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  • Exemplifying the attempts by Japanese researchers to put a friendly face on their robots, DB's creators are teaching it the Kacha-shi, an Okinawan folk dance. Unlike most robots, DB did not acquire the dance by being programmed. Instead, it observed human dancers?project researchers, actually, and repeatedly attempted to mimic their behavior until it was successful. Project member Stefan Schaal, a neurophysicist at the University of Southern California (in red shirt), believes that by means of this learning process robots will ultimately develop a more flexible intelligence. It will also lead, he hopes, to a better understanding of the human brain. The DB project is funded by the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) Humanoid Project and led by independent researcher Mitsuo Kawato. Based at a research facility 30 miles outside of Kyoto, Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 51.
    Japan_JAP_rs_234_qxxs.jpg
  • Joseph Ayers, head of Northeastern University's Marine Research Laboratory, has been researching lobster locomotion for more than twenty years. Based on Ayers's studies, staff researcher Jan Witting is building a robotic lobster that will capture in detail the behavior of a real lobster. The project has enough potential for sweeping mines that it is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Nahant, Massachusettes. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 110-111.
    USA_rs_7_qxxs.jpg
  • Showing off its dexterity, DB slowly juggles three small round beanbags under the alert supervision of researcher Tomohiro Shibata. The DB project is funded by the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) Humanoid Project and led by independent researcher Mitsuo Kawato. Based at a research facility 30 miles outside of Kyoto, Japan, Kowato began work by adapting a robot designed by SARCOS, a Utah robotics company. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 52-53.
    Japan_JAP_rs_278_qxxs.jpg
  • Atsuo Takanishi of the Humanoid Research Laboratory, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, conversing with writer Faith D'Aluisio at his university laboratory. One of the leading researchers at Japan's Waseda University's long-term robotics project, mechanical engineer Atsuo Takanishi studied under the late Ichiro Kato, a robotics pioneer, and superb fundraiser, who made the school into the epicenter of the field. Continuing Kato's emphasis on "biomechatronics", replicating the functions of animals with machines, Takanishi now supervises the research group that produced WABIAN-RII (behind him in photograph). From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 18.
    Japan_JAP_rs_287_qxxs.jpg
  • DB gazes intently at the camera by means of two pairs of lenses in each "eye." In a configuration increasingly common in humanoid robots, one lens in each pair sharply focuses on the center of the visual field while the other gives a broader perspective. These two points of view, surprisingly, mimic the human eye, which seamlessly blends together information from the fovea centralis, a small area of precise focus in the center of the retina, and the parafovea, a larger, but much less acute area surrounding the fovea. Similarly, DB has a vestibular system in its ears, vestibular systems being the inner-ear mechanisms that people use to balance themselves.  The DB project is funded by the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) Humanoid Project and led by independent researcher Mitsuo Kawato. Based at a research facility 30 miles outside of Kyoto, Japan.
    Japan_JAP_rs_235_qxxs.jpg
  • By creating a simulacrum of the human eye, the DB project leader and biophysicist Mitsuo Kawato hopes to learn more about human vision. The DB project is funded by the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) Humanoid Project and led by independent researcher Mitsuo Kawato. Based at a research facility 30 miles outside of Kyoto, Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 55.
    Japan_JAP_rs_227_qxxs.jpg
  • Readying for the RoboCup championship in Sweden, Jörg Wilberg (rear left) and his research team at the German National Research Center (GMD) outside Bonn, Germany review the prospects of their five-machine robot-soccer squad. The GMD team plays in the medium-sized division, which uses a real soccer ball on a field about a third as big as a basketball court. Each robot monitors the position of the ball with a video camera; special software lets the machine track its round shape. Kneeling on the floor, researcher Peter Schöll tests the software by observing the image of the ball in the monitor. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 215
    GER_rs_5_qxxs.jpg
  • Photographed at a baptismal font in the chapel of Schloss Burlinghoven, a nineteenth-century castle on the campus of the German National Center for Information Technology, the walking robot Sir Arthur stands with its creator, research scientist Frank Kirchner. Sir Arthur began as a relatively simple robot with sonarlike "vision" that prevented it from trapping itself in corners and snagging itself on obstacles. It was successful enough that Kirchner obtained funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to assemble a team of researchers from diverse disciplines: computer science, math, physics, and electronic and mechanical engineering, to build an enhanced, solar-powered version that can cross rough outdoor terrain. Germany. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 112
    GER_rs_2_qxxs.jpg
  • Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator used to test weapon components at Sandia National Laboratory site at Albuquerque, New Mexico USA. Sandia was established in 1945 as a weapons stockpiling site. Since then, Sandia has diversified to study a variety of science applications. These include research and development in fossil, solar, geothermal and nuclear energy production, nuclear waste management and environmental research. Sandia is also responsible for the design and development of non- nuclear components for atomic weapons. (1984)
    USA_SCI_NUKE_59_xs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research: Research on exercise in cold water, part of an assessment of exercise regimes for victims of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth, a volunteer rides an exercise bicycle while immersed in cold water at a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit. A variety of probes measure his vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. The tube connected to his mouth delivers a monitored air supply. People afflicted by MS need regular exercise, but the rise in body temperature this provokes often causes uncontrollable shaking. Exercise in cold water helps counter this effect. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_02_xs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research: Research on exercise in cold water, part of an assessment of exercise regimes for victims of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth, a volunteer rides an exercise bicycle while immersed in cold water at a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit. A variety of probes measure his vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. The tube connected to his mouth delivers a monitored air supply. People afflicted by MS need regular exercise, but the rise in body temperature this provokes often causes uncontrollable shaking. Exercise in cold water helps counter this effect. MODEL RELEASED [1988]  .Hypothermia is a medical condition in which the victim's core body temperature has dropped to significantly below normal and normal metabolism begins to be impaired. This begins to occur when the core temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). If body temperature falls below 32 °C (90 °F), the condition can become critical and eventually fatal. Body temperatures below 27 °C (80 °F) are almost uniformly fatal, though body temperatures as low as 14 °C (57.5 °F) have been known to be survivable.  [[http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Hypothermia]]
    USA_SCI_HYP_01_xs.jpg
  • Human Genome Project: Charles R. Cantor and Cassandra Smith, American biologists, photographed in a laboratory at Columbia University, New York, in May 1989. Cantor's area of research is human genetics. With colleagues at Columbia, he has contributed to work on the human genome project, an ambitious plant to construct a complete biochemical document detailing every gene expressed on each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. Smith's area of research is human genetics. With colleagues at Columbia, she has contributed to work on the human genome project, an ambitious plant to construct a complete biochemical document detailing every gene expressed on each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. MODEL RELEASED.
