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Herds of robotic traffic cones could soon be swarming onto a highway, closing down lanes and slowing the traffic. The new road markers have been developed by Shane Farritor, a roboticist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a bid to help reduce the $100 billion per year that the Department of Transportation estimates is lost to the US economy through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures. The self-propelled markers take the form of robotic three-wheeled bases for the brightly coloured barrels that are set out to demarcate road repair zones. Farritor says they can open and close traffic...

Israeli designed and operated robots swept the 11th Annual International Fire Fighting Robot Contest this month, taking first, second and third prizes. All told, Israeli teams filled six out of the top ten places. 45 teams (ten of which were Israeli) from seven different countries took part in the competition, which was held at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The first place award in the High School Division of the prestigious competition went to the six-member team from Hayovel High School in Herzliya, with their robot "FF-01=FE"; in second place was the team from Aviv High School in Ra'anana, with...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Microminiaturization has made possible swarms of autonomous robots using nothing more than off-the-shelf parts. But concentrating their wireless chatter and getting them to cooperate to solve problems may be five years away, the National Science Foundation cautions. It's putting $2.6 million into a five-year effort to turn multiple wireless robots into an emergency search-and-rescue team. "We want to help emergency response personnel by sending cooperative robots into an unknown site," said California Institute of Technology researcher Joel Burdick. "My team will be developing software that enables each of them to perform slightly different tasks that together accomplish...

OHBU, Japan - To some scientists, robots are the answer to caring for aging societies in Japan and other nations where the young are destined to be overwhelmed by a surging elderly population. Related Quotes SNE DJIA NASDAQ ^SPC 41.98 10442.03 2052.88 1139.32 -0.33 -38.12 +2.64 0.00 delayed 20 mins - disclaimer Quote Data provided by Reuters Missed Tech Tuesday? Wal-Mart's doing it, and soon tech could track your every move. Here's how to protect yourself from RFID. In one of a budding series of robot-therapy sessions at Japanese hospitals and senior citizens' homes, the elderly patients suffer from severe...

1. Ever since NASA was founded, the greater part of its resources have gone into putting men and women into space. On January 14 of this year, President Bush announced a "New Vision for Space Exploration" that would further intensify NASA's concentration on manned space flight. The International Space Station, which has been under construction since 1998, would be completed by 2010; it would be kept in service until around 2016, with American activities on the station from now on focused on studies of the long-term effects of space travel on astronauts. The manned spacecraft called the space shuttle would...

Those on-the-prowl Mars robots -- Spirit and Opportunity -- are sending back extraordinary images and science data about the red planet and its history of climate and water. Both rovers have found evidence of water at their respective landing sites. But the question remains open as to whether Mars was, or is today, a planet capable of supporting life. The tell-tale clues of water left behind hint that some spots on Mars did have a persistent wet look that might have been sociable to extraterrestrial creatures. While Mars scientists have their eyes focused on finding tiny microbes, the question remains:...

Sony to set up intelligent robot lab: report TOKYO (AFP) Mar 14, 2004 Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony will set up a laboratory to develop intelligent robots, adding to its line of pet and humanoid machines, a press report said Sunday. The wholly owned laboratory will be established in May or June by recruiting 10 to 20 leading researchers in robotics and brain science from universities and research institutes in Japan, the Asahi Shimbun daily said. No official was immediately available at the head office of Sony Corp. to confirm the report. "I hope to bring into existence in...

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"/> March 14, 2004 A Soapbox Derby for the War-Games SetBy JOHN MARKOFFand JOHN M. BRODER ARSTOW, Calif., March 13 — Fifteen robot vehicles took off across the Mojave Desert starting at dawn on Saturday, dodging boulders and 15-pound tortoises in search of a place in scientific history and $1 million in Pentagon cash. In the end there was no winner and none of the machines came close to completing the 142-mile race, over some of the most forbidding terrain on the planet. However, the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon skunk-works research...

BARSTOW, Calif. - A $1 million race across the Mojave Desert by driverless robots ended Saturday after all 15 entries either broke down or withdrew, a race official said. Two of the entries covered about seven miles of the roughly 150-mile course while eight failed to make it to the one-mile mark. Others crashed seconds after starting. The race ended after about four hours when the final competitors were disabled, said Col. Jose Negron, race program manager. Competitors suffered a variety of problems that included stuck brakes, broken axles, rollovers and malfunctioning satellite navigation equipment. One six-wheeled robot built by...

