cub

Cheetah-Cub robot learns to walk from the animals

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

High-tech imaging helps usher in record-setting panda birth

SAN DIEGO -- For hundreds of thousands of passionate panda watchers, the birth at the San Diego Zoo today of a new panda cub is an event well worth celebrating, especially given that the mother is probably the second-oldest known panda ever to successfully deliver. And thanks to some high-tech imaging, the zoo was able to monitor the pregnancy every step of the way.

For weeks, the panda team at the zoo here has been on tenterhooks, hoping against hope that the 20-year-old mother, Bai Yun, would carry to term what they were nearly certain was a healthy cub. But … Read more

Baby bot on way to becoming archery champ

A humanoid robot baby has taught itself to shoot a bow and arrow, and all we can say is: Hide the kids and the pets. Assault rifles can't be too far off.

Petar Kormushev and his colleagues at the Italian Institute of Technology's Advanced Robotics department taught the little guy how to hold a bow and release the arrow. Then, using two algorithms and visual feedback from a camera, the bot learned to aim and shoot arrows, hitting the center of a target 11.5 feet away in only eight tries.

The robot behind the bow is iCub, … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1217: Where's the digibeef? (podcast)

Steve jobs picks a digital beef, or digibeef, with Adobe over Apple's holdout on Flash, Palm and HP get married, we talk about the Sony Dash and whether or not we will give it to our mama's for Mother's day. Also, Natali knows nothing about the Boy Scouts, and Donald knows way too much about Lifetime, Television for Women. And Natali is also a little too familiar with iPhone Apps for those over 17.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1217

Palm and HP, sittin’ in … Read more

The one question Mark Cuban should have to answer if he wants to buy the Chicago Cubs

Those nice people at ESPN reported this week that Mark Cuban, who I am told, was given a lot of money by Yahoo for some gizmoid or other, is one of the finalists in the bidding to buy baseball's most charming, unlucky, losersome team, the Chicago Cubs.

There will be those on the waggy side of humorous who will claim that he is the perfect person to own the Cubs as his Dallas Mavericks team is one of the most charming, unlucky, losersome teams in the NBA.

(My prejudices. One, I have Golden State Warriors hats and shirts and … Read more