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Japanese beer maker Asahi plans to give away 5000 personal bartending bots, each of which can store up to six cans of beer in a refrigerated compartment within its belly. At the push of a button the simple robots will open a can and pour the chilled contents into a glass for a thirsty owner.To win one of the beer-bots, in a promotion for the company's new low malt beer, contestants must collect 36 tokens found on the specially marked beers. But the competition, starting in February, is only open to those in Japan.Some robotics experts see the promotion as...

WARPLANES: Pilots Surrender to UAVs January 17, 2006: The U.S. Department of Defense has decided to make the next generation heavy bomber an unmanned aircraft. The Department of Defense also wants the new aircraft in service by the end of the next decade, some twenty years ahead of schedule. At the same time, the current combat UAV program (J-UCAS, run by the air force and navy) is to be changed as well. The current X45 project will be split up, with the air force and navy allowed to develop a shorter range combat aircraft to suit their particular needs. These...

HER name is MARIE, and her impressive set of skills comes in handy in a nursing home. MARIE can walk around under her own power. She can distinguish among similar-looking objects, such as different bottles of medicine, and has a delicate enough touch to work with frail patients. MARIE can interpret a range of facial expressions and gestures, and respond in ways that suggest compassion. Although her language skills are not ideal, she can recognise speech and respond clearly. Above all, she is inexpensive . Unfortunately for MARIE, however, she has one glaring trait that makes it hard for Japanese...

Pearl the personal-assistant robot walks, talks and even blinks her eyes. She has ears, eyebrows and even lips of a kind on her mobile "face." To an infirm person living alone, this high-tech metal device that can dispense advice and even guide movements around the house is a substitute for an increasingly rare -- and expensive -- flesh-and-bones home health care worker. By providing visual and auditory reminders on when to take medicine or even go to the bathroom, Pearl can help a fragile senior maintain his or her independence outside an assisted living facility. The robot has a laser...

TOKYO, Japan, December 13, 2005– Honda Motor Co., Ltd. debuted a new ASIMO humanoid robot which features the ability to pursue key tasks in a real-life environment such as an office and an advanced level of physical capabilities. Compared to the previous model, the new ASIMO achieves the enhanced ability to act in sync with people – for example, walking with a person while holding hands. A new function to carry objects using a cart was also added. Further, the development of a “total control system” enables ASIMO to automatically perform the tasks of a receptionist or information guide...

“War of the Worlds”Aladdin Radio Theater of the AirCBS, Sunday October 30, 1938Radioplay First Draft ANNOUNCERThe Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Aladdin Theatre on the Air in "The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells. Brought to you Aladdin long-leaf Persian cigarettes, for that rich long-lasting poppy flavor of the Casbah. (MUSIC: ALADDIN THEATRE MUSICAL THEME, "THE SNAKE CHARMER") ANNOUNCERLadies and gentlemen, the director of the Aladdin Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles. ORSON WELLESWe know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was...

roundupDriverless cars made history in the Mojave Desert on Saturday by crossing the finish line of an almost 132-mile race sponsored the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research and development unit of the U.S. Department of Defense. Stanford wins $2 million in robotic car race The team's robotic car "Stanley" drove autonomously across 131.6 miles in the Mojave Desert in six hours and 53 minutes. October 9, 2005 Photos: Robotic racers Images of contestants and winners at the 132-mile race across the desert sands--sans drivers. October 9, 2005 Driverless robots reach milestone in DARPA race Stanford University makes robotics...

PRIMM, Nev., Oct. 8 - Fifteen robotic vehicles sprinted through the Nevada desert Saturday afternoon, closing in on a $2 million prize from the Pentagon meant to spur development of technologies for 21st century automated warfare. The vehicles were the survivors from an original starting field of 23 teams fielded by alliances of computer, automotive and aerospace companies, university researchers and others. The competition, called the Grand Challenge, was organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, and was designed to tap into the talents of a wide range of researchers and innovators who might not otherwise be...

European Union (EU) member states are losing out to the Japanese when it comes to developing useful robots that are commercially available. The European Commission (EC) urged businesses to turn their robotics research into viable products much more quickly than they do now. The EU spends about 50 million euros (£34.4 million) a year on research projects which produce prototypes. But these tend not to make it to market as products until 10 to 15 years later. Ulf Dahlsten, the EU's emerging technologies director in Brussels, said this meant EU businesses lagged behind Japan in terms of pushing robots into...

Inspired by biological systems, scientists have developed miniature robots that can self-assemble using parts that float randomly in their environments. The robots also know when something is amiss and can correct their own mistakes. Scientists have long been fascinated by how living cells are able to replicate DNA using building blocks floating randomly inside the cell’s nucleus. The interior of the nucleus is filled with a gel-like liquid known as nucleoplasm. The DNA building blocks, known as nucleotides, float around in this liquid like ingredients in a molecular soup. Also present in the nucleoplasm are proteins known as polymerases, which...

