Telepresence robots are way cool, but way expensive. We've seen several platforms for these machines that let you remotely guide a robot around a distant location, with prices ranging from $15,000 for Anybots' QB system to $3,000 for the R.BOT 100. Well, Google's Johnny Chung Lee has a history of creating low-cost versions of very expensive devices, such as his $14 steadycam, and a homemade electronic whiteboard that uses the Wii Remote. To keep in touch with his fiancee after moving to Mountain View, Calif., where Google's headquarters are located, Lee made his own telepresence robot for only $500. As the video explains, he took a $250 iRobot Create and a similarly priced Netbook, linked them with a few hardware and software modifications, and now communicates through Skype and the robot.

This research explores the performance of the iRobot Create machine for optimizing object relocation in an outer space environment. It is an ultimate goal to have it become a symbol of innovation for robots that are sent into outer space. Functioning as a tool-bot, and an active assistant, this robot aims to assist in small duties and respond to commands. With its arm and color blob recognition capabilities, this robot has the potential to receive a request, register and associate it with existing objects in its line of sight, and maneuver the arm to act accordingly, grabbing the correct object and giving it to a worker or engineer. This poster and presentation explains current progress and implementation of the iRobot Create for this purpose.

This year, the Robotics Exhibition included two such robotics challenge problems: manipulation and learning by demonstration. In the Small-Scale Manipulation Challenge four teams demonstrated systems playing robotic chess. This exhibit was organized by David Touretzky and Monica D. Anderson. In the Learning by Demonstration Challenge, three teams demonstrated systems learning a block-sorting task. This exhibit was organized by Sonia Chernova. Additionally, this year marked another successful turnout for the Robotics Education Track, organized by Zachary Dodds, which highlights student-and educator-led robotics projects. In this article we give a summary of these three components of the exhibition.

Past educational robotics research has indicated that the use of simulators can increase students’ performance in introductory robotics programming courses. In this paper, we introduce a simulator for the iRobot Create that works on Windows PCs. It was developed to work with a Python robotics library and includes an Eclipse plugin, but can simulate any library that uses the serial Open Interface on the Create. The platform, library, and simulator are all easy to use and have been well-received initially by students.