Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Atomic Clocks for the (Almost) Everyday Embedded Designer

by Jim Turley

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” – Albert Einstein


Have you noticed how you can measure distance by time but you don’t ever measure time by distance? If you ask someone in Los Angeles how far away Anaheim is, they’ll tell you “about an hour,” but if you ask how long until lunch, they won’t say “about 30 miles.”
Time is the most precisely measured quantity in human existence. In fact, the global definition of a meter is given in terms of time; specifically, the distance light will travel in ¹/_299,792,458 of a second. Distance is officially defined by time, not vice versa.
Global-positioning systems (GPS) are based on nothing but accurate time. If light (or a radio wave) travels about one foot per nanosecond, you need 10ns accuracy if you’re going to detect movement of just 10 feet. Even the humble cell phone depends on hyper-accurate timekeeping, so that cell towers can coordinate the handoff from one transmitter to another without (ahem) dropping the call. Without dead-accurate time, there’d be gaps in the connection.
All of this has helped Symmetricom build a $220 million/year business making high-precision time instruments. The San Jose–based company makes everything from big atomic clocks to little chip-scale modules, all for the benefit of keeping accurate time. This is a company that knows its cesium.
Symmetricom’s latest product is a “chip-scale atomic clock,” or CSAC. Sounds nuts? I thought so, too. Aren’t atomic clocks big scary machines buried deep underground and guarded by Swiss scientists in lab coats or something? Well, yes and no. There are big atomic clocks – several dozen of them, as it turns out – and their output is averaged to create the mutually agreed-upon UTC, or universal time. But there are also lots and lots of miniature atomic clocks – more than you might imagine. Most cell phone towers have one, for example, and so does every GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS satellite. They’re embedded in innumerable sensors, instruments, and transmitters all over the world. It’s remarkable what you can do if you have the time.
One useful application for miniature atomic clocks, for example, is distributed instruments. If you’ve got a bunch of geological sensors spread over several miles, you can’t very well cable them all together. And yet, you want each sensor’s readings to be coordinated with all the others’. How to coordinate multiple sensors that aren’t actually connected to one another? Have each one time-stamp its readings, then correlate them all afterwards. Without a super-accurate time base, all your readings would be skewed; with an accurate time base you’ve essentially created one giant sensor network.
Symmetricom’s CSAC isn’t for lightweights or home hobbyists. Single-unit quantities list for $1500 a pop, so you’d better be serious. But it’s a freakin’ atomic clock! The thing is accurate to within 50 parts per trillion (about 1 second over 50,000 years), consumes only 115mW of power, and is no bigger than a Starburst candy. Inside the CSAC is a teensy laser that shines through a hollow glass cylinder filled with a cesium-oxide gas. A photosensor on the far side of the cylinder measures the wavelength of the laser, and… it just gets weirder from there. Suffice to say the final output is a nice, clean digital signal that tells you exactly what time it is. All this in a module barely half an inch thick.
Atomic clocks (chip-sized or otherwise) aren’t for everybody. Most of us make do with crystals, crystal oscillators, or – if we think we’re hardcore – oven-controlled crystal oscillators. All of those components pale in comparison to an atomic clock’s accuracy, but they’re also a whole lot cheaper. Your average 32.768-kHz watch crystal sells for maybe 10 cents, but you’ll be lucky to see the first three of those five digits, especially if your voltage or temperature isn’t stable. Oscillators are more stable but cost ten times as much, while oven-controlled oscillators (OCXOs) mitigate a lot of the temperature sensitivity in return for another factor-of-ten jump in price. Symmetricom’s products serve the market one step above these, where volumes are fairly small but accuracy is paramount. If you’re making stuff that orbits the Earth, blows up, or handles politicians’ text messages, it’s well worth the expense.

 

Nokia Siemens cuts 17000 jobs

Telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks has decided to cut 17,000 jobs (23 per cent of its work force of 74,000) worldwide by the end of 2013, as it aims to reduce operating expenses and production overhead; and realign its business to focus on mobile broadband and services. With its restructuring plans, the company expects to save Rs.6,410.26 crore (1 billion euros) during this period.


On Sept 29, Nokia and Siemens had announced that they would provide an additional capital of Rs.3,205.13 crore (500 million euros) to the joint venture to strengthen its financial position.


