LinkNotes: 07/01/2008

2008-07-31

Soccer for Humanoid Robots

The Darmstadt Dribblers, a team of autonomous soccer playing robots developed by a research group of the Univeristy of Darmstadt, videos and some info.

clipped from robocup.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de

Darmstadt Dribblers

clipped from www.youtube.com

RoboCup 2008 Humanoid League: Cooperation and Teamplay by DD

This video shows teamplay/cooperation and obstacle avoidance by the autonomous humanoid robots of the Darmstadt Dribblers team. The robots negotiate their roles via wifi, with the robot closest to the ball selecting the striker role and the other one staying back as supporter. Striker Isra then kicks the ball past the opponent and finally scores.
After scoring the goal our robots can be seen cheering.

Visit http://www.dribblers.de/ for further information, pictures and videos.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Humanoid robots show emotional reactions at RoboCup 2006

clipped from robocup.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de

Current Research Topics

High performance locomotion

Bionic robots and new actuators

Software and control architectures tailored for heterogeneous teams of autonomous robots

Lightweight robots described by low payload capabilities

Robot localization

Programming of robot and team behavior using discrete, hierarchical state automata

GameController / Referee Box for RoboCup Humanoid League

2008-07-30

Researchers at Caltech recently developed a revolutionary new type of microscope without lenses. The device is compact enough to be put in a cell phone and can use just sunlight for illumination. This makes it very appealing for Third-World applications,

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com

Bioengineers Develop 'Microscope On A Chip'

ScienceDaily (July 29, 2008) — Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have turned science fiction into reality with their development of a super-compact high-resolution microscope, small enough to fit on a finger tip. This "microscopic microscope" operates without lenses but has the magnifying power of a top-quality optical microscope, can be used in the field to analyze blood samples for malaria or check water supplies for giardia and other pathogens, and can be mass-produced for around $10.

clipped from www.caltech.edu

clipped from www.biophot.caltech.edu

Nanophotonics and Optofluidics

clipped from www.biophot.caltech.edu

Changhuei Yang

clipped from www.biophot.caltech.edu

Optofluidic Microscopy

Fig. 1: compact OFM prototype, compared with a US quarter.

Fig. 2: (a) OFM's layout. Red arrows: illumination; green arrow: flow direction
(b) SeveralOFM images of wild-type C. elegans; white bar =25 µm (for all images)
(c) Aspect ratio map, blue data points: wild -type L1 larvae; red: dpy24 L1 larvae.

clipped from mr.caltech.edu

An on-chip implementation of the optofluidic microscope.

2008-07-29

TH!NK Ox – A Fully Electric Car

TH!NK, with more than 17 years of experience in developing and producing electric vehicles is launching one of its new models 'The Ox' in North America. The cars will start selling in the US next year and the actual mass roll out will be in 2011.

clipped from thefutureofthings.com

TH!NK, a Norwegian company, has developed a platform concept vehicle named ‘The Ox’. TH!NK Ox is a five-seater, fully electric car, which is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100km/hr in less than 8.5 seconds, and can reach a top speed of 130km/hr. The car’s connectivity platform, built on a computer, helps keep the driver fully aware of the car’s status via the use of Internet applications and GPS. This innovative clean car may really leave its mark on the fast growing market of electric vehicles.

clipped from www.think.no

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