Robotics

Bluetooth BERO robot inspired by Android mascot

If you've ever wanted your very own working Android robot, this Kickstarter project is something to watch.

Reality Robotics is fishing for funding for Be the Robot (BERO), a pint-size bot you can control with a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone.

The programmable droid was inspired by the Android mascot, but since Google hasn't officially given its blessing to the project, it looks a little different. It can dance, avoid obstacles, and take commands from an open-source phone app. … Read more

Smart kitchen helps chefs who aren't too smart

Let's face it: Opening up a cookbook, turning the pages, and reading a recipe is hard work. Thankfully, scientists in Japan recognize this and have developed a kitchen that puts recipes right on your food.

Unfortunately, you still have to read, and actually try to cook, by following instructions projected onto your food. But if you go astray a robot called Phyno is there to help out.

Developed by Yu Suzuki and colleagues at Kyoto Sangyo University, the "cooking support system" is being presented next week at the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction (APCHI 2012) in Matsue, Japan.

With a combination of image processing and speech interaction, it's aimed at novice cooks who find recipe jargon confusing.… Read more

Elect the best machines for the Robot Hall of Fame

If robots could run for president, which would you vote for?

Nobody doubts that machines would make better leaders than meatsack politicians, but there are so many to choose from. Carnegie Mellon University is helping out by letting us humans elect inductees for its Robot Hall of Fame.

The prestige has been awarded to real robots such as Honda's Asimo, as well as characters like C-3P0 and R2-D2 from "Star Wars." The unprecedented public participation in choosing the members follows years of inactivity at the hall, which was created in 2003 but last added new robots in 2008. … Read more

Honda's Miimo is a robot goat for your lawn

Over a decade after unveiling its signature humanoid robot Asimo, Honda is finally releasing a home appliance with robotics chops: an automatic lawn mower called Miimo.

The droid trims lawns several times per week, cutting only 3 millimeters (0.12 inch) of grass at a time. The clippings are small enough so that they can be left on the lawn to act as natural fertilizer, the automaker said.

Miimo mows in a random or directional pattern, staying within an electronic perimeter but using its sensors to navigate the lawn, even on sloping areas. If its bump sensors encounter an obstacle, it will stop and then set off in another direction. It will automatically devote more time to patches of long grass. … Read more

Crawling bot glows, camouflages itself with dye

In addition to slithering, crawling, and flying just about anywhere, what if robots could camouflage themselves? This tentacled prototype can be made to look like -- or stand out from -- its background with a simple injection of dyes.

Developed by engineers at Harvard University's Whitesides Research Group, the "soft machine" silicone quadruped crawls along on pressurized gases fed through an umbilical cord.

Users can send different dyes through channels in the robot's body, allowing it to blend in or stand out in startling fashion, such as glowing in the dark. Color changes take about 30 seconds, but don't require further power to sustain the disguise. … Read more

NASA tests newest free-flying robotic lander: Mighty Eagle

When NASA's Mars rover Curiosity began its entry, descent and landing sequence two weeks ago, the success of the mission hinged on what was known as the "7 minutes of terror" -- a period during which NASA was out of touch with the vehicle, relying on its autonomous landing sequence to successfully touch down on the surface.

That mission has been an outstanding success thus far, and today NASA announced another successful landing. The Mighty Eagle lander -- equipped with next-generation automated rendezvous and capture technology that contains a camera -- allows the vehicle to locate its … Read more

Robot worm laughs off your attempts to squash it dead

From snakes to fish to cheetahs, we've seen a veritable Noah's Ark of biomimetic robots in recent years, and now researchers have turned to the lowly earthworm for inspiration.

Meshworm is a squishy, sluglike droid that stretches and squeezes its artificial muscles to move forward. This peristalsis is similar to how worms travel and how your guts move food around. … Read more

Stompy: 4,000-pound, 6-legged rideable robot on the way

Soon, that whiny kid from Transformers won't be the only one who gets to play with giant walking robots. The makers of Project Hexapod are Kickstarting Stompy, a honking huge two-seater hydraulic robot.

Oh, Stompy, where have you been all my life? I can't wait to some day meet all 4,000 pounds of you and watch as your six legs destroy everything in their path. Despite your frighteningly arachnid shape, you have an adorable moniker. … Read more

Cold War secrets: Spy satellite photos lost at sea, then saved

In 1971, the KH-9 Hexagon was the United States' most advanced spy device -- a brand-new photographic reconnaissance satellite as large as a school bus and carrying more than 60 miles of high-resolution photographic film for surveillance missions.

The 6-inch wide Hexagon film frame captured a field of view of about 370 miles, with a resolution of about 2 to 3 feet, according to the National Reconnaissance Office.

Before today's digital technology, the film images were sent back to Earth in recoverable return capsules. Having entered the Earth's atmosphere, the canisters deployed a parachute, and were then snagged … Read more