Robotics

Software development platform allows academics, hobbyists and commercial vendors to simplify the creation of robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware.SANTA CLARA, Calif. Nov. 17, 2008, At the RoboDevelopment Conference and Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 (Microsoft RDS), the newest version of its robotics programming platform. Microsoft RDS includes a simple […] Read More

A new domestic helper robot is under development by University of Tokyo of Japan, and Toyota Motor Corp. The robot weighs about 130 lbs and able to recognize clothes and different objects, also in 3D view by its two cameras looking at an angle resembling human eyesight. The robot can sweep floors, move object from one place to another and can even move furniture to […] Read More

The robot that has been developed by University of Pennsylvania, USA, is capable of reassembling itself after being scattered into pieces.The units first detect each other’s location by their light sensors and signals, and then decide how to reassemble themselves according to the given objective, which is to assemble into different forms and shapes to make various types of robots for a variety of different […] Read More

A new rubber material has been developed by Japanese scientists that is able to flex but conduct electricity as well. The material can stretch as much as 38 percent before starting to loose its conductivity and conduct electricity 570 times more than a regular rubber. It can also be used to make flexible integrated circuits. This is a important development in making more humanlike robots, […] Read More

A new concept of manufacturing mini robots has been presented at the University of Southampton in United Kingdom. The research team demonstrated the use of cell phone technology to manufacture robots. The motors that are used to vibrate cell phones are used to power these robots. The motors are then attached to circuit boards, eliminating the need for individual manufacturing and thus allowing mass production. […] Read More

The French start-up company Alderaban Robotics based in Paris is developing a highly skilled humanoid robot called NAO. Although there is no definite date yet as far as the commercial availability, its website shows end of 2008 currently. Weighing 4.5 kilograms and at a height of 57cm, the robot stands somewhere between the most humanoid toy robots currently on the market and the famous bigger […] Read More

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2008) Who doesn’t long for household help at times? Service robots will soon be able to relieve us of heavy, dirty, monotonous or irksome tasks. Research scientists have now presented a new generation of household robots, the “Care-O-bot® 3”. (Read more at ScienceDaily at the link below.) Reference: sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710113026.htm Read More

A new robot has been developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which can learn to use new tools by itself. It achieves this by touching and moving the tool first and observe how it’s parts move in relation to each other. One of the biggest challenges in robotics has always been to make them capable of dealing with unfamiliar environments and objects. This robot […] Read More

Industrial pipe systems are inaccessible and narrow. The pipes can be vertical and have junctions. Just as challenging, leakage points in the water system must be located, the condition of oil and gas pipelines must be checked and ventilation systems need to be cleaned.In the main, today’s robots are not that clever. They cannot climb or navigate in vertical pipes – and very few have […] Read More

PITTSBURGH, General Motors Corp. and Carnegie Mellon University today announced a new Collaborative Research Lab (CRL) and a renewed commitment to work jointly on technologies that will accelerate the emerging field of autonomous driving – a family of electronics and software technologies that could influence the way drivers and their vehicles interact in the future. The GM-Carnegie Mellon Autonomous Driving Collaborative Research Lab is being […] Read More