Robotics

A robotic truck, Prius, and family sedan will be among the 11 autonomous vehicles trying to pass their driving test this weekend in Victorville, Calif.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said Thursday that it has selected the finalists for its Urban Grand Challenge, a robotic race at the former George Air Force Base with $3.5 million in total prize money. The 11 teams, whittled down from 35 semifinalists in qualifying rounds this week, will compete Saturday. They must drive a 60-mile urban course with live traffic in less than six hours.

Among those in the race are: … Read more

A couple of years ago, I announced to my wife that I wanted to buy a robot dog. She thought I was nuts and threw a fit. "We already have a whole family of animals," she said, "and what about all those homeless dogs and cats out there?"

I should probably mention that my wife is a veterinary technician. What was I thinking?

I'll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking about watching my real animals react to a robot dog. I was thinking of the entertainment value. I guess I'm still a kid at heart. Maybe I should consider growing up sometime, like before I become senile and incontinent. I'll have to work on that.… Read more

The winner of iRobot's amateur robot-building contest is a multi-functional home robot designed by Danh Trinh of Towson, Md., the company announced Tuesday.

Trinh's winning robot, called simply "Personal Home Robot," is a teleoperational robot controlled from a laptop using Microsoft NetMeeting. It's capable of doing things like watering plants, controlling appliances, giving out reminders, dancing, and acting as a media center.

Trinh won $5,000 for his invention.

Personal Home Robot can suck up water through a straw into an onboard reservoir and then deposit the water at another location, such as a dog … Read more

Robots don't always see eye to eye. Sometimes they don't even use the same techniques for viewing.

Companies are taking different approaches to computer vision systems, one of trickiest problems in robotics, according to a whirlwind round of interviews at the RoboDevelopment Conference taking place in San Jose, Calif. But it's only one of several forks in the road for robot developers. The "humanoid or not" debate continues to rage, and companies still question whether the strongest market for robots will be with consumers or industrial customers.

First, the visual debate. In computer vision systems, … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--I'm down in the Valley on Thursday for the RoboDevelopment conference, and, having been to a few other robotics events, something seems very different.

In the past, I've been to RoboNexus, a show aimed at presenting kids and adults alike with the latest developments in robotics technology. And I've been to RoboGames, a display of pure robot-on-robot battle fury.

And there's no doubt that Robo Development is different. For one, it's smaller. For two, there's no pervasive grinding sound from the gnashing teeth of gears and claws and, well, saw blades … Read more

Finally, a happy convergence of Darwin and intelligent design.

Students at Virginia Tech started building a two-legged robot so they could emulate the way humans walk and then develop prosthetic limbs for patients. But their robot Darwin is skilled enough at walking that it secured a spot to compete in RoboCup, an international robotic soccer competition, according to Virginia Tech.

The team, which is from Virginia Tech's Robotics & Mechanisms Lab (RoMeLa), said Darwin is the first-ever U.S. robot to be accepted in the humanoid division of the competition, to held in China in July. The students will … Read more

Willow Garage, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is developing a hardware and software development platform for personal-assistant robots, autonomous boats and unmanned cars. See photos of Willow Garage and read a CNET News.com story on Willow Garage here.

Congratulations to Honda's Asimo, world champion of Crave's 2007 nonviolent robot tournament. In the final battle of the tournament, the smooth and sophisticated bipedal robot ousted Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data by a 78-22 percentage score.

Oh, and get your Asimo souvenir pennant here.

The total vote count was even more impressive. Asimo boasted 2,873 votes to Data's 861. Either total would have won any other game in the tournament, a testament to the feverish excitement created by the tourney across the world.

The odds-on favorite to win the competition, Asimo beat out 32 … Read more

The company that ate the robot market, iRobot, has just received an order from the U.S. Army for 40 more PackBots, which means that will soon be more than 1,000 of these robots on active duty around the world.

Units ordered include some equipped with the ICx Fido Explosives Detector. Fido allows an operator to detect explosive vapors and particulates from munitions or IEDs from a safe distance using a game-style controller.

The 510 model was also included. It can lift 30 pounds and scoot around at almost 6 mph, climbs stairs, roll over rubble, rocks, mud and … Read more