Nov
26
South Korea has developed robot prison wardens. And they’re actually kinda cute. BBC Reports: The three 5ft-high (1.5m) robots involved in the prison trial have been developed by the Asian Forum for Corrections, a South Korean group of researchers who specialise in criminality and prison policies. It said the robots move on four wheels and …
Sep
20
A language evolving robot called a Lingodroid has been invented in Australia. These Lingodroids can invent words when they need one then share that word with other robots. Below, two Lingdroids meet in a new location. One names it “Pize” and informs the other robot. The other robot thinks the name is nice. That’s good …
Sep
06
The Office of Naval Research has given a team from Northeastern University $600,000 to develop micro-robots to find underwater mines. Professor Joesph Ayers directs the program. Over the last seven years, the synthetic biologist has become famous for designing the RoboLobster and RoboLamprey — autonomous underwater robots that mimic the neurophysiology and behavior of their …
Aug
02
Giardia lamblia, the microscopic intestinal parasite that causes beaver fever, may inspire the next generation of swimming robots. In a peer-reviewed paper released Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Zhang and Scott Lenaghan, Corinne Davis, William Henson and Zhili Zhang outline how they used high-speed microscopic imaging to study the …
Jul
31
The Keio-NUS CUTE Center ( a collaborative lab between National University of Singapore (NUS) and Keio University of Japan) has proposed research into the field of Lovotics. The goal is to create robots that can love and be loved by humans. Their research will be based on three modules. Artificial Endocrine System (based on physiology of …
Jul
15
Robots For Humanity has helped Henry Evans to scratch an itch and shave himself. Neither of these are mundane tasks for Mr. Evans, who was, at age forty, paralyzed and struck mute by a brain stem stroke. He has since regained some movement of a finger and his head. This is enough to control PR2. …
Jul
03
Jun
27
pic nicked from here Recent work by a research group from Delft University of Technology, Delft, and Philips Research, Eindhoven, in The Netherlands, examines the personality that people desire from their robotic vacuum. Robot Vacuum Cleaner Personality and Behavior published in the International Journal of Social Robotics,Volume 3,notes that: People tend to behave towards artifacts in a social way, …
May
15
pic nicked from here Recent experiments by The Web Ecology Project have discovered that robots are better at using twitter than humans. That is, they have more interactions and longer conversations. The winning “socialbot,” JamesMTitus, kept interchanges going for a record of 12 consecutive tweets and garnered close to 200 overall responses from targeted Twitter …
Apr
11
The Boy Scouts of America have added a merit badge for robotics. BSA Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca says: “While the guiding principles of scouting–service to others, leadership, personal achievement, and respect for the outdoors–will never change, we continue to adapt programs to prepare young people for success in all areas of life.” I’ve always …
Nov
22
By experimenting with robots and children scientists have made a surprising discovery: Working with a group of 18-month-old toddlers and a metallic robot, a team of scientists from the University of Washington (UW) recently determined that it is not only what something looks like, but how it moves and interacts with others that give even inanimate objects …
Nov
13
No matter where you are, you can now play with a kitten in Boise. The Idaho Humane Society has set up robot cat toys, which you can access over their website. This tech certainly illustrates a certain aspect of the modern world. Cats are a pretty common animal and it’s not very hard to find and …
Oct
18
Borut Povše, a robot researcher in Slovenia has received ethical clearance (in Slovenia) to test human-robot pain thresholds by making robots hit his colleagues in the arm with blunt and sharp tools. Borut Povše might be the worst co-worker in the world. This is even worse than his previous project to test human-boot pain thresholds by kicking his colleagues …
Oct
18
I dislike installation art almost as much as I dislike artists. I do, however, make exceptions for things involving robots. Then I tell myself it’s not an installation at all but a future zoo exhibit that has been somehow dislocated in time. Neil Mendoza and Anthony Goh have made this easy for me by collaborating to …
Aug
30
So humans can invent a fleet of autonomous solar-powered, sea-swarm robots made “with ultra-light nanowire mesh that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil” and use these to clean up an oil spill in 30 days but we can’t figure out a way to actually use solar power to meet our energy …
Aug
30
There’s a new PR video for the Geminoid F robot that was released in April . Built by the famous Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University, this robot is a cheaper version of previous fembots. It costs $110,000 and, while it purports be an exact replica of this woman, it cannot walk. I, for one, wonder …
Jun
10
Zurich researchers have created hexagonal robots that can dock together on ground and and fly in a connected swarm. The Distributed Flight Array Robots (PDF) use magnets to dock and propellers to fly. Their altitude is controlled by having a human in bright yellow gloves catch them when they go too high. When moving, they …
Jun
07
Since the ocean will be completely made of oil sometime in the next couple of weeks, it’s a good thing that we’ve rendered fish obsolete. Researchers have developed a robot fish to direct their primitive, meat counterparts. “The new robot fish will be able to help steer schools of fish away from hydroelectric turbines, oil …
May
23
For $15,000 your office can buy a robot that any employee can then log into and manoeuvre. It can attend meetings for you while you sit at home, surfing porn and tweeting in your cheesie stained underwear. You look through its eyes and it displays a live webcam of your face. Not a bad idea. …
May
09
German scientists have discovered that household robots with knives are more dangerous than robots without them. Not so surprising, Everything is more dangerous with a knife attached. Like, a shark is dangerous but a shark covered in knives? That’s crazy dangerous. Even non-dangerous things, like Teddy Bears, become more dangerous when knives are attached. The …
Apr
30
pc nicked from here By 2015, Japanese business group SOHLA, hopes to put a humanoid robot on the moon. They plan to use a bipedal robot but it’ll be pretty tough. Even on Earth, bipedal robots are clumsy. So why go to the trouble? SOHLA board member Noriyuki Yoshida explains: “Humanoid robots are glamorous, and …
Apr
07
KRAFTS BY CHRISTOPHER GOLEBIOWSKI on yay!everyday.
Feb
18
The Russians want to build a gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea. There’s just one little problem: There’s still over 150,000 unexploded WW2 bombs in that sea. Enter the robots. pic nicked from here Bactec Int. has been contracted to clear the Baltic Sea of the 70 mines that block the pipeline. “When the robot …
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
