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It's rough, tough, unmanned and nearly unstoppable. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has nearly finished work on the Crusher, a six-wheeled robot that rolls through ditches, walls, streams, other vehicles and almost anything else that gets in its way. "This vehicle can go into places where, if you were following in a Humvee, you'd come out with spinal injuries," Stephen Welby, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, told the military-oriented Stars and Stripes newspaper. "Usually vehicles are set up to protect humans. Here, we didn't have to worry about that." The big brute weighs nearly 7...

If successful at mapping lake terrain Wisconsin and Antarctica, it could be used to search for life in the ocean on Jupiter's moon Researchers from NASA and the University of Illinois at Chicago atop the frozen surface of Wisconsin's Lake Mendota this week are preparing for interplanetary exploration. Below them, under a sheet of ice more than a foot (30 centimeters) thick, the space agency's new Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-Ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer (ENDURANCE) maps the lake's underwater terrain. If this and subsequent voyages are successful, a similar vessel could be sent to navigate the suspected liquid water under the frozen...

Scientists Invent Robots That Lie, Real Bender Closer Than Ever Holy crap! The Age of The Machines is nigh: a bunch of scientists in Switzerland have created learning robots that can lie to each other. Okay, so they don't swill beer or put bends in girders—they just communicate to each other with benign flashing lights, thank goodness, instead of using lasers to destroy humans: The team at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Federal Institute of Technology created the little experimental learning devices to work in groups and hunt for "food" targets nearby while avoiding "poison." Imagine their surprise...

I did these during the debate on the fly. Just messing around at the expense of the good Governor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-KfyZZuV1Q and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0scZ1wE243k Tell me what you think guys :)

Japanese Robot Eats Snow, Poops Out Bricks of Ice Wednesday, January 02, 2008 What's cute, yellow, eats snow and poops out bricks of ice? Meet Yuki-taro, a Japanese robot built to quickly clear roads after heavy snows. The cute little guy, about 5 feet long and 2 and a half feet high, simply plows into snowbanks, taking in the white stuff, compressing it and neatly stacking it in two-foot-long bricks on his rear bed. Created by a consortium of private companies, municipal governments and university researchers, Yuki-taro is equipped with two video cameras in his "eyes" as well as a...

Programmed for love Author sees hard-wired sex in the future - and apparently it's all good - especially if you like robots you're younger than 35, you'll probably live long enough to put David Levy's prediction to the test. Levy says that by 2050 we'll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we'll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good. Levy lays out his vision of a Brave New Carnal World in Love and Sex...

14 December 2007—To let Hollywood tell it, robots are ultrapowerful machines with seemingly inexhaustible stamina. In last summer’s CGI extravaganza Transformers, shape-shifting robots swatted cars and trucks aside like gnats at a barbecue and effortlessly outpaced fleeing humans—who, by comparison, were inferior in every regard. But the physics of the cineplex don’t hold true in the real world. Here, even the best humanoid robots don’t hold a candle to the race upon which they’re based. At 129 kilograms and just 1.6 meters in height, Honda’s P3 robot, for example, is a dumpy weakling that moves no faster than a slow...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Former presidents are used to hecklers, but Monday may have been the first time one was interrupted by a robot. Former President Bill Clinton was speaking in Iowa City when a man dressed in a silver metallic robot suit made a scene. The protester said he wanted Clinton to apologize for a comment he made in 1992 about a rapper named Sister Souljah, and then threw colored cards into the air.

Warning sounded over 'flirting robots' by Ina Fried Those entering online dating forums risk having more than their hearts stolen. A program that can mimic online flirtation and then extract personal information from its unsuspecting conversation partners is making the rounds in Russian chat forums, according to security software firm PC Tools. The artificial intelligence of CyberLover's automated chats is good enough that victims have a tough time distinguishing the "bot" from a real potential suitor, PC Tools said. The software can work quickly too, establishing up to 10 relationships in 30 minutes, PC Tools said. It compiles a report...

TOKYO: Toyota Motor on Thursday unveiled a robot that can play the violin as part of its efforts to develop futuristic machines capable of assisting humans in Japan's greying society. The 1.5-metre-tall, two-legged robot wowed onlookers with a faultless rendition of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. With 17 joints in its hands and arms, the robot has human-like dexterity that could be applied to helping people in the home or in nursing and medical care, the carmaker said. Toyota also unveiled a two-wheeled, single-seat "mobility robot" that could be used to transport an elderly or disabled person over uneven ground and...

