Hat Tip: Zooillogix

New Robot Gets Eyes, Tools in Spacewalk from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — Now that the space station’s new robot is fully assembled, astronauts prepared to attach the giant machine directly to the orbiting outpost for the first time on Tuesday.[…]

New breed of cognitive robot… a puppy? from PhysOrg.com
Designers of artificial cognitive systems have tended to adopt one of two approaches to building robots that can think for themselves: classical rule-based artificial intelligence or artificial neural networks. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and combining the two offers the best of both worlds, say a team of European researchers who have developed a new breed of cognitive, learning robot that goes beyond the state of the art.[…]

First we have the latest on the space robot:

Space Robot Flexes Arms for First Time from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — Astronauts flexed the giant arms of the international space station’s new robot for the first time, testing the brakes and maneuvering the appendages into position for a Monday night spacewalk.[…]

Then, we have this: Continue reading Robot Update →

NASA Robots are planning a takeover of the Moon.

NASA has selected 24 scientists to initiate new investigations and assist with planned measurements to be conducted by the agency’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Scheduled for launch later this year, LRO represents NASA’s first step toward returning humans to the moon.The orbiter will conduct a one-year primary mission exploring the moon, taking measurements to identify future robotic and human landing sites. In addition, it will study lunar resources and how the moon’s environment will affect humans. The mission also will involve a spacecraft called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will impact the lunar south pole to search for evidence of polar water frost.”LRO is a phenomenal mission for NASA. It has dual use, both for exploration and for science,” said Alan Stern, associate administrator, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. “With the selection of these new investigators the LRO science team is bulked up and ready for flight, and interest in lunar science is building again at a rapid pace.”

More here.

Known as COM-BAT, This is a tiny flying robot, about six inches long, that would fly like a bat, gathering information primarily, it is claimed, in urban combat zones. Among other things, it will be able to detect sights, sounds, and smells.

Low-power miniaturized radar and a very sensitive navigation system would help the bat find its way at night. Energy scavenging from solar, wind, vibration and other sources would recharge the bat’s lithium battery. The aircraft would use radio to send signals back to troops.”These are all concepts, and many of them are the next generation of devices we have already developed. We’re trying to push the edge of our technologies to achieve functionality that was not possible before,” said Kamal Sarabandi, the COM-BAT director and a professor in the U-M Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.COM-BAT also involves the University of California at Berkeley and the University of New Mexico. It is one of four centers the Army launched as a collaborative effort among industry, academia and the Army Research Laboratory to work toward this vision of a small, robotic aircraft that could sense and communicate. Each of the four centers is charged with developing a different subsystem of the bat, a self-directed sensor inspired by the real thing.

“Spacewalk on Despite Robot Trouble … NASA pressed ahead with the first spacewalk of shuttle Endeavour’s space station mission Thursday night despite a problem getting power to a giant robot that needs to be assembled by astronauts. The trouble cropped up earlier in the day and had engineers scrambling for a solution. “

You can bet they’re scrambling if they are being troubled by a Giant Robot!

LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team, said Thursday night’s spacewalk would go off as planned and stressed that the power loss would not affect astronauts’ work to attach the robot’s hands to its 11-foot arms.It’s too soon to know whether the second spacewalk, also dedicated to robot assembly, will be impacted if the problem persists, Cain said. Power is needed to heat the joints, limbs and all the electronics of the Canadian robot, Dextre, which could be damaged if left cold for days. It’s also needed to check out Dextre and get it moving.”We don’t have our hair on fire and need to do something in the next couple of hours, but we’re working it,” Cain said at a late-afternoon news conference.NASA’s space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, said he was confident the problem was understood and could be resolved fairly quickly.

[Source]

According to recent reports, it is possible that Robots will take over personal human transport operations.

The RobuCab, an autonomous vehicle about the size of a golf cart, trundles at 10kph along a quiet French street. Alarmingly, it looks like it is driving itself. Surprisingly, that is more or less true.The RobuCab is following the line of the kerb. One embedded system trains a camera on the path edge, another tracks the angle and direction of the kerb, while others control the gearing and acceleration. Combined, they enable the RobuCab to drive along the road.It is an astonishing demonstration of just how sophisticated embedded systems, and the software that controls them, can become. But there are some serious problems to surmount before this level of sophistication becomes common.[source]

From Wired:

Astronauts bound for orbit this week will [be], assembling a “monstrous” two-armed space station robot that will rise like Frankenstein from its transport bed.Putting together Dextre, the robot, will be one of the main jobs for the seven Endeavour astronauts, who are scheduled to blast off in the wee hours of Tuesday, less than three weeks after the last shuttle flight.

Continue reading Attack of the Space Robots Imminent →

I suppose I could live with Robots if they were Open Source. (Or are they just trying to lull me into complacency?)

Imagine a robot that hands you a beer and then cleans your kitchen and living room. That’s what a start-up called Willow Garage in Menlo Park, Calif., is busy developing. But the company isn’t going it alone: Willow Garage is an open source project that wants as much outside participation as possible.

Now, you see, everything OpenSource is better. This is a robot that gives you beer. It is an Open Source Robot. Free Beer and Free Software are finally married into one glorious concept!!!!The story is here. Then, there’s this: Continue reading Finally, an Open Source Robot →

The Barbeque Bot reminds me of an old Harlan Ellison story in at least one way: This is all about using advanced technology to “enforce” laws by private citizens. In the Harlan Ellison story I’m thinking of, individual drivers attack other drivers with advanced weapons built into their cards. (I understand Ellison wrote this story after spending a weekend in Boston.) But each time a driver in a particular battle activates a new weapon, a the car’s computer asks for verification of an increase in insurance premium for that vehicle.The following story is from CNN. Continue reading Robot Vigilante Born of BBQ Prowls Atlanta Streets →

Some people are freaked out by snakes. Some people are freaked out by robots. But what about a Modular Snake Robot? Is that just a little too freaky even for someone who is not freaked out by snakes or robots? Continue reading This is way, way too creepy (robots) →

Japan Looks to a Robot Future from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.[…]

Professor Noel Sharkey of Sheffield University is issuing warnings about the threat to humanity by robots.From this urgent press release: Continue reading Killer military robots pose latest threat to humanity →