Robots

Leave it to Harvard to replace spies with flies.

According to the MIT Technology Review, robotic insects may be the future of military surveillance.

With funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a team of Harvard researchers led by Robert Wood have developed a robotic fly that could be used for surveillance and chemical-detecting missions.

Videos of the fly taking off and a slow-motion clip of the wing mechanics are available on the Technology Review site.

With a wingspan of 3 centimeters and a scant weight of just 60 milligrams, the fly's tiny robotic parts are … Read more

Here's the perfect answer to your prankster friend and his RC tarantula or that irritating co-worker who won't stop playing with the toy bug bot or "Solar Cricket" on his desk.

Relish the look on their loaf-of-bread faces when you summon all 44 pounds of the "Halluc II" beast-roach. Developed by Japanese scientists, this 32-inch, eight-legged robotic bug runs on Linux software and an 800MHz AMD processor, technology that Engadget says allows it to "walk or roll via a simple rotation of its jointed appendages." What's unclear to us is why … Read more

It's good to see that the Japanese haven't forgotten about cultural entertainment in their apparent quest for a human-free society. At least their robots haven't, anyway.

The recently unveiled "Motoman" was initially assigned to such mundane tasks as sorting mail, for example, but it's already showing that it's got rhythm too. Four of them, to be exact--two twin-armed models and two welding versions.

The robots displayed their prowess on the taiko drums at the Kokura Gion Daiko Festival, an event that Pink Tentacle says is almost 400 years old and is known for … Read more

As we've been warning for ages, we knew it would happen eventually--we just didn't know exactly how. But now the diabolical plan for world domination by the dreaded Hello Kitty is becoming frighteningly clear, and it makes perfect sense: as part of the robotic trend toward a human-free society in Japan, the homeland of creator Sanrio.

Yes, we're talking about the "Hello Kitty Robot." The 20.5-inch tall, 13.7-pound cat-bot, which is equipped with face and voice recognition, can move its head and appendages while "chatting with you in three different situations: 1. … Read more

Having had some fairly infuriating experiences with graffiti as property owners, we view the work of outfits like the Institute for Applied Autonomy with mixed feelings, to say the least. Its stated mission, after all, is "to study the forces and structures which affect self-determination and to provide technologies which extend the autonomy of human activists." Translation: They make stuff like graffiti robots.

Still, from a pure gadget-loving point of view, we can't help but admire their unabashed guerrilla-like audacity. Take, for example, the "StreetWriter" project, which is essentially a van that's been converted … Read more

We may not be advocates of Japan's future human-free society, but we do think there's at least some hope: A few of the country's robots are actually providing some useful functions like doing the dishes, not just handing out Kleenex or presiding over weddings (perhaps both, at some auto-nuptials).

The latest practically minded bot comes from Mitsui and Yaskawa Electric, which have partnered with the Hokusho packaging systems company to develop a mechanical worker that can sort parcels, clothing and other relatively small objects. The "Motoman-DIA10," according to Pink Tentacle, has "a pair of … Read more

Collegiate teams from around the country--and a few from abroad--are arriving in San Diego for a competition to see who has the best robotic sub.

Wednesday is the check-in and orientation day for teams entered in the 10th annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, put on by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research. Then come several days of in-water practice and qualifying runs, with the finals scheduled for Sunday.

The gist of the challenge is this: the robot vessels have to navigate their way across a large pool following a set course. They must … Read more

Imagine you're a huge automobile manufacturing company. (Imagine harder! You're a complex of buildings, factories, offices and... Oh, never mind. Bad metaphor.)

OK, specifically: Imagine you're a marketing exec at GM. Now imagine the ginormous year-end bonus you're going to get as a result of your collaboration with Paramount Pictures and toy-maker Hasbro on this summer's Transformers movie. Are you imagining swimming in cash? Good job.

All of the Autobots--the "good guy" Transformers battling to keep humans safe from the "bad guy" Decepticons--are robots that turn into vehicles manufactured by General … Read more

RoboCup 2007, the international robot soccer, rescue and home chore competition, concluded Sunday night with an awards ceremony, but some are still wondering who won.

The organization used Wikipedia as a central location from which to post results for its different events, but the information from many links remained incomplete as of Monday afternoon. It's left some followers of the event flummoxed.

About 300 teams, comprising 1,700 people from 37 countries, participated in RoboCup 2007, which was held this year at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

The event to promote artificial intelligence and robotics included soccer … Read more