Toyota Shows New Violin-Playing Robot, Says Robotics Will Become One of Its Key Businesses Compared to a virtuoso, its rendition was a trifle stilted and, well, robotic. But Toyota's new robot plays a pretty solid "Pomp and Circumstance" on the violin. The 5-foot-tall all-white robot, shown Thursday, used its mechanical fingers to press the strings correctly and bowed with its other arm, coordinating the movements well. Toyota Motor Corp. has already shown robots that roll around to work as guides and have fingers dexterous enough to play the trumpet. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said robotics will be a core business...

TOKYO - ZMP of Japan began selling a two-legged walking robot Thursday that runs on Microsoft's new robotics software — a product the companies said will make it easier to transfer technology from one robot to another. U.S. software maker Microsoft Corp. is a relative latecomer to robotics. Microsoft Robotics Studio, a package of software especially made to program movements and other applications for robots, went on sale in December 2006, and ZMP's device is the first biped to run on it. On Thursday, a demonstrator using a Microsoft Xbox 360 remote got the 14-inch-tall, 5.5-pound, $5,345 "e-nuvo WALK" to...

A Utah-based company is now six years into the development of a unique robot that fits around its user so that it literally mimics every movement of its human commander. Imagine stepping inside a robotic system that fits around your body like an exoskeleton. It allows soldiers to become almost superhuman in strength and stamina. In this case, whatever the soldier needs to do, the exoskeleton follows his or her exact moves. The prototype designed and built by SARCOS is going to become even more polished and sophisticated within the next five years. American soldiers are well trained and physically...

The US Navy's new stealth robot carrier plane is now "structurally complete", according to its maker, and is now being fitted out with subsystems while software tests begin. The Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) is expected to make its first flight the year after next, and its first carrier deck landing in 2011. "Once we get robust flight controls we will begin failure detection and accommodation testing, which is the real key to any unmanned aircraft," said Scott Winship, UCAS-D project chief at Northrop Grumman, talking to Flight International. Although a firm decision by the US Navy to build...

I can't say I'm much of a gardener. It's all a bit too much like hard work, especially wasting hot summer days mowing the lawn into neat little lines - I'd much rather get the deckchair out and crack open a can. And now I can - and get the lawn cut with the Automower from Husqvarna. It's a gardener's dream, cutting grass automatically without being pushed or guided - even if there's a tree or two to negotiate. Use the perimiter wire to cordon off flower beds, young trees, ponds and swimming pools and automower does the rest. As...

A robotic car named Junior, programmed by Stanford computer scientists, finished slightly ahead of Boss, the robo-vehicle from Carnegie Mellon University, as half a dozen driverless vehicles made history by completing a 60-mile race over a city-like environment. But the real winner of this third and most difficult in a series of robo-races is probably the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which sponsored the first of these events in 2004 to spur development of unmanned military vehicles. In all, 11 robotic vehicles set out on the race course Saturday morning, and while five scrubbed out for various reasons, the fact...

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A fox-like alien and his robot sidekick on a mission to save the galaxy could also help save sales of Sony's PlayStation 3, which has struggled to find a game so good that it gives people reason to buy the pricey console. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has had several, including this year's "Halo 3," but Sony is still trying to find a megahit of its own as games like "Heavenly Sword" and "Folklore" have failed to make the kind of splash needed to convince holdouts. Now comes "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction," a...

The DARPA Urban Challenge is an autonomous vehicle research and development program with the goal of developing technology that will keep warfighters off the battlefield and out of harm’s way. The Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles.

Interchangeable Weapon and Manipulator Arm Featured in New Modular Design QinetiQ North America announced today that its Foster-Miller, Inc. subsidiary is introducing a totally new, 'transformer-like' robotic platform at AUSA, the US Army's annual meeting and exhibition (October 8-10, Washington DC, Booth No. 3443). The company's latest innovation in robotics introduces a new modular design to its popular line of TALON® and SWORDS robots for military and first responders. The current TALON robot is designed with a manipulator arm and gripper for identification and neutralization of roadside bombs and related tasks. Similarly the SWORDS robot is fitted with an M249...