"While we plan to reduce our work force significantly, we will not make simple across-the-board reductions," said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer, Nokia Siemens Networks in a conference call Wednesday. However, he declined to specify which regions would be affected the most and added that Nokia Siemens Networks intends to launch locally led programmes at the most affected sites to provide re-training and re-employment support.
In addition, the company will be realigning its strategy to focus on mobile broadband and services. Suri stated, "Despite the need to restructure parts of our company, our commitment to research and development remains unchanged, with investment in mobile broadband expected to increase over the coming years."
These planned measures are expected to include site consolidation, transfer of activities to global delivery centres, consolidation of certain central functions, cost synergies from the integration of Motorola's wireless assets, and efficiencies in service operations. Nokia Siemens acquired Motorola's wireless network equipment unit for Rs.7,692.31 crore ($1.2 billion) in July 2010.
The organisational streamlining also includes cutting costs in areas such as real estate, information technology, product and service procurement costs, overall general and administrative expenses, and a significant reduction of suppliers, the company said in a statement.

Wireless contact lens soon a reality

Researchers from Aalto University, Finland and the University of Washington have created a prototype contact lens that could provide hands-free information updates to the wearer. In-fact, the researchers have constructed a computerised contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes. "There were no signs of adverse side effects."
At the moment, the contact lens device contains only a single pixel but the researchers see this as a "proof-of-concept" for producing lenses with multiple pixels which, in their hundreds, could be used to display short emails and text messages right before your eyes.
The device could overlay computer-generated visual information on to the real world and be of use in gaming devices and navigation systems. It could also be linked to biosensors in the user's body to provide up-to-date information on glucose or lactate levels.
The contact lens consisted of an antenna to harvest power sent out by an external source, as well as an integrated circuit to store this energy and transfer it to a transparent sapphire chip containing a single blue LED.
One major problem the researchers had to overcome was the fact that the human eye, with its minimum focal distance of several centimetres, cannot resolve objects on a contact lens. Any information projected on to the lens would probably appear blurry. To combat this, the researchers incorporated a set of Fresnel lenses into the device; these are much thinner and flatter than conventional bulky lenses, and were used here to focus the projected image on to the retina.

After testing the contact lens in free space, it was fitted to the eye of a rabbit, under the strict guidelines for animal use in the laboratory, to evaluate the effect of wearing the contact lens on the cornea and the body in general. In addition to visualising techniques, a fluorescent dye was added to the eye of the rabbit to test for any abrasion or thermal burning.
"We need to improve the antenna design and the associated matching network and optimise the transmission frequency to achieve an overall improvement in the range of wireless power transmission," said Professor Babak Praviz of the department of electrical engineering, University of Washington in Seattle."Our next goal, however, is to incorporate some predetermined text in the contact lens."

Why are humans scared of robots?

"If popular culture has taught us anything, it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace."

Author and robotic engineer Daniel H Wilson's description of How to Survive a Robot Uprising seems like it is straight out of a robot disaster movie.
From Terminator and Blade Runner to Transformers and Star Trek, robots are coming and the impending apocalypse is almost upon us.
At least that's what Hollywood would have you believe.
And theme parks around the world are spending billions of dollars hoping that the thrill of robots can entice tourists.
"The problem with tools - which is what robots are - is that we become dependent on them," says Wilson, whose new novel Robopocalypse is being made into a film directed by Steven Spielberg.
"That's scary, so we contemplate the disaster scenarios that could come from being over-dependent on tools.
"It's true - our tools could fail someday - but it doesn't mean they're malevolent or immoral or have an ethical bias."
While he writes about it, he does not really believe the end of the world is coming.

And developers are trying to turn the tide of robotic prejudice with a $1.3bn project in South Korea for Robot Land - a theme park and research institute not only using robots for ride technology but using them as waiters and ticket inspectors.

