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Robots have been constructed that for the first time mimic human gait and energy efficiency.

"The American military is working on a new generation of soldiers, far different from the army it has. "They don't get hungry," said Gordon Johnson of the Joint Forces Command at the Pentagon. "They're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes." The robot soldier is coming."Full Story

The American military is working on a new generation of soldiers, far different from the army it has. "They don't get hungry," said Gordon Johnson of the Joint Forces Command at the Pentagon. "They're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes." The robot soldier is coming. The Pentagon predicts that robots will be a major fighting force in the American military in less than a decade, hunting and killing enemies in combat. Robots are a crucial part of...

Scientists have made them walk and talk. There are even robots that can run. But a South Korean professor is poised to take their development several steps further, and give cybersex new meaning. Kim Jong-Hwan, the director of the ITRC-Intelligent Robot Research Centre, has developed a series of artificial chromosomes that, he says, will allow robots to feel lusty, and could eventually lead to them reproducing. He says the software, which will be installed in a robot within the next three months, will give the machines the ability to feel, reason and desire. Kim, a leading authority on technology and...

The United States military recently unveiled its latest weapon for use in Iraq at the recent 24th Army Science Conference in Orlando, Florida. It may seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but the armed/weaponized Talon robot, dubbed Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System (SWORDS), is very real, and will soon be battle tested in Iraq. The concept for the mechanical soldier is really the next logical step for the Talon robot -- a robot developed by Massachusetts engineering firm Foster-Miller, Inc. The Talon first saw service in Bosnia in 2000 and has been used in both Afghanistan...

By the year 2015, robots will be doing most of the household chores, and by 2025, seismologists will be able to detect huge earthquakes before they strike, according to predictions made by about 2,600 leading experts and scientists in the country. About 4,200 scientists, university professors, engineers at private companies and researchers at independent administrative corporations were asked by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry to make predictions about what new technologies might be invented within 30 years. About 2,600 of those polled answered 860 questions, including positing a timetable for each technical innovation and another for when the nation...

The rain is turning to snow on a blustery January morning, and all the men gathered in a parking lot here surely would prefer to be inside. But the weather couldn't matter less to the robotic sharpshooter they are here to watch as it splashes through puddles, the barrel of its machine gun pointing the way like Pinocchio's nose. The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April. Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first...

A new breed of wearable robotic vehicles that envelop drivers are being developed by Japanese car giant Toyota.The company's vision for the single passenger in the 21st Century involves the driver cruising by in a four-wheeled leaf-like device or strolling along encased in an egg-shaped cocoon that walks upright on two feet. Both these prototypes will be demonstrated, along with other concept vehicles and helper robots, at the Toyota stand at the Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, in March 2005. The models are being positioned as so-called personal mobility devices, which have few limits. The open leaf-like "i-unit" vehicle is...

...Using this data, the four-fingered prosthetic hand locates a tomato, opens the fingers and takes hold of the fruit. The robot balances pulling, bending and torsion movements to detach the tasty treat. The robot has been tested here on Earth; success rates of fruit sensing are running at 95% and fruit picking success is rated at 85%. This technology is also planned for use right here on Earth....

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65885,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” is full of visions of the dark, soaring New York cityscape, dogfights in the sky and the majestic Himalayan mountains. But what was the movie set like for the actors? A whole lotta blue. That’s because “Sky Captain,” despite its grandiose appearance, was filmed entirely against a blue screen with digital effects filled in. Though real actors star in it, almost everything else is fake. Think “Roger Rabbit” in reverse. While computer generated imagery has for years been a large presence in movies, “Sky Captain” is the first major motion picture made entirely...

PITTSBURGH - It could be called a mechanical miracle — a robot that walks on water. With inspiration from nature and some help from research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites), a research team led by Carnegie Mellon engineering assistant professor Metin Sitti has built a tiny robot that can walk on water, much like insects known as water skimmers, water skaters, pond skaters or Jesus bugs. Although it's only a basic prototype, Sitti and other researchers imagine that his water-skimming robot could be used on any still water. With a chemical sensor, it could monitor...

