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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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LEXI the robot improves safety for explosives handlers

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

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Experimental interplanetary Internet used to test robot from International Space Station

NASA 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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Off to the future with a new soccer robot

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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Study shows how a hopping robot could conserve its energy

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 in the home: Will older adults roll out the welcome mat?

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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Robot Hall of Fame inducts NAO, PackBot, BigDog and WALL-E

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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