    USA_SCI_HGP_28_xs.jpg
  • Harvard scientist Walter Gilbert studying a DNA sequencing autoradiogram, made in the course of research associated with the human genome project. The term genome describes the full set of genes expressed by an organism's chromosomes. A gene is a section of DNA that instructs a cell to make a specific protein. The task of constructing such a complete blueprint of genetic information for humans is divided into two main phases: mapping genes and other markers on chromosomes, and decoding the DNA sequences of genes on all the chromosomes. Numerous laboratories worldwide are engaged on various aspects of genome research. MODEL RELEASED.
    USA_SCI_HGP_26_xs.jpg
  • Mark Weiser (b. 1952), director of research at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), California. One of Silicon Valley's most visionary computer companies, Xerox PARC is the birthplace of the computer workstation, the mouse and the "graphical user interface" - the now universal system of interacting with computers through windows and icons. Mark Weiser worked on ubiquitous computing (?The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.?) After-hours he was the drummer for a rock band called Severe Tire Damage..He died of cancer in (1997)
    USA_SCI_COMP_13_120_xs.jpg
  • Harold Cohen, former director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA), is the author of the celebrated AARON program, an ongoing research effort in autonomous machine (art making) intelligence. Cohen is seen looking at his creation, a robot "artist" that painted the picture in the background. California, USA
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  • Hypothermia Research: Dr. Robert S. Pozos, Director of the Hypothermia Research Lab at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia in Duluth. (Blocks of ice brought in for photo.) MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_07_xs.jpg
  • Sidling along the edge of a reservoir outside Boston, MA., Ariel the crab-robot moves with a slow, steady, sideways gait. A machine with a serious purpose, it is designed to scuttle from the shore through the surf to search for mines on the ocean floor. Ariel was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and built by iRobot, a company founded by MIT robot guru Rodney Brooks. Inspired by research on crabs at Robert Full's lab at Berkeley, Ariel takes advantage of the animal's stability and improves on it. But despite its abilities, the technician in charge of the machine, Ed Williams, supervises Ariel's excursions with great anxiety. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 100.
    USA_rs_307_qxxs.jpg
  • Just below the surface of a reservoir outside Boston, MA,  robot Ariel, built by the Massachusetts firm iRobot, walks sideways like the crab it is patterned on. A machine with a serious purpose, it is designed to scuttle from the shore through the surf to search for mines on the ocean floor. Ariel was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and built by iRobot, a company founded by MIT robot guru Rodney Brooks. Inspired by research on crabs at Robert Full's lab at Berkeley, Ariel takes advantage of the animal's stability and improves on it. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 84-85.
    USA_rs_306_qxxs.jpg
  • Reviewing the results of her work, Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Manuela Veloso (kneeling) watches the university soccer-robot team chase after the ball on a field on the floor of her lab. Every year, the Carnegie Mellon squad plays against other soccer-robot teams from around the world in an international competition known as RoboCup. Veloso's team, CMUnited, is highly regarded. Flanked by research engineer Sorin Achim, postdoctoral fellow Peter Stone, and graduate research assistant Michael Bowling (right to left), Veloso is running through the current year's strategy a month before the world championships in Stockholm. CMU's AIBO team members are Scott Lenser, Elly Winner, and James Bruce. Pittsburgh, PA. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 214.
    USA_rs_114_qxxs.jpg
  • Researchers adjust the mechanism of WE-3RIII, Waseda University's head robot, after it accidentally whiplashed into its own wires. In a situation all too familiar to robotics researchers, Atsuo Takanishi ( hand on right) is trying to make his creation work. His research team's robot, WE-3RIII (Waseda Eye Number 3 Refined Version III) can follow a light with its digital-camera eyes, moving its head if needed. In the laboratory the robot worked perfectly, its movements almost disconcertingly lifelike. But while being installed at a robot exhibit in Tokyo, WE-3RIII inexplicably and violently threw back its head, tearing apart its own wiring. Now Takanishi and one of his students (hand on left) are puzzling over the problem and will solve it only in the early hours of the morning before the exhibit opened. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 233.
    Japan_JAP_rs_59_qxxs.jpg
  • Researcher John Kumph monitors the free-swimming robot pike he has designed. The robot is used in research into the swimming efficiency of fish. The robot is powered by motors, which pull on its skeleton, producing a realistic swimming stroke. It is steered by its fins. A human operator using a radio controls the battery-powered robot. Photographed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA,  USA.
    Usa_rs_534_xs.jpg
  • Looming out of the shadows in the Humanoid Research Lab of Tokyo's Waseda University, WABIAN-RII is capable of walking and even dancing. WABIAN sways from side to side as it walks, but its builders are not discouraged by its imperfections: walking in a straight line, which humans can do without thinking, in fact requires coordinated movements of such fantastic complexity that researchers are pleased if their creations can walk at all. Indeed, researchers built the robot partly to help themselves understand the physics of locomotion. It took decades of work to bring WABIAN to its present state: its first ancestor was built in 1972. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 36.