Its CEO says he hopes that the rides are a Trojan horse for greater understanding about robot technology.
But theme park experts see the robots themselves as a source of the horror that thrill-seekers are looking for.
If you take a normal industrial robotic arm that can twist and throw you around in 3D, it can provide so many more movements and sensations than conventional rollercoasters," says thrill engineer Brendan Walker, director of Thrill Laboratory.
"Then you start thinking about controlling our experience through artificial intelligence and deciding how scared I should be feeling. Maybe I'm going to trust a ride operator to give me a good time but can I trust a computer?
"There is this idea of horror that is creeping into rides - darker themes of loss and power and control."
'I'll be back'
Theme parks can be scary places when robots get involved. The 1973 film Westworld depicts a fictional robotic tourist destination where, after a safety malfunction, the robots go on a killing spree.
In reality, statistics from the International Association of Amusement Park and Attractions show that there is a general trend towards increased safety as technology improves.
Similarly, automated public transport systems are believed to be a third more reliable than those in human control and robot-assisted surgery is more precise, with patients recovering quicker with fewer complications.
Removing humans from the process removes, by definition, human error.
And while automation as an idea is often worrying, experts think the reality is nothing like as dramatic.
"You can see your laptop or your mobile phone as autonomous - it is doing many things without you pressing buttons," says Dr Kerstin Dautenhahn, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Hertfordshire.
"There is nothing scary about robots becoming autonomous, it is just a machine being programmed."
'Tears in the rain'
But where does the idea of robots being evil come from?
"Robots were pop culture icons before they even existed," says Wilson.
"They were space creatures and monsters. When robots really started existing, they already had this whole image set up not based on reality.
"It'd be like if someone found a living mummy and he was actually a really nice guy but we'd only ever seen evil mummies in fiction. That's exactly what happened - a movie monster became real."

But this rhetoric has continued, going as far as the president of the United States.
When announcing funding for the National Robotics Initiative, President Obama let those assembled in on a little secret:
"You might not know this, but one of my responsibilities as commander-in-chief is to keep an eye on robots," he said.
"And I'm pleased to report that the robots you manufacture here seem peaceful - at least for now."
'Resistance is futile'
Despite the president's joke about robotic peace, some of the media already believes that the fight has started.

A machine in Robopocalypse wants to burn civilization down to light the way

Recent reports from Sweden talked of a robot "attack" on a worker in a factory.
Even if these references to an attack rather than a malfunction are meant in jest, this - according to some - only makes the problem worse.
"We're so enamoured with the robot-attack story line that it can skew the way real robot-safety issues are discussed," journalist Torie Bosch wrote in Slate.
But with robots becoming increasingly advanced, is there a line where an error could become a malicious attack?
"Robots are just a bunch of metal and silicon," says Prof Dautenhahn.
"They have no agenda - this is what's different from the movies. They have no hideous plan.
"You should not be scared of robots. If you are scared, then you are scared of the people building them."

Robot Land developers hope this represents the future of theme parks

And with the new creations comes something that engineers feel is often overlooked - the achievement of making life better.
"Any new ability that robots gain is a human triumph," says Wilson.
"There's a lot of room in the universe. Having incredibly able machines is only ever going to be a good thing for people."
And both Hollywood and tourist companies are still pouring money into robotic entertainment.
Universal Studios, first in Singapore on December 3 and then LA in 2012, are hoping visitors will flock to the first ride based on the film Transformers. The promise of 3D video and audio-animatronics - where the robot make noise itself - is expected to be a spectacular ride.
'Is that all you got, Megatron?'
So if robots are such a great thing, what do engineers think we should be afraid of?
Nanotechnology is the science of changing and developing new materials on a molecular and atomic level. The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology suggests that with these new developments comes "severe dangers" if used inappropriately.
Its theory goes that "the small size, portability, and rapid potential for proliferation will make nano-built weaponry difficult to control and hard to keep out of the hands of terrorists".
And this is a view that is shared by at least one artificial intelligence expert.
"I'm more afraid of things that can be manipulated that I cannot see," says Prof Dautenhahn.
"With robots, it is something I can see so, if it malfunctions, you can unplug it and shut it down. If you have billions of nano-particles, there is no way you can do the same thing."
Fast:track's report from its visit to Robot Land in South Korea can be watched on the BBC World News channel on Saturdays at 0330, 1330 and 1830 GMT or Sundays at 0630 GMT

Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform with Bluetooth Sensors over ZigBee

The Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform from Libelium allows system integrators to create real time systems for monitoring vehicular and pedestrian traffic in cities by using the new Bluetooth - ZigBee double radio feature available in the Waspmote sensor board.

The new Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform, part of the Libelium Smart Cities solution. The platform is capable of sensing the flow of Bluetooth devices in a given street, roadway or passageway differentiating hands-free car kits from pedestrian phones. Sensor data is then transferred by a multi-hop ZigBee radio, via an internet gateway, to a server. The traffic measurements can then be analysed to address congestion of either vehicle or pedestrian traffic.

Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform with Bluetooth Sensors over ZigBee - 2011/10/14

The Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform from Libelium allows system integrators to create real time systems for monitoring vehicular and pedestrian traffic in cities by using the new Bluetooth - ZigBee double radio feature available in the Waspmote sensor board.

The new Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform, part of the Libelium Smart Cities solution. The platform is capable of sensing the flow of Bluetooth devices in a given street, roadway or passageway differentiating hands-free car kits from pedestrian phones. Sensor data is then transferred by a multi-hop ZigBee radio, via an internet gateway, to a server. The traffic measurements can then be analysed to address congestion of either vehicle or pedestrian traffic.

Understanding the flow and congestion of vehicular traffic is essential for efficient road systems in cities. Smooth vehicle flows reduce journey times, reduce emissions and save energy. Similarly the efficient flow of pedestrians in an airport, stadium or shopping centre saves time and can make the difference between a good and a bad visit. Monitoring traffic - whether road vehicles or people - is useful for operators of roads, attractions and transport hubs.

The monitoring system can also be used to calculate the average speed of the vehicles which transit over a roadway by taking the time mark at two different points.

Libelium’s Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform enables system integrators to create intelligent monitoring systems for the urban environment. Libelium’s CTO David Gascón says, “With widespread use of Bluetooth devices both vehicular and pedestrian traffic can be monitored anonymously by detecting and tracking the MAC addresses of such devices”. He adds, “The platform can help drivers can avoid congested roads through provision of real time warnings on electronic displays or via smartphone applications”. Similarly, pedestrian monitoring enables improvements to be made in the operation of airports, shopping centres, tourist attractions and sports stadiums. Such data can even be used to assess the suitability of emergency evacuation plans.

The Platform uses the new Expansion Radio Board for Waspmote which allows two different types of radio to be connected at the same time. In this case a Bluetooth radio is used as a sensor to make inquiries and detect nearby devices, while the ZigBee radio sends the information collected using its multi-hop capabilities.

The new Bluetooth radio allows to scan up to 250 devices in a single inquiry and set six different power levels allowing sensor operators to set an “inquiry zone” from between 10 and 50 metres. Although Bluetooth, ZigBee and WiFi all operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM band, Waspmote uses Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) to enable the Bluetooth radio to identify channels already in use by ZigBee and WiFi devices and thus avoid interference.

Libelium provides complete support services to system integrators developing and deploying the Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform. Contact us and one of our engineers will give you further information abour all the possibilities of this technology.

For a complete intelligent traffic management system read about our Smart Parking solution which uses magetic sensors and ZigBee radios to monitor in real time the amount of free parking spots.

Report points to robotics as a major driver of job creation

A report published in Japan suggests robotics will be a major driver for global job creation over the next five years.

The report is the result of research carried out by Metra Martech entitled Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment and claims that one million industrial robots currently in operation have been directly responsible for the creation of close to three million jobs.
A statement from the International Federation of Robotics asserts that the growth in robot use over the next five years will result in the creation of one million high-quality jobs around the world in industries such as consumer electronics, food, solar and wind power, and advanced battery manufacturing.

“The German and Japanese automotive manufacturers who have invested heavily in automation and robots have maintained a lead in the quality market”

The report highlights that between 2000–08, manufacturing employment increased in nearly every major industrialised country, even as the use of robotics increased sharply.
This same pattern is now being seen in China, Brazil, and other emerging countries as they increase their use of robotics.
In Brazil, the number of robots almost quadrupled during the study period with production and employment rising by more than 20 per cent.
The report’s author, Peter Gorle, highlighted three critical areas of growth in robotic deployment: where robots carry out work in areas that would be unsafe for humans; where robots carry out work that would not be economically viable in a high-wage economy; and where robots carry out work that would be impossible for humans.
Odense, Denmark, is cited as a relevant illustration of robots saving jobs in high-wage countries.
Shipbuilding in Europe has been in steep decline over the last two to four decades, but robots have reportedly been key to efficiency savings at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark.
The company is said to have invested in an autonomous, robotic arc welding system that has yielded big dividends. Odense Steel Shipyard has increased productivity by a factor of six when compared with manual welding, speeded up production time and made quality improvements, while also protecting the jobs of qualified welders.
The report concluded that the growth of high-tech industries such as the electronics and semiconductor sector, and the pharmaceutical sector, was significantly assisted by robots providing the required quality, precision, speed and traceability that cannot be achieved manually.
The report’s authors studied companies with more than 250 employees in sectors including automotive, electronics and plastics. Respondents were drawn from Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Korea and the USA — countries considered representative of the global economy.

