Monday - May 5, 2008
One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby. It was an ordinary spring day, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns. Dubbed "Rocky" after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel was working its way into a live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars. By capturing a close-up view of squirrels in nature, Rocky may help researchers decode squirrels' communication techniques, social cues and survival instincts.
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Saturday - May 3, 2008
Despite some impressive showings in robotics lately, the accolades are slow to come from industry outsiders. We, the general public, watch Honda's Asimo slowly make its way down a few steps, for example, and unfairly compare it to the glib and golden C-3PO of science fiction, and thus blind ourselves to the miracle before us.
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Monday - March 17, 2008
Astronauts flexed the giant arms of the international space station's new robot for the first time, testing the brakes and maneuvering the appendages into position for a Monday night spacewalk. All the brakes on the Canadian-built robot named "Dextre" passed the test but one in the wrist joint of its left arm. That brake slipped a tad more than engineers wanted, but officials weren't concerned.
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Thursday - March 13, 2008
After linking up with the international space station, Endeavour's astronauts got right to work Thursday unloading the parts they'll need to build a giant robot that will help maintain the orbiting outpost. Astronauts Robert Behnken and Gregory Johnson were using the station's robotic arm to pull a pallet containing the Canadian robot, named "Dextre," from Endeavour's cargo bay and install it temporarily on a station girder.
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Monday - March 3, 2008
At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust. Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot -- dubbed Kansei, or "sensibility" -- responds to the word "war" by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear.
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Thursday - February 28, 2008
Military experts have warned that terrorists could use unmanned drones in aerial attacks, saying robotics offered a frighteningly easy way to evade security. The know-how and materials for manufacturing lethal, improvised robots are easily available, according to experts at a conference Wednesday on robotics at the Royal United Services Institute, a 177-year-old forum on military affairs.
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Monday - February 11, 2008
Growing at more than 25 percent per year, e-commerce gives consumers a lot of what they want: broad assortment and convenient shopping any time from anywhere. To successfully compete with the bricks, all e-commerce has to do is stock the "long tail," ensure order accuracy, ensure nearly instant gratification with overnight shipping and keep shipping costs down.
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Monday - November 5, 2007
An autonomous robotic SUV from Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing team won the $2 million prize in the DARPA Urban Challenge by successfully completing an urban obstacle course faster than 10 other finalists in the race, held Nov. 3. "Boss," as the robotized 2007 Chevy Tahoe is called, averaged 14 miles per hour over 55 miles.
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Friday - November 2, 2007
Eleven robotic vehicles will compete in the final race Saturday of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Urban Challenge event. Selected from a group of 35 that participated in qualifying events over the past week or so, the 11 finalists will now have to successfully complete a complex, 60-mile urban course with live traffic in less than six hours.
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Friday - June 22, 2007
Three new robotic vehicles designed by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute will embark on an expedition next month to search for life on the Arctic Ocean floor. The vehicles -- two autonomous underwater vehicles and a tethered, remote controlled sampling system -- were designed specifically for the challenges of operating in Arctic ice, which can easily crush most small vehicles.
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Friday - June 8, 2007
Researchers at Osaka University in Japan demonstrated on Friday a toddler robot designed to assist in studies of child development. Called the "Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body," or CB2, the robot is designed to mimic a real, human child between one and three years old. It stands just over 4 feet tall, weighs 73 pounds, and crawls, changes its facial expressions, and can make sounds.
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