Robotics news

Robots face off on football pitch, in kitchen at RoboCup 2009

Electronics / Robotics

Jul 01, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

RoboCup 2009, the world's largest robotics event, kicked off Wednesday in the southern Austrian city of Graz, with some 400 teams and 2,000 robots ready to compete in sports and rescue operations.

Biology knows best -- human-like vision lets robots navigate naturally

Electronics / Robotics

Jun 30, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A robotic vision system that mimics key visual functions of the human brain promises to let robots manoeuvre quickly and safely through cluttered environments, and to help guide the visually impaired.

Researchers unveil whiskered robot rat

Electronics / Robotics

Jun 30, 2009 | 2 / 5 (1) | 0

A team of scientists have developed an innovative robot rat which can seek out and identify objects using its whiskers. The SCRATCHbot robot will be demonstrated this week at an international workshop looking ...

The future of robots is rat-shaped

Electronics / Robotics

Jun 07, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (6) | 3

Agnes Guillot dreams of one day seeing a giant 50-centimetre (20-inch) -long white rat called Psikharpax scuttling fearlessly around her lab.

Predictive powers: a robot that reads your intention? (w/Video)

Electronics / Robotics

Jun 05, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (10) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- European researchers in robotics, psychology and cognitive sciences have developed a robot that can predict the intentions of its human partner. This ability to anticipate (or question) actions ...

Robots with fins, tails demonstrate evolution

Electronics / Robotics

May 29, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 5

(AP) -- Robots wag their tail fins and bob along like bathtub toys in a pool at a Vassar College lab. Their actions are dictated by microprocessors housed in round plastic containers, the sort you'd store ...

Robot Navigates City by Asking for Directions

Electronics / Robotics

May 14, 2009 | 5 / 5 (7) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- ACE the robot was sent on a mission by its German inventors: to find its way to the Marienplatz in the center of Munich, about 1.5 km away from its starting point at the Technical University ...

Robotic Mouse Makes Maze Debut at UCSD (w/Video)

Electronics / Robotics

May 05, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- An intrepid group of UC San Diego undergraduate engineers designed and built a robotic mouse from scratch as part of the IEEE MicroMouse competition.

Robots on a recycling rampage

Electronics / Robotics

May 01, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- More than 150 robots, in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and capabilities, will battle it out on May 6 and 7 in a contest to see which can collect the most soda cans and simulated bales of trash and return ...

Robots are narrowing the gap with humans

Electronics / Robotics

Apr 22, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (15) | 10

Robots are gaining on us humans. Thanks to exponential increases in computer power -- which is roughly doubling every two years -- robots are getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-blood people.

I, robot -- and gardener: MIT droids tend plants

Electronics / Robotics

Apr 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (5) | 4

(AP) -- These gardeners would have green thumbs - if they had thumbs.

Japan child robot mimicks infant learning

Electronics / Robotics

Apr 05, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (41) | 18

The creators of the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, say it's slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship.

Robot scientist becomes first machine to discover new scientific knowledge

Electronics / Robotics

Apr 02, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (31) | 17

Scientists have created a Robot Scientist which the researchers believe is the first machine to have independently discovered new scientific knowledge. The robot, called Adam, is a computer system that fully automates the ...

New robot 'steered by human thought': Honda

Electronics / Robotics

Mar 31, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (13) | 5

Japan's Honda said Tuesday it had developed a robot steered by human thought, thanks to a helmet-like device that measures a person's brain activity and sends signals to the machine.

Humanoid robot helps scientists to understand intelligence

Electronics / Robotics

Mar 31, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A humanoid robot newly acquired by Imperial College London will lead to a deeper understanding of human intelligence, says scientists today.

Greying Japan plans robo-nurses in five years: govt

Electronics / Robotics

Mar 25, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 0

Japan plans to prepare safety rules soon for robot nurses, which are expected to serve humans within five years in the fast-greying society, a government official said Wednesday.

Robot brings hope to kids with learning difficulties

Electronics / Robotics

Mar 20, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

A robot named Cosmo has become six-year-old Kevin Fitzgerald's unlikely ally in his uphill everyday battle with developmental difficulties.

British-built robotic fish to detect pollution

Electronics / Robotics

Mar 19, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 2

A shoal of robotic fish which can detect pollution in the water are set to released into the sea off Spain, British scientists said Thursday.