Product Description
“Robot Dynamics Algorithms, Second Edition” presents the subject of computational rigid-body dynamics through the medium of spatial (6D) vector notation. It explains how to model a rigid-body system and how to analyze it. The book is a comprehensive collection of the best rigid-body dynamics algorithms in a single source. This second edition includes nearly twice the content of the previous edition with algorithms shown explicitly in pseudocode and laid out in table… More >>
The new US $36 million library at Chicago State University cost millions less than a traditional library because its storage stacks were designed for robots.
More than 850,000 volumes are stored in 3-story high shelves of bins that are only accessible to high speed librarian robots. The students request a book on-line then the robots race to collect it and bring it to them.
When a book goes back the robots re-shelve it anywhere that is convenient. It does not matter where the book is placed as long as the robot knows where it is.
About 250,000 of the more common books are still kept on traditional shelves for browsing by humans.
There are interesting consequences to the robot library. Just like the robot garage, if there is problem with power or software then the library becomes almost useless.
I wonder if the robots are smart enough to ‘defrag’ the shelves by moving the most popular books up front and keeping bins organized during slow times.
[Picture shows library robot, Automated Retrieval Collection, at Eastern Michigan University]
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State :: Robotic library makes it easy
The robot Arturito gained noteriety and controversy last year for its discovery of long lost treasure buried on “Treasure Island,” the island that inspired the book Robinson Crusoe. The gold bars were identified by the robot at a depth of 15 meters below the surface of the ground.
The discovery started a brouhaha over who was the rightful owner of the treasure. The Chilean government claimed ownership. The robot and his company, called Wagner Technologies, offered to donate more than half the proceeds to charity instead. They have been in a stalemate ever since. It is unclear whether anyone has seen the actual treasure.
Even before the discovery Arturito was famous in Chilean crime fighting circles. The robot by designed by inventor Manuel Salinas to locate abandonded land mines but also found service for his ‘Geo-Radar’ to locate buried weapons and explosives for Chilean police.
Arturito now is moving into prospecting by identifying underground copper, oil and water resources. Scientists at Colombia’s Universidad Tecnológico Metropolitano (UTEM) found the robot to be, “98 percent effective in finding and mapping underground copper deposits at depths of up to 600 feet (183 meters).”
Unfortunately others are not convinced. Leopoldo Soto, President of the Chilean Physics Society is very doubtful.
“If the apparatus does what they say,” Soto told Chilean magazine Ercilla, “it would be truly stunning … given that with what we know today of physics, it is not possible in any part of the world.”
“In other words, they would have had to discover a new physics.”
Another physicist, Mario Favre, a professor at Catholic University in Santiago, is not so polite:
“What the owners of the machine say is simply delirious,” Favre said.
The inventor stubbornly is keeping the exact method of detection a secret and the robot is not talking either.
So, while Arturito travels the country solving mysteries of hidden treasure and uncovering new sources of underground deposits, the mystery surrounding his wonderous abilities grows.
Mystery Robot Solves Crimes, Finds Mines in Chile
