Lego Mindstorms is a line of Lego sets combining programmable bricks with electric motors, sensors, Lego bricks, and Lego Technic pieces (such as gears, axles, beams, and pneumatic parts) to build robots and other automated or interactive systems. Lego Mindstorms is marketed commercially as the Robotics Invention System (RIS). It is also sold and used as an educational tool, originally through a partnership between Lego and the MIT Media Laboratory. The educational version of the products is called Lego Mindstorms for Schools, and comes with the ROBOLAB GUI-based programming software, developed at Tufts University using the National Instruments LabVIEW as an engine.

Lego Mindstorms may be used to build a model of an embedded system with computer-controlled electromechanical parts. Almost all kinds of real-life embedded systems, from elevator controllers to industrial robots, may be modelled using Mindstorms. There is a strong community of professionals and hobbyists of all ages involved in the sharing of designs, programming techniques, and other ideas associated with Lego Mindstorms.

RoboSapien

RoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by Wow Wee toys. The RoboSapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included with the toy, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an infrared transmitter-equipped PDA. RoboSapien, as the advert for it says, is "The robot that thinks it's a human!".

The toy is capable of a walking motion without recourse to wheels within its feet. It is also able to grasp objects with either of its hands, and is also able to throw grasped objects with mild force. It has a small loudspeaker unit, which can broadcast several different vocalizations, all of which appear to be recordings of a human male pretending to be a great ape, such as a gorilla. The toy's remote control unit has a total of 21 different buttons. With the help of two shift buttons, a total of 67 different robot-executable commands are accessible.

M.S.L

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a NASA rover scheduled to launch in December 2009 and perform a precision landing on Mars in October 2010. This rover will be three times as heavy and twice the width of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) that landed in 2004. It will carry more advanced scientific instruments than any other mission to Mars. The international community will provide most of these instruments. The MSL rover will be launched by an Atlas V 541. Once on the ground, MSL will analyze dozens of samples scooped up from the soil and cores from rocks. MSL will be expected to operate for at least 1 martian year (~2 Earth years) as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover. It will investigate the past or present ability of Mars to support life.

MSL is expected to weigh over 800 kg (1,760 lb) including 65 kg (143 lb) of scientific instruments. At present 10 instruments have been selected for development or production for MSL.

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Laser-guided robot 'thinks' like a human

You know the future has arrived when scientists bring together two staples of science fiction: lasers and robots.

But rather than 50-tonne behemoths dealing death with a massive light cannon, the El-E robot is instead using lasers to think like a human.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Emory University School of Medicine believe they have found the answer to the difficulties that robots have in processing the imperfections of the real world using laser pointers.

Ordering El-E to retrieve an item is as simple as shining a laser pointer on the object you want. The pointer can also be used a second time to tell El-E to put the object in a certain place or give it to a specific person.

Above, Charlie Kemp, director of the Healthcare Robotics Center at Georgia Tech and Emory, accepts a towel from El-E.

El-E, named after its arm's resemblance to an elephant trunk, as seen here, can grasp a range of household items including towels, pill bottles and telephones from floors or tables.

The robot and its ability to pick up items from both floors and shelves could be a lifeline for people who have mobility difficulties.

El-E's creators are gathering input from ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) patients and doctors to prepare El-E to assist patients with severe mobility challenges.

Researchers from Georgia Tech and Emory are working with an expert on human-computer interactions to ensure the robot will one-day be ready to be used in people's homes.

El-E uses a custom-built omni-directional camera to see most of the room. After it detects a selection has been made with the laser pointer, the robot moves two cameras to look at the laser spot and triangulate its position in three-dimensional space.

Once it has reached an object, sensors in its hands will guide it on opening and closing its gripper until it has a firm hold, as pictured here.

The robot is able to detect the difference between a face, a table or the floor so it is able to carefully present an object to a person or place it on a table or the floor.

Researchers say one of the key benefits of the system is that El-E does not need to understand what objects are called, instead relying on an array of sensors similar to those seen here.

El-E's power and computation is all on board and runs Ubuntu Linux on a Mac Mini.

Kemp said: "We humans naturally point at things but we aren't very accurate, so we use the context of the situation or verbal cues to clarify which object is important.

"Robots have some ability to retrieve specific, predefined objects, such as a soda can, but retrieving generic everyday objects has been a challenge for robots."

Georgia Tech and Emory researchers are now working to help El-E expand its capabilities to include switching lights on and off when the user selects a light switch and opening and closing doors when the user selects a door knob.