Honda Robotics Unveils Next-Generation ASIMO Robot

You're looking at Honda's brand new ASIMO robot, which was just unveiled on Monday in Japan. While the new ASIMO's appearance is similar to the version of ASIMO that we've come to know and love, there are some key differences inside that promise to make this generation more autonomous and capable than ever.

Below we give you all the details, with a bunch of new pics to match. But first, here's a video, via our friends at PlasticPals, of ASIMO showing off its new skills:

Here are the specs of the new ASIMO and a summary of its new capabilities:

1. Height: 130 centimeters (4 feet 3 inches)
2. Weight: 48 kilograms (106 pounds), decreased 6 kg from previous model
3. Degrees of freedom: 57 DOF total, increase of 23 DOF from previous model
4. Running speed: 9 km/h (5.6 miles per hour), compared to 6 km/h for previous model

Enhanced physical capabilities: The new ASIMO is lighter, faster, and stronger than ever. It's dropped six kilograms in weight, and its run speed has been boosted to 9 kilometers per hour from 6 km/h. It's capable of running backwards, continuously jumping up and down, and even jumping on one foot (!).

  

High level balancing: ASIMO was capable of balancing itself, but the new version can survive a significantly more aggressive push by quickly taking a stabilizing step forward or backward, just like a human would. All this additional agility also enables ASIMO to walk over uneven surfaces without any trouble.

New hands: ASIMO's hands are dexterous enough (with independent finger control) to perform sign language (the hand gesture above doesn't mean ASIMO likes heavy metal -- it's Japanese sign language for "I love you"). By combining tactile and visual sensors, ASIMO can recognize objects and handle them appropriately, such as taking caps off of bottles and pouring liquid into paper cups without crushing them.

Sensor integration: The new ASIMO can integrate information from multiple sensors and estimate how its surrounding environment is changing. For example, it can combine both short and long range sensor data to better track and predict the motion of multiple humans, and it uses visual and auditory input to perform voice recognition in noisy and crowded environments.

Improved autonomy: ASIMO is now able to use sensor inputs, intelligent prediction, and past experience to autonomously determine what it should do without direct operator intervention. The goal here is to let ASIMO work alongside puny humans without needing continuous supervision, and ASIMO is able to walk around without bumping into anyone, politely stepping aside if it classifies you as a collision risk.

Honda, which takes great pride in its humanoid, is clearly making a big push to get ASIMO to be autonomous (and useful) in environments that require a lot of human interaction, and that's what this new generation of ASIMO robots is all about.

Honda also announced that it has established Honda Robotics as a new collective name to "represent all of its robotics technologies and product applications," including its robotic exoskeletons, the U3-X personal mobility vehicle, and a new manipulator that could be used in dangerous environments like the Fukushima nuclear reactors.

We can't wait to see what kind of new tricks these bots are gonna be able to pull, but here's a little teaser from the Japan unveil:

 

 

PETMAN humanoid robot

PETMAN is an adult-sized humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm best known for the BigDog quadruped.
Today, the company is unveiling footage of the robot's latest capabilities. It's stunning.
The humanoid, which will certainly be compared to the Terminator Series 800 model, can perform various movements and maintain its balance much like a real person.
Boston Dynamics is building PETMAN, short for Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin, for the U.S. Army, which plans to use the robot to test chemical suits and other protective gear used by troops. It has to be capable of moving just like a soldier -- walking, running, bending, reaching, army crawling -- to test the suit's durability in a full range of motion.

