Robot theater is the final destination point for the bohr robot head. Stay tuned for updates...

Bohr vs Bohr-bot

The real Niels Bohr vs the robot (still in preliminary stages, but looking pretty good)

Making the head...

Some photos from the design process...

Bohr-bot

Work on the Bohr's head continues... These are some pictures from the process:

friday seminar update

Work on the Niels Bohr robot head is proceeding. I will be updating progress here soon. Otherwise, I attended the lab seminars the past two Friday afternoons. The topics presented had to do with quantum logic gates. Some things sounded familiar, but honestly this is no longer my field, so it was not really relevant to current or likely future work. I took notes anyway, and I can articulate the essential ideas to anyone interested.  

Matias and the Kondo KHR-1

On Friday the 15th, I attended the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory's seminar at 4 pm in the ECE conference room in FAB. A professor from Korea was there who is at PSU to learn from Prof Perkowski's methods. There were also two non-regulars, Mr Opsahi and Glen, who are retired, but still devoted to research and into engineering, computer science, and system science based areas from what I gathered. Also in attendance were the rest of Prof Perkowski's Masters and PhD students, Dmitiry, two I don't know, and Martin who works on emotional robots. Matias gave a presentation on his proposed thesis work. He is interested gesture as it is articulated through animation. The test platform for his software applications will be the Kondo KHR - 1 pictured to the right. Topics discussed included Lasseter animation theory, Laban Motion Analysis, the merits of stereo vision, and the possibility of using quaternion to represent joint movements. We also took a pole to see if people preferred humanoid robots, or ones that look more like muppets. Results seemed to point to the fact that it depends on the application, but also that some of us were weary of the replicants. 

I am trying to meet with some of the other members of the lab to get a broader picture of what is happening, and what is possible. I am gearing up for work on the Bohr head, and  am anticipating the need for help. By meeting people, I am learning more about the field and the lab, and am trying to establish a network. Today I met with Dimitriy Labunsky, a Master's student in ECE who is a part of Prof Perkowski's lab. He is working on a more advanced robot than the high school crew. This humanoid robot is being constructed out of aluminum sheeting, and the design is taking into account issues of balance and proportion.  He is interested in image recognition, and motion tracking. The image on the right is Dimitriy with the torso which is still in its early stages. This is a link to a robot similar to where he is trying to go that he showed me:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUxQB8YLxbg

some photos from inside the lab

meet the robots

I spent Sunday afternoon with Professor Perkowski, his high school crew, and their parents in a conference room in the ECE dept in the Fourth Ave Building. They had a lessen on fuzzy logic and discussed its basic relationship to quantum computing for robotic operations. I haven't been around this kind of stuff in a long time, and it was a little weird. It felt familiar and really foreign at the same time. I was drawing in my notebook at one point. Everyone was really friendly, and they are really bright kids. They are all working on robots for a play written by Sriddhar about Einstein, Bohr, and Schroedinger cat. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds interesting. So, after the lesson, there was a brief demonstration of the robots. I learned some basic logicstic problems, like powersupply issues. Also, design points, and I saw that things are operating off of a network of microcontrollers, mastered by C based software.

There seems to be a lot of ways I might be able to help them out. They want to have a summer program and get more people involved which requires a brochure. I might be able to help out with the content and design, etc. Also, they have a problem with the head of Niels Bohr, and I think this might be more my thing. Everyone seemed very excited and relieved at the idea of me taking that over. He is pictured on the right above. The head has at least 4 degrees of freedom I would need to account for -  eyes, head left & right,head up & down, jaw. I didn't have a lot of time to check him out, but enough to see that the proportions are definitely weird, and that this will probably be hard, but worth it. Below is Niells Bohr, the Nobel prize winning Physicist, famous for his work on atomic structures and quantum mechanics, and his, for now, faceless robotic replication.

Robot Theatre

After class on Wednesday, I went by a lab in the basement of the Fourth Avenue Building that I had run across awhile ago on the web. I couldn't see much, but I wanted to see more. I emailed the director, Marek A. Perkowski, to see if he would give me a tour. We met on Friday. His office looks a lot like some other Engineering offices I've seen - binders and books floor to ceiling. We went downstairs to the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory and it is amazing. There are robots, bins of electronics, charts, stuffed animal parts, masks, computers, books, and a lot of other cool stuff too. I wish there were windows. We talked about his work, and he gave me the low down on robotics today. It seems like he is interested in quantum computing as it relates to robotic control, which would theoretically be superior to any probabilistic model.  He told me about robot theatre and about a lot of things really. It was great. He wants robot theatre, and it hasn't happened. The PhD people start with robots, do amazing things, but gravitate towards software, and don't have the artistic ambition to keep with it. He also works with high school kids (which is really cool), but they are science types and they also gravitate to the tech. The theatre and art people who have come to him conversely get scared off by the tech. I want to work with him, and I am really excited about it. And honestly, I was always more interested in working with op-amps than analyzing their optimal operational capacities using differential equations. PS lab pictures coming soon

This is the link to his web page where you can link to the lab:

web.cecs.pdx.edu/~mperkows/

playing with the reified spectacle

2nd Life is pretty weird I must say.  I have been messing around with it in anticipation of my next meeting with sylvia.  I'm not sure what will happen, and I don't know how much I like the platform, but I am trying to be open minded.   I was pretty amazed that my first choice for my avatar's name, tico praga, was taken.  There are a limited number of last names to choose from, but still.  Then when TicoMahoney Praga was taken, I started to wonder who is on 2nd life afterall.  15 minutes later, I settled on TicoMahoney Sideways...

Some attempts to personalize my look.  You can really do a lot, but it is definitely not a quick process.  I was satisfied enough to shrink my cybergoth chest and change my shirt and hair color.  I might get back to that later.

I guess you can go anywhere in 2nd Life, and buy anything.  Honestly, I can't really control my motor skills in there yet.  I found portland though.  Also, Sylvia's Math Lab in process.  I am standing next to the fish in the 4 dimensional fish tank.  No telling how long it will live since we can't be sure if food is going inside or out. Also you can fly and ride unicorns. 

[repost]After the initial class visit to the Math Resources Lab, I felt excited about working with the department.  The room was filled with so many great books, puzzles, games, etc - all the exciting learning tools that might even muster excitement out of non-believers.  I also felt a connection to Sylvia, the woman we met there, who shared her math triumph story with us.  She struggled with it her whole life until returning to it in adulthood, when she discovered she was quite good at it, enjoyed it, and wanted to stick with it indefinitely.  She has a master's degree now and teaches at PSU.  Unlike Sylvia, I have always been good at math, but returned to learn fine art skills later in my life.  Anyhow, I returned to Neuberger Hall on Friday the 18th to have another chat with her.  We discussed her sculpture based on a Linear Algebra principle, and a little bit about the 17 finite symmetries.  I am more familiar with Linear Algebra.   Eventually, she ended up showing me the virtual lab she is constructing on 2nd Life.   She is getting help from someone she met there who is interested in topology.  It's intended as a study aid for PSU students and the as a resource for the community at large.   Initially, I was pretty amazed by the technology, but honestly, I thought it is no replacement for the 1st life...