Robot Muscles are not strong enough...

Robots and exoskeletons seem to be in the news lately, considering that new CGI films can make it possible to show the hyper reality of what a sophisticated robot can do in a fire fight. The reality is far from the fantasy. As always movement is restricted by the limited technology, while electric motors rule the mini robots that dominate the toy shelves. The use of these motors will have a limiting strength with or with out a gear system.
Consider The Hybrid Assistive Limb (also known as HAL) is a powered exoskeleton suit currently in development by Japan's Tsukuba University and the robotics company Cyberdyne. It has been designed to support and expand the physical capabilities of its users, particularly people with physical disabilities. There are currently two versions of the system: HAL 3, which has bulkier electric servo-motors and only has the leg function, and HAL 5, which is a full-body exoskeleton for the arms, legs, and torso. HAL 5 is currently capable of allowing the operator to lift and carry about five times as much weight as he or she could lift and carry unaided.
When a person attempts to move their body, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles through the motor neurons, moving the musculoskeletal system. When this happens, small biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. The HAL suit registers these signals through a sensor attached to the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals obtained, the power unit moves the joint simultaneously with the wearer's muscle movement, supporting and amplifying the wearer's motion. The HAL suit possesses both a user-activated “voluntary control system” and a “robotic autonomous control system” for automatic motion support. The use of biosignals from the limbs allows freedom of moment, as nerve impulses is greatly amplified to each servo motor joint. But while the elderly and other people with restricted movement are benefiting with this type of technology in Japan. The super human strength and speed and agility in such a machine with limited battery time can not out perform a robot attack.
Consider hydraulic-power, in fluid or air used for the generation, control and transmission of power. Human Universal Load Carrier, or HULC, is an un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton developed by Professor H. Kazerooni and his team at Ekso Bionics. It is intended to help soldiers in combat carry a load of up to 200 pounds at a top speed of 10 miles per hour for extended periods of time. After being under development at Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory since 2000, the system was announced publicly at the AUSA Winter Symposium on February 26, 2009 when an exclusive licensing agreement was reached with Lockheed Martin.

Sensors in the foot pads relay information to an on-board microcomputer that moves the hydraulic system to amplify and enhance the wearer's movement. The flexibility of the system allows soldiers to run, walk, kneel, crawl, and even go into low squats. There is no joystick or control mechanism, instead sensors detect movement and, using an on-board micro-computer, make the suit move in time with the body. The system's titanium structure and hydraulic power augments the soldier's ability, strength and performance, whereas its modularity allows components to be switched and replaced with ease. Hydraulic power can provide speed and power to a human, but the large power pack even for a simple machine like the HULC system may limit its combat superiority. As the kicking power from this machine may provide enough damage to break bones, however it maybe top heavy. The likelyhood is that after attempting to kick the center of balance is distorted enough to topple over the user rendering him helpless as a turtle.

 Current systems of actuators hydraulics and servo motors have strengths and weaknesses all of which seem to have limited success on mobile systems. Even for a exoskeleton system to win a bar room fight, punching and kicking movements would be slightly delayed, due to sluggish mechanics and electronics. Considering that a quick few punches is need to subdue your opponent.
Only recently the tiny artificial muscles created by an international team of researchers are 200 times stronger than human muscle fibers of comparable size. Ray Baughman, a nanotechnology researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas, led the team that made the new muscle, which he sometimes calls a yarn because of the way it's woven. The muscles would work well in small medical devices, he said. His lab in Texas has thought of another creative use for them, too: "We've been playing with yarns to open and close blinds depending on the temperature of the room," he told TechNewsDaily.

Baughman's new muscles are made of ropes of carbon nanotubes, a super-tiny, high-tech material that researchers are adding to everything from water filters to experimental airplane parts. Baughman said he and his team twisted the nanotubes "quite similarly to the way people insert twists into common wool or cotton fibers" into thicker yarns. They then filled the hollow space in the nanotubes with different materials, including paraffin, the wax that goes in candles.
To get the muscles to contract, researchers heated them briefly. When heated, the paraffin wax expanded, pushing against the nanotube walls and making them fatter and shorter. As the wax cooled again, it shrank, and the nanotubes became narrower and longer. The muscles were able to shorten and then lengthen again every 25 milliseconds, or 25 thousandths of a second, Baughman said. Such fast contractions mean the muscles are able to perform a lot of work, he said.

