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LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - A couple who work in the University of Wyoming's Computer Science Department have received a $100,000 National Science Foundation grant to further develop tiny robots that could help clean up oil spills or respond to a terrorist attack. The robots would zero in on the source of chemical or biological hazards. "Somebody from the National Science Foundation came out here and said we had the best robotics work he'd ever seen," Diana Spears said. Spears and her husband, William, envision robots that would communicate with one another, relaying information back to humans or to a larger...

April 28, 2005 -- A Queens 3-year-old triggered a massive boyhunt yesterday after he wandered out of his house, walked to a busy thoroughfare, paid for a ride on a city bus that took him 31/2 miles to a multiplex. and sneaked into a screening of the hit flick "Robots." "He's pretty smart," said his stepbrother, Kareem Williams, 16. The nearly 4-year-old boy, Clarence Ricky Davis, Jr., dressed himself and left his home on Pineville Lane in Springfield Gardens at around noon.

TOKYO (AP)-A small walking man-shaped robot for home security and entertainment is going on sale in Japan for 588,000 yen ($5,450).The 15-inch tall, 5.5 pound robot called nuvo from ZMP Inc. also comes in a fancier $8,200 version with the same functions and a design inspired by lacquer-ware painted on its body.The robot can walk, get up and respond to voice commands such as "turn right." It links to mobile phones so that people can check on images of their homes taken on a digital camera inside the robot's head. It can be controlled by a remote and is programmed...

If you want to see a vivid picture of what happens in a post-Terri world go see "Robots". In the movie all the robots with "failing parts" are deemed "useless" and get scooped up against their will and are incinerated to make "new" parts for those willing to pay. In other words, those willing to pay for new parts get to live. The main character obviously sees the evil being done and fights the system. What a day to watch that movie! I drove home so angry that our government has granted itself the power to keep food and water...

The walking forest machine is Plustech's best-known innovation. The goal of product development was to create a machine that has the best possible working stability and minimum impact on the terrain. The walking machine adapts automatically to the forest floor. Moving on six articulated legs, the harvester advances forward and backward, sideways and diagonally. It can also turn in place and step over obstacles. Depending on the irregularity of the terrain, the operator can adjust both the ground clearance of the machine and heigh of each step. The machine's nerve center is an intelligent computer system that controls all walking...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Pal and Chum look a little bit like first-graders on wheels, chatting up a storm and racing around the room. For Hitachi Ltd., Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate, they are the next generation of humanoid robots. Hitachi unveiled the "Emiew," its first humanoid robot, on Tuesday, saying it was the world's quickest-moving robot yet. "We aimed to create a robot that could live and coexist with people," Toshihiko Horiuchi, project leader at Hitachi's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory Robotics Technology Project, told a news conference. "We want to make the robots useful for people ... If the robots moved...

Mar. 2, 2005 - The teddy bear sitting in the corner of the child's room might look normal, until his head starts following the kid around using a face recognition program, perhaps also allowing a parent talk to the child through a special phone, or monitor the child via a camera and wireless Internet connection. The plush prototype, on display at Microsoft Corp.'s annual gadget showcase Wednesday, is one of several ideas researchers have for robots. The idea is to create a virtual being that can visit the neighboring cubicle for a live telephone chat even as its owner is...

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...