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Two Carnegie Mellon teams get nod to compete in DARPA Robotics Challenge

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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Training your robot the PaR-PaR way

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

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Robots that perceive the world like humans

Perceive 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

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New NIH grant to advance brain surgery robot development

A 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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Robots using tools: Researchers aim to create 'MacGyver' robot

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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Wall-Ye wine robot takes bow in Burgundy

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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Intuitive visual control provides faster robot operation

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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Connoisseur of chaos (w/video)

Where other roboticists try to suppress the complex dynamics of mechanical systems, Russ Tedrake exploits them, to make control more efficient and versatile.

Aug 29th, 2012

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Using robots to study self-awareness

Justin Hart (Computer Science) and his adviser Brian Scassellati are pursuing research into human self-awareness using a humanoid robot, Nico. Their work stands at the crossroads of computer science and psychology and complements the work of psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, and anthropologists.

Aug 24th, 2012

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Researchers investigate early language acquisition in robots

Research into robotics continues to grow in Europe. And the introduction of humanoid robots has compelled scientists to investigate the acquisition of language. A case in point is a team of researchers in the United Kingdom that studied the development of robots that could acquire linguistic skills.

Aug 23rd, 2012

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Students demo their high-level robotics projects

Students at Cornell University are helping to bring robotics out of the rigid hard-wired programming systems of yore into more sophisticated, integrated and automated functions for a variety of robot platforms.

Aug 21st, 2012

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