According to a recent research paper, it's difficult for humans to recognize disgust on an artificial face, but easier to recognize sadness and fear on a simulated face than a natural one. The ability to display emotions will come in handy as researchers develop robots capable of a wider range of emotional responses and interactions, such as those described in a recent Science Daily article on emotional robots. Why bother building emotional robots in the first place? A New Scientist article argues that adding emotion may be one of the most important of six ways we can develop robots that do now harm. For two other views on what the future of robots hold in store for us, see the TechNewsWorld article, The Coming Revolution, which contains a few quotes from me. In other news, Doug Emes of the DPRG sent links to a Sean Reynolds' Wash UAV page showing an autonomous helicopter with open source Arduino code, and to the Sparkfun Electronics USB 32-Bit Whacker - PIC32MX460 Development Board. The Swirling Brain sent us links to robot concept art from the Terminator 4 movie, a BBC story on IBM's DARPA-funded cognitive computing initiative that hopes to develop a machine that mimics the structure and function of a brain, a gizmodo article on the ROMP robot (Remotely Operated Mobile Platform), a sort of poor-man's iRobot battlefield bot. The brain also noticed a Fox news piece on the coming age of tiny flying war robots. Roland Piquepaille let us know about his latest blog posts on razor clam robots, the future impact of robots on society, and an apple picking robot. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please.


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