Right now, Baughman's lab knows how to make a muscle fiber that's one kilometer (0.62 miles) long, but Baughman hopes one day to weave fabrics that require miles of fiber. He also is looking to make the muscles react to chemicals instead of heat. Heat-driven motors are energy-inefficient, so chemical-driven muscles might be more practical.
Alternatively SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif.created a electronic muscle or a passive dielectrics which are a variant of artificial muscle activated by the movement of electrons. In an actuator, two flexible conducting plates form a sandwich with the passive dielectric, a springy, insulating plastic, as a filling. When the plates are given opposite charges, their mutual attraction flattens and expands the filling. Also electro active polymers already been reported to show a significant actuation strain, and although they were not strong enough to amplify body movements, they prove to be useful on small scale robotics.
Other alternatives might be a Ionic polymer metal composites are a form of artificial muscle that depends on the movement of ions for motion. Flexible metal foils sandwich a wet polymer filling. With the foils charged, free ions flow toward one side, expanding it and bending the actuator.

Its still early days for a practical actuator to replace the motors and hydraulics, that we have in current exoskeleton systems. Adding super strength to a machine would mean tethering it to a large power source. While agility of the human body cant quite be matched, as is unlikely at this time to see a exoskeleton perform the same movements of a gymnast.
Excluding the military applications of hand to hand combat or mimicking the fire power of fiction character Iron-man, although the real world applications for replacing damaged limbs is too important to miss. While electro-neural connections are becoming a reality. The progress for artificial muscles is quite slow in comparison to Moore's Law. As emerging technologies that are designed to replace the human element, so will those technologies will find a way to mimic muscle fibers or at-least replace electric servos. The end result will probably be a system that will help aid humans. While there might be a slight need for combat situations, its hard to think that there will be a suit or exoskeleton that will be able to perform superhuman martial arts on an opponent...

Robot wars, a video game or a moral dilemma

The ethics of drone strikes on people is still a grey area, in which humans who look like they are doing questionable actions could be mistaken as adults. James Jeffrey served as an officer in the British Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, he helped guide drones flying over Helmand Province, where he had to make life and death decisions about whether to engage the enemy. Speaking to Orla Guerin, the BBC's correspondent in Pakistan, he describes how he almost ordered a drone attack on a suspected militant thought to be planting an improvised explosive device.
At the last minute the strike was cancelled when he realised the potential enemy he could see on the monitor was in fact a child playing. Mr Jeffrey also talked about witnessing - via a video link from a fighter jet - a missile strike on Taliban targets in built up areas that left several civilians dead. Having now left the military and living in the US, Mr Jeffrey warns that while drones are a precise and effective weapon they have also made it "too easy to kill".
The comfort of remote warfare can remove the emotions or the moral system-check that a solider will have in the field of battle. The scary thing is thatAccording to data compiled by the New America Foundation from reliable news reports, CIA drone strikes in Pakistan have killed an estimated 1,886 to 3,191 people since 2004, of which 1,597 - 2,734 were reported to be militants. This means the average non-militant casualty rate over the life of the program is 15-16 percent. In 2012 it has been 1-2 percent, down sharply from its peak in 2006 of over 60 percent.
Technology for flying drones won't stop at the current level already during its final test flight, two modified Global Hawk aircraft flew in close formation, 100 feet or less between refueling probe and receiver drogue, for the majority of a 2.5-hour engagement at 44,800 feet. This demonstrated for the first time that High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) class aircraft can safely and autonomously operate under in-flight refueling conditions. The flight was the ninth test and the first time the aircraft flew close enough to measure the full aerodynamic and control interactions. Flight data was analyzed over the past few months and fed back into simulations to verify system safety and performance through contact and fuel transfer-including the effects of turns and gusts up to 20 knots."
The demonstration could open a world of longer duration drone flights as today's UAVs aren't designed to be refueled in flight. In 2007, DARPA teamed up with NASA to show that high-performance aircraft can easily perform automated refueling from conventional tankers, yet many unmanned aircraft can't match the speed, altitude and performance of the current tanker fleet. The 2007 demonstration also required a pilot on board to set conditions and monitor safety during autonomous refueling operations. Under a $33 million deal in 2010 with DARPA, Northrop agreed to demonstrate refueling with a pair of Global Hawks. Although air-to-air refueling was not originally part of the design for drones like the Global Hawk, Northrop then stated such technology offers a number of benefits. A Global Hawk with a particularly heavy payload, for example, would be able to take off with less fuel, and be subsequently refueled in the air. In addition, a Global Hawk with a unique sensor package would be able to stay on station longer if equipped to receive fuel from another platform.

