Robots in Space: Dextrous Robotics Lab’s R2 aboard the ISS

Robonaut 2 (R2)

It’s almost science fiction today. A small machine step towards the autonomous helpers so adored by Freeman Lowell aboard the Valley Forge.  The R2 was developed by Dextrous Robotics Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC).  It’s the first of the series to be launched into space and its placement within the International Space Station is a part of the learning curve for engineers and managers looking to get robots deeper “out there”.  At the moment it’s a torso and sensory head,  and with arms developed for agility rather than strength.  Without legs and without adequate shielding for the harsh environment of hard space, the R2 is still in its infancy as useful crew member, but it’s already had upgrades to shielding and processors to reduce electromagnetic interference and improve tolerance to radiation and it’s only a matter of time before it’s moving around autonomously.

Click for full size – image: ISS / NASA – all rights reserved

For me it’s a very early glimpse of the creations that eventually lead to the formation of the Borgendrill Corporation (deep space mining and exploration), which sends autonomous machine colonies out beyond the furthest rim of human experience – and endurance.  A situation that eventually leads to the Borgendrill Enigma and the emergence, not yet fully understood, of true AI within the corporate computer system linked to these astronomically distant, ever-chattering, ever-probing, self-repairing labourers.

You can get more flavour about Borgendrill in the epic cyberpunk crime novel, Dante’s Fool. Or experience the consequences of the Borgendrill Enigma in the post-apocalyptic RPG of Yellow Dawn.

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Video: Quadrocopters demonstrate learning algorithms enabling them to master tossing and catching a pole

Robot Tech News

The Flying Machine Arena (FMA) A space where flying robots live and learn

An awe-inspiring (and some might say slightly chilling) glimpse into the future autonomy of machines to adapt and learn.  In this video Dario Brescianini, Markus Hehn, and Raffaello D’Andrea, from Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Controls (Switzerland), demonstrate how one flying robot is able to balance a vertical pole whilst hovering into position to then pull off an acrobatic-like manoeuvre: tossing the pole into the air whilst a second flying robot swoops in, calculating the pole’s optimum intercept position 50 times a second, to catch it.  Perfectly.

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LINKS RELATED TO THIS VIDEO:

• Flying Machine Arena: where flying robots live and learn
• Robohub article: Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum – with quadrocopters

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DOG EAT DOG: a post-apocalyptic future where robots are migrating en-mass in the wake of the murder of thousands of humans. Some say they were only doing their job when the event known as Yellow Dawn devastated the planet.  But others claim it to be the start of organic extinction.

Available in paperback or Kindle

Paperback : from LULU & kindle: US ($), UK (£), DE (Euro)

DOG EAT DOG { novel } takes place in the near future, after the Earth has been devastated by a viral pathogen unleashed when a corporate cargo hauler crashed into the atmosphere; breaking up as a fireball across the sky, it showered Southern Europe and North Africa with a deadly rain of infected debris. Ten years later, over seventy percent of the human population is dead and only a handful of cities survive intact. So called ‘Living Cities’. The vast majority of human habitation is abandoned to the undying creatures left mutated through a brutal twist in the infection. Greed and corruption are left hovering over this bleak and brutalized domain and a cosmic horror is now free to infiltrate the remote abandoned corners of the Earth. Above this, the orbital colonies spin within artificial gravity wells, impartial observers, unaffected by the shocking events below. Within this mix the lives of two survivors collide: a renegade intelligence agent and a cold-blooded master of violence, shaping events with their virulent hunger for money and desire to carve their name onto this new world.

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Top 10 blog posts of 2012 from Sci-fi, Fantasy, Cyberpunk and Cthulhu Mythos Horror

That was the year that was 2012

The Christmas tree is winking away at you, glittering with lights and baubles; the bins are stuffed full of empty bottles and discarded wrapping paper. Now’s the time to actually relax a little and contemplate the fact we survived the Mayan apocalypse of 2012 and are rapidly approaching what is likely to be one of the most challenging years in human history. Will Europe survive as the interlinked economies teeter ever closer towards a brink of oblivion – and anarchy in the UK?  Will a global pandemic of weaponised bubonic plague unfold?  Will reality TV and plastic home-brew “celebrities” increase their hold on the declining values of western civilisation: Ancient Rome, anyone?  Don’t take your eyes off the ball.

Meanwhile, take a moment to ponder the year that was 2012.

