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John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design I'll come right out and say it: Star Wars has a badly-designed universe; so poorly-designed, in fact, that one can say that a significant goal of all those Star Wars novels is to rationalize and mitigate the bad design choices of the movies. Need examples? Here's ten. R2-D2 Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design are obvious the first time he approaches anything but the shallowest of stairs. Also: He has jets, a periscope, a taser and oil canisters to make enforcer droids fall about in...

With the development of killer drones, it seems like everyone is worrying about killer robots. Now, as if that wasn't bad enough, we need to start worrying about lying, cheating robots as well. In an experiment run at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, France, robots that were designed to cooperate in searching out a beneficial resource and avoiding a poisonous one learned to lie to each other in an attempt to hoard the resource. Picture a robo-Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

A Swedish company has been fined 25,000 kronor ($3,000) after a malfunctioning robot attacked and almost killed one of its workers at a factory north of Stockholm. Public prosecutor Leif Johansson mulled pressing charges against the firm but eventually opted to settle for a fine. "I've never heard of a robot attacking somebody like this," he told news agency TT. The incident took place in June 2007 at a factory in Bålsta, north of Stockholm, when the industrial worker was trying to carry out maintenance on a defective machine generally used to lift heavy rocks. Thinking he had cut off...

Robots are the most efficient workers in the world. Moreover, they do not complain about hours worked, ask for raises, or seek collective bargaining agreements. Nonetheless, In Japan, Machines for Work and Play Are Idle . Japan’s legions of robots, the world’s largest fleet of mechanized workers, are being idled as the country suffers its deepest recession in more than a generation as consumers worldwide cut spending on cars and gadgets. At a large Yaskawa Electric factory on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, where robots once churned out more robots, a lone robotic worker with steely arms twisted and...

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command. Toyota's system, developed in a collaboration with researchers in Japan, is among the fastest in the world in analyzing brain waves, it said in a release Monday. Past systems required several seconds to read brain waves, but the new technology requires only 125 milliseconds — or 125 thousandths of a second.

]-->Staff Sgt. Joseph Ray (center) watches as Iraqi National Police officers operate the Talon robot during training at the 225th Engineer Brigade's Task Force Iron Claw Academy on Camp Liberty, June 24. Photo by Lt. Col. Pat Simon, 225th Engineer Brigade. BAGHDAD — Playing with video game remote controls that power motorized robots may seem like a fun way to start the day. For ten Iraqi National Police (NP) officers, this arcade experience is a critical part of training at a new engineer training academy here on Camp Liberty. Members of the Iraqi 1st Mechanized Brigade, 2nd NP, wrapped up...

In a development that realizes a scenario out of a science fiction movie, scientists have developed technology enabling a robot to be controlled by thought power. A user wears a helmet that detects changes in blood flow and brain waves in different parts of his or her brain and converts them into radio signals that are transmitted to the bipedal humanoid robot, operating its limbs and making it speak.

Telegraph: She can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks and make facial expressions – including anger – thanks to 18 motors hidden behind her latex face.

"Action packed! These little robots have some fast moves, battling it out for fame and glory. Funny stuff." I can't figure out if this is the coolest robot duel ever -or just a group of drunken unemployed Japanese techies having a good time? Enjoy!

From the Times of London: "Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands. The stark warning — which includes discussion of a "Terminator"-style scenario in which robots turn on their human masters — is part of a hefty report funded by and prepared for the U.S. Navy's high-tech and secretive Office of Naval Research. The report, the first serious work of its kind on military robot ethics, envisages a fast-approaching era where robots are smart enough to make battlefield decisions...

It’s all very Back To The Future-y, but engine maker Cyclone Power and Robotic Technologies have teamed up to build a robot called EATR, which stands for Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot. When they say “energetically autonomous,” it means that EATR will be able to locate and process available biomass (plants, animals, people) into energy using its own onboard bioreactor.