Marc Raibert, the founder and president of Boston Dynamics, tells me that the biggest challenge was to engineer the robot, which uses a hydraulic actuation system, to have the approximate size of a person. "There was a great deal of mechanical design we had to do to get everything to fit," he says.
PETMAN was one of the robots that most impressed attendees of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in San Francisco last month. At the event, Raibert showed a video that made the audience gasp. Unfortunately the clip wasn't ready for public release and we couldn't post it here. Now it's out:
Led by Dr. Robert Playter, Boston Dynamics' VP of engineering, development of PETMAN got its start with a $26.3 million Army program. Two years ago, the company, based in Waltham, Mass., first demonstrated PETMAN's legs by putting them to walk on a treadmill. This year, the company showed that the robot legs can run at up to 7 kilometers per hour (about 4.4 miles per hour) and announced it had completed a prototype of the body.
But until now, the extent of PETMAN's full capabilities was a mystery.
Raibert says the humanoid and its behavior are still under development. "We plan to deliver the robot to the Army next year."
According to the Army requirements, the robot has to have about the same weight and dimensions of a 50th percentile male (the size of a standard crash-test dummy), or a mass of 80 kilograms (about 180 pounds) and height of about 1.75 meters (nearly 6 feet). PETMAN also has to simulate respiration, sweating, and changes in skin temperature based on the amount of physical exertion. Boston Dynamics used motion-capture systems to study the movements of humans as they performed a variety of exercises.
The robot relies on a tether that provides hydraulic power, but its body had to share space with many sensors and other components. Cramming everything together became a big engineering puzzle. And not only the legs had to be strong, Raibert explains, but the upper body too, to allow the robot to crawl and stand up.

And I know some of you are wondering: Will it have a head? "We were a bit late getting the articulated neck mechanism working," he says, "but it is coming along, and a head along with it."
I also asked Raibert if they could eventually use PETMAN or PETMAN-related technologies in other projects. In other words, are we going to see PETMAN used in applications other than the chemical suit tests?
"You bet," he says. "There are all sorts of things robots like PETMAN could be used for. Any place that has been designed for human access, mobility, or manipulation skills. Places like the Fukushima reactors could be accessed by PETMAN-like robots (or AlphaDogs), without requiring any human exposure to hazardous materials. Perhaps firefighting inside of buildings or facilities designed for human access, like on board ships designed for human crews."
This, of course, will mean another big challenge for his team: Transforming the humanoid from a tethered system into a free standing, self-contained robot. Boston Dynamics, however, has already demonstrated its ability to transition to tether-less machines with its BigDog project.

Future of robotics

Types of robots:
Humanoid robots:

• Lara is the first female humanoid robot with artificial muscles (metal alloy strands that instantly contract when heated by electric current) instead of electric motors (2006). 
• Asimo is one of the most advanced projects as of 2009. 
• Modular robots: can be built from standard building blocks that can be combined in different ways. Utility fog
• M-Tran - a snake-like modular robot that uses genetic algorithms to evolve walking 
• Self replicating robots - modular robots that can produce copies of themselves using existing blocks. 
• Swarmanoid  is a project that uses 3 specialized classes of robots (footbots, handbots and eyebots) to create an effective swarm. Such swarm should be able, for example, tidy a bedroom with each robot doing what it is best at.
• Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics. 
• Educational toy robots: Educational toy robots
• Sports robots: RoboCup TOPIO

Applications

• Caterpillar plans to develop remote controlled machines and expects to develop fully autonomous heavy robots by 2021 . Some cranes already are remote controlled.
• It was demonstrated that a robot can perform a herding  task.
• Robots are increasingly used in manufacturing (since 1960s). In auto industry they can amount for more than half of the "labor". There are even "lights off" factories such as an IBM keyboard manufacturing factory in Texas that are 100% automated.
• Robots such as HOSPI [9] are used as couriers in hospitals, etc. Other hospital tasks performed by robots are receptionists, guides and porters helpers,  (not to mention surgical robot helpers such as Da Vinci) 
• Robots can serve as waiters and cooks.

Market evolution:
Today's market is not fully mature. One or more software compatibility layers have yet to emerge to allow the development of a rich robotics ecosystem (similar to today's personal computers one). The most commonly used software in the robotics research are Free Software solutions such as Player/Stage or cross-platform technologies such as URBI. Microsoft is currently working in this direction with its new proprietary software Microsoft Robotics Studio. The use of open source tools helps in continued improvement of the tools and algorithms for robotic research from the point one team leaves it.

Impact on the economy and job market :
Some analysts such as Martin Ford, author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, argue that as information technology advances, robots and other forms of automation will ultimately result in significant unemployment as machines and software begin to match and exceed the capability of workers to perform most routine jobs. As robotics and artificial intelligence develop further, even many skilled jobs may be threatened. Technologies such as machine learning may ultimately allow computers to do many knowledge-based jobs that require significant education. This may result in substantial unemployment at all skill levels, stagnant or falling wages for most workers, and increased concentration of income and wealth as the owners of capital capture an ever larger fraction of the economy. This in turn could lead to depressed consumer spending and economic growth as the bulk of the population lacks sufficient discretionary income to purchase the products and services produced by the economy.