    Japan_JAP_rs_230_qxxs.jpg
  • Physics: NASA/AMES Researchers in Mountain View, California. D. Hudgins, J Dworkin, M. Berstein (Left to Right). Looking for P.A.H. in the lab at Nasa Ames. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of very stable organic molecules made up of only carbon and hydrogen. Photographed at NASA's Ames Research Center, California, USA.- Origin of Life 1999.
    USA_SCI_PHY_23_xs.jpg
  • USA_SCI_PHAR_01_xs .Pherin Pharmaceutical in Mountain View, California. Dr. C Jennings-White, Vice-President. Chemical research in lab with test compounds. MODEL RELEASED (2002).Pherin Pharmaceutical produces a family of pharmaceutical compounds called vomeropherins. These compounds are delivered to the vomeronasal organ (VNO) that in turn affects the hypothalamus and the limbic system. The human VNO is linked to the hypothalamus and limbic areas, which enables Pherin to develop therapeutic drugs targeted against a variety of medical conditions associated with these brain regions such as mood disorders, neuro-endocrine function, body weight management, body temperature, sexual motivation, water and salt balance, blood pressure, and sugar and fat metabolism. .The vomeronasal organ (VNO) or Jacobson's organ is an auxiliary olfactory sense organ in some tetrapods. In adults, it is located in the vomer bone, between the nose and the mouth. Anatomical studies demonstrate that in humans the vomeronasal organ regresses during fetal development, as is the case with some other mammals, including other apes, cetaceans, and some bats. There is no evidence of a neural connection between the organ and the brain in adult humans. Nevertheless, a small pit can be found in the nasal septum of some people, and some researchers have argued that this pit represents a functional vomeronasal organ. Thus, its possible presence in humans remains controversial.
    USA_SCI_PHAR_01_xs.jpg
  • Deftly opening a door, the Honda P3 walks its assigned path at the Honda Research Center, outside Tokyo, Japan. The product of a costly decade-long effort, the Honda robotic project was only released from its shroud of corporate secrecy in 1996. In a carefully choreographed performance, P3 walks a line, opens a door, turns a corner, and, after a safety chain is attached, climbs a flight of stairs. Despite its mechanical sophistication, it can't respond to its environment. If people were to step in its way, the burly robot would knock them down without noticing them. Ultimately, of course, Honda researchers hope to change that. But, in what seems an attempt to hedge the company's bet, P3 senior engineer Masato Hirose is also working on sending the robot to places where it cannot possibly injure anyone. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 42.
    Japan_JAP_rs_16_qxxs.jpg
  • Ariel the crab-robot moves with a slow, steady, sideways gait. A machine with a serious purpose, it is designed to scuttle from the shore through the surf to search for mines on the ocean floor. Ariel was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and built by iRobot, a company founded by MIT robot guru Rodney Brooks. Robo sapiens Project.
    Usa_rs_337_nxs.jpg
  • Baby It's skin partially removed to reveal its inner workings, this prototype robot baby can mimic the facial expressions of a human infant by changing the contours of its lifelike rubber face. Called BIT, for Baby IT, the mechanical tot is yet more proof that much robotic research will see its first commercial application in the toy and entertainment industry. My Real Baby, the market version of BIT, is scheduled to debut in US stores in late 2000; it is a collaboration between Hasbro, the US toy giant, and iRobot, a small company started by MIT researcher Rodney Brooks.  Somerville, MA. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 229.
    USA_rs_72_qxxs.jpg
  • Being carried along the edge of a reservoir outside Boston, MA by iRobot technician Ed Williams, Ariel the crab-robot is able to move with a slow, steady, sideways gait. A machine with a serious purpose, it is designed to scuttle from the shore through the surf to search for mines on the ocean floor. Ariel was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and built by iRobot, a company founded by MIT robot guru Rodney Brooks. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 101.
    USA_rs_338_qxxs.jpg
  • Case Western research biologist James Watson nudges a cockroach onto an insect-sized treadmill, intending to measure the actions of its leg muscles with minute electrodes. To ensure that the roach runs on its course, Watson coaxes it onward with a pair of big tweezers. In the experiment, the electrode readings from the insect's leg are matched to its movements, recorded by a high-speed video camera. Cleveland, OH. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 105.
    USA_rs_322_qxxs.jpg
  • At the Tsukuba Mechanical engineering Lab (M.E.L.), Japan, a robotic hand with tactile sensors gently grips an orange. The robotic hand is equipped with tactile sensors in the finger tips to transmit a signal back to the operator. Designed by Hitoshi Maekawa Ph.D. a researcher in the cybernetics division of the Department of Robotics of Tuskuba MEL. Over the last 8 years, Maekawa has developed a robotic hand with tactile sensors that can hold items in its fingertips and compensate for slippage. His research is into dynamic grasping force control for a multi-fingered hand. (Paper on project was presented at the IEEE International Conference On Robotics and Automation, 1996. Work is ongoing).
    Japan_Jap_rs_32A_120_xs.jpg
  • Looking into the eyes of Jack the robot, Gordon Cheng tests its response to the touch of his hand. Researchers at the Electrotechnical Lab at Tsukuba, an hour away from Tokyo, Japan, are part of a project funded by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency to develop a humanoid robot as a research vehicle into complex human interactions. With the nation's population rapidly aging, the Japanese government is increasingly funding efforts to create robots that will help the elderly. Project leader Yasuo Kuniyoshi wants to create robots that are friendly and quite literally soft, the machinery will be sheathed in thick padding. In contrast to a more traditional approach, Kuniyoshi wants to program his robot to make it learn by analyzing and fully exploiting its natural constraints. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 56-57.
    Japan_JAP_rs_279_qxxs.jpg
  • One of the leading researchers at Japan's Waseda University's long-term robotics project, mechanical engineer Atsuo Takanishi studied under the late Ichiro Kato, a robotics pioneer, and superb fundraiser, who made the school into the epicenter of the field. Continuing Kato's emphasis on "biomechatronics", replicating the functions of animals with machines, Takanishi now supervises the research group that produced WABIAN-RII (behind him in photograph). Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 39.
