Georgia Tech Regents professor Ronald Arkin (left) and research engineer Alan Wagner look on as the black robot deceives the red robot into thinking it is hiding down the left corridor. (GT Photo: Gary Meek)

Can you give us some background on yourself, who you are, what you currently do, etc?

My name is Alan Wagner. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from Georgia Tech with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, an MS from Boston University in Computer Science and BA from Northwestern University in Psychology.

How did you get involved in robotics?

My interest in robotics and AI began while I worked as a part of the research and development team at MIT’s portion of the Human Genome Project. During my work at MIT, the team needed someone to figure out how to create a robotic system capable of adding purification chemicals to plates containing DNA. The system was to utilize a large robotic arm that manually moved these plates around and several smaller liquid handling robots. I spent the next year building and refining the system. The work was exciting and challenging and moved me to pursue formal training in AI and robotics. Moreover, the study of AI has allowed me to more deeply explore and combine two academic passions of mine—psychology and computer science.

Describe the project you’re working on.

I am currently a research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute working on the development of a computational framework for social interaction. The framework uses elements of game theory and a social psychological theory called interdependence theory to, hopefully, develop robots which are more capable of interaction with humans in a wide variety of contexts. As part of this framework I have developed algorithms that should allow a robot to determine if someone is trusting them, if they should trust someone else, use stereotypes to broadly characterize an interactive partner, and develop long-term models of the people the robot interacts with. I am currently in the process of creating a software library which could be used by the scientific or robotics community in general, to create more interactive robots. Ideally, these communities would help develop the library by adding to and refining it.

Why is it important that we make things and work on projects?

Allow me to answer a related question, why is research and science important? Science and research, even with respect to unpopular questions, is important as it expands humanity’s knowledge in unpredictable ways. Results from one project may inform other, seemingly unrelated projects in important ways. My approach to creating social robots draws on work completed in social psychology. It is unlikely that the psychologists that developed ever imagined that they would be applied to robotics and AI. Yet, not only does this work in psychology and suggest new avenues to pursue for AI, it also has the potential to highlight and inform areas in psychology by creating machines of limited intelligence.

What message do you have to aspiring engineers?

I, personally, think two characteristics critical for success as an engineer and a scientist are 1) hard work and 2) focus. Creating novel technologies and areas of science is not easy, regardless of one’s innate intelligence. Time, dedication, diligence, and luck are all precursors. But, having a vision and working hard to ensure that that vision becomes a reality demands dedication. Focus is similarly important. Often when one reaches a point of difficulty there is a natural tendency to look for a distraction. It is precisely at this time, however, that the scientist and/or engineer must maintain maximal focus, working through the problem and continuing until a solution is found.

Favorite invention you’ve seen recently?

The most exciting invention that I’ve seen recently has been the different methods that astronomers and astrophysics have created for determining the existence of planets. I remember as a child reading that there were no known planets outside our solar system. It amazes me that hundreds of planets have now been observed and that we can begin to imagine what these planets look like. Very exciting.

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One of the biggest elements in Bots High is featuring girls build robots and involved in fields that statistically you don’t usually see them in – science and engineering. Two of the three featured teams are all-girls teams (My Mechanical Romance and Mechanical Misfits), and girls play important roles on the other teams as well.

This Short Bit is a clip straight from the film, featuring young girls starting to build robots and Elizabeth and Danielle’s experience in competing at national competitions and being one of the few girls there. It also explains the importance of engineers.

Robot Building Time – Time Lapse Montage from Joey Daoud on Vimeo.

For the past few weeks I’ve been filming time lapse shots of teams building their robots. I set the camera to take one picture every second and when you play it back you get a lot of time condensed. It’s cool to watch stuff built really quickly.

This could very well be a part 1 of 2 as there will only be much more robot building in the week leading up to competition.

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Underwater Robot Test Run from Joey Daoud on Vimeo.

Today 16 of the above underwater robots are going to be built by 6th graders, mentored by seniors. The robots have a waterproof camera that goes up to a laptop, so you can explore the ocean.

