Robotics, AI and SmartTech News – Latest Headlines

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New project to develop robotic laser system that strips paint from aircraft

Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) of Johnstown, Pa., are working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Ogden Air Logistics Center 309 AMXG to develop and demonstrate a robotic system that uses high-powered lasers to remove coatings from fighter and cargo aircraft.

Nov 26th, 2012

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Robot scanner reads 250 book pages a minute

BFS-Auto can achieve high-speed and high-definition book digitization at over 250 pages/min using the original media format. This performance is realized by three key points: high-speed fully-automated page flipping, real-time 3D recognition of the flipped pages, and high-accuracy restoration to a flat document image.

Nov 23rd, 2012

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A robotic system to reduce the cost of solar power

QBotix, a company bringing the power of robotics to solar energy, developed the QBotix Tracking System, a comprehensive dual-axis tracking system that employs rugged, intelligent and mobile robots to dynamically operate solar power plants and maximize energy output.

Nov 23rd, 2012

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Toshiba shows four-legged robot for nuke disaster

Toshiba Corp. unveiled a robot Wednesday that the company says can withstand high radiation and help in nuclear disasters. But it remains unclear what exactly the new machine will be capable of doing if and when it gets the go-ahead to enter Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

Nov 21st, 2012

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Ban 'killer robots,' Human Rights Watch urges

Governments should pre-emptively ban fully autonomous weapons because of the danger they pose to civilians in armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These future weapons, sometimes called "killer robots", would be able to choose and fire on targets without human intervention.

Nov 19th, 2012

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Huddling penguins may guide the design of swarming robots

Mathematicians at the University of California, Merced created a model of penguin huddles that assumes each penguin aims solely to minimize its own heat loss. Surprisingly, the model reveals that such self-centered behavior results in an equitable sharing of heat.

Nov 19th, 2012

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Manufacturers employ robots to improve worker health and safety

In the past the key reasons for investing in robot based automation were all about improving productivity, reducing costs, increasing manufacturing flexibility or delivering consistent product quality. But more and more manufacturers are now citing employee safety as a key reason to deploy robots.

Nov 16th, 2012

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Robots replace costly US Navy mine-clearance dolphins

Navy plans to phase out its Sea Mammal Program and retire its pods of dolphins and sea lions that are currently used to help locate - and in some cases destroy - sea mines. Swimming into their place is a new generation of robotic mine hunters.

Nov 8th, 2012

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