Projected robotics timeline:
Robots capable of manual labour tasks--

• 2009 - robots that perform searching and fetching tasks in unmodified library environment, Professor Angel del Pobil (University Jaume I, Spain), 2004
• 2015-2020 - every South Korean household will have a robot and many European, The Ministry of Information and Communication (South Korea), 2007
• 2018 - robots will routinely carry out surgery, South Korea government 2007
• 2022 - intelligent robots that sense their environment, make decisions, and learn are used in 30% of households and organizations - TechCast
• 2030 - robots capable of performing at human level at most manual jobs Marshall Brain

• 2034 - robots (home automation systems) performing most household tasks, Helen Greiner, Chairman of iRobot

Military robots :

• 2015 - one third of US fighting strength will be composed of robots - US Department of Defense, 2006
• 2035 - first completely autonomous robot soldiers in operation - US Department of Defense, 2006

• 2038 - first completely autonomous robot flying car in operation - US Department of Technology, 2007

Developments related to robotics from the Japan NISTEP  2030 report :

• 2013-2014 — agricultural robots (AgRobots).
• 2013-2017 — robots that care for the elderly 
• 2017 — medical robots performing low-invasive surgery 
• 2017-2019 — household robots with full use. 
• 2019-2021 — Nanorobots 
• 2021-2022 — Transhumanism 

Robot rights:
According to research commissioned by the UK Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre , robots could one day demand the same citizen's rights as humans. The study also warns that the rise of robots could put a strain on resources and the environment.

Embedded Device Security in the New Connected Era

Rapid growth in the intelligence and interconnectedness of embedded devices is accompanied by an upward spiral in security threats. Attacks on these devices are being perpetrated not only by the usual suspects, but by a new breed of hackers supported by organized crime, nation states, and terrorist organizations. Device developers must respond by taking a more holistic approach to device security—one that considers security issues at every layer of the development stack—from silicon to virtualization to the operating system, the network and communication stacks, and the application layer. 

Securing Embedded Devices:


The recent surge in embedded device development has been remarkable. Around the globe, embedded products that control critical infrastructure are increasingly becoming intelligent, transforming from simple standalone to complex, autonomous connected control and monitoring. Today’s embedded products are interacting not just with us—expanding our ability to communicate and share information—but with each other. They control smartphones; smart meters for our public utilities; industrial automation controls; transportation and oil and gas systems; communication networks; and mobile medical devices that literally keep people alive. Machine-to-machine interaction, delivered by ever smaller, ever smarter components, allows for new levels of sensor- and control-enabled analytics, revolutionizing business and government operations. The sheer number and autonomy of these devices is also mushrooming. It is estimated that there will be more than 50 billion connected devices in use by 2020. Unfortunately, the rapid growth in embedded products is accompanied by an upward spiral in security threats. Each new device on the network is potentially the next weakest link. According to McAfee, more than 55,000 new malware programs and 200,000 zombies are uncovered every day, more than 2 million malicious websites exist, and new forms of attacks and exploits arrive daily. All these security threats are now accelerated by connected devices. Equally alarming, security exploits are being perpetrated by a new breed of hackers. It’s not just smart kids trying to breach a firewall for sport anymore. Very professional, well-funded groups—including organized crime, government agencies, and terrorist cells—are finding security openness through embedded devices, and in very creative ways. They’re attempting to crack into secure networks, access sensitive information, and alter the behavior of safety critical systems, causing physical harm to equipment and potentially putting lives at risk. This is no longer the creative plot of the latest action and science fiction movie from Hollywood. It could be the foundation of future preemptive cyber-warfare. Despite the ever growing federal, state, local, and industry-specific security regulations and compliance requirements, cyber-attacks continue to succeed, as evidenced by several recent high-profile cases. In short, embedded devices have now become the targets of organized crime, nation states, and terrorist organizations looking to disrupt or destroy what was thought to be highly secure, well-protected infrastructure. And the costs of a security breach in these systems can be enormous. Major underpinnings of our economy and our infrastructure depend on embedded systems. A single successful attack can jeopardize everything from critical public services to the quality of health care. Ultimately, mission-critical activities and human lives are at stake in securing embedded devices. 


