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The event finished on 19/11/2011
Next Robotica
16 - 19 November 2011
7 - 9 November 2012
Demonstrations and performances: a detailed programme
Service or entertainment, climbing or playing football … Even a wheelchair that can be moved by thought. The innovations of Robotica 2009 will be really numerous.
During the four days of Robotica 2009, both in the Arena as well as at the stands of the exhibitors, demonstrations and performances will be held, and which will have, as protagonists, service robots or those for entertainment, climbing robots and those playing football. But here is a complete panorama on what visitors of all ages will be able to see and admire.
SPECIAL PLASTIC THAT MOVES LIKE A MUSCLE
The PMARlab of the University of Genoa will present a mechanical arm able to bend and raise its “hand” by some ten centimetres. The originality of this arm is that it is not moved by servomotors, but by a liquid crystal polymer able to contract or stretch like a muscle: just by adding or removing heat. The laboratory of Genoa will also have on show a very particular robotic head, with a calculator instead of a brain and a camera instead of eyes. Designed to follow fast moving objects, this robot never loses track of the object it is following and has an artificial intelligence that enables it to operate autonomously once the research parameters have been set.
FROM THE WHEELCHAIR OF THE FUTURE TO THE "BARKER" ROBOT
The innovation on show at Robotica 2009 presented by AIRLab, the Department of Electronic and Information at the Milan Polytechnic, is called Lurch and is a wheelchair that in the not too distant future could change the life of quadriplegics. In fact, the chair is equipped with an interface that enables the interaction between the impulses of the human brain and the movements of the chair, also avoiding people, walls, furniture and other wheelchairs, all autonomously. «The functionality of autonomous driving is available only in closed, suitably equipped environments (a hospital apartment or residence, for example)», explains Andrea Bonarini, head of the laboratory. AIRLab will also present RoboWii 2.0, a small robotic game able to interact with the controller without wires from the Wii console. The idea is to enable the videogame to leave the screen of a PC or TV: RoboWii 2.0, in fact, moves autonomously at a speed of 40 centimetres per second to avoid being hit by the impulses from the remote control. The third innovation that AIRLab will have on show in Milan is called E-2? and is the prototype of a new applicative sector, that of the “barker” robot to be used, for example, in commercial centres, to attract people’s attention. Since it is equipped with cameras, it can also be used for safety reasons, both for an “inside” vision of the crowd, and also as a tool able to detect abnormalities such as an abandoned bag or uncontrolled smoke.
HUMAN, TOO HUMAN... THAT ROBOT HAS LEONARDO DA VINCI'S INFLUENCE
Visitors to Robotica 2009 will also have the possibility to discover the evolution of mini humanoid robots. NuZoo of Milan will present for the very first time U-Man, the robot with the same proportions of the Vitruvian Man of Leonardo da Vinci and which, at present, can boast the highest number of GDL (“levels of freedom”) in the world: about 40 joints compared to the 25-30 of other humanoid robots, characteristics that enable considerable flexibility of movement. Completely autonomous, it was designed for commercialization and is therefore easy to use. It is able to walk, play with children, speak, pick up objects, dance with music, charge itself up when its batteries are low, interface with the outside world and have its own emotional state that makes it always different.
IN 2050 ROBOT FOOTBALL PLAYERS WILL BEAT THE WORLD CHAMPIONS
Football fanatics will also find something of interest at Robotica 2009. At the stand of the Department of Informatics and Systems of La Sapienza University in Rome, in fact, real games of football will be shown on video. Just that the players are … robots. We are speaking about the games held during the last edition of RoboCup, which took place at Graz, in Austria, this year, and which is a real world championship that involves university departments and research centres of five continents. A challenge set up in 1993 and aimed at the realization and putting on the field, towards the middle of the 21st century, a team of humanoid robots able to challenge – and maybe beat – the national football tam that will win the world cup in 40 years. In the Arena of Robotica 2009 (which has Maxon Motor among its sponsors) there will also be one of the humanoid robots of the Sapienza team, and which will demonstrate its ability to the public.
THE SIT-COM OF DOMESTIC ROBOTS AND ROBOTS FOR HOBBYSTS
Another demonstration – which is a real robotic show – will be presented at the stand of iRobot-Nital. The main protagonist will be iRobot Roomba, the most popular domestic robot in Italy, which will do what it does best – clean all that a “dirty” robot throws onto the floor – in a specially set-up area. The two robots will avoid each other thanks to their sensors, while a third robot will act as a presenter and involving the audience in the initiative, handing them a leaflet. A show that will surely please the female public, while fathers and sons of each and every age will be attracted by the stand of Futura Elettronica, which imports and proposes kits for the assembly of mechanical arms, walkers, advanced robot and mini-robots: all that is needed to enter the world of robotics, even if just for a hobby.
27 NOVEMBER, THE SCHOOL OF ROBOTICS
The laboratories and projects to be presented on Friday 27 November by the School of Robotics of Genoa are aimed at younger visitors and schoolchildren of all ages. In the first laboratory, called the zoo of robots, it will be possible to study how some animals perceive the world around them by means of various robots configured to simulate their behaviour. Roberta, girls discover robots, is the name of the second laboratory, which aims at increasing the interest of girls in science. Last, but not least, the third laboratory, where the engineers of Kuka Italia will demonstrate how it is possible to programme a robotic arm even without ... the robotic arm, by means of a simulation software that enables the modelling of a robotic cell and the off-line programming of robots. The day of the Robotic School will also include the showing of three documentaries. The first, Ciao, robot: the birth of Roboetica provides documentation on the ethical, social and legal aspects regarding the use of robots, while the other two, Romeo in Antarctica and the adventures of Romeo in the Artic, are dedicated to marine robots of the Cnr-Ian Robotlab of Genoa, which have navigated in the depths of the Artic and Antartica, discovering the types of life in those regions.
FROM CATANIA THE CLIMBING ROBOTS AND THE ESAPODI ISPIRED BY INSECTS
Another "live" demonstration is that of Alicia.VTX, a climbing robot that can climb up vertical walls, moving in all directions by means of a vortex system able to generate enough depression to guarantee perfect adherence. Suitable for the inspection of industrial plants, it will be presented by the Department of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering of the University of Catania together with two “bio-inspired” robots created as part of the research project financed by the European Union. The first is Mini-Hex, an hexapod (six legs) that replica the movements of cockroaches; the second is Tribot, in which, thanks to the collaboration of neurobiologists, the computational model of the brain of fruit flies has been simulated.