I’ve been running this blog for  a couple of years now.  It’s a great counterpoint to the daily grind of crafting novels and RPG systems – where often there is very little to show for weeks at a time.  This is a place where I can pin-up the things I find online, or post promotional offers on my products or scribble down thoughts and ideas.  I’ve gone from a few hundred folks a month taking a peek to now over 17,000 uniques a month. Not bad. Quite pleasing, actually.

Here’s a countdown of the top ten ranking articles as viewed by you, from sci-fi and dark fantasy, cyberpunk, and the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

10

John Waters Says: We Need to Make Books Cool Again

John Waters

09

Cyberpunk art ¦ future fashion or post-apocalyptic decadence – photography by Danil Golovkin

Future fashion or post-apocalyptic decadence? Photography by Danil Golovkin – All Rights Reserved

Danil Golovkin is a Russian fashion photographer who has a spectacular eye for detail.  These images come from a series that he calls Garbage Reign.  For me, these characters could fit very easily into a decadent post-apocalyptic scenario, where the “top of the pile” survivors perpetuate the same-old human instincts of social isolation and exclusion through fashion – are you a part of the club?  Equally as much this is pure cyberpunk, figures who float through the parties held by one of the corporate dynasties, members of the social elite or grifters waiting for the moment to move in on their mark.  Certainly these are images good enough to inspire a myriad of ideas.

View full image…

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08

Cyberpunk ¦ digital photography – gothic blue in rubber suspenders #wallpaper by Terrorcat

Terrorcat – All Rights Reserved

Terrorcat. Heavily manipulated but I like this image.  More club-wear than sex; a character who can comfortably settle into the fringes of the dance floor where shadows are sliced apart by the laser rigs, a bemused grimace held in reserve for anybody who actually reacts to the partial nakedness.  Prowling the club with an easy and confident stride, fluorescent irises gleaming like predatory cat-eyes in the purple neon gloom.

View full image…

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07

Reasons to like Lovecraft: Hastur, as The King in Yellow

Hastur as The King in Yellow – image by Jezebel

Hastur (The Unspeakable One, Him Who Is Not to be Named, Assatur, Xastur, or Kaiwan) is a fictional entity (Great Old One) of the Cthulhu Mythos.  The King in Yellow is merely one of many aspects of this potent and truly amorphous denizen.

It is possibly one of the most written about and discussed Great Old Ones within this Mythos, and conversely, one of the least understood. This fuzzy, blurred and vague state of comprehension is exacerbated by a divide between literary fans of Hastur, and the RPG community. The fact Hastur is so hard to accurately quantify is no coincidence.

Read full article…

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06

Sci-fi Art: Robot #wallpaper – Big Bot, by Benedict Campbell

Big Bot, by Benedict Campbell – click to view full size

Part of a series of images from the liquid metal, carbo-plastic, hydrogel and permacrete core of visual creators on the Internet. Images that stir my senses and evoke plots and concepts for what I’d like to see (or fear) in the future.

Read full article…

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05

Photography ¦ submission and sex games – the naked skill of Igor Vasiliadis

Image by Igor Vasiliadis – All Rights Reserved

This is a great image from the highly accomplished and experimental Moscow based photographer Igor Vasiliadis.  It immediately weaves some stark and intriguing story possibilities into your mind; sex games and the roles of sub, dom and voyeur.  Of course, it could equally plunge a little further into the realm of dark art if you consider that the centre-posed figure is not taking part in this with any sort of free-will.  What is the distant male figure expecting to observe?  His relaxed posture speaks of a boredom with the mundane pleasures of life – a killer or thug who’s sensitivity has been dulled and blunted by repeated exposure to the visceral highs of violence and danger. Or is he just a bored businessman looking to satisfy shadowy sexual desires that some men can’t exorcise with their pretty wives?  There’s certainly a sense of mystery within the glossy and brightly lit image; shadows that are more off-camera than in-shot.  I’d strongly recommend you check out Igor Vasiliadis’ website, there’s some fantastic images brought into enigmatic life with silver and cyanide.