    Japan_JAP_rs_254_qxxs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; volunteers in survival suit test immersed in cold water at a temperature of 53 degrees Fahrenheit (10 °C). A variety of probes measure their vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_05_xs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; volunteers immersed in cold water at a temperature of 53 degrees Fahrenheit (10 °C). A variety of probes measure their vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_03_xs.jpg
  • Airborne infrared astronomy. Alan Meyer (left) and Roger Hildebrand seen during a flight of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO). The screen displays show the image made by the alignment telescope (left) and the infrared telescope (right). The KAO is a converted Lockheed C-141A Starlifter aircraft, containing a 90-cm infrared telescope. Flying at up to 12,500 meters, the KAO can cruise well above most of the atmospheric water vapor,, which absorbs far-infrared radiation. The KAO also contains computerized data reduction and analysis stations. Operated by NASA, the first flight of the KAO was in January [1992] NASA AMES Research Center at Moffett Field, Mountain View, California. Infrared telescope looking at gas clouds. [1992]
    USA_SCI_NASA_15_xs.jpg
  • In a spanking new, richly-appointed research center above a busy shopping street in Tokyo's stylish Harajuku district, Hiroaki Kitano shows off his robot soccer team. In addition to Kitano's humanoid-robot work at Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, a five-year, government-funded ERATO project, Kitano is the founder and chair of Robot World Cup Soccer (RoboCup), an annual soccer competition for robots. There are four classes of contestants: small, medium, simulated, and dog (using Sony's programmable robot dogs). Kitano's small-class RoboCup team consists of five autonomous robots, which kick a golf ball around a field about the size of a ping-pong table. An overhead video camera feeds information about the location of the players to remote computers, which use the data to control the robots' offensive and defensive moves. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 213 top.
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  • Veterinarian School - Tropical diseases research lab. MODEL RELEASED.
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  • Guam; Earl Campbell's brown tree snake research in a jungle area near Andersen Air Force Base. Snakes trapped, tagged, sexed, measured, weighed and released. . There are no birds on the Pacific Island of Guam thanks to the Brown Tree Snake. These hungry egg-eating snakes have overrun the tropical island after arriving on a lumber freighter from New Guinea during World War II. Besides wiping out the bird population, Brown Tree Snakes cause frequent power outages: they commit short circuit suicide when climbing between power lines.
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  • Earl Cambell's brown tree snake research site in jungle area near Andersen Air Force Base. Snakes are trapped, tagged, sexed, measured, weighed and released..U.S. Territory of Guam, an island in the Western Pacific Ocean, the largest of the Mariana Islands..There are no birds on the Pacific Island of Guam thanks to the Brown Tree Snake. These hungry egg-eating snakes have overrun the tropical island after arriving on a lumber freighter from New Guinea during World War II. Besides wiping out the bird population, Brown Tree Snakes cause frequent power outages: they commit short circuit suicide when climbing between power lines.
    GUM_06_xs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; cold, fatigue, alcohol study with motorboat drive test on Lake Superior.  The driver has been given measured amounts of alcohol and his reactions tested. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_08_xs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; Joan Bannister studying cold induced vasodilation in 35 degrees Fahrenheit (0 °C) water. Vasodilation is where blood vessels in the body become wider following the relaxation of the smooth muscle in the vessel wall. This will reduce blood pressure - since there is more room for the blood. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_04_xs.jpg
  • Pherin Pharmaceutical in Mountain View, California. Vomero nasal organ research. George Detre prepares drug for NMR spectroscopy. (pheromones). MODEL RELEASED (2002)
    USA_SCI_PHAR_15_xs.jpg
  • Pherin Pharmaceutical in Mountain View, California. Vomero nasal organ research (pheromones). MODEL RELEASED (2002)
    USA_SCI_PHAR_10_xs.jpg
  • Pherin Pharmaceutical in Mountain View, California. Vomero nasal organ research (pheromones). MODEL RELEASED (2002)
    USA_SCI_PHAR_09_xs.jpg
  • Circular computer scanner used to read sections of DNA sequencing autoradiograms for subsequent computer analysis, part of the human genome project studies at Cal Tech, Lee Hood Lab, USA. The term genome describes the full set of genes expressed by an organism's chromosomes. A gene is a section of DNA that instructs a cell to make a specific protein. The task of constructing such a complete blueprint of genetic information for humans is divided into two main phases: mapping genes and other markers on chromosomes, and decoding the DNA sequences of genes on all the chromosomes. Numerous laboratories worldwide are engaged on various aspects of genome research.
    USA_SCI_HGP_30_xs.jpg
  • Circular computer scanner used to read sections of DNA sequencing autoradiograms for subsequent computer analysis, part of the human genome project studies at Cal Tech, Lee Hood Lab, USA. The term genome describes the full set of genes expressed by an organism's chromosomes. A gene is a section of DNA that instructs a cell to make a specific protein. The task of constructing such a complete blueprint of genetic information for humans is divided into two main phases: mapping genes and other markers on chromosomes, and decoding the DNA sequences of genes on all the chromosomes. Numerous laboratories worldwide are engaged on various aspects of genome research.