PENN UNVEILS PLAN FOR GIANT JAPANESE MECHA-CUPMAN Decrying the federal government's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster as "an utter disgrace," actor-activist Sean Penn today unveiled his design for a gigantic man-controlled robot suit that, if successful, could bail out the waterlogged city of New Orleans "within a matter of hours." Penn said he struck upon the idea during a recent independent rescue operation, and quickly sketched out a design on the back of a film script he had been reading. Code named "Iyamasama," Penn's 900-foot tall mecha design features a 250,000 gallon red plastic kegger cup potentially capable of...

Berlin: German police, investigating a suspected apartment burglary,found broken window blinds, torn-down drapes, and badly trashed furniture. A broken aquarium, and a trail of fish remains led to apprehension of the perpetrator : a large, heavyweight male cat – which surrendered only after a bitter struggle, in which he bit one officer on the thumb. The cat was wearing a collar and identifying tag , so it was not difficult to reunite the surly animal with its owner – who ,we are told , was less ecstatic about the reunion after learning she would be held responsible for all the...

....Designers of the high-tech vehicle hope it will just as nimbly maneuver around battlefields of the future, detecting and avoiding obstacles and relaying information to soldiers a safe distance away. It and several other robotic vehicles were put through their paces yesterday at the Westminster facility of General Dynamics Robotic Systems, which has obtained a $230 million contract to develop the technology for the Pentagon. ...This new technology allows a soldier to pay attention to the immediate surroundings for his own survival and not spend a lot of time guiding a robot." ........"We have to go low-tech as well as...

Think of it as the Mars Rover but at the bottom of the ocean, remotely exploring our own planet's most alien landscape for scientists back at mission control. "This is how the science is going to be done," said Deborah Kelley, a University of Washington oceanographer. In 2000, Kelley led an expedition using a manned submersible to explore the deep Atlantic Ocean. Her team stumbled upon something never seen before. The researchers discovered a startlingly massive collection of limestone towers located miles away from the tectonic "spreading" cracks in the seafloor that typically produce such structures. Some of these hydrothermal...

Imagine a future in which terrorists seize an embassy and police can send in a remote-controlled insect outfitted with a microscopic video camera that reveals where the gunmen are hiding and what kind of weapons they hold. Or a time when adventure travelers fly to the moon to spend a week at a space colony under the glittering lunar skies--in the way they now visit Antarctica or the North Slope of Alaska. Or a U.S. constitutional convention where delegates draft a new governing document that allows the rest of the world a say in American decision-making. Sound far-fetched? Over 1,000...

This is the fourth installment in my Developing "The Disaster Master Mind©" series. I’m praying that you are well on your way to a completely screwed up life after just reading and obeying the first three of the 10 habits of the Decidedly Defective People©. If success is still looking like it might attach itself to you, do not despair, stay the course and chaos can be yours, too. Be patient, as fiascos take time and demand dedication in order to set in motion the forces for failure; therefore, be vigilant and the repugnant life will be yours before you...

Of the millions of gamblers who have rushed to play Texas Hold 'Em and other fast-growing poker games online, Roger Gabriel isn't the most intimidating. The 30-year-old Newport Beach engineer started playing for money only a month ago. He lurks online at the tables for the chicken-hearted; even there, where the biggest ante is 4 cents, he can't win consistently. But Gabriel has a potentially powerful alter ego. In his spare time, he's perfecting a computer program to go online and play the game for him. His BlackShark software is still a work in progress, but Gabriel has no doubt...

TINY robots that can turn into any shape - from a replica human to a banana to a mobile phone - are being developed by scientists in the United States. The new science of claytronics, which will use nanotechnology to create tiny robots called catoms, should enable three-dimensional copies of people to be "faxed" around the world for virtual meetings. A doctor could also consult with a patient over the phone, even taking their pulse by holding the wrist of the claytronic replica, reports New Scientist. And the nano "clay" could be carried around, shape-shifting into virtually anything when required....

One measure of how effective battlefield robots have become, says a top Pentagon robotics official, is that the enemy has begun to target them. "The enemy realizes that if they take out [the robot], they can really hurt our capabilities," said Cliff Hudson, who directs the Joint Robotics Program for the Department of Defense.

PASADENA, Calif. - The Mars rover Opportunity has freed itself after nearly five weeks of being mired in a sandy dune, NASA confirmed Saturday. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission, cheered when images beamed back to Earth Saturday morning showed the wheels of the robotic explorer were free, project manager Jim Erickson said. Some engineers planned to celebrate with a barbecue. "I do plan on bringing a few bottles of champagne," Erickson said. "We've got a working rover on Mars that cost $400 million to build and ... keep working," he added. "I'd like to wear...