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How can you make your Roomba or Robosapien smarter? Try this hacker device that connects home electronics with your Android smartphone or laptop.

Brainlink is a controller that links robots and other IR devices to Android phones and laptops via Bluetooth.

The controller attaches to the robot and relays commands through its IR detector. It has a light sensor and accelerometer and ports for other sensors to add capabilities.

Roombas equipped with it could, for instance, avoid hitting walls if a proximity sensor is added. Or you could train Robosapien to find you a beer if you use an object-recognition app. There's a growing library of tools. … Read more

Results of the census, we are told, can influence the allocation of federal funds for education programs, law enforcement, and highways--and apparently tell us how many crazy robots are running loose.

Well, at least the Carnegie Mellon Robot Census 2010 can tell us the last one. So far, it has tallied 547 robots on the CMU campus, including Tank LaFleur the "roboceptionist," Boss, winner of the 2008 DARPA Grand Challenge, and Opto-Isolator, the artbot that watches you with its big roving eye.

It all started when Heather Knight, a first-year Ph.D. student at CMU's Robotics Institute, … Read more

We're betting some of our readers will spend the long weekend communing with nature, where they'll hopefully encounter sunshine, blue skies, and the fresh smell of pine trees--and robotic snakes climbing up trees.

Actually, the last sight is fairly unlikely, unless they're hanging out near Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. The reptile-inspired Snakebot out of the school's Biorobotics Lab can make its way up a tree impressively, as the new CMU video below demonstrates.

We've previously watched the Snakebot wrapping itself around poles and climbing vertically inside pipes. For its latest trick, a red, white (… Read more

Please raise your hand if you've spent a lot of time in a basement environment while attempting to master one computer-related art or another.

I'm referring to any room with a noisy ventilation system, windows that don't open, and dim fluorescents overhead. You know the one. It was either so sweltering that you ended up wearing shorts in January, or kept so cold for the sake of the servers that you wore a scarf and fingerless gloves year-round.

Well, that universal rite of passage for computer lovers seems to be over for Carnegie Mellon University students thanks … Read more

Matthew T. Mason, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, has won an award for his "pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding of the mechanics of robotic manipulation and to graduate education in robotics."

The Robotics and Automation Society, which bestowed Mason with its annual Pioneer Award, is part of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE). So while the monetary prize for the lifetime achievement award is only $2,000, a lot of prestige comes with the plaque he was given over the weekend.

Mason's body of work includes robotic juggling, legless robotic … Read more

Scarab, a robot developed by Carnegie Mellon University with support from NASA, is about to be tested at Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano to prove its fitness for the extreme conditions of space.

The robot was developed by the Lunar Rover Initiative, a group of scientists from the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. The test mission, intended to mimic a lunar rover mission, will have Scarab climb, drill, extract, and analyze samples, CMU announced Tuesday.

The dormant volcano and Hawaii's highest mountain, Mauna Kea is best known for its elite observatory of astronomical telescopes. But on this mission, scientists will be looking within instead of out at the universe.

The 400-kilogram (880-pound) robot has a suspension system that allows it to climb or drive on steep inclines of sand and rock. Scarab's November 1-13 mission will take place about two-thirds of the way up to Mauna Kea's peak at an elevation of 9,000 feet. The robot will take samples from the dormant volcano.

One of Scarab's innovative tools specifically being tested during the November mission is a drill from Norcat (Northern Centre for Advanced Technology) and a chemical analysis device from NASA.… Read more

The 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge represents a new frontier in autonomous vehicle technology. We were live onsite for the final of this year's event, which saw 11 robot cars compete in a six-hour contest in a simulated urban environment, complete with traffic, intersections, and parking lots. The rolling robots varied from a driverless 12-ton Oshkosh truck to an autonomous Toyota Prius. Check out our video diary from this weekend's event.

Excitement is building in the world of car tech as the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge approaches. The event, which is the third and most demanding to date in the DARPA Challenge series, requires driverless vehicles to perform mock military supply missions completely autonomously. Over a 60-mile course, the robotic cars will be required to merge into moving traffic, navigate traffic circles, negotiate busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles. Thirty-five teams will compete in the Grand Challenge semifinals taking place between October 26 and 31, with 20 vehicles going on to compete in the final race on November 3. Check out our … Read more