Robotics >>

Nereus submarine was lost on May 10 while diving in the Kermadec Trench, northeast of New Zealand, as a result of “tremendous water pressure.” ...

The United States military will award $7.5 million in grant money over five years to university researchers to explore how to build a sense of moral consequence into autonomous robotic systems. ...

Google takes reporters inside its self-driving cars for 30-minute rides around Mountain View, Calif. And the reviews are in. ...

RobotShop is pleased to announce the merge of the Lynxmotion and RobotShop forums. This merge will bring together two popular communities to discuss anything and everything related to robotics. Back in September 2012, RobotShop acquired Lynxmotion, and with it, the popular forum Lynxmotion forum (www.Lynxmotion.net). The Lynxmotion forum not only included discussions about Lynxmotion products [...]...

Mobile phone data has been used in a study in Namibia to help combat malaria more effectively. The study used anonymized mobile records to measure population movements within Namibia in Africa over the period of a year (2010-11). By combining this data with information about diagnosed cases of malaria, topography and climate, the researchers have been able to identify geographical 'hotspots' of the...

Before a signal even reaches your brain, your fingers can adjust the tension required to lift an object with their tendons. It's a mechanism (fingers) acting as a mind -- a phenomenon called morphological computation that scientists are exploring with tensegrity robots. ...

Robotic pollination is at least 20 years into the future, but micro-drones are being developed and may have many practical uses. ...

With its palm open, the robot is completely motionless. A split second later, it suddenly unwinds and catches all sorts of flying objects thrown in its direction -- a tennis racket, a ball, a bottle. This arm measures about 1.5 meters long and keeps an upright position. It has three joints and a sophisticated hand with four fingers. It is unique, as it has the ability to catch projectiles of various...

Researchers are teaming with the U.S. Navy to explore technology that would pave the way for developing robots capable of making moral decisions. Scientists will explore the challenges of infusing autonomous robots with a sense for right, wrong, and the consequences of both. ...

Researchers have developed an optimizing model of routing protocol of mobile ad hoc network in emergencies and rescues. The proposed solution is based on the improvement of a clustering algorithm and on the creation of a new routing protocol that allows users to easily find an evacuation area in case of emergency. ...

Thirteen-year-old Sydney Kendall had one request for the university students building her a robotic prosthetic arm: Make it pink. The students studying biomedical engineering then accomplished that and more. Using a 3-D printer, they created a robotic prosthetic arm out of bright-pink plastic. Total cost: $200, a fraction of the price of standard prosthetics, which start at $6,000. ...

Morpheus Bravo is an autonomous take-off and landing spacecraft NASA is using to test a variety of lander technologies. ...

Engineers at the University of Washington developing robots that can interact more seamlessly with human operators. ...

Donning an exoskeleton, a robotics expert will control a robot 248 miles away using hand and arm movements. ...

Sanaria is working with Harvard’s Biorobotics Lab to automate a vaccine that proved 100 percent protective against malaria. ...

Volvo’s Drive Me project is underway testing self-driving cars in Sweden that can now handle lane following, speed adaption and merging traffic. ...

Maxon has released the MAXPOS 50/5, a positioning controller for highly dynamic applications and receives motion and I/O commands from an EtherCAT-Master. ...

The Hokuyo scanning sensors are great 2D obstacle scanners. They can be used in fixed locations to detect if an object enters its scan area, and can be used on mobile platforms that need to do obstacle detection and avoidance as they move. There are two categories of sensors: outdoor sensors that have ranges up [...] ...

Our life expectancy lengthens and members of the ‘silver generation’ make up an ever-larger proportion of the population. Can technologies help us in caring for ourselves, our older relatives and friends? Could we learn to live together with robots while being watched over by sensors? Some people certainly think so. ...

In episode #155, Ron Vanderkley speaks with Professor Peter Corke from Queensland University of Technology, about the fast-tracking research that will see robots planting, weeding, maintaining and harvesting crops. The AgBot is a light-weight, golf buggy-sized robot that has been specifically designed to reduce the environmental impact of weeding. It can navigate wheat farms of around 4000 hectares...