    USA_SCI_HGP_29_xs.jpg
  • Human Genome Project: Portrait of Leroy Hood, Caltech scientist. Leroy Hood is an American biologist. He won the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventing "four instruments that have unlocked much of the mystery of human biology" by helping decode the genome. Hood also won the 2002 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology, and the 1987 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. His inventions include the automated DNA sequencer, a device to create proteins and an automated tool for synthesizing DNA. Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology. MODEL RELEASED (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_25_xs.jpg
  • Research on the human genome: composite image of an infant and a computer graphics model of the DNA molecule overlaid on a computer enhanced DNA sequencing autoradiogram. DNA sequencing of chromosomes involves decoding the base pair sequence of sections of DNA - most usefully, those sections called genes which encode specific proteins. Sequencing and mapping - surveying each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes to locate genes or other important markers - are two phases in the human genome project. The construction of such a complete genetic map involves a detailed biochemical survey of every gene expressed on all 23 pairs of human chromosomes.  (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_17_xs.jpg
  • Human Genome Project: Columbia University. Charles Cantor, American biologist, photographed in a laboratory at Columbia University, New York, in May 1989. Cantor's area of research is human genetics. With colleagues at Columbia, he has contributed to work on the human genome project, an ambitious plant to construct a complete biochemical document detailing every gene expressed on each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. MODEL RELEASED (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_10_xs.jpg
  • The Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Counter Intelligence program at MIT Media Lab in Boston, Massachusetts is focusing on developing a digitally connected kitchen of the future. By exploring new technologies they hope to expand the art of food preparation as well as social interactions in the kitchen. One aspect of their research is to create kitchen utensils that contain memories. In this image a digital nose sniffs a handful of garlic. While the project is ongoing, these images were shot in 1999. Mat Gray (Model Released) with digital nose, which detects aromas and smells. (1999)
    USA_SCI_MIT_02_xs.jpg
  • The Counter Intelligence program at MIT Media Lab in Boston, Massachusetts is focusing on developing a digitally connected kitchen of the future. By exploring new technologies they hope to expand the art of food preparation as well as social interactions in the kitchen. One aspect of their research is to create kitchen utensils that contain memories. In this image a digital scale helps to measure out meals.  Scale built into countertop. While the project is ongoing, these images were shot in 1999. (1999)
    USA_SCI_MIT_01_xs.jpg
  • Pre-flight preparation of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO). This is a converted Lockheed C-141A Starlifter aircraft, operated by NASA since 1974. Its main instrument is a 90-cm infrared telescope. The KAO can cruise at up to 12,500 meters, well above most of the atmospheric water vapor that absorbs far infrared radiation and prevents ground-based far-IR astronomy. Here, the liquid nitrogen tanks in the rear of the aircraft are being filled, venting gas producing the cloud. Liquid nitrogen is used in the cryogenics system used to maintain the temperature of the KAO's instruments to within one degree of absolute zero (-273 Celsius). NASA AMES Research Center at Moffett Field, Mt. View, California. [1992]
    USA_SCI_NASA_13_xs.jpg
  • Professor Robert J. Full's Poly-PEDAL Lab at UC Berkeley has been working with roboticists for years, supplying them with information on small animal locomotion that is used to conStruct innovative robots. Recently, the Lab has been working with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), testing and evaluating artificial muscles. Dr. Kenneth Meijer (from Holland) compares and measures a Stanford Artificial Muscle with a natural one from the leg of the Death Head Cockroach. After cooling the cockroach and exposing leg extensor muscle number 179, an electrode is suctioned into the muscle to simulate the nerve-to-muscle connection. Published in Stern Magazine, February 11th, 2000.
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  • Graduate student Dan Paluska adjusts mechanisms of the lower torso and extremity robot, called M2. The robot is funded by a DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) program called Tactile Mobile Robotics. DARPA's goal is to replace soldiers and rescue workers in dangerous situations. MIT Leg Lab, Cambridge, MA.
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  • A "smart" pallet that can move in any direction, OmniMate was designed by Johann Borenstein, a research scientists at the University of Michigan. Like the HelpMate hospital delivery robot, OmniMate sits on robotic platforms called LabMates. Although earlier robot pallets had to move along cables buried in the floor, OmniMate can track its own location by measuring its movements precisely. Borenstein is in the process of putting his robot on the market. At the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 189.
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  • Gloved to ward off the possibility of a nasty bite, Berkeley biologist Robert J. Full prepares to pluck a gecko from his office door. A source of inspiration to roboticists around the world, Full's Poly-PEDAL laboratory is one of the premier research centers in the field of animal locomotion. (Polypedal means "many-footed"; PEDAL is an acronym for the Performance, Energetics, and Dynamics of Animal Locomotion.) UC Berkeley (California) From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 91.
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  • Fans invited off a street in Tokyo's Harajuku area to meet Pino pose with the popular robot. Pino, short for Pinocchio (after the fabled wooden puppet that becomes a human boy), is a full-bodied, child-sized, humanoid robot. Even before it demonstrates the ability of a wide range of bipedal movements it already has a national following in Japan after the release of a music video called "Can You Keep a Secret" in which the robot stars alongside one of Japan's most popular recording artists, Hikaru Utada. It has elevated Tatsuya Matsui, the artist who created the robot design, to celebrity status and provoked murmurs of dissent by some in the robotics community who see the robot as a commercial entity rather than a serious research project. Interestingly, the robot project is part of a large ERATO grant from the Japan Science and Technology Corporation, a branch of the Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese government. Project creator Hiraoki Kitano  believes that the aesthetics of a robot are important in order for it to be accepted by humans into their living space. At the Kitano Symbiotic Systems, Tokyo, Japan.
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  • Utterly ignoring the safety chain attached to the base of its "neck," the Honda P3 confidently walks down a flight of steps in the company lab. More than a decade ago, at the beginning of the Honda project, the research team concluded that their robot would have to be able to walk, rather than simply roll on wheels. Wheeled robots, they decided, just couldn't function in a contemporary home full of stairs, toy-strewn floors, thick pile rugs, and other obstacles. Today P3 can walk with impressive smoothness. The only real sign of its robotic nature is the way it begins to walk with a little knee-dip, to compensate for the absence of a pelvis. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 44.