View full image…

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04

The Ninth Gate: occult and tarot-like symbolism in the engravings by Aristide Torchia and Lucifer, plus wider meanings of the movie

A copy of The Nine Doors To the Kingdom of Shadows – De Umbrarum Regis Novum Portis

The Ninth Gate is probably one of my favourite movies of all time, as is the official soundtrack. A film by Roman Polanski, its stars Johnny Depp as the ambivalent protagonist, Lucas Corso; and features an incredible performance by Frank Langella as the brazen, smug and sinister collector of all things diabolical – Boris Balkan – a wealthy man where money and morals are no obstacle to acquiring books that deal with the Devil.
The film is an adaptation of The Dumas Club, a book written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
I’m a huge fan of H.P.Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos cycle of stories which provide unnerving glimpses of a pantheon of Outer Gods and their minions, writhing obscenely within alien vortices of inarticulate sounds and invisible light, sometimes only just beyond the perceptions of ordinary folk. The cosmic horror of the Mythos has nothing to do with this movie which limits itself to the spiritual, psychological and metaphysical menace of Evil, and all its many incarnations within the Quantisphere (the realm of Man, Spirits, Elementals and Angels & Demons).

Read full article…

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03

Sci-fi Art: Cyborg #wallpaper – Under Construction, by Benedict Campbell

Under Construction, by Benedict Campbell – All Rights Reserved

Yet another brilliant piece of digital art by Benedict Campbell. Sums up the nature of synthetic humanoids perfectly – and perhaps the darker aspect of male interest in the female form: an attractive woman with blank, almost submissive features lacking the “complication” of limbs?  Or just a bit a cool cyber tech eye candy for your computer desktop.

View full image…

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02

Reasons to like Lovecraft: Mi-go (Fungi from Yuggoth)

Mi-go investigating human – click for full size – WARNING: Graphic content

The Mi-go are highly intelligent and independent race, renowned for their worship of the Outer Gods: Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, and Shub-Niggurath.

Also known as The Fungi from Yuggoth, their first appearance in Lovecraft’s work was within the excellent and spine tingling tale The Whisperer in the Darkness, since then they’ve been brought in as “bugs” in CthulhuTech and given some decent exposition in Pagan Publishing’s sourcebook for CoC: Delta Green Eyes Only Volume One: Machinations of the Mi-Go.

Read full article…

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01

Post-apocalyptic #wallpaper – UTOC Public Safety Notice from early days of Yellow Dawn – Infection Warning

Artwork: Ben Chapman

This is a public safety notice from the early days of the catastrophic, apocalyptic event known as Yellow Dawn, when the Infection was even less understood than it is today.  It’s an example of UTOC attempting to exert control of survivors in the wake of the disaster.

View and download poster…

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That’s all folks. I hope you found something that ignited a spark of inspiration or stirred something deep inside your chest.  This is all about sharing creativity and ideas.  It’s also about me throwing out hooks to try to catch the interest of people who like reading sci-fi dark fantasy novels, who like fiction with cyberpunk and Cthulhu Mythos flavours – and of course, people who enjoy RPGs.  If you’re one of those people then please take a moment to investigate my fiction writing (7 novels) and the Role-playing game: Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur.

Wishing you the best of dark dreams for 2013.

David J Rodger – Bristol, England

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Got Kindle?

If you’re keen to try these novels in digital format then you can buy all these titles at Amazon with a choice of currencies, $ US Dollars; or £ GB Pounds, or the Euro.

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Sci-Fi Cyberpunk Today: Big Dog by Boston Dynamics, robot technology in motion

Getting there

Not a lot you can really say about this, although I do wonder how silent the thing is when yomping alongside a squad of infantry. Good pack mule, I guess. And definitely scores highly on the best impression of a drunk deer when kicked; but impressive recovery ability, all the same.

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Cyberpunk Sci-Fi Today: Kolja Kugler, Berlin sculptor creates bass playing robot

Over recent months there’s been a signficant increase of media time focussing on new developments in bipedal (humanoid) robotics.  They’re definitely “just over the horizon” in terms of being commercially viable. Usually you see them gleaming under bright pin lights, all white carbo-plastic and synethic alloy components, a fusion of engineering and science-fiction design. But here’s a little snippet (Konzertausschnitt) of how they might look in a more-stripped down, chop-shop, near-future cyberpunk genre.  When people on the fringes of the glistening chrome bubble of corporate lifestyle and inane consumerism extract components and knowledge, and fuse them with the desire for experimentation and fun.

The video shows a robot built by Berlin based sculptor Kolja Kugler, performing in a gig.  “Radial System” in the early part of 2011.

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It conjures up a lot of visuals from the post-apocalyptic realm of Yellow Dawn (The Age of Hastur), where petrol-head survivors group together into gangs of novapunks: I can imagine this being the kind of thing they patch together; rebelling against the view of most survivors that robots are a bad thing (following Dragon Breath massacres at the outset of the Infection). And knowing the mindset of novapunks they’d probably also put these cobbled-together creations into a fighting bought with salvaged corporate units, such as the previously ubiquitous Sony Houseman robot.  If you’re interested in knowing more about this then check out Dog Eat Dog, the first novel set in the world of Yellow Dawn.

