Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Naked Man Shoots SWAT Robot with AK-47
April 8th, 2011Via: WFTV: A Brevard County man was naked when he opened fire on a SWAT team robot and it was all caught on video, according to deputies. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said the robot was sent into the West Melbourne home last week because the homeowner had called his family and said he was […]
Solar Costs May Already Rival Coal, Spurring Installation
April 6th, 2011Barring a major wildcard event (global nuclear war, massive asteroid impact, etc.), the horror show will grind on, now with even more Clean and Green. Via: Bloomberg: Solar panel installations may surge in the next two years as the cost of generating electricity from the sun rivals coal-fueled plants, industry executives and analysts said. Large […]
Predator: A Smart Camera that Learns
April 4th, 2011More: Zdenek Kalal
Festo’s Smart Bird
March 26th, 2011Research Credit: JH
Boston Dynamics Gets Military Contract to Build Running Quadruped and Humanoid/Biped Robots
February 28th, 2011Via: Wired: Boston Dynamics, the military engineering firm best known for its four-legged BigDog robot, has been awarded two contracts by DARPA to develop a pair of new robots: an agile humanoid called ATLAS and a speedy, animal-inspired quadruped called CHEETAH. ATLAS looks like a headless Terminator, with a torso, two legs and two arms, […]
New Stealth Bomber Could Control Drones, Fire Lasers, Bust Bunkers
February 24th, 2011Recovery! Via: Wired: The Air Force’s new stealth bomber might do more than just drop bombs, top generals said in recent days. The so-called “Long-Range Strike” plane — likely to be designated B-3 — could also carry bunker-busting, rocket-boosted munitions, high-powered lasers for self-defense and datalinks, and consoles for controlling radar-evading drones. These add-ons, described […]
After ‘Jeopardy!’ Victory, Watson Headed to Hospitals
February 17th, 2011Via: AP: Fresh off its shellacking of two human champions of the “Jeopardy!” television show, a computer program developed by IBM Corp. will soon get a workout in two hospitals that have signed up to test the technology. The agreements with the Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine will […]
Robotic Lettuce Production
February 10th, 2011Via: Singularity Hub: The steady march of industrial automation continues to envelop the world. Many of us have a quaint early 20th century vision of agriculture, but the truth is that the farmer of the 21st century is a machine. Case in point: lettuce. With new hydroponic techniques, companies are able to grow lettuce in […]
Pentagon’s New Ground Robot Can Hear You Breathing… Through a Wall
February 9th, 2011Via: Wired: America’s robots make deadly weapons. But there are countermeasures to even the most fearsome bot now in service. To avoid detection by aerial drones, Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have begun traveling in smaller groups. In his excellent book War, Sebastian Junger even describes Afghan fighters covering themselves with blankets on sun-warmed rocks to […]
Building a Super Robust Robot Hand
January 26th, 2011Click through for photos. Via: IEEE Spectrum: German researchers have built an anthropomorphic robot hand that can endure collisions with hard objects and even strikes from a hammer without breaking into pieces. In designing the new hand system, researchers at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, part of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), focused on […]