TOKYO — If you grow old in Japan, expect to be served food by a robot, ride a voice-recognition wheelchair or even possibly hire a nurse in a robotic suit — all examples of cutting-edge technology to care for the country's rapidly graying population. With nearly 22 percent of Japan's population already aged 65 or older, businesses here have been rolling out everything from easy-entry cars to remote-controlled beds, fueling a care technology market worth some $1.08 billion in 2006, according to industry figures. At a home care and rehabilitation convention in Tokyo this week, buyers crowded round a demonstration...

A three-legged robot with an unconventional and graceful walk has been developed by US researchers. Like humans, it exploits gravity to save energy with each step, but it also flips its entire body upside-down with each stride. The fearsome alien tripods in HG Well's book The War of The Worlds are described as moving like "a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground". STriDER (Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot) has a far more graceful, and acrobatic, gait (see video top right) that sees its body flip 180 degrees with each step. A second video (bottom right) explains more...

The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) today announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million prize purse. Private companies from around the world will compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to...

RICHARDSON, Texas - David Hanson has two little Zenos to care for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions. At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers, designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe there's an emerging business...

Dance stars of the future should take note that roboticists are making great strides in making them redundant. The robot copies the moves of a human dance teacher Japanese researchers have created a dancing robot capable of imitating a routine at a moment’s notice, with no need for time-consuming and costly rehearsals. Shin’ichiro Nakaoka and colleagues at the University of Tokyo have overcome difficulties with programming robots to carry out complex leg movements without their losing stability. They used software allowing their robot HRP-2 to copy the moves of a human dance teacher through video motion capture technology. HRP-2 then...

BURLINGTON, Mass., Aug. 7 (UPI) -- iRobot Corp has won $17.5 million in orders for its iRobot PackBot systems for the U.S. armed forces. "The U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation on behalf of the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) both placed orders for iRobot’s combat-proven military robots. iRobot expects to complete delivery by the end of January 2008," the company said in a statement last month. "The initial PEO STRI contract was awarded under the Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) contracting authority. PEO STRI...

There have been robots patrolling the sunny sands of Iraq since the initial invasion, but until now, they've merely been there to scope stuff out. That was then, this is now. According to Noah over at the always-awesome Danger Room blog, the military has just deployed their new "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) that have been in development for the past few years. What are the SWORDS, exactly? Oh, just some bomb-disposal robots armed with M249 machine guns.

July 25, 2007 The 50 best movie robots To coincide with the release of Michael Bay's epic Transformers movie we rate the most celebrated 'artifical people' in movies Michael Moran We selected the fifty most memorable robots in film and rated them in four different categories: Plausibility (meaning how likely it would be that, with advances on currently existing technology, such a device could be built) Coolness (just how well designed, shiny or generally well-appointed the robot appeared to be) Dangerousness (scoring not only on built-in weaponry, but the robot's eagerness to use it) Comedy Value (how effective the robot...

Robo-toilets proposed to stop 'gay' cruising Mayor: 'Homosexuals ... engaging in sex, anonymous sex, illegal sex' Posted: July 7, 2007 6:55 p.m. Eastern Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle says his city has a problem with "homosexual activity" in public restrooms and he has a plan to stop it – robotic toilets that allow occupants to stay inside for only a short time before the door automatically opens. "We're trying to provide a family environment where people can take their children who need to use the bathroom without having to worry about a couple of men in there engaged in a...

DAEJEON, South Korea (AFP) - A robot on Sunday acted as master of ceremonies at a South Korean wedding in what its creators claimed as a world first. Tiro the robot assisted at the wedding of Seok Gyeong-Jae, one of the engineers who designed it, and his bride at Daejeon, 130 kilometres (78 miles) south of Seoul. "This is Tiro, master of ceremonies for today's wedding," the robot -- featuring a cone-shaped body, two arms and a dark-glassed face with eyes and a mouth of flashing lights -- said in front of smiling guests. In a male voice, the robot...

Soldiers may no longer have to call for a medic on the battlefield – thanks to a robot which can pick up the wounded and carry them to safety. The remote-controlled android, dubbed the Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot (Bear), has a range of up to 50m. Defence experts say it is the most promising solution yet to the 'holy grail' of being able to send robots into war zones to rescue wounded. The US army is backing the project by handing designer Vecna Robotics funding for the robot – each one costs more than £50,000. The Bear could also...