The robots are being built in preparation for BioBlitz in Biscayne National Park. It’ll be the first BioBlitz that partly takes place underwater, thanks to the ingenuity of Starbot and the teachers involved.

PR2 Beta Program: The Call for Proposals is Out! | Willow Garage

Don’t really know much about this PR2 Beta robot, but if you can prove that your institution would put it to good use, you can apply to get one for free.

Personally if WALL-E and Eve had a baby, I think it would look something like this.

It works off Robot Operating System, or ROS 1.0, which seems to be an open source programing language for robots.

As BotJunkie puts it, “Basically, the idea behind ROS is to keep people from having to reinvent the wheel over and over again for each new robot, so that people can spend their time improving the wheel and inventing the hoverpad, as it were.”

(via BotJunkie)

In talking to people about my project, and in talking to Nola, the director of BattleBotsIQ, a fair number of responses we get when we describe kids building BattleBots is something along the lines of “it’s violent.”

Now I could go off on a whole other post comparing BattleBots injuries to football, boxing, or even cheerleading (all sanctioned sports), but that’s not the point of this post.

When 9/11 happened, Nola described how some kids said, “My BattleBot is tough enough to go into the collapsed buildings and could’ve helped rescue people.” Today that’s the exact case with Haiti – so many collapsed buildings could use rugged robots to go in, find survivors, and help free people.

Will, one of Fluffy’s creators, summed BattleBots up pretty well compared to other robot competitions. He says it’s the only competition that fully tests your robot. If everything isn’t perfectly built 100%, your opponent, physics, or the BattleBox will destroy you.

Who’s going to be building the future rugged robots that are going to help out in future disasters? The students who are building BattleBots today.

I also wanted to touch on how amazed I am at the wonderful use of technology in providing aid. Of course there’s Twitter and the Red Cross text messaging viral campaign, which alone has raised over $10 million.

I also just saw a post released by the White House that they’ve created a Person Finder app, where you can either look for someone or list information about someone. It’s embeddable, which you’ll find below.

[Well apparently it's embeddable anywhere except WordPress blogs...]

Finally, I just wanted to shed some light on some areas and organizations that I doubt will ever get exposure. This past March I went to Haiti for the first time and loved the experience. I stayed in Leogane, a city about 30 miles west of Port-au-Prince.

We stayed in a sort of Bed & Breakfast, run by Yoleine, a Haitian native who goes back and forth between New York. She also runs a school across the street from the Bed & Breakfast.

This is the City Hall in Leogane.

This is one of the classrooms.

And here’s one of the students in an outside building, eating lunch the school would provide.

From what I’ve heard, everyone is alright. However, Yoleine’s Bed and Breakfast collapsed, along with the smaller school building where I took the photo above. Fortunately the main school has remained.

Yoleine has some property a little outside of the city, which she’s turned into a tent city to house the now homeless.

I’ve tried searching everywhere and I couldn’t find one news update on Leogane. While of course Port-au-Prince severely needs help and probably has the most number injured, the news organizations are acting like the earthquake took place there, when in fact Leogane is closer to the epicenter and needs help just as much.

So if you’re looking for a cause that mainstream news media and foundations haven’t reached yet, please give to Yoleine’s NEGES Foundation. I know the website looks like it was built in the 90s, but I assure you it’s legit and they desperately need money, supplies, and all sorts of aid.

I think my favorite part is the quote. But these devices are really entertaining.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all… – but does it float.

One thing that Nola, the head of the BattleBots high school program, tells all the kids is engineering is about solving problems.

Here’s one that may not necessarily be a problem, mostly because we’ve all become so used to it, but it can definitely use improvement, and that’s how we interact with computers.

The mouse has been the dominant tool for decades, but as the video below shows, it limits the many possibilities of our hands to only two coordinates. You don’t see Data clicking around with a mouse in Star Trek, right? It also explains that while touch screen works great with smart phones, it won’t translate into desktop computers.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

This reminds me a lot of Minority Report. I still think keyboard shortcuts are the fastest and easiest way to get things done, but of course that has its limits.

The person who takes our interactions with computers to the next level might just be building a robot right now.