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16 images Created 17 Jan 2013

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  • Wielding a paint brush, a robot touches up its human master in this photo-illustration at the SARCOS robot company in Salt Lake City, UT. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 20-21.
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  • Dismissing the fears that robots will come to dominate their creators, Hans Moravec of Carnegie Mellon argues that humans will literally become robots, "uploading" their consciousness and memories into their computers. Photographed at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 33.
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  • Robonaut, with an acrylic head, holds a drill with socket attachment at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. That NASA's teleoperated humanoid-type robot, called Robonaut, has no legs is by design, because in space, says project leader Robert Ambrose, an astronaut's legs can be a big impediment to fulfilling the mission of a spacewalk. The latest version of Robonaut has two arms, a Kevlar and nylon suit, updated stereo eyes, and is getting heat sensing capability. Possibly the most significant change is the move from total teleoperation to some level of autonomy.
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  • A work in progress, this still-unnamed face robot can open its eyes and smile. In the future, says its designer, Hidetoshi Akasawa, a mechanical engineering student working on a master's at the Science University of Tokyo, Japan,  it will be able to recognize and react to human facial expressions. This third-generation robot will greet smiles with smiles, frowns with frowns, mixing and matching six basic emotions in a real-time interaction that Hara calls "active human interface." From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 72.
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  • First generation face robot from the Hara-Kobayashi Lab in Tokyo. Lit from behind to reveal the machinery beneath the skin. The machinery will change the contours of the robot's skin to create facial expressions. It does this by using electric actuators, which change their shape when an electric current is passed through them. The devices will return to their original shape when the current stops. This robot face was developed at the Laboratory of Fumio Hara and Hiroshi Kobayashi at the Science University, Tokyo, Japan.
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  • Delicately handling a pretzel, the robotic hand developed at the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center), in the countryside outside Munich, Germany, demonstrates the power of a control technique called force-feedback. To pick up an object, Max Fischer (in control room), one of the hand's developers, uses the data-glove to transmit the motion of his hand to the robot. If he moves a finger, the robot moves the corresponding finger. Early work on remote-controlled robots foundered when the machines unwittingly crushed the objects they were manipulating. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, page 134.
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  • Dan Paluska, the mechanical engineering grad student leading M2's hardware design and construction, is seen here in a double exposure that melds him with his machine for a photo illustration. The lower torso and extremity robot, called M2, took its first tentative steps last year here in the basement of MIT's Leg Laboratory. Established in 1980 by Marc Raibert, the Leg Lab was home to the first robots that mimicked human walking; swinging like an inverted pendulum from step to step. Similar to image published on the cover of Wired Magazine, September 2000. MIT Leg Lab, Cambridge, MA.
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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.
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  • Monitor view of heart surgeons watching their progress while performing minimally invasive heart surgery during a cardiac conference at Herzzentrum: Heart Center in Leipzig, Germany.
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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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  • Metal posts placed precisely using a robotic system provide a stable anchor for magnetic attachment of this artificial body part at the Virchow Campus Clinic, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Robo sapiens Project.
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  • 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.
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  • In this photo-illustration, graduate student Josh Davis (underwater, in a wet-suit) helps the RoboPike breach out of the water in order to show how well the robotic fish might be able to swim one day. Photographed at the Department of Ocean Engineering Testing Tank Facility at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The idea for the image of the RoboPike breaching came from Professor Triantafyllou, whose dream it is for a robotic fish to swim well enough to be able to jump out of the water. Published in Smithsonian Magazine, August 2000 issue, page 55.
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  • Mark Tilden's robot: the analog nervous net- "Unibug 1.0" walking on the great Sand Dunes National Monument  in Colorado. Amazingly, the autonomous robot walked up to the flower and stopped exactly with it's antenna in the center of the flower which had just bloomed after a recent rain. Robo sapiens Project.
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  • Robosaurus prowls the parking lot of a Las Vegas, NM, casino, showing off its ability to breathe fire and crush cars in its mighty claws. The machine can be rented as a destructive attraction for car and air shows. Like a huge transformer toy, Robosaurus folds itself into a tractor trailer that is pulled by a large truck. From the book Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species, pages 10-11.
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Peter Menzel Photography

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