    Japan_JAP_rs_44_qxxs.jpg
  • Relaxing in his office at the Mechanical Engineering Lab in Tsukuba, Japan, Takanori Shibata pats a derivative product from his research: a robot cat named Tama. Shibata is a roboticist who studied with MIT robot guru Rodney Brooks before heading his own lab. Omron, a Japanese engineering company, applied Shibata's discoveries to produce Tama, a mechanical pet with sensors beneath its fur that react to sound and touch.  Omron says it has no plans as of yet to commercialize its robot cats. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 227.
    Japan_JAP_rs_33_qxxs.jpg
  • Although the Titan VII climbing robot has only four legs, its designers drew their inspiration from spiders, which have exceptional climbing skills. Built by Hideyuki Tsukagoshi, a research associate in the Tokyo laboratory of Shigeo Hirose, the machine is intended to be a mobile construction platform on steep slopes. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 192.
    Japan_JAP_rs_28_qxxs.jpg
  • A man who hopes to become known as the Father of the Artificial Brain, Hugo de Garis of Starlab in Belgium argues that "artilects", artificial intellects, are inevitable. He also thinks humankind may come to rue the day it created them. De Garis was working at a research facility 30 miles outside of Kyoto, Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 28.
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  • Filling up a specially adapted Mercedes, the gas-bot at the Institut Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung (IPA), a government-industry research center in Stuttgart, Germany, is intended for a time in the future when automobiles run on hydrogen. Hydrogen is an environmentally sound fuel?its main effluent is water. But it is also so explosive that robots may end up topping off people's tanks. A somewhat similar system for dispensing ordinary gasoline is currently being test-marketed by Shell in the American Midwest. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 195.
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  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; US Coastguardsman wears a survival suit while laying on ice floating in Lake Superior for a survival suit test. Temperature of the water is about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
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  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; volunteer, Brian Cress, warms up his body temperature after being immersed in cold water at a temperature of 53 degrees Fahrenheit (10 °C). A variety of probes measure his vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
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  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; volunteer immersed in cold water at a temperature of 53 degrees Fahrenheit (10 °C). A variety of probes measure his vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_09_xs.jpg
  • Hypothermia Research at the University of Minnesota Hypothermia laboratory in Duluth; volunteer lays still for shiver test as 30 °F air is blown on her. A variety of probes measure her vital functions, skin & core body temperatures. MODEL RELEASED [1988]
    USA_SCI_HYP_06_xs.jpg
  • Physics: Lawrence Livermore National Lab in Livermore, California. New Materials research: thin multilayers (concave mirror for x-ray laser). [1991]
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  • Pherin Pharmaceutical in Mountain View, California. Louis Monti, MD, PhD performing vomero nasal organ research (pheromones). MODEL RELEASED (2002)
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  • Research on the human genome: laboratory at Columbia University, Lee Hood Lab, New York, showing row of electrophoresis gels used for DNA sequencing experiments on human chromosomes. DNA sequencing involves decoding the base pair sequence of sections of DNA - most usefully, those sections called genes which encode specific proteins. Sequencing and mapping - surveying each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes to locate genes or other important markers - are two phases in the human genome project. Constructing such a complete genetic map involves a detailed biochemical survey of every gene expressed on all 23 pairs of human chromosomes.
    USA_SCI_HGP_33_xs.jpg
  • Human Genome Project: Columbia University. Charles R. Cantor. Charles Cantor, American biologist, photographed in a laboratory at Columbia University, New York, in May 1989. Cantor's area of research is human genetics. With colleagues at Columbia, he has contributed to work on the human genome project, an ambitious plant to construct a complete biochemical document detailing every gene expressed on each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. MODEL RELEASED (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_27_xs.jpg
  • Conical flask containing a swirling vortex of liquid; one item of equipment used in Charles Cantor's laboratory at Columbia University, New York, in research on the human genome project. Colored radiograms used in DNA sequencing are visible in background to the left of the flask. The term "genome" describes the full set of genes expressed by an organism's chromosomes. The task of constructing such a complete blueprint of genetic information for humans is divided into two main phases: mapping genes and other markers on chromosomes, and decoding the DNA sequences of genes on all the chromosomes.
    USA_SCI_HGP_20_xs.jpg
  • Research on the human genome: composite image of an infant and a computer graphics model of the DNA molecule overlaid on a computer enhanced DNA sequencing autoradiogram. DNA sequencing of chromosomes involves decoding the base pair sequence of sections of DNA - most usefully, those sections called genes which encode specific proteins. Sequencing and mapping - surveying each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes to locate genes or other important markers - are two phases in the human genome project. The construction of such a complete genetic map involves a detailed biochemical survey of every gene expressed on all 23 pairs of human chromosomes. (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_16_xs.jpg
  • Research on the human genome: Caltech scientist Kai Wand loading an electrophoresis gel into a computer-controlled system used for DNA sequencing of human chromosomes. DNA sequencing involves decoding the base pair sequence of sections of DNA encode specific proteins. Sequencing and mapping chromosomes to locate genes or other important markers - are two phases in the human genome project. The human genome is a complete genetic blueprint - a detailed plan of every gene expressed in all 23 pairs of human chromosomes. MODEL RELEASED (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_14_xs.jpg
  • Los Alamos National Lab, New Mexico. Research in the flow cytometry lab - sorting chromosomes for DNA Library. The counting of cells is called cytometry. Flow cytometry characterizes single cells as they pass at high speed through a laser beam. Speeds of up to 50,000 cells a second can be measured. The scattering of the laser beam provides a way to identify the cells. Many other characteristics, such as shape and surface texture can also be measured. The cells are then sorted as electrically charged droplets. This also purifies the samples. (1989).Human Genome Project.
    USA_SCI_HGP_06_xs.jpg
  • Practical astronomy. A logbook and calculator used by a crewmember of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO). The logbook details the times at, which liquid helium and nitrogen were added to the cryogenic system of the KAO's far-infrared telescope. At right is a chart used to plan observations with an infrared polarimeter fitted to the telescope. The calculator, a programmable type, may be used for work on preliminary data. NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory: Astronomy from the stratosphere. NASA AMES Research Center at Moffett Field, Mountain View, California. Data gathered during a mission to be analyzed.