Daring battlefield rescues of wounded comrades may one day be a thing of the past as the US army is developing a robot that can recover injured or abducted soldiers. The remote-controlled Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (Bear) will be able to travel over rough terrain while carrying a casualty comfortably in its arms, New Scientist reports today. A prototype can already lift more than 135kg (300lb) with one arm and climb stairs holding a human-sized dummy. The robot - which has a rounded head with teddy bear-style ears and large eyes - can also carry a wounded soldier while kneeling or...

Robot teachers for USA nursing institute By Thomas Claburn 7 June 2007 12:15 AEST General News Educators annoyed by the mental absence of gadget-engaged students now have their revenge: they can be physically absent while they teach. The Nursing Institute of West Central Ohio today said it would begin using the Remote Presence Robotic System (RP-7) to allow nursing faculty to teach from remote locations. Debi Sampsel, executive director of the institute, said in a statement that the RP-7 would help alleviate a shortage of nursing faculty. "As baby boomer nurses in education approach retirement, this technology will provide them...

China's first unit of bomb-disposing robot militia was confirmed in Zigong, a city in China's southwest Sichuan province earlier this year. The robot named "Jianbing I" can conduct many battle operations, such as scouting, disposing of bombs and making attacks on the battlefield.

Israel unveils portable hunter-killer robot Thu Mar 8, 10:26 AM ET An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades. The VIPeR, roughly the size of a small television, was invented as part of Israel's efforts to develop weaponry that could reduce the risks to its forces from hand-to-hand fighting against Palestinian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. The manufacturer, Elbit Systems Ltd., said that the VIPeR's small size and dual treads enable it to move "undeterred by...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades. The VIPeR, roughly the size of a small television, was invented as part of Israel's efforts to develop weaponry that could reduce the risks to its forces from hand-to-hand fighting against Palestinian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. The manufacturer, Elbit Systems Ltd., said that the VIPeR's small size and dual treads enable it to move "undeterred by stairs, rubble, dark alleys, caves or narrow tunnels"....

In Pictures: Robot menagerie An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007. It is being put together by a five member team of experts that includes futurists and a science fiction writer. The South Korean government has identified robotics as a key economic driver and is pumping millions of dollars into research. "The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to...

(Left) Independent s-bots with blue lights, and (right) s-bots joined into a swarm-bot with red lights. Credit: Groß et al. ©IEEE 2006. In one of the latest studies on autonomous robots, scientists sat back and watched as their robot created itself out of smaller robotic modules. The result, called “swarm-bot,” comes in many varieties, depending on the assigned task and available components. As the current state of the art in autonomous self-assembly, swarm-bots offer insight into the potential versatility and robustness that robots may possess to perform missions beyond human abilities. A project coordinated by Professor Marco Dorigo, which was...

Would you trust a robot to park your car? The question will confront New Yorkers in February as the city's first robotic parking opens in Chinatown. The technology has had a good track record overseas, but the only other public robotic garage in the United States has been troublesome, dropping vehicles and trapping cars because of technical glitches. Nonetheless, the developers of the Chinatown garage are confident with the technology and are counting on it to squeeze 67 cars in an apartment-building basement that would otherwise fit only 24, accomplished by removing a ramp and maneuver space normally required. Rather,...

A new robotic head can pinpoint the location of enemy shooters and call in the cavalryThe RedOwl is a robotic head that looks more like a PowerPoint projector than a sharpshooter’s worst enemy. But don’t let its Circuit City appearance fool you: Controlled by a laptop-wielding soldier, the RedOwl’s superior senses can read a nametag from across a football field and identify the make and model of a rifle fired a mile away simply by analyzing the sound of the distant blast. And soon it could be putting its powers to use in Iraq. RedOwl’s developer, Glenn Thoren, now a...

A man walked into a very high-tech bar. As he sat down on a stool, he noticed that the bartender was a robot. The robot clicked to attention and asked, "Sir, what will you have?" The man thought a moment, then replied, "A martini, please". The robot clicked a couple of times and mixed the best martini the man had ever had. The robot then asked, "Sir, what is your IQ?" The man answered, "Oh, about 164." The robot then proceeded to discuss the theory of relativity, inter-stellar space travel, the latest medical breakthroughs, etc. . The man was most...

