TechCrunch
Cheetah-Cub Is A Cat-Like Quadruped That's The Fastest Bot Of Its Size
We’re still a ways away from electric sheep roaming the fields pretending to bleat but robotics researchers continue to look to nature for four-legged inspiration. Meet Cheetah-Cub, a European Commission-funded research project, out of Swiss University the École Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne‘s biorobotics lab, that’s about the size of a house cat.
As its name suggests, Cheetah-Cub takes its cues from feline morphology with strings replacing tendons and actuators sited in the legs to do the work of muscles. The result is a robot that runs like a cat and is, according to its inventor Alex Sproewitz, the fastest robot for its size (under 30kg). To look at it’s like a miniature and less scary version of Boston Dynamic’s terrifying Big Dog bot. The latter is likely faster, being much taller, but for a bot with a mere 0.15m leg-length Cheetah-Cub can really go some — hitting a max of 1.42m/s or almost seven body lengths per second.
The Cheetah-Cub researchers have been aiming for fast gait first, with the bot’s design, but do also plan to work on improving its rough terrain traversing capabilities — including Big Dog-style “stand-up capabilities” – as the work progresses, says Sproewitz. Building legged robots capable of dynamic locomotion in rough terrain is a big challenge on both “the mechatronic level, but also for control”, he adds. So as scary as these bots inevitably look as they scuttle about on their test walkabouts there’s no fear of us humans having to outrun any of them yet.
There’s also no danger of Cheetah-Cub heading for any kind of commercial implementation any time soon, of course. It’s pure research. The road to a future infested with mechanical animals requires a lot more robotics researchers to put their heads together in the interdisciplinary areas of biomechanics and computational neurocontrol.
On the question of the role biology plays when designing legged robots, Sproewitz said he distinguishes between bio-inspired robotics, which is what the Cheetah-Cub project is aiming for, and the more faithful copying of bio-mimicking robotics. Cheetah-Cub’s tri-segmented leg design is therefore a bio-inspired “blueprint”, rather than a direct mimicking of a cat. ”We tested a leg design with the proposed pantograph [three-segment] structure, and a second (even more successful) leg design where several additional features were merged into,” he says.
This same blueprint approach is how the researchers are approaching the bot’s locomotion controls. “Our implementation of a mathematical model of a central pattern generator (CPG) is a simplified version of what was identified in vertebrate and invertebrate animals. A full copy of e.g. a spinal cord would not be feasible: complex networks of neurons with very different functionality exist in the spinal cord of larger animals,” he says. “Many researchers dedicate their entire career in identifying fragments of those networks.
“Again, currently we apply relatively simple models of CPGs. We assume that CPG networks responsible for locomotion have evolved, but have been partially maintained from simpler vertebrates (like lampreys and salamanders) up to humans. Therefore: Cheetah-cub robot is a natural continuation of Biorob’s research with its Lamprey/Salamander robot, and the implemented CPG control.”
[Image: Biorobotics Laboratory, EPFL]
European Startups! Six More Days To Apply For The Disrupt Europe Battlefield
We’re gearing up for Disrupt Europe this October in Berlin October 26-29 – the very first time that our flagship event is coming to this part of the world. And we want all the startups out there in Euroland to throw their hats into the ring to be a part of it, by applying for a place in the Battlefield — our on-stage competition to find the most promising startups, showering them with attention, and then awarding the best of the best a $50,000 prize. The deadline for the Battlefield is in one week, Friday the 28th of June.
Part of the magic of Disrupt is that it is a celebration of the very best of the tech world: you get to hear from founders and investors at their very pinnacle of success; and at the same time you get to see launches of the hottest new tech startups.
The meeting of two is like an electrical charge. sparks happen.
Disrupt Europe will bring a uniquely European flavour to the event (ahem, flavor for those of you in the U.S.). And our speaker lineup will span tech leaders from around the world, Battlefield judges will include investors and founders from both sides of the pond: this means unparalleled exposure for the small, new, talented startups over here to give their new products the exposure they deserve.
Are you ready to apply to be a part of the action?
Since this is the first time we’re running a Battlefield in Europe, here are a few tips we like to give startup hopefuls:
- We are going to select 30 companies out of all the startups that apply. These 30 will go on stage, in front of the Disrupt audience and our panel of judges, to present their companies and products.
- We review applications on a rolling basis, so it’s to your advantage to submit as soon as you can.
- Due to strong demand, we are unable to review applications more than once, so please don’t submit a draft application before you are ready.
- All submissions are confidential unless otherwise permitted by applicants on the application form.
- PowerPoint slides and video demos are optional but highly encouraged — Show, don’t tell. We reserve the right not to review applications without video demos based on application volume.
We are looking forward to seeing your applications — and seeing you in Berlin.
À bientôt et bisous,
TechCrunch
[Image: Checkpoint Charlie, Flickr]
Snowden Invited To Iceland By Founder Of Payment Provider DataCell
Reuters is reporting that Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson, founder of colocation service Datacell, is offering to fly NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to Reykjavik in a private jet should the country grant him asylum.
“A private jet is in place in China and we could fly Snowden over tomorrow if we get positive reaction from the Interior Ministry. We need to get confirmation of asylum and that he will not be extradited to the U.S. We would most want him to get a citizenship as well,” Sigurvinsson said yesterday.
The Icelandic has remained mum on Snowden’s chances at asylum and stated that the only way he could travel to the country would be by gaining citizenship. Snowden is currently in hiding and believed to be in Hong Kong.
DataCell is most famous for its lawsuit to force credit card provers to allow Wikileaks process donations.