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  • MODEL RELEASED. Entertainer android robot. View of Sarcos, an android (human-like) entertainment robot, playing seven-card-stud poker with a group of robot engineers. Sarcos was developed at SARCOS Research Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Robo sapiens Project.
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  • The M2 humanoid robot, built in the basement of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Leg Lab, took its first tentative steps in the year 2000. Dan Paluska, a mechanical engineering grad student, leads M2's hardware design and construction. The lower torso robot is funded by a DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) program called Tactile Mobile Robotics. DARPA's goal is to replace soldiers and rescue workers in dangerous situations. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA USA.
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  • Precision robot arms maneuver microsurgical instruments through centimeter-long holes into the heart of a cadaver in a demonstration of minimally invasive surgery at Intuitive Surgical of Mountain View, California. The whole ensemble: console, tools, and operating table, was developed by the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, a nonprofit R&D center created by Stanford University. The system was commercialized by Intuitive Surgical of Mountain View, Calif.; it now costs about $1 million. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 6-7. Intuitive Surgical Incorporated, based in California, USA, designed Da Vinci.
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  • Utilizing the research results of University of California biologist Robert Full, Martin Buehler of McGill University and Daniel E. Koditschek of the University of Michigan seized upon when they created RHex (controlled by graduate student Uluç Saranli). Tested in a laboratory (at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor) dominated by an antique poster for Isaac Asimov's book, I, Robot, RHex could become a "companion robot," Buehler says, following its owner around like a friendly mechanical shadow. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 97.
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  • In a simulated bedroom complete with stuffed animals, tossed bedclothes, and a sleeping dummy victim, Robin R. Murphy of the University of South Florida keeps tabs on her marsupial robot; or, rather, robots. Developed to help search-and-rescue teams, the robots will work as a team. The larger "mother" is designed to roll into a disaster site. When it can go no farther, several "daughter" robots will emerge, marsupial fashion, from a cavity in its chest. The daughter robots will crawl on highly mobile tracks to look for survivors, feeding the mother robot images of what they see. Although the project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Murphy's budget is hardly overwhelming. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 154-155.
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  • Flanked by the animatronic robots created in his workshops, Steve Jacobsen, an engineering professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, may be the world's most entrepreneurial roboticist-he's spun off four companies from his research and discoveries. Perhaps the most important product he makes is the Utah Artificial Arm (above Jacobsen's head), a high-tech prosthetic hand used by thousands of amputees around the world. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 216-217.
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  • Borrowing from Star Wars, engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center, just south of San Francisco, CA, are developing a personal assistant robot that can hover over an astronaut's shoulder in space, or work at the direction of an astronaut in situations too dangerous for a human. Floating weightlessly, the machine could have many uses: patrolling corridors for gas leaks, reminding astronauts about the tasks on their to-do lists, or serving as a communication link when people are busy using both hands. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 124.
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  • Student Yousuke Kato points to a female face robot created at the Science University of Tokyo, Japan, Fumio Hara Robotics Lab. The female face robot (secondgeneration) has shape-memory electric actuators that move beneath the robots' silicon skin to change the face into different facial expressions much as muscles do in the human face. The research robot undergoes a metamorphosis with each class of students assigned to work on it. The latest iteration allows the robot's face to mold into six different expressions: happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise. In some images, the computer monitor displays a graphical representation of the software creating the expression on the robot.
    Japan_Jap_rs_707_xs.jpg
  • Although the Titan VII climbing robot has only four legs, its designers drew their inspiration from spiders, which have exceptional climbing skills. Built by Hideyuki Tsukagoshi, a research associate in the Tokyo laboratory of Shigeo Hirose, the machine is intended to be a mobile construction platform on steep slopes. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 193.
    Japan_JAP_rs_55_qxxs.jpg
  • In a spanking new, richly-appointed research center above a busy shopping street in Tokyo's stylish Harajuku district, Hiroaki Kitano shows off his robot soccer team. In addition to Kitano's humanoid-robot work at Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, a five-year, government-funded ERATO project, Kitano is the founder and chair of Robot World Cup Soccer (RoboCup), an annual soccer competition for robots. There are four classes of contestants: small, medium, simulated, and dog (using Sony's programmable robot dogs). Kitano's small-class RoboCup team consists of five autonomous robots, which kick a golf ball around a field about the size of a ping-pong table. An overhead video camera feeds information about the location of the players to remote computers, which use the data to control the robots' offensive and defensive moves. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 213 bottom.
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  • At the time, the robot Strut, a work in progress, could not walk at all, it could only stand. (It walked sometime later.) But simply getting the robot to stand properly was a major accomplishment. Like a human being, Strut has such complex, interreacting mechanical "musculature" that considerable processing power is needed simply to keep it erect. Osaka (Japan) University Department of Computer-Controlled Mechanical Systems, built by Junji Furusho and research associate Masamichi Sakaguchi. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 48.
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  • Posing for a portrait at the Osaka  (Japan) University Department of Computer-Controlled Mechanical Systems, Junji Furusho (seated) and research associate Masamichi Sakaguchi show off Strut, their child-sized humanoid robot. At the time, the robot, a work in progress, could not walk at all?it could only stand. (It walked sometime later.) But simply getting the robot to stand properly was a major accomplishment. Like a human being, Strut has such complex, interreacting mechanical "musculature" that considerable processing power is needed simply to keep it erect. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 49.
    Japan_JAP_rs_228_qxxs.jpg
  • Professor Fumio Hara and Assistant Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi's female face robot (second-generation) at Science University of Tokyo, Japan, has shape-memory electric actuators that move beneath the robot's silicon skin to change the face into different facial expressions much as muscles do in the human face. The actuators are very slow to return to their original state and remedying this is one of the research projects facing the Hara and Kobayashi Lab. The robot head is lit from within by a pencil light strobe cloaked in a yellow gel. It was photographed in the neon bill-boarded area of Shinjuku, a section of Tokyo, on a rainy evening at rush hour. Robo sapiens cover image. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species.
