Archive for October, 2004

NASA’s robotic moon mission spins wheels

‘NASA’s plan to send robotic scouts to the moon in advance of astronauts is starting to take shape, but politics and the presidential election are stalling progress.

s appears poised to ax most if not all start-up money for an initial lunar mapping mission in 2008 but won’t finalize the agency’s budget before the election Tuesday.

Outside […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Man, machine collaboration

‘Ask Prof. Noel Sharkey — interdisciplinary researcher in robotics, chief judge for Robot Wars and expert for BBC’s TechnoGames — whether robots will replace humans and his answer is an emphatic “noâ€?.

“To me, robots are just like dustbins moving around. They can never replace humans because human minds are too rich,â€? he says. “They are […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Robot makes Diagnosis

‘A robot named “Aida” will automatically formulate an appropriate diagnosis for headaches, based on the clinical characteristics of every single patient. This creature will become the doctor’s aide. The novelty was presented at the 1st National Congress for the Italian Neurological Association for Headache Research, founded by prof. Vincenzo Bonavita, on “Headaches and Neurology” currently […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Humanoid robot gets Pocket PC brain

‘A group at the Institute for Computer Science of the University of Freiburg (Germany) has used a Pocket PC as the “brain” of a small autonomous robot. “NimbRo RS” placed third in the balancing challenge of the Humanoid League competition at RoboCup 2004 in Lisbon, by successfully walking up and down a ramp without falling.

The […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Robots gear up for life outside the lab

‘Phil Mass hasn’t launched his second effort at a consumer robot yet, and he is already thinking about a third.

The designer’s passion for all things robotic mingled at the RoboNexus conference last week with more sober questions about how robots can step out of the lab and the classroom and into broader commercial markets.

[…]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

John Deere, iRobot Team Up to Make Robot

‘In a trailblazing pairing of robotics and tractor companies, iRobot and John Deere announced plans Monday to build a 9-foot-long semi-autonomous battlefield vehicle.

Burlington-based iRobot Corp. will adapt the artificial intelligence technology used in its Roomba vacuums and portable PackBot military robots for a two-seat John Deere utility vehicle similar to ones the Pentagon already uses.

The […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Indoor GPS Robot

‘You’re heading off to vacation when, half way between home and the airport, you hear a weather report promising torrential downpours near your home. You and your spouse look at each other and wonder: Did you close the bedroom window? Not sure, you use your cell phone to connect to your home robot that not […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Robot may soon perform long-distance operations

‘Medical robots will increasingly hold the surgical key for heart patients living in remote or isolated communities, says a top cardiologist.

Machines operating by remote control won’t replace the human element, but actually will refine any movement by the surgeon, Dr. Alan Menkis said yesterday at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

[…]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Robots to learn ‘robot manners’

‘Robots are having special lessons in manners to learn how to behave so they can mix better with humans.

By playing games like pass-the-parcel, scientists are trying to find out how future robot companions should react to people in social situations.

Experts hope the study will help humans develop a code for the way humans and robots […]

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Proxity Announces micro-mini UAV

‘Proxity Announces micro-mini UAV: Low Cost CyberBug Flies into Problem Area, Acts as the Eyes and Ears for Remote Operator with Headset

– Proxity Digital Networks, Inc. (Pink Sheets:PDNW) through Cyber Aerospace Corp., an operating subsidiary of Proxity’s Cyber Defense Systems, Inc. (OTCBB:CYDF) announces it is completing development of the low cost CyberBug(TM), a 2 lb. […]

Saturday, October 30th, 2004

Robots keep officers out of harm’s way

‘Police and fire officials in the metropolitan region are taking uniformed officers out of danger by using federally funded robots to find bombs and criminals, and perform other high-risk duties.

“Why put an officer in harm’s way?” asked Sgt. Jim Craige of the Alexandria Police Department. “Why put an officer in the […]

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

Robot promoters look to Social Security set

‘Robots for the elderly were one of the hot topics at the RoboNexus conference here on Saturday, as robot advocates and start-up companies consider new frontiers for robots in the home.

The Roomba vacuum cleaner has shown there’s a market for smart machines performing household tasks. But the next generation of domestic helper machines will be […]

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

RoboNexus Puts Automatons Front and Center

‘The scene last night at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California was part Terminator, part The Matrix, and a little bit of Short Circuit—all good films featuring robots as friends and foes. But the robots gathered for RoboTrend’s Robonexus conference (one of the largest robotics conferences ever held in the U.S.) were not fantasies. […]

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

Company Builds Home Robots From PC Parts

‘”The basic platform we’re going to ship will be a chassis with a motor, Evolution Robotics’ software for robot applications, and a VIA motherboard,” says Tom Burick, president of White Box Robotics. “Then people can add CD-ROM drives and Web cams for specialized robot applications.”

Among the robots that the company has produced is one designed […]

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

Pill Robot

‘Researchers from Pontedera, Italy and Seoul, Korea, are developing a prototype capsule designed to crawl though a patient’s stomach, enabling doctors to view and even treat an internal ailment remotely.

Once swallowed the multi-legged capsule protective coating dissolves and locomotion would begin.

The scientists are testing prototype through animal stomach tissue and have also developed a system […]

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

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