In less than a years time you will be able to have one of these amazing mowers on your golf course. This ground breaking technology four years in the making, will no doubt create a stir when they are unleashed at the Golf Industry Show in New Orleans this February. Before that happens Pitchcare Oceania gets the inside scoop with Precise Path's Brian Wheat, VP sales and marketing. Precise Path recise PThe Precise Path RG3ath designed the RG3 with input from experts and superintendents in the golf course and turf industry, including Dan Gamble, an inventor, former superintendent and turf...

ROBOTS will be armies of the future in a case of science fact catching up to fiction, a researcher said today. Peter Singer, who has authored books on the military, warned that while using robots for battle saves the lives of military personnel, the move has the potential to exacerbate warfare by having heartless machines do the dirty work. "We are at a point of revolution in war, like the invention of the atomic bomb," Mr Singer said. "What does it mean to go to war with US soldiers whose hardware is made in China and whose software is made...

Carrying heavy combat loads is taking a quiet but serious toll on troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, contributing to injuries that are sidelining them in growing numbers, according to senior military and defense officials. Rising concern over the muscle and bone injuries -- as well as the hindrance caused by the cumbersome gear as troops maneuver in Afghanistan's mountains -- prompted Army and Marine Corps leaders and commanders to launch initiatives last month that will introduce lighter equipment for some U.S. troops. As the military prepares to significantly increase the number of troops in Afghanistan -- including sending as...

MIT sending smart robots into war zones to save lives By Sharon Gaudin , Computerworld , 01/14/2009 Researchers at the Massachsetts institute of Technology are testing a robotic forklift prototype they hope can one day unload and move military supplies in a war zone keeping soldiers out of harm's way. MIT scientists used robotics and artificial intelligence technology to create a prototype of what they're calling a semi-autonomous forklift. The machine, which can lift and move pallets loaded with tires, water containers or construction supplies, uses situational awareness software. That technology enables the forklift to use sensing, inference and memory...

An Iraqi Army engineer navigates a Talon robot through a makeshift improvised explosive device training course at Combat Outpost Al Kindi, Mosul, Iraq, Dec. 30, 2008. Photo by Pfc. Adam Blazak, 11th Public Affairs Detachment. MOSUL — Various explosives are used by the enemy to disrupt or destroy the significant security gains made here by Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces. Coming across an IED isn’t a rarity here, and defeating these weapons is no easy task.  However, significant strides are being made.Simply put, “It’s intense every time,” said Loveland, Colo. native, Staff Sgt. Jeron Pilger, training cadre, 59th Mobility Augmentation...

Top robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey, of the University of Sheffield, has called for international guidelines to be set for the ethical and safe application of robots before it is too late. Professor Sharkey, writing in the prestigious Science journal, believes that as the use of robots increases, decisions about their application will be left to the military, industry and busy parents instead of international legislative bodies.

Gothenburg - Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia (iRobis) has announced that the world’s first “complete cognitive software system for robotics” is ready for application. The system turns robots into self-developing, adaptive, problem-solving, “thinking” machines. http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/05/16/robobusiness-robots-with-imagination/ Brainstorm automatically adapts to onboard sensors and actuators, immediately builds a model of any robot on which it is installed, and automatically writes control programs for the robot’s movements. It can then explore and model its environment. Through simulated interaction using these models, it solves problems and develops new behavior using “imagination.” Once it has “learned” to do something, it can use its imagination...

JERUSALEM - Israeli defense officials say the military has deployed remote-control machine guns along its border with the Gaza Strip. The system allows female soldiers watching television screens in control rooms in the rear to spot targets and open fire. In the past, lookouts had to call in ground forces to intercept militants.

A new robot developed by the University of Tokyo and Toyota Motor Corp., able to collect the washing and move furniture for cleaning, is being touted as the first step towards a robotic domestic helper. Robots have traditionally been bad at handling anything other than solid objects, but the robot named, "AR," is able to recognize clothes by their creases and actually pick them up, repeating the action should it drop them.