[ekim68]

Photos: 'Mobot' races test design skills

PITTSBURGH--Carnegie Mellon University's 14th annual "mobot"--that is, mobile robot--races took place Friday on a downhill campus course that stretched from Doherty Hall to Wean Hall. Robotic contestants had to be small enough to squeeze through 14 gates that were 18 inches high by 18 inches wide.

http://content.zdnet.com/2346-9595_22-198291.html

[Couriant]

some light humour:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WGoi1MSGu64

[ekim68]

Robobug goes to war: Troops to use electronic insects to spot enemy 'by end of the year'

It may have seemed like just another improbable scene from a Hollywood sci-fi flick – Tom Cruise battling against an army of robotic spiders intent on hunting him down.

But the storyline from Minority Report may not be quite as far fetched as it sounds.

British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives.

Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1965

[ekim68]

Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery

WHAT do you call a surgeon who operates without scalpels, stitching tools or a powerful headlamp to light the patient’s insides? A better doctor, according to a growing number of surgeons who prefer to hand over much of the blood-and-guts portion of their work to medical robots controlled from computer consoles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/bu...in&oref=slogin

[ekim68]

Pinta the robot sailing boat takes on Atlantic challenge

Sir Francis Chichester, Robin Knox-Johnston, Dame Ellen McArthur and other great names from the history of sailing could be joined this year by Pinta the robot.

The unmanned boat is undergoing final preparations before setting sail in the hope of becoming the first robot to cross an ocean using the power of wind. By sailing non-stop and unassisted for an estimated three months it will prove the potential for robotic craft to undertake vital research in roles in dangerous and far-off waters.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3904557.ece

[ekim68]

A robotic chef for your kitchen?

The European Commission has founded a project named ‘Co-operative Human Robot Interaction Systems’ (CHRIS) for a cost of €3.65 million. The project, which started in March 2008, will last 4 years. It is based at Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL) which will work with the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and several other European institutions. At this time, the scientists are trying to answer a — not so — simple question: can you trust a robot to work safely with you in the kitchen? For example, a service robot might be stirring soup while you add cream. But how will it act if you get burned? Will it stop stirring if you ask it? As said one of the lead researcher, ‘This project aims to develop the rules we need to introduce this level of sophistication into service robots who are working closely with people.’

http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=923&tag=nl.e539

[ekim68]

Whoa, a good day for robots...

A USF professor plans to add a heart to robot rescuers

http://www.tampabay.com/news/educati...icle510986.ece

Robot removes Calgary woman's brain tumour

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimesc...f-c0b08fd29ba7

[ekim68]

Scheme to Let Robot Take Over Brain-Computer Interface

20 May 2008—A group of mechanical engineers at Caltech have come up with a way to guide miniature robots in the task of inserting and positioning electrode arrays in brain tissue. What they propose would be the first robotic approach to establishing an interface between computers and the brain by positioning electrodes in neural tissue. Researchers say that this could enhance the performance and longevity of emerging neural prosthetics, which allow paralyzed people to operate computers and robots with their minds.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6269

[ekim68]

Robots go where scientists fear to tread

ATLANTA (May 27, 2008) — Scientists are diligently working to understand how and why the world’s ice shelves are melting. While most of the data they need (temperatures, wind speed, humidity, radiation) can be obtained by satellite, it isn’t as accurate as good old-fashioned, on-site measurement and static ground-based weather stations don’t allow scientists to collect info from as many locations as they’d like.

And unfortunately, the locations in question are volatile ice sheets, possibly cracking, shifting and filling with water — not exactly a safe environment for scientists.

To help scientists collect the more detailed data they need without risking scientists’ safety, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, working with Pennsylvania State University, have created specially designed robots called SnoMotes to traverse these potentially dangerous ice environments. The SnoMotes work as a team, autonomously collaborating among themselves to cover all the necessary ground to gather assigned scientific measurements. Data gathered by the Snomotes could give scientists a better understanding of the important dynamics that influence the stability of ice sheets.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-rgw052708.php

[ekim68]

Monkey think, monkey do: with robotic arm

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Using only its brainpower, a monkey can direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and stuff it into its mouth, researchers said on Wednesday.

"They are using a motorized prosthetic arm to reach out, grab and bring the food back to their face," said Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature.

Schwartz said the technology behind this feat may lead to brain-powered prosthetic limbs for people with spinal cord injuries or disabling diseases that make such simple tasks impossible.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scien...32159720080529

[ekim68]

Dancing microrobots waltz on a pin's head

Waltzing microbots are all the rage at Duke University.



Researchers there today said they made microrobots shaped something like a spatula but with dimensions measuring just microns, or millionths of a meter pirouette to the music of a Strauss waltz on a dance floor just 1 millimeter across. In another sequence, the devices pivot in a precise fashion whenever their boom-like steering arms are drawn down to the surface by an electric charge. This response resembles the way dirt bikers turn by extending a boot heel, researchers said. The researchers said they have also been able to get five of the devices to group-maneuver in cooperation under the same control system.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/28328

[ekim68]

NASA: 'Extreme programming' controls Mars Lander robot

Engineers send code 170 million miles through space daily in search for life on Mars.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...8&pageNumber=1

[ekim68]

Underwater communication: Robofish are the ultimate in ocean robots, keeping in touch without scientists' help


In the world of underwater robots, this is a team of pioneers. While most ocean robots require periodic communication with scientist or satellite intermediaries to share information, these can work cooperatively communicating only with each other.

http://uwnews.org/uweek/uweekarticle...rticleID=42313

[ekim68]

Scandinavian scientists designing robotic snakes

With the ability to climb vertically, intelligent robots could inspect oil and water pipelines

People are becoming accustomed to robots in space, robotic vacuum cleaners and even the notion of robotic friends and spouses. But robotic snakes?

It's true. The Sintef Group, a research company based in Trondheim, Norway, announced that it's designing a robot based on — well, snakes.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1454124726

[ekim68]

AI beats human poker champions

PORTLAND, Ore. — Humanity was dealt a decisive blow by a poker-playing artificial intelligence program called Polaris during the Man-Machine Poker Competition in Las Vegas.

Poker champs fought the AI system to a draw, then won in the first two of four rounds (each round had Polaris playing 500 hands against two humans, whose points were averaged.) But in the final two rounds of the match, Polaris beat both human teams, two wins out of four, with one loss and one draw

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=208802992