Iceland has traditionally been a supporter of Internet freedom and the small country is working to expand its energy-efficient server business by courting forward-thinking and sometimes controversial clients. Datacell, for example, has a green data center that uses the island’s geothermal energy to power machines and cooling systems. The country had 256 asylum seekers in 2013 and processes them on a case-by-case basis.
New NSA Warrantless Tactics Reveal Little Room For Presumption Of Innocence
The Guardian released new details about the National Security Agency’s spying practices, which reveals how analysts can store vast sums of data without a warrant. Specifically, if the NSA “inadvertently” stumbles upon anything related to a potential crime, it can store the data for later investigations.
Quite reasonably, the Supreme Court has declared that law enforcement can charge citizens with a crime if it’s being conducted in “plain sight“–e.g. if cops see pot sitting in the passenger seat of a car during a traffic stop. That is, the presumption of innocence doesn’t apply to if police inadvertent witness a crime. Unfortunately, the scope of the presumption of innocence gets tinier as the government’s eyes get bigger.
According to the documents, the NSA is required to “minimize” any surveillance of U.S. citizens, which is beyond the jurisdiction of the foreign-enemy-facing agency. If communication between telephone records or internet addresses appear to be wholly within the United States or concerning U.S. citizens, data will be “promptly destroyed.”
However, phone records and internet data can be kept if the communication
- is “reasonably believed to contain evidence of a crime that has been, is being, or is about to be committed”
- contains information “necessary to understand or assess vulnerabilities”
- “is reasonably believed to contain significant foreign intelligence information”
In other words, if the NSA stumbles upon evidence that could stop a crime, they should keep it. But, applying this logic to digital information is quite different, because it allows police the ability to put eyes everyone. Indeed a ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals warned that extending plain sight to digital evidence, “creates a serious risk that every warrant for electronic information will become, in effect, a general warrant, rendering the Fourth Amendment irrelevant”.
Of course, the legal justification for the NSA spying is all top-secret, so we have no idea what specific precedent they’re using to justify the warrantless exceptions. Details aside, the lesson is clear: there are consequences to monitoring data broadly, even when if its well-intentioned. How we will square new technologies with the constitution is something we’ll have to grapple with as a society–if we could ever see the legal justifications, that is.
Poshly Gets Serious About Becoming A Data Resource For Beauty Brands
After a soft launch one year ago with no marketing campaign, the beauty data collection site Poshly has redesigned and is looking to pick up steam on its B2B offerings before beginning to raise its seed round in the fall.
Poshly works like this: users take a short quiz to enter beauty product giveaways, answering questions like “Do you use eye cream?” and “My natural eyelash color is…”. The same question is never asked twice, creating a detailed “portrait” (Poshly’s term) of the user’s habits and physical characteristics.
This data moves into Poshly’s B2B offerings, which is where they’re monetizing. Beauty companies pay for access to real time market data and can create micro-targeted sampling campaigns for their products through Poshly. It’s like a personalized sample subscription: the brand sends a product to a specific swath of Poshly users with characteristics relevant to that product. Pore minimizing cream for women who have said they have large pores, for instance.
In the last year, the site has picked up 50,000 registered users and seen over 1 million questions answered, with an average of 65 data points per user. According to CEO and founder Doreen Bloch, that’s 7 times the personal attributes gleaned from a standard industry survey.
For a company that initially only planned to keep its site up for a month to gather real consumer data for algorithm creation purposes, Poshly is taking steps to establish itself in the beauty industry. Poshly has landed its first big deal with a major beauty brand on its data insight tool, and although Bloch wouldn’t say who it was yet, it’s on par with Estee Lauder, Avon, and L’Oreal.
An ecommerce feature is also in Poshly’s future, so when that quiz data gets funneled back at the user, they’ll be able to start monetizing on the B2C side.
“It’s very compelling for brands because they’re used to a traditional market space that’s hard to customize and slow moving,” said Bloch. “One thing pointed out by brand managers is that there are really no market research companies focused exclusively on beauty. We’re able to profile people at a very specific level… African American women who buff their nails at least once a week and go to Sephora once.”
Bloch said they are at work on a subscription portal that gives brands access to real time aggregated data and enables them to add in questions for consumers. User data is not presented on an individual basis, but rather collective and anonymous.
For consumers, the redesign means mobile and tablet optimization, a clearer quiz progress bar, and an indicator of how many entries a giveaway has received to encourage gamification (users can already enter multiple times by answering more questions). They will also be able to enter their mailing address to opt in for free samples from beauty companies.
So Poshly seems like a pretty smart company. But here’s where they really hit the nail on the head: targeting the online beauty community in the first place.
Since they took to the web, beauty consumers have grown into an intensely passionate and vocal bunch. While some professional makeup artists create popular YouTube tutorials, it’s the everyday beauty fanatics that are voicing their likes and dislikes all day, every day. They’re always on the hunt for the next best thing, snapping up products at Sephora after work, testing them out, and projecting their opinions to the eager void.
These women and men want to share every last nitty-gritty detail of their beauty routines. The website Into The Gloss is known for its extensive beauty rundowns from celebs, designers, and models, while YouTube is inundated with makeup tutorials that get as personal as young women taking viewers through their process for covering cystic acne.
When Poshly asks its users if they have acne scarring or dandruff, they’ll be more than happy to answer, especially when the reward is beauty freebies. Frankly, I think they’d do it even if a giveaway wasn’t on the line.
Moving forward into the fall, Bloch said the team is looking to connect with investors interested in personalization in the beauty sector. She declined to say how much they are planning to raise or how much they bootstrapped Poshly with, but did note that they are self-sufficient and growing for the time being. We’ll see who their big beauty brand deal is with, but if the redesign and new feature roll out goes well, they could be in a very good place come fall.
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