Boeing reported today that it has successfully destroyed several flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using a laser weapon mounted on a truck. The weapon was mounted to an Avenger Air Defense vehicle, which normally uses surface-to-air missiles for attacks. The successful test involved the Laser…
 If anyone doubted the US Air Force's commitment to unmanned (read: robots) aircraft, you won't after you hear this: The Air Force plans on acquiring more unmanned than manned aircraft next year. That's a pretty amazing statistic, and amounts to billions of dollars of potential new busine
Shown below is a video of a robot that uses the perceived vanishing point of an image to navigate through a corridor. The robot, based on an iRobot Create, uses a standard webcam and video processing to locate the vanishing point of what it sees, and navigates towards that point. Such navigation wo…
Ok, show of hands, how many of you robot lovers have been watching "Battlestar Galactica" (BSG)? I hope it's all of you, because, if you haven't you've been missing some excellent story-telling. I started watching BSG about year ago because I'd heard lots of good things about it. Now I'm hooked. …
Robot Stock News has an interesting post about a new robot company, SmartMow, and their self titled product, a robotic lawnmower. The mower, which is currently available for preorder, will retail for $999 and features lithium batteries, a self-charger and can supposedly mow 1/3 of an acre on a si…
We've reported on such matter before, but once again a US Military drone (robot) has successfully fired on and killed at least 5 militants (terrorists) on the Pakistani border. It's great to hear that the "bad guys" are getting the due, and that US soldiers are being kept from harm by our roboti…
Ok, so we've heard songs about robots before, but unless you happen to be a fan of Flight of the Conchords, perhaps you haven't heard this one - "The Humans are Dead". Sung from the point-of-view of two conquering robot overlords, it's a clever and distopian view of our future. Oh, and be sure to …
A couple interesting submarine launched UAVs, one by Raytheon and another, VOLANS, built by a German company, are featured in this Register article. The Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities, or SOTHOC, built by Raytheon, is launched out of the waste disposal lock of a sub…
The Christmas season is upon us, and it's time to whip up your gift lists. Why not put a little robot love on there? Here's some great suggestions for robotic gifts. We've featured 10 great products that will make excellent gift ideas for your robot loving friend or relative. LEGO Mindstorm…
The US Army has decided to move it's Robotics Systems Joint Project Office to Warren, MI, outside of Detroit. In response to this, many large robotics companies are following suit and opening offices in the area. The office is currently hiring engineers and designers to create robots to do “d
 In what is pretty stunning news to me, iRobot has purchased Nekton Research for $10 million USD. The reason this is so stunning, is because Nekton is 30min down the road from me, and I've interviewed there! Nekton is a small business located in Durham North Carolina and specializes in unde
Update: This page is just an archive. The real work is continued as a walk through. Please direct all your comments to that page.I am the proud owner of a stack of scavenged hard drives. I hoped to find really fast, torqueless motors inside. But instead I found myself a project for my new found 555…
The Mars Phoenix Lander is dying dead (see below). Dying a slow death of hypothermia. You see, the fading Martian summer sunlight is causing Phoenix to become starved for photons with which it charges its batteries. Without a fresh battery charge each day, Phoenix is unable to keep its heaters r…
Robots turn on humans! For Halloween Gizmodo sponsored a costume contest. This year's theme was "Robots Turn on Humans." You'll definitely want to check out the contest results and the clever and funny costumes. More robot mayhem! Did you spot any great costumes this year? Tell us about them i…
Here's three wonderful LEGO robots built by legoloverman. There's closeups of the three (and quite a few others) in the flickr gallery. Three LEGO robots built by legoloverman [Via Brothers Brick]
Want a nifty robot illustration while helping a good cause? Check out the Robots and Monsters Project, ... a charitable art project that matches goodwill and charitable giving with custom-made commissioned cartoon and pop art. The project, which chooses a new charity to benefit each quarte…
