Cyberphysics is the physics of information-based control in systems that display a strong coupling between computing and control elements. Such systems are called cyber-physical systems. Cyberphysics is closely related to cybernetics, which is the study of regulatory systems.

A Rescue Robot from the Tokyo Fire Department

This rescue robot from the Tokyo Fire Department is performing a drill with a manikin. However, I don’t like the way that it is dragging the victim up the ramp by his neck.

Good Lord! Please don’t let that robot rescue me!!!

This is one of several interesting robot photos in The Big Picture at Boston.com, which focuses on News Stories in Photographs. The caption there reads:

Tokyo Fire Department’s rescue robot transfers a mock victim onto itself during an anti-terrorism exercise in the response to a radiological dispersal device in Tokyo, on November 7, 2008. Tokyo Metropolitan government conducted the exercise with eleven organisations including Metropolitan Police Department. (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

There are now several MATLAB packages for robotics, and specifically for the NXT. One paradigm is to run the code on a PC and have it communicate direct commands to the NXT Brick via Bluetooth or USB. I have found this paradigm to be a bit dangerous since in the event of a MATLAB crash or a miscommunication, the NXT Brick will continue with its last command until ordered to stop. This has the potential to destroy your robot. The paradigm that I prefer to use is to write several programs that run on the brick. These programs take commands from files on the brick that can be uploaded rapidly from the PC. The MATLAB code then is in charge of sending the command files and starting and stopping programs. In the event of a MATLAB crash or communication failure, the software running on the NXT Brick can be designed to terminate gracefully.

Here are the MATLAB packages that I know of. The first two are specifically geared toward the NXT; whereas the last is a general robotics package.

* LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Toolkit for MATLAB and Simulink
http://www.mathworks.com/programs/mindstorms/
* Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB (Release 7.1) (P.I. Corke)
http://petercorke.com/Robotics%20Toolbox.html
* RWTH Mindstorms NXT Toolbox for Matlab
http://www.mindstorms.rwth-aachen.de/

The robot below called Ckbot is constructed of 15 modules grouped into 3 clusters of 5 modules each. Each cluster is equipped with a camera (24 frames per second video), a blinker LED, and an accelerometer.  The other modules have proximity sensors, servo motors, and a computer.  When the system is disassembled, each cluster rights itself and seeks out the other clusters so that they may dock and reconstruct the robot.

UAlbany Professor Kevin Knuth with a robot built from LEGOs. (Photo Mark Schmidt)

Kevin Knuth has a laboratory in the physics department of the University at Albany that is filled with LEGOs. The bricks are relatively cheap and can be used to rapidly prototype a robot’s body. Knuth’s robots are being programmed to solve such problems as mapping complex terrain.

At UAlbany Day on Saturday, Oct. 25, he will give a demonstration on Robotics and Robotic Exploration in Life Sciences Room 143 at 10:45 a.m.

More here:

http://www.albany.edu/news/update_4522.shtml

Building instructions for the robot shown in the UAlbany article can be found on Brickengineer.com

Visit Autonomous Exploration News for information on Knuth’s company Autonomous Exploration Inc.