadget reports on the Android @ Home framework that aspires to interconnect every home appliance, device or gadget to an integrated network. More information and details will be announced soon from Google but already the potential for various robotic applications that could take advantage of these projects looks promising.

Google announced at Google IO conference 2011 that they will supply Android@Home framework for home automation to developers, giving them the ability to think of "every appliance in your home" as a potential accessory for your phone. The Google team teased ideas like lights turning on and off based on calendar events, applications talking to washing machines, games automatically adjusting for mood lighting, and basically little green dudes taking care of all the menial duties in your house. One amazing demo was a concept, Android-powered device hub called Tungsten. Using RFID embedded into CD cases the device was able to detect the CD and add it to your library. Another touch and it started automatically.

This video from PAL Robotics shows the teleoperation system of its REEM robot. Equipped with a Kinect sensor as a motion capture device, a laptop captures the gestures and movements of a person and feeds the result to the robot as commands. This process is called motion retargeting and the teleoperation system was developed by Marcus Liebhardt as part of his master thesis project. PAL Robotics is a small Spanish company based in Barcelona, part of the PAL Group from Abu Dhabi. It develops humanoid robots since 2004 and its latest version of the REEM line of robots focuses towards commercial applications.

aims at developing swarms of flying robots that can be deployed in disaster areas to rapidly create communication networks for rescuers. Flying robots are interesting for such applications because they are fast, can easily overcome difficult terrain, and benefit from line-of-sight communication.