Robot made in Singapore to reveal secrets of pyramids August 07, 2004 The Supreme Council of Antiquities SCA Secretary-General Dr. Zahi Hawwas said the secrets of the pyramids will be revealed next year, noting that the council agreed with a Singaporean University to manufacture a robot for revealing what are behind the secret doors inside the pyramid, especially the second and the third ones. He added that work is underway in the radar project that will be used in revealing what is inside the ground between the second Pyramid and the Sphinx. This came during the meeting that was held...

A Pittsburgh-area robotics company has good news for unemployed computer industry types: They're hiring!. RedZone Robotics, which makes machines to repair sewer pipes, on Friday said it plans to hire 100 people over the next three years. About half of the new employees will be engineers, including software engineers, said Eric Close, the company's CEO. What's more, he said, the jobs probably won't be shipped overseas anytime soon, as is happening with many tech positions. That's because robotics is a field requiring expertise that's not found in many places, he said. "It's so nascent, it's so specialized," Close said. "You...

Movie tests Asimov's moral code for robots 11:33 16 July 04 NewScientist.com news service The possibility of developing truly intelligent machines, and their potential to be friend or foe to humanity, gets the Hollywood treatment in a new blockbuster film I, Robot, which opens in the US on Friday. In the movie, robots wrestle with human-like emotions (image: 20th Century Fox) At the heart of the movie are Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics", invented as a simple, but immutable moral code for robots [See below]. The film's plot revolves around an apparent breaking of the laws, when a robot...

Isaac Asimov was the steak-and-buffet restaurant of American authors: What he lacked in quality, he made up for in volume. If you didn't like what he was serving, you could wait a few minutes for him to bring out something else. By the time he died in 1992, at the age of 72, Asimov had published more than 470 books, ranging from science-fiction classics to annotated guides of great literature to limerick collections to The Sensuous Dirty Old Man, a defense and celebration of lechery. "His first 100 books took him 237 months, or almost 20 years, until October 1969,...

Electronic skin could give machines a sophisticated sense of touch. A flexible friend: rubber polymers form the basis of an electronic skin.© Takao Someya Group Robots are about to get more feeling. An electronic skin as sensitive to touch as our own is being developed by scientists in Japan."Recognition of tactile information will be very important for future generations of robots," says Takao Someya at the University of Tokyo who developed the skin. A sense of touch would help them to identify objects, carry out delicate tasks and avoid collisions. But while a lot of effort has gone into vision...

Robots are about to get more feeling. An electronic skin as sensitive to touch as our own is being developed by scientists in Japan. "Recognition of tactile information will be very important for future generations of robots," says Takao Someya at the University of Tokyo who developed the skin. A sense of touch would help them to identify objects, carry out delicate tasks and avoid collisions. But while a lot of effort has gone into vision and voice recognition for robots, touch sensitivity is still fairly rudimentary. Our own skin contains a battery of touch receptors that produce nerve signals...

Carnegie Mellon University robotics researchers, in conjunction with the US Marine Corps' Warfighting Laboratory, have developed a small, throwable, remote-controlled prototype robot designed for surveillance in urban settings. Several of the robots are being sent to Iraq for testing. The robot, known as Dragon Runner, has the ability to see around corners and deliver information to Marines while keeping them out of danger in urban settings where human access is impractical, dangerous or unsustainable. The Dragon Runner project is managed and funded by the Warfighting Laboratory, Quantico, Virginia, which is part of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command. The system...

Metal Storm just released video on an anti-IED 40mm grenade delivery system. They arm a small UAV rotorcraft. The craft can be used for convoy escort, taking out IED's or assaulting small groups of foes. They even have a pic of an 8 barrel mounted system capable of delivering 32 40mm grenades. Video links: http://www.metalstorm.com/04_video_latest.html Press release Test Firings Lay Groundwork for Airborne Weapon System Thursday May 20, 9:48 am ET ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2004--Metal Storm Limited (NASDAQ:MTSX and ASX:MST) International ballistics company Metal Storm Limited has completed test firings of its electronic ballistics weapon system from an Unmanned...