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  • Ten years and tens of millions of dollars in the making, the Honda P3 strides down its course at the car company's secret research facility on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. The product of a costly decade-long effort, the Honda robotic project was only released from its shroud of corporate secrecy in 1996. In a carefully choreographed performance, P3 walks a line, opens a door, turns a corner, and, after a safety chain is attached, climbs a flight of stairs. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 34-35.
    Japan_JAP_rs_15_qxxs.jpg
  • Human Genome Project: Columbia University. Charles Cantor, American biologist, photographed in a laboratory at Columbia University, New York, in May 1989. Cantor's area of research is human genetics. With colleagues at Columbia, he has contributed to work on the human genome project, an ambitious plant to construct a complete biochemical document detailing every gene expressed on each of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. MODEL RELEASED (1989).
    USA_SCI_HGP_09_xs.jpg
  • Dr. Paul MacCready, inventor and chairman of AeroVironment Inc. holds a see-through model of Black Widow: an MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) recently developed by AeroVironment for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). MacCready and his team of designers and engineers were able to accomplish the government's objective for an MAV. The Black Widow would likely serve surveillance purposes for the military, but there are other applications as well such as air quality testing and police assistance. Robo sapiens Project.
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  • Dr. Paul MacCready, inventor and chairman of AeroVironment Inc. holds a see-through model of Black Widow: an MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) developed by AeroVironment for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). MacCready and his team of designers and engineers were able to accomplish the government's objective for an MAV. The Black Widow would likely serve surveillance purposes for the military, but there are other applications as well such as air quality testing and police assistance. Robo sapiens Project.
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  • Metallic flakes wafting from his hand, Kris Pister of the University of California at Berkeley demonstrates one possible offshoot of robotics research: Smart Dust. Miniature machines, each the size of a dust mite, may eventually saturate the environment, invisibly performing countless tasks. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 26-27.
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  • Mountain View, California.Vials of chemicals known as P.A.H. (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) luminesce in ultraviolet light. These molecules, naturally occuring throughout the depths of space, are believed by these and and other researchers to be possible origins of life on earth. P.A.H.s have been found to become chemically modified when surrounded by ice and exposed to ultraviolet radiation -- a situation likely to occur in space.iOnce molecularly altered, the modified P.A.H.s closely resemble known organic molicules that are found in abundance on earth. Thus P.A.H.s may be found to be the first stage in a chain of molecules that led to life on earth. Researchers at NASA/Ames are simulating the conditions in space in order to study these alterations in the molecular structure of P.A.H.s. They also track P.A.H.s as they travel through interstellar space towards developing solar systems where they may become transformed into the seeds of life, all to hypothesize about the origins of life on earth..[1999]
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  • Lampbot 1.0, a nine-segment snake robot from researcher Mark Tilden in Los Alamos, New Mexico. "Nothing in nature is digital," says researcher Mark Tilden, who created Lampbot 1.0. "Everything's analog and analog can do better. Built of simple, off-the-shelf components. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 5 bottom.
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  • In a years-long quest, students at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan are constantly tweaking the programming of WABIAN R-II in the hope of making the heavy, two-meter-tall machine walk as easily as a human being. WABIAN sways from side to side as it walks, but its builders are not discouraged by its imperfections: walking in a straight line, which humans can do without thinking, in fact requires coordinated movements of such fantastic complexity that researchers are pleased if their creations can walk at all. Indeed, researchers built the robot partly to help themselves understand the physics of locomotion. It took decades of work to bring WABIAN to its present state: its first ancestor was built in 1972. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 14.
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  • Good-naturedly donning fishy swim goggles for the camera, Yuuzi Terada, an engineer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, stands at company headquarters with a pair of the sleek robot fish he constructs. Gray's Paradox asks the question why fish, with their slim muscles and small fins, can accelerate so quickly. Researchers have long hoped that unraveling Gray's Paradox will allow them to build safer, faster nautical propulsion systems. The dream is shared by Terada and other researchers at Mitsubishi, who have long thought that fish fins might serve as a model for a new kind of propeller that would make underwater vehicles faster, more stable, and more maneuverable. Japan. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 106-107.
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  • MODEL RELEASED. Kismet robot interacting with a mirror held by researcher Cynthia Breazeal. Kismet is a robot that responds with facial expressions to her actions. It has been developed for the study of action recognition and learning, particularly in children. Kismet has several moods, which it displays as expressions on its face. It responds to visual stimuli like a baby. When there are no stimuli, it shows a sad expression. When paid attention to, as here, Kismet looks interested. Like a child, Kismet responds best to bright colours and moderate movements. Photographed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.
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  • Bob Goodman, a rancher in Halfway, Oregon, lost his arm in a freak accident. Researchers at the University of Utah gave him a myoelectric arm, which he controls by flexing the muscles in his arm that are still intact. Sensors on the inside of the prosthetic arm socket pick up the faint electrical signals from the muscles and amplify them to control the robot arm. In this way, Goodman can do most things as he did before his accident. Here he is using a pitchfork to throw hay over the fence to his horses.
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  • The robot, called Kenta, (Ken means tendon in Japanese) has a flexible spinal column that resembles that of the human body; 96 motors; a five-joint neck; a 10 joint spine (each with 3 degrees of freedom); and fast-moving stereo vision that can track a flesh colored object. The neck and torso are coordinated to respond in concert with the eye's movement. Student researchers create movements for the robot in simulation and then feed the simulations back to the robot. Professor Hirochika Inoue thinks that developing robots with this structure of incredibly decreased weight and fewer parts will reduce the cost and the complexity of robots in the future for more widespread application. Inoue-Inaba Robotic Lab, University of Tokyo, Japan.
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