The first of 15 driverless robots began trundling across the Mojave Desert on Saturday in an unprecedented race for $1 million in government-funded prize money. First out of the gate was Carnegie Mellon University's converted Humvee, nicknamed Sandstorm, which took off at a fast clip. Within 15 minutes it had covered five miles of the roughly 150-mile course. "That's amazing. It's moving. It's moving. For a million dollars, I'd move too," said spectator Arturo Martinez. The vehicles were leaving the starting line at staggered times, racing against the clock rather than each other. The Pentagon's research and development agency plans...

PITTSBURGH - She might not be paid, but Carnegie Mellon University's newest staff member does all that a typical receptionist should: gives directions, answers the phone — even gossips about her boss. "Valerie" is considered the world's first robot receptionist with a personality, university officials said Wednesday. The blonde roboceptionist interacts with people by talking about her boss, her psychiatrist and her dream of being a lounge star. "We wanted to give her an underdog character, struggling to make it in a world of humans," said Kevin Snipes, 26, a graduate student in drama writing, one of four writers who...

A Sandia National Laboratories RATLER™ vehicle named HAGAR was loaned in a technology evaluation program to the Sierra Army Depot near Reno Nevada for use in their open-pit munitions demolition activities. The open-pit detonation method sometimes results in 'misfires' where a pit stack was commanded to detonate from the manned command bunker but failed to do so. In the case of a misfire, which can occur due to either electrical or mechanical failures in the remote detonation system or the stack itself, the pit stack must somehow be inspected and rendered safe to approach before workers can re-rig the...

<p>DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- With her sparkling blue eyes, wispy eyelashes and demure smile, Hertz is the center of attention wherever she goes.</p> <p>If you're lucky enough to meet her, try to ignore the tangle of wires slinking from behind her face. If you speak with her, talk slowly and loudly. And no matter what you say, don't be offended if she looks at you blankly and repeatedly asks, "What did you say?"</p>

<p>Technically, Stephen Thaler has written more music than any composer in the world. He also invented the Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush and devices that search the Internet for messages from terrorists. He has discovered substances harder than diamonds, coined 1.5 million new English words, and trained robotic cockroaches. Technically.</p>

Get ready to be amazed

After fifteen years of effort, the U.S. Army and Navy have created robotic sentries to patrol indoors and outdoors. Called MDARS (Mobile Detection Assessment Response System), it comes in two different versions. The indoor MDARS runs off batteries and contains a huge number of sensors to enable it to navigate. These include twenty electrostatic and piezoelectric sonars (both narrow- and wide-beam), a monochrome video camera, an acoustical microphone, a scanning microwave and PIR motion sensors and optical beacon sensing modules, an ultraviolet flame sensor; a gas detector, laser retroreflective proximity sensors and a scanning laser rangefinder. The outdoor version (MDARS-E)...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- NASA would fuse together its robotic space systems and manned space program to accommodate the goals of President George W. Bush's new space exploration agenda, senior administration sources told United Press International. Bush next Wednesday is expected to announce he wants to send American astronauts back the moon early in the next decade in preparation for sending crews to explore Mars and nearby asteroids. The sweeping new effort, which represents the biggest overhaul of the U.S. space program in its history, also would involve retiring the space shuttle fleet and gradually withdrawing participation in the...

He may not be able to give you a run for your money but one quick step for Sony Corp.'s Qrio humanoid robot is one big step for robots in general. Electronics and entertainment giant Sony said on Thursday that it had developed the world's first running -- okay, jogging -- robot. "All around the world, universities and think tanks have been researching how to make robots run but we are pleased to announce that we have done it first," Toshi Doi, an executive vice president at Sony told a news conference. The sleek and diminutive Qrio, which until recently...

In the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, some critics have questioned the need to endanger human life for space exploration. Even as NASA researchers work on robotic technology for future missions, officials are not ready for their astronauts to hang up their space suits just yet. Bonnie Dunbar, an assistant director at NASA's Johnson S Space Center, said the space agency sees a future where humans and robots work together. "Robotics are still not the same as the human brain," said Dunbar during a lecture last week at the University of Utah. "Robots only do what they are...

More than 100 teams have applied to enter a robotic-car contest sponsored by the research wing of the Defense Department, prompting the agency to extend some deadlines. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency said Thursday that 106 teams have applied to participate in the Grand Challenge, an off-road race for unmanned vehicles slated to take place in March 2004, and that 86 teams have submitted technical papers describing their proposed robots. Researchers and designers have to review submissions to determine if proposed vehicles are technically feasible and conform to contest rules. In May, only 34 teams had signaled their interest...