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Max and Ben, two knee-high humanoid robots that can dance to ?Thriller?, play games and emulate Tai Chi, are to be showcased by researchers at the University of Birmingham as part of the ESRC festival of Social Sciences.
Nov 8th, 2012
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LEXI is a new robot at work in the firing tanks of the Lab's High Explosives Applications Facility (HEAF) and the work that's done there for the National Explosives Engineering Sciences Security (NEXESS) Center. The tri-lab program is funded by the Department of Homeland Security to assess threats from explosives and to evaluate countermeasures.
Nov 8th, 2012
Read moreNASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully have used an experimental version of interplanetary Internet to control an educational rover from the International Space Station. The experiment used NASA's Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol to transmit messages and demonstrate technology that one day may enable Internet-like communications with space vehicles and support habitats or infrastructure on another planet.
Nov 8th, 2012
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Computer scientists from the University of Bonn have developed a new robot whose source code and design plan is publicly accessible. It is intended to facilitate the entry into research on humanoids, in particular, the TeenSize Class of the RoboCup. The scientists recently introduced the new robot at the IROS Conference (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) in Portugal.
Oct 30th, 2012
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Cornell researchers have created an autonomous flying robot that is as smart as a bird when it comes to maneuvering around obstacles.
Oct 30th, 2012
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A new study shows that jumping can be much more complicated than it might seem. In research that could extend the range of future rescue and exploration robots, scientists have found that hopping robots could dramatically reduce their power demands by adopting a unique two-part "stutter jump".
Oct 26th, 2012
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Robots have the potential to help older adults with daily activities that can become more challenging with age. But are people willing to use and accept the new technology? A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology indicates the answer is yes, unless the tasks involve personal care or social activities.
Oct 25th, 2012
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The Robot Hall of Fame inducted four robots chosen for the first time by a popular vote ? Aldebaran Robotics' NAO humanoid, iRobot's PackBot bomb disposal robot, Boston Dynamics' four-legged BigDog and WALL-E, the fictional robot of the namesake Pixar movie - during a ceremony tonight at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.
Oct 24th, 2012
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Roboticists at Carnegie Mellon University will field two teams in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, a competition in which robots will perform complex, physically challenging tasks as they respond to disaster scenarios in human-engineered environments, such as nuclear power plants.
Oct 24th, 2012
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Teaching a robot a new trick is a challenge. You can?t reward it with treats and it doesn?t respond to approval or disappointment in your voice. For researchers in the biological sciences, however, the future training of robots has been made much easier thanks to a new program called "PaR-PaR".
Oct 23rd, 2012
Read moreScientists from eight countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United States) have created the first detailed 3D map of the underside of sea ice in Antarctica.
Oct 19th, 2012
Read morePerceive first, act afterwards.The architecture of most of today's robots is underpinned by this control strategy. The eSMCs project has set itself the aim of changing the paradigm and generating more dynamic computer models in which action is not a mere consequence of perception but an integral part of the perception process. It is about improving robot behaviour by means of perception models closer to those of humans.
Oct 18th, 2012
Read moreA research team from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) have been awarded a new $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing a small robot that could one day be a huge aid to neurosurgeons in removing difficult-to-reach brain tumors.
Oct 16th, 2012
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On the horizon: A new generation of robots made of soft materials and capable of performing tasks too complex for conventional robots.
Oct 16th, 2012
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A research team led by Professor Mike Stilman at the Georgia Institute of Technology hopes to change that by giving robots the ability to use objects in their environments to accomplish high-level tasks. The team recently received a three-year, $900,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to work on this project.
Oct 9th, 2012
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Scientists at the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex are embarking on an ambitious project to produce the first accurate computer models of a honey bee brain in a bid to advance our understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how animals think.
Sep 27th, 2012
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A new vineyard worker is looking for a job in France. White with red trim, 50 centimetres (20 inches) tall and 60 wide, he has four wheels, two arms and six cameras, prunes 600 vines per day, and never calls in sick.
Sep 25th, 2012
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Using a novel method of integrating video technology and familiar control devices, a research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology is developing a technique to simplify remote control of robotic devices. The researchers' aim is to enhance a human operator's ability to perform precise tasks using a multi-jointed robotic device such as an articulated mechanical arm.
Sep 25th, 2012
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