CMU finally revealed Crusher to the public last Friday (yea, I'm behind). The new vehicle, based losely on Spinner, isn't able to invert itself like its younger brother, but is still amazing nonetheless. WTAE.com has some coverage of the launch with video. Notice the unique way that Crusher turns, …
I know this is a little late, but nonetheless very interesting: a robotic birth simulator. Noelle, the simulators name, is a full-sized life-like robot used in birthing training. Gaumard, the company that makes the simulator, sells the whole package for $20,000 USD.She can be programmed for a…
The AP has an interesting piece on Carnegie Mellon's snake robots. The research, lead by Howie Choset, is aimed at disaster situations where a small snake could maneuver much better than a resuce worker. "Right now, the way to get to these trapped survivors is to pull the rubble out one rock…
The Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center has announced it's plans to announce (yeah, marketing is crazy) "Crusher", its latest unmanned ground combat vehicle, to the public on April 28th. The project, which is funded by DARPA and the Army was designed to cut down casuali…
A group of scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are working on yet another ultralight flying machine. The robot, currently with a 14" wingspan, is designed to fly around in indoor environment. Such environments present special problems for navigation.The researchers are tryi…
A group of researchers at Rice University and the University of Southern California are working on creating a power source that is run off of bacteria that spits out electrons. The Shewanella oneidensis microorganism consumes metal and produces a waste product of electrons. In a fuel cell, th…
Researchers at the University of Texas have created artificial muscles that are 100 times more powerful that human muscles. The two different types of muscles both consume Oxygen and release the energy in hydrogen and alcohol to do work. One version converts the chemical energy into heat which cont…
It looks like Spirit, one of the Mars rovers, has gotten itself in a bad situation. It's exploring an interesting feature on Mars called "Home Plate", but the Martian winter is coming on, which means low temperatures and low light levels. Scientists would love to say and continue explorin…
The Air Force no longer wants Boeings X-45 unmanned airplane. The Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems program has been scrapped by the Pentagon, along with the $800 million set aside to build and purchase three of the X-45Cs. Boeing will now probably try and compete against the Northrop Grumman X-47 …
There is a video on New Scientist that shows a robot climbing a tree and other vertical surfaces. This is from the RiSE initiative, a descendent of the BR MURI project. BR MURI, Biomimetic Robots Multi-University Research Initiative, focused on building legged robots that ran. The goal of RiSE, Rob…
Pack animals have a long history in the military. The US was reminded of this fact in 2002, when it had to pull in horses and mules to move gear across the Afghanistan wilderness. TACOM responded by giving grants to two robotics companies, Yobotics and Boston Dynamics. Their mission: to produce a m…
A group of students and faculty at Dartmouth University College have created a robot to function in arctic weather and is solar powered. Such a robot was comissioned by NASA to aid in research in the antarctic. NASA's goal is to use the robot to search for evidence of bacteria in Antarctic snow. T…
Have you ever wondered who created the Predator drone? If so, then you'll want to check out this piece by Red Herring about General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GAAS), the creator of the Predator, and it's plans for the future (including Predator B and C!). The company is privately owned by a 55 y…
Remember the sub-launched robotic plane we talked about before? Well, here's some more information on it, courtesy of Popular Science. The plane will be released from a Trident missile tube on an Ohio-class U.S. submarine, surface, then take off. "The [missile] tubes are as long as a semi tr…
From houseflies to honeybees, insects inspire us with flight skills just beyond the grasp of our technology. Z. Jane Wang, a professor at Cornell University, is working to close this gap between inspiration and implementation. Wang’s recent work is on dragonflies, and here she has found some…
Here's an insightful article from the Wall Street Journal about Lockheed Martin's foray into the robot done market. Lockheed, which helped develop the Dragon Eye, and the Desert Hawk is trying to play catch-up to larger robotic drone makers, like Northrup Grumman and Boeing. There're working on inn…