The X-47B is a completely unmanned drone. Meaning, not only no pilot but no human control from the ground. Its missions are initially planned by humans but once these things are airborne they are guided and controlled by on-board computers.
Now with the X-47B it will be the decision of an algorithm based on perceived threats that are described by sensors. So it begs the question, where is the accountability if something goes horribly wrong?. In 2013 it will become the first unmanned vehicle to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier, which is considered one of the most difficult aerial manoeuvres. It will do this by relying on extremely detailed GPS coordinates and constant interaction with the carrier’s computers that transmit speed and cross-wind data as the aircraft approaches the ship. And it will refuel itself in the air via an aerial tanker.

As flying drones get sophisticated so will land based robotics, DARPA has hosted competitions in 2004 and 2005 to involve private companies and universities to develop unmanned ground vehicles to navigate through rough terrain in the Mojave Desert for a final prize of $2 Million. The field of artillery has also seen some promising research with an experimental weapons system named "Dragon Fire II"(mortar fire system) which automates the loading and ballistics calculations required for accurate predicted fire, providing a 12 second response time to artillery support requests. However, weapons of warfare have one limitation in becoming fully autonomous: there remain intervention points which requires human input to ensure that targets are not within restricted fire areas as defined by Geneva Conventions for the laws of war.
As well as artillery there could be a drone system to replace the soldier. During the early days of the Iraq war, the roboteers at Foster-Miller modified their bomb-disposal machines, to have them carry machine guns, grenade launchers, or rockets. After years of safety testing and modifications, three of these deadly SWORDS ("special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system") robots were recently sent to Iraq. But even now, safety concerns (among other reasons) have kept those machines from firing a shot in combat. But Foster-Miller is already rolling a new model of armed robot one that’s comes with additional extra, built-in precautions, and has been designed from the beginning to fight.
MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) features new software controls, which allow the robot’s driver to select fire and no-fire zones. The idea is keep the robots from accidentally shooting a flesh-and-blood American. A mechanical range fan also keeps MAARS’ gun pointed away from friendly positions. The robot is also equipped with a GPS transmitter, so it can be seen on — and tap into — the American battlefield mapping programs, just like tanks and Humvees.

 These "Blue Force Trackers" have been credited with dramatically reducing friendly-fire incidents during the Iraq war. MAARS comes with an extra fail-safe, which won’t allow it to fire directly at its own control unit.
Born out of the possibilities of sci-fi the Raytheon XOS 2: second generation exoskeleton, has people guessing a probable military use for this type of machine. It can provide the operator superhuman strength to the point that it will never tire of lifting weights so long as the power is on. With extra shielding and a full weapons system it could give the soldier an invincible edge other enemies without this technology. The disadvantage of exoskeleton soldiers would be the clumsy nature of heavy machinery, which makes a easy target for Rock powered grenades or heavy gun fire.

