USC’s Reconfigurable Robots Have a Future in Space

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To the layman, Wei-Min Shen’s latest creation looks like a Transformer toy and acts like a sand beetle.


To the scientists, engineers and space experts who gathered in Albuquerque, N.M., last week, Shen’s “suberbot modules” might look like the future.


Shen is a research engineer who, with Peter Willis, heads the polymorphic robotic laboratory at the USC Information Sciences Institute. He made his presentation on the robots at the Space Technology and Applications International Forum.


In addition to their size they’d fit in your palm and their ability to reconfigure themselves to suit the task at hand “Transformer”-style, what distinguishes Shen’s robots is how they adapt to Earth’s most hostile environments, such as deep ocean sites or the North and South poles. Shen and his colleagues have tested the robots, which possess an internal computer mainframe, in various environments, such as climbing a sand dune or swimming through a pond.


“Reconfigurable and multifunctional robots can greatly increase the adaptability of future space robots with a much lower cost,” Shen wrote in an abstract describing the lecture.


Shen has been shooting movies of the superbot modules as they traverse challenging regions and terrain.


“You drop a bag full of these things into the desert,” said ISI spokesman Eric Mankin, “and they pull themselves up into whatever needs to be done to climb a dune.”


To see the robots in action, go to http://www.isi.edu/robots/.



Minority Boost

The L.A.-based National Black Business Council has launched an online vendor access portal that will list more than 56,000 minority business owners nationwide.


The system is designed to help connect minority business owners with their peers and with larger corporations.


“The database will be a tremendous boost for African-American and other minority businesses,” said Roz Pennington, the council’s president. “It will enable them to identify related services and form strategic partnerships.”


The portal will be demonstrated at the council’s “Entrepreneur’s Night,” held the second Thursday of each month at the Townhouse, 6834 La Tijera Blvd. in L.A.



Broadcaster.com Surges

Nascent L.A. Internet firm Broadcaster.com Inc. is growing, and fast.


The site podcasts movies, music videos, news feeds and original content. It unique visitor count rose from 4.7 million in November to 13.5 million in December, according to Google Analytics.


“Broadcaster.com has been gaining momentum rapidly, as evidenced by our continued growth in month-over-month visitors, uploads of user-generated content, and the expansion of our unique content and product offerings,” said Martin Wade, chief executive and president of Broadcaster.com.


Since its launch in the fourth quarter 2006, Broadcaster.com has amassed audiences through the viewing of millions of video files each month. In addition to the films and TV programs it podcasts, Broadcaster.com offers multimedia applications that streamline the user’s ability to create podcasts, videos and live Web casts.


In reaching a combination of revenue and monthly visitors with a value of $20 million, Broadcaster Inc. reached a contractual benchmark that obliged to issue seven million shares of its stock to former shareholders of AccessMedia, a company it bought in June of last year.



Napster News

Music download service Napster Inc. reports that it added 48,000 new subscribers in the third fiscal quarter of 2006, giving it a total of 566,000 paid subscribers. The surge was in part due to the firm’s Japanese and university outreaches.


The company also said that it has added Ross Levinsohn, the president of News Corp’s Fox Interactive Media, to its board.



Spark Spot

Beverly Hills-based Spark Networks has appointed Adam Berger as chief executive of the firm. Berger is an existing board member of the company. Current CEO and Chairman David Siminoff will resign but remain chairman. Berger is the former CEO of WeddingChannel.com. Spark Networks operates online matchmaking and dating services.



Wired City

Proclaiming it the beginning of “Los Angeles 2.0,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week unveiled an initiative designed to create the largest citywide “wi-fi” network in the country.


“Wi-fi” refers to access to the growing network of wireless local area networks that can provide Internet access to residents, schools and businesses throughout the city.


Under the plan, a technology expert would be hired to come up with a plan to engage the private sector.



Staff reporter Dan Cox can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230.

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