As robotics advance, the future could certainly involve humans and automated elements working together as a team. The question then becomes, how do you design such an interaction? A team of researchers from Purdue University attempt to provide a solution with their GhostAR system.

The setup records human movements for playback later in augmented reality, while a robotic partner is programmed to work around a “ghost” avatar. This enables a user to plan out how to collaborate with the robot and work out kinks before actually performing a task.

GhostAR’s hardware includes an Oculus Rift headset and IR LED tracking, along with actual robots used in development. Simulation hardware consists of a six-axis Tinkerkit Braccio robot, as well as an Arduino-controlled omni-wheel base that can mount either a robot an arm or a camera as needed.

More information on the project can be found in the team’s research paper.

With GhostX, whatever plan a user makes with the ghost form of the robot while wearing an augmented reality head mount is communicated to the real robot through a cloud connection – allowing both the user and robot to know what the other is doing as they perform a task.
The system also allows the user plan a task directly in time and space and without any programming knowledge.

First, the user acts out the human part of the task to be completed with a robot. The system then captures the human’s behavior and displays it to the user as an avatar ghost, representing the user’s presence in time and space.

Using the human ghost as a time-space reference, the user programs the robot via its own ghost to match up with the human’s role. The user and robot then perform the task as their ghosts did.

Few would question the health benefits of ditching the car in favor of a bicycle ride to work — it’s good for the body, and it can be a refreshing relief from rat race commuting. But it’s not without its perils, especially when one works late and returns after dark. Most car versus bicycle accidents occur in the early evening, and most are attributed to drivers just not seeing cyclists in the waning light of day.

To decrease his odds of becoming a statistics and increase his time on two wheels, [Dave Schneider] decided to build a better bike light. Concerned mainly with getting clipped from the rear, and having discounted the commercially available rear-mounted blinkenlights and wheel-mounted persistence of vision displays as insufficiently visible, [Dave] looked for ways to give drivers as many cues as possible. Noticing that his POV light cast a nice ground effect, he came up with a pavement projecting display using four flashlights. The red LED lights are arranged to flash onto the roadway in sequence, using the bike’s motion to sweep out a sort of POV “bumper” to guide motorists around the bike. The flashlight batteries were replaced with wooden plugs wired to the Li-ion battery pack and DC-DC converter in the saddle bag, with an Arduino tasked with the flashing duty.

The picture above shows a long exposure of the lights in action, and it looks very effective. We can’t help but think of ways to improve this: perhaps one flashlight with a servo-controlled mirror? Or variable flashing frequency based on speed? Maybe moving the pavement projection up front for a head-down display would be a nice addition too.

Sphero goes modular, spins out for a drive (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 02:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.