The future of robotics in a combat situation has a potential of reducing casualties, but at some cost. Drone pilots have the luxury of going into combat for several hours and leave the battlefield to come home to their families for dinner. They also have the highest numbers for post traumatic stress disorder. P. W. Singer an American political scientist, explores how science fiction has started to play out on modern day battlefields, with robots used more and more in war. For his book research, Singer interviewed hundreds of robotics scientists, science fiction writers, soldiers, insurgents, politicians, lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists from around the world. We are are now seeing the fallout of using robots in warfare, with the number of news items of drone attack on civilians and the people its effecting. The use of drones and new robotic systems will continue to increase, perhaps solve strategic weakness but present moral dilemmas...

Telepresence, from telephones to robots

Keeping in touch with people is hard to do when every one moves away or have busy lives. long distance calls to old friends become few and far between. While post cards and  christmas card may help the expense of it all becomes an issue and later people who don't make regular appearance just simply drifts away,

 and then comes the internet and opens up communications.

Voice over Internet Protocol) commonly refers to the communication protocols, technologies, methodologies, and transmission techniques involved in the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms commonly associated with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, IP communications, and broadband phone.

A major development that started in 2004 was the introduction of mass-market VoIP services that utilize existing broadband Internet access, by which subscribers place and receive telephone calls in much the same manner as they would via the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Full-service VoIP phone companies provide inbound and outbound service with Direct Inbound Dialing. Many offer unlimited domestic calling for a flat monthly subscription fee. This sometimes includes international calls to certain countries. Phone calls between subscribers of the same provider are usually free when flat-fee service is not available A VoIP phone is necessary to connect to a VoIP service provider.

The term telepresence was coined in a 1980 article by Marvin Minsky, who outlined his vision for an adapted version of the older concept of teleoperation that focused on giving the remote participation a feeling of actually being present.
The first commercially successful telepresence company, Teleport (which was later renamed TeleSuite), was founded in 1993 by David Allen and Harold Williams. Before TeleSuite, they ran a resort business from which the original concept emerged, because they often found businesspeople would have to cut their stays short to participate in important meetings. Their idea was to develop a technology that would allow businesspeople to attend their meetings without leaving the resorts so that they could lengthen their hotel stays.

Rather than traveling great distances in order to have a face-face meeting, it is now commonplace to instead use a telepresence system, which uses a multiple codec video system (which is what the word "telepresence" most currently represents). Each member/party of the meeting uses a telepresence room to "dial in" and can see/talk to every other member on a screen/screens as if they were in the same room. This brings enormous time and cost benefits. It is also superior to phone conferencing (except in cost), as the visual aspect greatly enhances communications, allowing for perceptions of facial expressions and other body language.

Telepresence robots are basically mobile video conference machines. The robots have been designed with a screen for viewers to interact with, as well as speakers to project your voice. Users can control the robot via the Internet, using a program or app. Along with communications ability, telepresence robots are wheeled to give the remote user the ability to move around. Previous telepresence robots were fairly expensive and were aimed at the wealthy or people with disabilities.

only recently with the cost of electronics and emerging technologies have made it possible for robotics to work with over the wire communication. The possibility of being able to project the knowledge and the physical skill of a surgeon over long distances has many attractions. Thus, again there is considerable research underway in the subject. (Locally controlled robots are currently being used for joint replacement surgery as they are more precise in milling bone to receive the joints.) The armed forces have an obvious interest since the combination of telepresence, teleoperation, and tele-robotics can potentially save the lives of battle casualties by allowing them prompt attention in mobile operating theaters by remote surgeons.

The possible future of telepresence is to have a fully immersive system to allow interaction, epidermal electronics last year have a new tactile system that could one-day bring real sense of touch to telepresence applications. Surgical robots and human doctors could virtually feel surfaces temperatures and other sensations through a special smart glove. This idea could also be extended for long distance couples who are missing each other, as there is already a kissing device which allows people to feel each others kiss through a remote interface. Despite a slight delay in communication over long distance, I hope that technology such as quantum entanglement would one day be advance enough to reduce lag times. A fully immersive system would have many more applications besides medical, image that you can utilize your robot to handle hazardous chemicals and make repairs in dangerous environments. Today the cost of a telepresence robot is going down in price. There a few companies out there competing to establish themselves for a led in the market, hopefully might drive the technology forward.