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November 26, 2009 Look out! The robots are coming to take your job away For as long as anyone can remember, the Tokyo International Robot Exhibition has been a showcase for Japan at its wackiest: stern industrial machines lurked backstage as waltzing, noodle-making or ping-pong playing humanoids stole the limelight. In recessionary 2009, however, with Japanese industry writhing in pain, the national robot obsession has turned deadly serious. For the first time, the show explains exactly how the machines are going to take over. A new mood is in the air: the downturn, says a Tsukuba University engineer, has honed...

Boston Dynamics is well known for its robot creations, but its latest effort shows how close we are getting to human-like machines. You may remember the dog-like robot called BigDog the company created back in 2007. It was capable of navigating rough terrain and could walk, run, climb, and carry heavy loads with its four legs. BD has built upon the BigDog technology and has now created a two-legged robot called PETMAN which you can see in the video above. PETMAN has been developed for use by the US Army to help test chemical protection clothing. It performs realistic human-like...

The makers of the eerily lifelike robotic mule have a new creation: a machine that walks around like a real human being. Boston Dynamics is building the “Petman” prototype for the U.S. Army, to test out protective clothing. “Petman will balance itself and move freely; walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents,” the company promises. “Petman will also simulate human physiology within the protective suit by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating when necessary, all to provide realistic test conditions. ” Like Boston Dynamics’ BigDog robo-mule, Petman stays upright, even when it’s shoved....

A new shapeshifting chemical robot being developed for Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Army has been unveiled by Pentagon researchers. ChemBot is a small mobile device that looks like a gelatinous blob, it can change shape to navigate through tight spaces and will be used by the army for intelligence gathering, and search and rescue missions. The chemical robot moves from place to place by way of a process called 'jamming' which causes the material to transition between semi-liquid and semi-solid states with only a slight change in volume. Jamming technology allows the scientists to make...

KDDI Pairs a Mobile Phone With a Robot Martyn Williams, IDG News Service Oct 11, 2009 10:50 am As mobile phones add more features and more users connect with social media, the cell phone becomes a more important part of people's lives. Japanese carrier KDDI has developed a robot companion that seeks to bridge the gap between a phone and its user and a prototype was shown at this week's Ceatec expo near Tokyo. The robot, called Polaris, is spherical and opens up to reveal a cradle on which a cell phone can sit. While in the cradle the phone...

The robot is able to leap over fences and walls Video footage has been released of a robot that can leap over obstacles more than 7.5m (25ft) high. Most of the time, the shoebox-sized robot - which is being developed for the US military - uses its four wheels to get around. But the Precision Urban Hopper can use a piston-actuated "leg" to launch it over obstacles such as walls or fences. The robot could boost the capabilities of troops and special forces engaged in urban warfare, say researchers.

Video: Precision Urban Hopper leaps over fences, makes enemies cringe by Darren Murph posted Sep 15th 2009 at 10:46AM It's only been a few months since we heard from the whiz kids over at Boston Dynamics, and honestly, we've been waiting on pins and needles to see what miracle would emerge from its labs next. Said outfit has just been awarded a contract by Sandia to build the next generation of the Precision Urban Hopper, which will be a four-wheeled jumping robot that can navigate autonomously.

Rogue droid 'was attempting to cross border' An American "Reaper" flying hunter-killer robot assassin rebelled against its human controllers above Afghanistan on Sunday, and a manned US fighter jet was forced to shoot the rogue machine down before it unilaterally invaded a neighbouring country. The Reaper, aka MQ-9 or Predator-B, is a large five-ton turboprop powered machine able to carry up to 14 Hellfire missiles - each capable of destroying a tank or flattening a building. It is used by the US and British forces above Afghanistan as a "persistent hunter-killer against emerging targets". According to USAFCENT Public Affairs: The...

Though it may look crude on its surface, the fact is that the Archie robot is the result of a lot of hard work by researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in concert with the University of Manitoba. Created as a humanoid robot, Archie was designed to assist humans with routine tasks such as cleaning, playing games and cooking. Although the creators hope to one day offer the Archie robot to the public, they will probably want to wait until a more advanced, aesthetically pleasing version is completed, especially since the price tag is a whopping 15,000 Euros ($21,082)....