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BLURB About the Artist

Kolja Kugler is a native Berlin Artist. In the early nineties Kolja collaborated with The Mutoid Waste Company. They lived, worked and exhibited on the former cold war frontline, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. One of the most recognized works of this time is “The Lost Tribe of Mig”- project, an immense installation in the city centre of a Mig 21 fighter plan flying out of a four story building. Following years of traveling in Europe with the underground Art movement group Alien Pulse Agency, Kolja took of on his own independent travels around the world. Throughout these travels he exhibited his largest robotic sculpture “Sir Elton Junk”, in various continents including Australia, south east Asia and the Americas. Back in Europe since 2006 Kolja continues shaping sculptures. Contact: koljakugler@googlemail.com

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Video: autonomous nanobots capable of agile flight – a portent of future combat and surveillance technology

Sci-fi & Cyberpunk Future – Today

This is an informative little video showing experiments using nano quadrotors (developed by KMel Robotics) at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania.  It gets a little surreal and unnerving near the end when you consider that in only a few years these swarms are going to be out on the battlefield with military applications, and possibly out on urban streets performing surveillance (and enforcement?) by police & dubious corporate security teams.

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If you liked this then take a look at the concept of heterogeneous attack swarms, with different systems in a swarm providing unique roles in a synchronised manner.

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UPDATE 2nd FEB 2012:

And as if to reinforce the point, the Guardian website just posted this article about the long-term PR campaign being launched by corporations wanting to see these robots brought further into public life.  Surveillance drone industry plans PR effort to counter negative image – click to read

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Sci-fi Art: Cyborg #wallpaper – Under Construction, by Benedict Campbell

Under Construction, by Benedict Campbell – All Rights Reserved – Click for full size

Part of a series of images from the liquid metal, carbo-plastic, hydrogel and permacrete core of visual creators on the Internet.  Images that stir my senses and evoke plots and concepts for what I’d like to see (or fear) in the future.

Yet another brilliant piece of digital art by Benedict Campell. Sums up the nature of synthetic humanoids perfectly – and perhaps the darker aspect of male interest in the female form: an attractive woman with blank, almost submissive features lacking the “complication” of limbs?  Or just a bit a cool cyber tech eye candy for your computer desktop. *smiles with raised eyebrows*

It’s certainly true that with University tech labs and a handful or corporate R&D centres releasing working prototypes of “humanoid” robots – the question and debate is fast approaching when the engineers will need to decide whether or not to create machines that actually look like us.  Because despite the science fiction fantasy of the idea, the actual reality of having one of these things walking around your space is apparently creeping a lot of people out. (Especially if you’ve got a partially dismembered torso hanging from the rafters). I guess it’ll come down to consumer choice.  Blank, featureless bots for domestic work and the best of synthetic beauty for the sex industry.

In the shared universe of my sci-fi & dark fantasy novels there’s a sensible blend of humanoid and purely functional machines, from the subservient Sony Houseman RB3 to the insect-like sentry systems that flutter articulated antenna and flex tiny spines, ready to respond, at the approach of un-tagged intruders.  Come the apocalyptic cataclysm of Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur, these robots became the bogey-men of survivor folk-lore due to the unforseen consequences of the Dragon Breath Project.

• Benedict Campbell website.

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Available in paperback or kindle

Paperback : from LULU & kindle: US ($), UK (£), DE (Euro)

IRON MAN PROJECT { novel } Ex-special forces man, Vincent Brent, is tough, ruthless and highly trained; he’s now using his skills for whoever will pay him without cashing in the bounty on his head. In this world of the near future, the UN has failed. Wars are fought in boardrooms through attorneys and politics, and on our streets with private armies of military or criminal assets. In Sicily, the Chief of Security for one such corporate alliance struggles to survive as hidden forces attempt to manipulate him for their own ends. Both these men find their fates intertwined. In the cross-hairs of powerful adversaries, they must both make decisions of life and death in a choice between command and conscience. David J Rodger’s trademark unforgiving rendering of brutal reality, and relentless narrative pace, are here in palm-sweating abundance, delivered in a complex novel that will keep you turning pages until the end.