Pint-sized soldier with a big wallop The Army's newest recruit can't speak or climb stairs well. And at 3 feet tall and a whopping 200 pounds, it wouldn't pass a physical. But it fires a machine gun with half-mile accuracy and doesn't flinch. The latest infantryman is electronic -- a gun-slinging robot developed at Picatinny Arsenal. Engineers at the Army weapons research post in Rockaway Township hope to send the machine, the first of its kind, into combat this year. They envision the robot rolling through city streets, scooting around corners and ducking into alleys in search of the enemy,...

Robot mother helps South Koreans prepare for birth Thu Jan 4, 2007 12:21 PM ET SEOUL, Jan 4 (Reuters Life!) - With South Korea's birth rate at its lowest ever, medical students are resorting to robots to practice bringing babies into the world. Kyunghee University Medical Center in Seoul is the first institution in South Korea to use Noelle, a life-sized robot, and her "newborn" to give obstetric students experience. "With this simulator training tool, we can conduct not only normal deliveries, but also complicated deliveries such as breech births, Caesarean deliveries," Professor Jung Eui told Reuters Television. "Students can...

Robots could one day demand the same citizen's rights as humans, according to a study by the British government. If granted, countries would be obligated to provide social benefits including housing and even "robo-healthcare", the report says. The predictions are contained in nearly 250 papers that look ahead at developments over the next 50 years. Other papers, or "scans", examine the future of space flight and methods to dramatically lengthen life spans. "We're not in the business of predicting the future, but we do need to explore the broadest range of different possibilities to help ensure government is prepared in...

South Korean scientists are working on a new-generation robot resembling a human which will be able to walk the walk as well as talk the talk, one of the team said Thursday. The first walking "android" will make its debut within two to three years, said So Byung-Rok, one of the team of researchers at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology. Androids present particular technological challenges in cramming complicated modules, motors and actuators into a life-size body. The team has already developed two android prototypes designed to look like a Korean woman in her early 20s, which can hold hold...

A researcher at John Hopkins claims to have developed haptic technology, which they say will allow doctors to ‘feel’ the work of a mechanical helper. Allison Okamura, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, and a leading researcher in human-machine interaction, has said that by adding the sensation of touch, surgeons will be able to feel what the robotic fingers probes in the body, thereby allowing greater precision in surgical procedures. "Surgeons have asked for this kind of feedback. So we're using our understanding of haptic technology to try to give surgeons back the sense of touch that they lose when...

A new robot, dubbed "Starfish" because of its size and shape, has the unusual ability -- in the mechanical world, that is -- of fixing itself. The Starfish is programmed to recognize its parts, but not how they're arranged or meant to be used. It figures that out for itself, using trial and error. Cornell University researchers have created a robot capable of self-awareness, learning and adapting -- all keys to the intelligence and technology needed for robots Latest News about robots to function in adverse and changing environments. The Cornell researchers, who published their findings in the Nov. 17,...

A car that can drive itself is the fantasy of any designated driver, but the dream of owning a vehicle that does all the driving while you sit back and relax is one step closer to reality, as in-car artificial intelligence being developed by a team at Stanford University is ready to be used on city streets in the ultimate test of robot cars. Winning the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge last year with a car called Stanley, Sebastian Thrun and his team at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory developed a form of robotics that went beyond...

Samsung's Techwin division will shortly begin selling heavily armed robot sentries that can identify and shoot a target automatically from over two miles away. The Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot was jointly developed with a South Korean university, and is designed to replace some of the troops guarding the border with North Korea. The robot will be available next year at a cost of $200,000 per unit, and the company expects to sell 1,000 in the first year. "The gist of this project is to transform the current guard and observation mission on fronts conducted by soldiers into a robot...

"Samsung has partnered with Korea University to develop a machine-gun equipped sentry robot, which consists of “two cameras: one for day-time and one for infrared night vision, zooming capabilities, a speaker for notifying the intruder, sophisticated pattern recognition to detect the difference between humans/trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun.”"

Experiments involving real and simulated robots suggest that the relationship between physical movement and sensory input could be crucial to developing more intelligent machines. Tests involving two real and one simulated robot show that feedback between sensory input and body movement is crucial to navigating the surrounding world. Understanding this relationship better could help scientists build more life-like machines, say the researchers involved. Scientists studying artificial intelligence have traditionally separated physical behaviour and sensory input. "But the brain's inputs are not independent," says Olaf Sporns, a neuroscientist at Indiana University, US. "For example, motor behaviour has a role to play...