The US Department of Defense (DoD) has released a report detailing the future of robotic military equipment and how the US military should proceed. The 188 page report (pdf) covers the next 25 years of unmanned military systems in the air, and sea, and on land. “The publication of this mos…
The world for terrorists and evil-doers just keeps getting scaier and scaier. First it was Predator drones with helfire missiles , then it was PackBots that can fire at 1,000,000 rounds/minute (more on this later), and now it's tiny flying vehicles with on-board cameras. Oh, did I mention they're t…
In what was a stunning blow to iRobot and its investors, the US Army rejected the company in a high-stakes big for a large order of bomb-detection and tactical robots (Forbes story here). iRobot, the favorite to win the bidding, offered its PackBot robots as the product of choice to meet the de…
Have you ever wanted to plumb the depths of your neighbors pond or swimming pool looking for lost treasure - cell phones, watches, ... ? Well, thanks to the smart kids over at Carl Hayden High School (also check out their blog) you can now buy a ROV-in-a-Box Project Kit for a mere $250 USD.…
Scientists from the Shiga University of Medical Science and Ritsumeikan University in Japan, have created yet another miniature robot to explore around the inside of your bod y. The robot, which is less than 1" x 0.5" is inserted through an incision and is moved by controlling a magnet…
This is an update to our previous post about this miniscule but amazing 'hand' from UCLA . The hand, which measures 1mm across when closed, is powered by gas pressure, and is hoped to be one day used in micro surgery. Balloons at the finger joints inflate to close the hand.You can also …
The secretive French robotics company, Aldebaran Robotics , has released a sneek-peek of its secretive robotic project, Nao . There a a few videos of the robot partially revealing itself. We get a glimps of it's hand waving, what appears to be its feet, and some facial recognition. The 14 person …
In a not-so-surprising move, iRobot Corp. has announced their new iRobot Create programmable robot. The platform allows you to use the robust Roomba-like chassis to create your own robotic creations. An optional Command Module plugs right into the cargo bay to allow you to program and controll the…
A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has flown its first ever mission over the USA. This past Monday the robot landed at Beale Air Force Base in California, after completing its unstated mission. "This landmark flight has historic implications since it's the first time a Global Hawk has …
This is for all of you out there that read the ballroom dancer-bot story and decided you needed to master walking before dancing. Nomura Unison Co. along with Tohoku Universities' Kazuhiro Kosuge and Yasuhisa Hirata have created a robotic walking assistant that not only senses its user'…
Dr. Josh Bongard, a graduate of Cornell University, and now an assistant professor at University of Vermont, has created a robot that automatically determines and compensates for any damage done to its four legs. The research, which recently appeared in Science Magazine (abstract here) is especial…
White Box Robotics has finally started shipping its first run of PC 914 robots. By now the first run should be completely shipped, sans the attractive outer shell, due to delays in manufacturing. You may also notice that two small vertical parting lines were added to the bottom of the robot to brin…
iRobot issued a press release this morning detailing some of their new products . Of special interest is the new 250lb Warrior robot. Warrior, which is about six times the size of the packbot, can move at over 12mph over rough terrain and can carry a payload of up to 100 lbs. This annoucement coin…
This story lands in today's "very cool, yet very scary" category - South Korea develops a machine-gun equipped robotic sentry. The sentry robot is equipped with two cameras, one for day-time and one for infrared night vision, zooming capabilities, a speaker for notifying the intruder…
Instead of having a robot crawl through your intestines, how about it gliding along on a trail of slippery mucus? A group of researchers from Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, is taking this novel approach to inter-body exploration in order to protect the delicate lining of the in…
First it was Jesse Sullivan, the first man to receive two bionic arms that are controlled via his own brain impulses, now it's Claudia Mitchell, the first woman to receive such an arm. Mitchell is the 4th such person to receive such an arm, which is controlled via nerves which originally went …