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Big Bot, by Benedict Campbell

Top Dog, by Benedict Campbell

Da Vinci Vitruvian (wo)Man with Cyberpunk theme, by Benedict Campbell

Beef Clone, Vat Grown Muscle, by Benedict Campbell

London Cyberpunk, by Benedict Campbell

Who is Watching Who, by Benedict Campbell

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Scenario Ideas for Yellow Dawn based on robot technology gone rogue

DoctorToc

This is a link about a link. I posted some seed ideas about Robots & Cyborgs in Yellow Dawn a few days ago; a chap called DocToc posted some thought-provoking comments, including ideas that could easily expand into small scenarios. So I thought I’d highlight a direct link to his comments here.

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David J Rodger – DATA

Yellow Dawn ¦ seed idea for possible expansion with robots and cyborgs

Source: keiokaiser via Flickr

This is just a brain dump for some ideas I’ve been having today, as I’m working through the overhaul of Yellow Dawn.  The RPG system already contains rules for robots and cyborgs, although I need to add a little more narrative background to the “risks of Dragon Breath AI” taking control of unsecured robots. These ideas may lead to an expansion of the existing rules in the primary rulebook, or I might hold off and write a big old bolt-on… we’ll see.

Anyhow, the idea I was having was this: pre-Yellow Dawn the existing robots were built from moulded carbo-plastic components with hydrogel sheaths protecting vital internal systems; the use of metal was limited to complex light-but-strong alloys for the core skeleton structure, and in the microcircuitry of its electronics.  Robots built for warfare or working in hazardous environments would have modifications, such as mylar and Kevlar weaves for body plating, high-quality air filters for cooling systems, sealed joint-units, etc.

Post-Yellow Dawn the need to maintain and repair robots out in the Wilderness (or robots who need to repair and maintain themselves, either under the direct control of Dragon Breath or as autonomous units) leads to an issue of components.   I’m thinking about introducing the concept of robot forges; run by skilled wilderness types or by robots hiding out in the deep wilderness, where scavenged metals are melted down and forged into components for new or existing bots.  It’s a transition from complex plastics to heavier metals.  It’s evolution (or devolution) enforced by the post-apocalyptic circumstances.  Such robots or robot tenders would harvest certain oil-bearing crops and raise cattle for their gelatinous tissue, skin and bone; creating a small interconnected industry.

All of this would be viewed with suspicion by FaBIAN troopers in Living Cities, and viewed as legitimate targets out in the Wilderness.

These forges and repair stations would also be of interest to Cyborgs who would require almost identical care and attention to maintain their mechanical systems.

Anyhow, that’s just a stream of thought. Unfleshed ideas for later review and digestion. Feel free to comment with further ideas.

Djr

Video: Human aka. NonStop dances like a Sony Houseman robot (RB3 Class) – wonderful

Video: Human aka. NonStop dances like a Sony Houseman robot (RB3 Class) – wonderful.

Or is it a case of a Sony Houseman robot (RB3 Class) with full RealSkin augmentation mimicking a human?

Track: Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks (remixed by Butch Clancy)

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David J Rodger – DATA

Cyberpunk Art: early cyborg, robot with human face – Some Friends Are Electric, by HIAB-X

Some Friends Are Electric - Photography by HIAB-X

Part of a series of images from the liquid metal, carb0-plastic, hydrogel and permacrete core of visual creators on the Internet.  Images that stir my senses and evoke plots and concepts for what I’d like to see (or fear) in the future.

I like this image for several reasons. It feels like it could be a scene from a movie, or there should be a wider story attached to the image: was it taken on Earth?  Or is it a slice of reality from some far flung, cold and potentially hostile location where a human face, no matter how synthetic, is a valuable friend in the fight against insanity?  Finally, the photo was taken by my best friend and soul-brother, Matthias – who also created the robot from scavenged electronics, mannequins and toy parts.  He’s been doing this since I met him in 1994. I hope you like his work.

 

 

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Video: Robot learns to use objects as walking & balance aids

I think watching the thing sit down was the most impressive aspect of this video. How long before they’re walking the streets?  10 years?  Less?  Personal shoppers and care-for-the-elderly.

Remember the Sony Houseman robot we used to play with as kids…

Source unknown, let me know and I’ll credit.

 

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Remote Presence delivered via robot with synthetic human features

Telenoid R1 minimalist humanoid robot. Researchers from Osaka University have teamed up with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) to develop a minimalist humanoid robot that recreates the physical presence of a remote user.

View full article here

Parallel Lines – The Gift, by Carl Erik Rinsch

Video/Worksafe, 5 mins. Very cool little cyber fiction short.  Watch.