Robots

Robotic prostheses may have a way to go before they work exactly like human limbs, but researchers are making great strides. A team out of Georgia Tech is working on new technology that could give these robotic limbs something akin to a sense of touch.

Thanks to tactile-sensing material that covers the entire prosthesis and software that integrates the gathered data, this robotic arm can maneuver through clutter and distinguish between hard and soft objects as it grips, pushes, and pulls more intuitively.

"Up until now, the dominant strategies for robot manipulation have discouraged contact between the robot's … Read more

By far the coolest thing Canada has in space is Chris Hadfield, commander of the International Space Station. He's all over social and news media with his wacky zero-g demos, guitar playing, and amazing photos of Earth.

Today Hadfield notched another first: unveiling a banknote in space. At a Bank of Canada press conference in Ottawa, the mustachioed colonel appeared via ISS video link. He plucked the bank's latest polymer bill from a bracket on the wall, gave it a few weightless twirls, and pointed to the robots it features.

"I just want to tell you how proud I am to be able to see Canada's achievements in space highlighted on our money," Hadfield told Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney. "To feature Canadarm2 and Dextre for the theme of the $5 note, it really marks Canada's contribution to the International Space Station Program, and especially our longtime area of expertise in robotics." … Read more

We know Boston Dynamics is keen on four-legged robots, even creating a cheetah of its very own. So is the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland; its Cheetah-Cub has been in development at the Biorobotics Laboratory since 2008.

Teaching a quadruped robot to walk can be a tricky business, though. Something called a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) network is used to generate movements according to a repetitive pattern. But no matter how robust the rhythm of the movements is, it can be tough to implement outside of a lab environment, where the ground won't necessarily always be even.

Enter the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). The team there broke down the movements of horses via motion capture into what it calls "kinematic Motion Primitives" (kMP), analyses of the trajectories of limbs and bodies, translated into data that can be fed into a CPG. … Read more

Using what they are calling "mechanical agitation," researchers out of the Georgia Institute of Technology say they've developed arrays that can sense touch with the same level of sensitivity as the human fingertip, which could result in better bots and prosthetics.

The transparent and flexible arrays use about 8,000 taxels, which are touch-sensitive transistors that can generate piezoelectric signals independently -- meaning they emit electricity when mechanically agitated. As the researchers report this week in the journal Science, each of those thousands of transistors comprises a bundle of some 1,500 zinc oxide nanowires, which connect … Read more

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots kicked off its protest against self-powered military machines earlier this week.

CNET caught up with the campaign organizers to hear why they want killer 'bots banned -- play the video above to hear their reasoning and to witness the kinds of death-dealing devices the organization is trying to stop.

One thing I wanted to know is why the campaign is so averse to autonomous robots. As Noel Sharkey, expert roboticist and professor, told me, however, this movement is only about putting the brakes on autonomous killing machines. … Read more

While it might look like a giant robotic pet, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have actually created the "FlipperBot" to generate new data on how organisms move.

The robot mimics the movements of sea turtle hatchlings struggling to reach the ocean. These little creatures need to rely on dexterity and flexibility in their wrists to get around without moving a lot of the surrounding sand.

"We are looking at different ways that robots can move about on sand," Daniel Goldman, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "We wanted to make a systematic study of what makes flippers useful or effective. We've learned that the flow of the materials plays a large role in the strategy that can be used by either animals or robots."… Read more

If I had a dime for every time someone writes "I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords," I'd have enough money to bribe my future robot master into sparing me from the meatsack ghettos.

Our dystopian robot future is always good grist for lame jokes. Unless it might actually happen.

Human Rights Watch seems very serious about a new campaign it has launched against what it calls "killer robots." … Read more

When they take over, robots will surely take advantage of studies suggesting we pathetic meatsacks are hardwired to sympathize with them.

Watching a robot being cuddled or abused produces similar reactions in humans to watching people undergo the same treatment, according to two new studies to be presented at the International Communication Association Conference in London in June.

In one, subjects were shown videos in which popular dino-bot Pleo was either hugged or treated violently. Perhaps not surprisingly, the subjects' skin conductance levels rose when Pleo suffered, suggesting they were distressed.

They also reported feeling bad for the bot. Check out how the poor little guy was mistreated in the vid below. … Read more

If you happen to meet a BlabDroid in public, the smiling cardboard-headed robot may roll up to you and ask a question like, "Who do you love most in the world?" or "What's the worst thing you've ever done to someone?" These bots are making a documentary about human-robot relationships, but you may be able get a BlabDroid of your very own.

BlabDroid is the creation of artist and roboticist Alexander Reben. Filmmaker Brent Hoff is using them for a documentary about how humans interact with robots. Versions of the little bots with a camera and speaker onboard are traveling around to international film festivals, where they ask preset questions and film the results. That footage will be edited into a movie. A new Kickstarter project is offering them to the world. The robot can connect to your phone via Bluetooth, so it will be able to work with apps and features like Siri.… Read more