Robotic Technology Inc. EATR robots roam a barren landscape as an unmanned drone flies overhead in an artist's rendering. EATR robots roam a barren landscape as an unmanned drone flies overhead in an artist's rendering. It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie. A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie. A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies. -snip-

Mobile machines, remote hookups help Lahey Clinic cope with shortage of specialists BEVERLY - The robot glides past the beeping heart monitor, past a row of patients supine on their electric beds, past the beehive of the nurses’ station. The sleek, metallic body, dusky blue, stops outside Room 9 and slowly rolls through the doorway. Discuss COMMENTS (33) “Mrs. Morash, Dr. Liesching’s here,’’ says nurse Dawn Deschenes, announcing the arrival of the robot to a gray-haired woman breathing behind an oxygen mask. The face of Timothy Liesching, a pulmonary critical care doctor, gazes at his patient from a computer screen...

Kobian, a "humanoid" robot, which can express seven human emotions, has been unveiled by researchers at Waseda University in Japan. The Emotional Humanoid Robot can express seven different feelings, including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike. In addition to assuming different poses to match the mood, Kobian uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions, according to pinktentacle. To express delight, for example, the robot its hands over its head and opens it mouth and eyes wide. To show sadness, Kobian hunches over, hangs its head and holds a hand up to its face...

Israeli defense researchers are working on a robot snake that can sneak through cracks and into buildings to send back sound and video of enemy movements — or even plant explosives. That's according to the Jerusalem Post, which cites a news report from Israel's Channel 2. A video clip shows the six-foot-long robot, covered in camouflage, winding its way through rocks and tree stumps, its "head" a flat camera lens ringed by LED lights. The "snake" can also prop up its front sections vertically to peer over obstacles. It's remote-controlled by a soldier, who uses a laptop both to guide...

IDF developing battlefield robot snake A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is on the way to join the the IDF's hi-tech arsenal. According to a Channel 2 report - click here to watch the clip - the spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer.

What was once sci-fi is becoming reality on the battlefield. Still got a few kinks to work out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

Human warriors have long spoken of the bonds forged in combat and of becoming a "band of brothers." The fact that some of those fellow soldiers are made of metal has not discouraged human feelings toward them. Thousands of robots now fight with humans on modern battlefields that resemble scenes from science fiction movies such as "Terminator Salvation." But the real world poses a more complex situation than humans versus robots, and has added new twists to the psychology of war. "One of the psychologically interesting things is that these systems aren't designed to promote intimacy, and yet we're seeing...

A robot schoolteacher developed by Japanese scientists has taken a class in a Tokyo school. Saya, the female humanoid robot, taught a science and technology lesson to a class of 10-year-old pupils at Kudan Elementary School in Tokyo. With her neat brown hair, pink lipstick and skirt suit, the robot, created by scientists at Tokyo University of Science, has been designed to resemble as human a form as possible. Using a range of programmed movements from eyebrow arching to smiling, her face is capable of expressing six basic emotions in the classroom – surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness....

A Swedish robot nearly killed a man — but won't be prosecuted. English-language Swedish news Web site The Local reports that the near-fatal incident took place at a factory north of Stockholm in June 2007. A worker was about to fix a broken rock-lifting robot. He'd shut the power off, but the machine suddenly woke up and grabbed the man by the head.

Bionic penguins take to the water – and the skies 17:15 21 April 2009 by Colin Barras Video: The flexibile necks of these bionic penguins steer the robots as well as making them look realistic (Image: Festo) The graceful robotic penguins in the video above were unveiled by German engineering firm Festo this week. Using their flippers, the mechanical penguins can paddle through water just like real ones, while larger helium-filled designs can "swim" through the air. The penguins are on show at the Hannover Messe Trade Exhibition in Germany. Each penguin carries 3D sonar developed by EvoLogics in Berlin,...

U.S. Army Tests Flying Robot Sniper The Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) during testing. The gun turret is on the right side of the craft. (Pic in URL) It could be the best Xbox 360 game ever, and a real kick in the ARSS. The U.S. Army is testing the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) — a remote-controlled unmanned Vigilante robot helicopter equipped with a high-velocity sniper rifle. Its RND Edge semi-automatic gun is mounted on a self-stabilizing turret with built-in zoom camera, and fires 7 to 10 precisely aimed .338-caliber rounds per second. Back on the ground, a human...

The U.S. Army is testing the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) — a remote-controlled unmanned Vigilante robot helicopter equipped with a high-velocity sniper rifle. Its RND Edge semi-automatic gun is mounted on a self-stabilizing turret with built-in zoom camera, and fires 7 to 10 precisely aimed .338-caliber rounds per second. Back on the ground, a human directs it using a modified Xbox 360 controller, which plugs into a laptop so that the operator can see what the drone sees. "Having the ability to accurately engage single point man sized targets with an airborne UAV will give the ground based soldier...

