Don't forget that the 2008 RoboGames are going on THIS WEEKEND in San Franciso, CA. If you're in the SF area, you should definitely stop by. For the poor souls that can't make it, you can follow some of the goings-on via the RoboGames twitter. You can also keep an eye on the Flickr tag, 'robo…
Have you ever wanted to see some hot combat robot action in slow motion? Here's your chance. This footage was recorded at the Carolina Combat event this past weeked in North Carolina (how'd I miss it?!) by Robert Woodhead. The video is shot with a Casio Exilim EX-F1 camera, that can take video at u…
Congradulations to the Phoenix Mars Mission team! Phoenix touched down and has sent the first pictures back to Earth. Once again, NASA has accomplished an amazing feat. Now begins Phoenix's three month mission.
The Phoenix Mars Mission is scheduled to touch down on Mars today, May 25th, at around 9PM EST. Keep track of the progress on the mission's website. We'll keep you updated with details. Update: You can watch live coverage of the landing on NASA TV. Mission briefing starts at 3PM EST, and lan…
Chris Anderson, over at DIY Drones, has posted some great new information on his new, ultra-cheap, autopilot, the ArduPilot. This fully open source project allows an aerial vehicle to autonomous navigate GPS waypoints, maintain altitude, and can trigger a camera or other external device. The auto…
Instructables and RoboGames have teamed up to create a robot building contest. The task is to design and document one specific aspect of your robot. Good robot design is highly detailed, so we're asking you to document specific parts of your robot for this contest. Maybe you built the ultimate m…
Way back in 2001 I created a website called, The Robot Directory. It was designed to be a place for robot buliders to showcase their creations, see other people's creations, and generally get inspired. It worked out well until the scope of the site overstepped my abilities to do code. Chris Jo…
Today UGOBE has released initial details on the upcoming software development kit for Pleo. The Pleo Development Kit, or PDK, will allow users to create applications that will run on top of Pleo's "Life OS". The applications will be written in PAWN, which is ... ... a simple, typeless, 32-bit exte…
You may remember our posts on the sad plight of iRobot, who had accused their ex-employee, Jameel Ahed, of stealing their design, only to have the US Military award a whopping $280 million dollar contract to said ex-employee, and rejecting iRobot. Oh the injustice! Weep no more, fellow shareh…
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…
Dubai, that wonderful country city that gave us a private island paradise shaped like the world, and the world's first underwater hotel, is now going to be host to a dinosaur theme-park, called "Restless Planet." It will be home to the world's largest collection of animatronic d…
By 2015 several oil drilling platforms off the coast of Norway will be remotely operated by human operators on land, and robots on the platform. The project is being funded by StatoilHydro, a Norwegian company. The goal is to reduce costs and dangers to oil workers on the rig. Researchers at a ne…
Last time we had a Design Goodness post, it was featuring the amazing Minimechadon creation of Mike Smyth, this time its the steampunkesc insect/clockwork creations of Mike Libby. Insects have always fascinated me and so does human technology, or maybe its more the need for humans to create and us…
An article appearing in November's issue of the IEEE Spectrum (a magazine written by and for electrical engineers), asks the question, "Why do toddlers love robots?". The answer, it seems, lies not in their cute and fuzzy appearance, but more in their ability to be unpredictable and resond to int…
What if mankind evacuated Earth and forgot to turn off the last remaining robot? This is the premise of Pixar Studio's latest film, Wall-E, to be relased this coming summer. Even though Lem beat me to it, I've been meaning to post about Wall-E ever since my wife and I saw the trailer in front …
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…