 Addressing Evolving Security Requirements:


The key to preventing the new breed of security threats is to take a complete platform perspective rather than a piecemeal component approach to addressing security. Embedded device developers need to consider security issues at every layer—from hardware platforms and virtualization technologies to the operating system, the network stack, or other communications middleware, packets of data being sent across the network, and purpose-built applications required to support device functionality. The first step is to conduct an end-to-end system security threat assessment that looks at security issues not just from the developer’s viewpoint but from the perspective of manufacturers, operators, and end users. At the manufacturing level, for example, security needs to become an integral part of system design, specific technology selections, application development processes, and even application management tasks such as patching and upgrades. For operators, security threats inherent in configuration or customization must be analyzed and addressed. Software management, updating, and provisioning processes must also be designed with security in mind. At the end-user level, the assessment should include security threats that can be introduced by the end user, such as malware, viruses, worms, and trojans, all of which can affect reliability and performance. The security assessment must also look at potential vulnerabilities at each layer: virtualization, operating system, network stack, middleware, and application layer. At the virtualization or operating system layer, for example, developers need to be aware of how hackers seek to exploit an OS. Once these vulnerabilities are understood, it becomes possible to use specific techniques to thwart attacks. 


Securing the Software Stack:


The next step is to drive security protection across the device system software stack—from silicon all the way to the application layer: 
● Silicon: At the silicon level, there is an opportunity to embed technologies such as virtualization, trusted delivery, trusted boot, and others into the firmware of a chip to provide additional levels of trusted delivery and boot, interface and control separation, and trusted memory segments, augmenting the robustness of the operating system. 
 ● Hypervisor: Virtualization technologies can be used in unique ways to bolster security by the use of separation. Typically, many developers think about virtualization and its enterprise use cases of sharing system devices. However, to increase security in embedded devices, virtualization is being used more and more to separate device use, separate human machine interface (HMI) operating systems from the control operating system, separate the physical interface from the control operating system, and so on. This added use of separation within device designs can provide significant security improvements.
 ● Operating system and communications stacks: Operating system selection has become crucial for today’s highly connected devices. The OS and communications stack should comply with the latest security requirements defined for the desired use. In addition, these products should be certified against market segment security validation suites; for example, industrial control device developers should look for OS/stacks validated against the Wurldtech Achilles certification. The Achilles program assesses the network robustness of devices and platforms and certifies that they pass a comprehensive set of security tests. 
● Applications: Applications need to be developed from the start with security in mind. Applications can take advantage of new technologies being developed to aid in security robustness, by leveraging “gray-listing” or white-listing. Either way, developers need to design applications with strict security principles; otherwise, the device applications they deliver may be used as back doorways, ultimately for malicious use. 


Increasing Importance of Certification:


At every level, developers should be looking at ways to incorporate security design principles and associated security-certified run-time components: certified operating systems, certified network stacks, and certified middleware. Certification provides an independent validation from a trusted expert that a given component or platform meets specified standards and is conformant with specified requirements. It also provides a benchmark that can serve as a basis for comparison. Dozens of equipment manufacturers have started to require certified assurances, given the increase in government regulations that are now being required in many markets and associated devices. 
Conclusion:
Clearly, it’s time for a paradigm shift in embedded development. And in this case, a true paradigm shift begins with a fresh perspective about the importance of security—not just as a bolted-on feature, but as a built-in attribute of next-generation embedded devices. Simply put, developers need to design and architect embedded products to address security challenges before they become pervasive security problems. By taking a platform perspective to security, and by harnessing the efficiencies of cyber-security-certified components, you can cut development costs and time frames while actually decreasing overall security risks. And that’s more than a paradigm shift for embedded developers. It’s a true transformation that delivers more secure infrastructure, stronger financial results, greater peace of mind, and a better way of life.

Mercedes to introduce new iPhone-centric infotainment

At the Mercedes-Benz TecDay 2011 event in Germany, Mercedes revealed its concept infotainment system, @yourCommand, a voice- and gesture-controlled cloud-based system in the F 125 research vehicle. While that system is a few years away from being integrated into production vehicles, Mercedes also announced that in a few months it will begin selling a new infotainment option developed specifically for the iPhone.

Mercedes didn't provide much detail about the future infotainment system except to say that it will leverage the iPhone's processing power "to create a revolutionary user interface with fluent transitions and animation." The car maker also said that various iPhone information and functionality will be displayed on the in-dash display, and will be accessed using the COMAND controller.

via cnet