TOKYO (AP) — Japan hopes to have a two-legged robot walk on the moon by around 2020, with a joint mission involving astronauts and robots to follow, according to a plan laid out Friday by a government group. Specifics of the plan, including what new technologies will be required and the size of the project's budget, are to be decided within the next two years, according to Japan's Strategic Headquarters for Space Development, a Cabinet-level working group. Development of a lunar robot is part of a broad framework outlined by the group, which is charged with plotting a new course...

The waters of Port Gijon in Spain are to be introduced to robotic fish soon. Scientists are building a school of robotic fish in order to check on the quality of the water. Fashioned after carp, the fish are to be lifelike in appearance and swimming mannerisms so they will not frighten the other aquatic animals. The robots are equipped with tiny chemical sensors capable of detecting pollutants in the water. The fish were developed by the University of Essex in Britain, and a UK-based engineering consultancy called BMT Group. They are the result of a three year research project...

If it looks like a fish and swims like a fish, it usually is a fish. But not this new, lifelike robot fish developed by U.K. scientists. (Raw video below.) The prototype robot fish, modeled after carp, have been swimming around the London Aquarium as they await their release off northern Spain in 2011. Equipped with tiny chemical sensors, the fish will collect data on pollution in the port of Gijón and wirelessly transmit the information back to the port's control center.

SAN DIEGO—A robot dispatched Saturday to look for suspected illegal immigrants seen entering a drainage pipe at the nation's busiest border crossing spotted two people but they evaded capture, authorities said. The search began after a motorist reported seeing about 12 people enter a storm drain in front of inspection booths at the San Ysidro port of entry that connects San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Vince Bond said. However, surveillance cameras showed only eight went into the storm drain opening. The opening is in American territory just south of San Ysidro's 24 vehicle inspection...

Rat-tat-tat-tat! That's the sound made by the "Multiple Kill Vehicle," a frightening but fascinatingly cool hovering robot meant to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles. Video of a Dec. 2 flight test conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California by defense contractor Lockheed Martin has made it onto the Web, and it looks like something out of the "Terminator" movies. (video on site)

BLOG: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/13152.htm Report: New Iranian Remote-Control Mini-Submarine A report was released in Iran about a mini-submarine operated by remote control, with a GSM system or onboard computer, that can reach a depth of eight meters and carry eight kg of explosives. The submarine's planners say that the sub is invisible to radar, and that the robot on board will sense when a diver approaches the sub and will release hormones to attract schools of fish, thereby concealing it from diver. Source: Fars, Iran, January 21, 2009 Posted at: 2009-01-23

Bob May -- who played The Robot in "Lost in Space" -- died early this morning at the Lancaster Community Hospital in California. A rep for Bob said he was taken to the hospital on Friday, and died at around 3 AM this morning of congestive heart failure. Back in November, Bob had a stroke soon after a fire consumed his California home. Patricia Arthur, May's long time friend and agent, "Asks all his fans to take a moment of silence as one of Science Fiction's greatest has passed. Family and friends will miss him dearly." Bob was 69. See...

LOS ANGELES – Bob May, who donned The Robot's suit in the hit 1960s television show "Lost in Space," has died. He was 69. May died Sunday of congestive heart failure at a hospital in Lancaster, said his daughter, Deborah May.

Armed robotic aircraft soar in the skies above Pakistan, hurling death down on America's enemies in the war on terrorism. Soon -years, not decades,from now - American armed robots will patrol on the ground as well, fundamentally transforming the face of battle. Conventional war, even genocide,may be abolished by a robotic American Peace. The detachment with which the United States can inflict death upon our enemies is surely one reason why U.S. military involvement around the world has expanded over the past two decades.The excellence of American military technology makes it possible for U.S. forces to inflict vast damage upon...

A Canadian man, apparently unable to find the perfect woman, has done the next best thing — he's built himself one. Le Trung, a 33-year-old software engineer who lives with his parents in Brampton, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, says he's spent about $20,000 so far on Aiko, a 5-foot-tall female android with clear skin, a slim if shapely figure and a wonderful disposition. "She can recognize faces, she can identify medication, she can even butter your toast," Le Trung tells the Toronto Globe and Mail. Not only that, but Aiko speaks — in both English and, for some reason,...

