Androids

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According to sources, the movie will not be a remake but a prequel or a sequel. The 1982 movie is among the classics of science fiction. It looks like we have another 1-2 years before it hits the screens. Whether Harrison For will be in the movie is not clear yet. Read original story here. Read More

In Japan researchers developed a robot that can use artificial intelligence to learn about its surroundings and act accordingly. The android robot which is run by a system called  -SOINN, Self Organizing Incremantal Neural Network – enables robot to perform unsupervised tasks which are autonomously learned. The robot in the video below is able to identify a cup and then pour water just by learning, where it was tasked with delivering cold water. It didn’t have the preprogrammed knowledge about what to do. It may seem simple however to figure out and manipulate objects to reach a certain goal is the main goal of robotics artificial intelligence. SOINN system also allows […] Read More

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A three legged walking robot that was made in Cornell University walked for 30 hours and 49 minutes non-stop, without any human intervention or recharging, for a total of 40.5 msnbc.com reported. The robot called Ranger, also held the previous record, which it covered 14.3 miles in July 2010. Next to ranger, the second place on this category belongs to the famous bigdog robot of Boston Dynamics with 12.8 miles without refueling. This record is different than the robot marathon held in Japan earlier this year, as the robots were repeatedly being recharged. The improvement in performance is because of the more developed controls algorithm and energy efficiency the builders said. The robot differs from the […] Read More

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-soft-motor-resembles-real-muscles.html Read More

Finally we will be starting to see humanoid robots in our daily lives more and more… A good example is the M1 robot by Meka Robotics, a humanoid robot on wheels that is able to manipulate its environment. The robot runs with ROS (Robot operating system) extensions. The builders say that the robot is designed to run in human environments, not industrial settings. This presents a far more greater challenge as the robot must work on undefined settings. The robot has a 6 axis force-torque sensors at its wrist. The developers indicate that with the future versions of the robot, they are planning to get into more detail with their […] Read More

In a new project that has just commenced, US Navy aims to build android firefighter robot. The concept of firefighter robots is actually not new however doing this task with a robot in human form involves more challenges. The ships are designed for only humans to move around, therefore a humanoid robot will perform much more efficiently in such environments. The project will last for three years and involves teams from Virginia Tech, Penn State and Naval research Laboratory. For original story, please visit here. Reference: aolnews.com Read More

Today, motors and servos are used on a majority of robots that we use for various purposes, as well as on the robots in development stage. Artificial Muscles is one alternative way in robotics for providing force to moving structure of a robot. A German company called Festo, designed a robot arm based entirely on artificial muscles which seems to move as elaborately as a human arm. The arm consists of 30 muscles and its design mimicks the actual human arm as far as the bone structure. Artificial muscles move when compressed air is filled into the flexible fibres of the muscle. See video below: You can also find more […] Read More

In recent study, performed by a consortium of universities and robotic companies across Europe, the robots are programmed to have emotions and develop bonds with humans. The behaviour is modelled after what a yound child does when he/she interacts with their parents, in the sense that it uses the same type of behavioral cues and expressions to develop emotions. For original story, please visit here. Reference: physorg.com Read More