Rat-tat-tat-tat! That's the sound made by the "Multiple Kill Vehicle," a frightening but fascinatingly cool hovering robot meant to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles. Video of a Dec. 2 flight test conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California by defense contractor Lockheed Martin has made it onto the Web, and it looks like something out of the "Terminator" movies.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2008 – Once confined solely to the pages of science fiction, remotely controlled robots are now commonplace on today’s battlefield, extending the reach of bomb experts and being used extensively to search for and destroy booby traps intent on killing U.S. troops. Dr. Kevin Chung, the medical director for the burn intensive care unit at the Army’s burn center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, remotely controls an RP-7 remote presence robot in the intensive care unit at the hospital. Chung has been using the robot to care for patients as part of a...

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately. By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers. A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions. Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University's...

Hate political robo-calls? As loathsome as they are, consider those making them... NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the comic within this thread. Thanks!

On a non-political but very interesting note, information is coming out about the first "humanoid" robot, named "Jules," that can mimic the facial expressions and lip movements of a human being. Here is video of "Jules" in action. . . . . (Watch Video)

Based on a 5 year old girl, this robot is supposed to be more lifelike than ever.

The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule,

University of Reading scientists have developed a robot controlled by a biological brain formed from cultured neurons. And this is a world's premiere. Other research teams have tried to control robots with 'brains,' but there was always a computer in the loop. This new project is the first one to examine 'how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data.' As life expectancy is increasing in most countries, this new research could provide insights into how the brain works and help aging people. In fact, the main goal of this project is to...

The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.

Watch the amazing video. (Six minutes long) Incredible: what more's there to say? Incredible. Based on Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance Video," but way better. We get to see a robot doing Vanilla Ice's dance moves better than he did. A robot doing the "walk like an Egyptian" dance. The upcoming MechRC robot has been under development for three years and has 17 independently-controlled servos, and built-in audio. And if this video is anything to go by, when it goes on sale in the fall it should make quite a dent in the miniature robot world.

She's big-busted, petite, very friendly and she runs on batteries.

LOS ANGELES - Like a miner prospecting for gold, NASA hopes its latest robot to Mars hits pay dirt when it lands Sunday near the red planet's north pole to conduct a 90-day digging mission. The three-legged Phoenix Mars lander fitted with a backhoe arm is zeroing in on the unexplored arctic region where a reservoir of ice is believed to lie beneath the Martian surface. Phoenix lacks the tools to detect signs of alien life — either now or in the past. However, it will study whether the ice ever melted and look for traces of organic compounds in...

"Once they invent the Sexaroid, that's it for marriage" — Cliff Spears Whither the Droid? The personal servant/buddy/crapworker robot was a staple of the Wonderful World Of Tomorrow that we kids of the '60s were sold back in the olden days. That world turned out to be a BIG FAT LIE — and no part of it more so than the foretold robot pal. I can live withot my rocket belt and flying car, but, dammit, why didn't I get the robo-butler I was promised? It's not due to any lack of effort on the part of industry. The factories...

AMHERST, Mass. - One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby. It was an ordinary spring day at Hampshire College, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns.

Berkeley Bionics™, formerly Berkeley ExoWorks, designs and manufactures lower extremity exoskeletons to augment human strength and endurance during locomotion. The exoskeleton is comprised of two powered anthropomorphic legs, a power unit, small on-board microcomputer, and a backpack-like frame on which a variety of heavy loads can be mounted. This system provides its pilot (i.e. its wearer) with the ability to carry significant loads (up to 150 pounds) on his/her back with minimal effort over any type of terrain for extended periods of time without reducing his/her agility. The pilot's physical effectiveness increases significantly since he/she does not feel the backpack...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, April 18, 2008 – A robot normally used by doctors to perform work remotely allowed a soldier in Baghdad to virtually interact with his newborn son in Texas for the first time. Displayed on the screen of a laptop computer in Baghdad, baby Blake Lloyd, on Fort Sam Houston, Texas, “meets” his daddy for the first time. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Kay McKinnie  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. An RP-7 Remote Presence Robotic System, wireless, mobile, remote-presence robot that allows a doctor to be in two places at once, allowed Army Staff Sgt....

BigDog is a big hit on YouTube. A new video of BigDog - a robotic “pack mule” that Waltham-based Boston Dynamics is developing for the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - has attracted more than 2 million viewers since the clip went live on YouTube this week.

A new video of the Army's BigDog 'bot highlights its eery abilities Two years ago we showed you Boston Dynamics' incredible BigDog—one of the world's most ambitious legged robots—being developed for DARPA and the U.S. Army. With its advanced system of hyper-responsive hydraulic joints and a suite of sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes, the BigDog's most stunning achievement is it's ability to walk, climb and maintain its balance on diverse terrain, even after slipping on ice or receiving a kick to one side. All while carrying several hundreds of pounds of supplies on its "back." In this new video, we see...