MIT Touches the Future with Next Generation Tactile Robotic Skin

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is using an advanced sensor system to develop the next level of robots. By incorporating Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC) technology into a robot's skin, MIT hopes to build a robot that can interact with humans...

Syndicated 2010-03-01 15:51:53 from RobotNext

GM, NASA Build Robot Named R2

Robonaut2, or R2, as it is known, is the most advanced dextrous robot yet developed. Built by NASA and General Motors, this robot will be able to work along side an astronaut or an autoworker. The idea is to have...

Syndicated 2010-02-16 18:38:25 from RobotNext

Robot Assassins

Robots are being used in a war-like situation, in a country we are not at war with, and controlled by civilians in a spy agency thousands of miles away. This is the new world of terrorist wars. At some point,...

Syndicated 2010-02-12 17:18:29 (Updated 2010-02-12 17:18:30) from RobotNext

Mars Rover Spirit Update

In an update of the Mars rover's situation, the flight controllers have indicated that the plans will switch to surviving the upcoming Martian winter rather than trying to extricate Spirit from the sand trap where it is stuck. The story...

Syndicated 2010-01-26 19:48:43 from RobotNext

Robot From Castrol Can Kick Soccer Balls at 200 km/hr

This is for all FIRST robotics teams looking for ideas to design a kicker for this year’s competition: Don’t try this one! It probably won’t pass inspection. Castrol has built (or in this case, over-built) a robot to break the...

Syndicated 2010-01-26 18:35:40 (Updated 2010-01-26 19:49:16) from RobotNext

Robotic Insects Could DASH to the Rescue

The Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod (DASH) is being outfitted to locate victims that are trapped in rubble. RobotNext posted a blog on this invention back in October 2009. This is a cockroach-inspired robot that can move quickly and speedily like...

Syndicated 2010-01-22 19:59:05 from RobotNext

Spherical Robots Practice Formation Flying in Space

NASA has this experiment onboard the International Space Space to test the concept of robot flying in formation and performing other manuevers in space. The NASA website explains, “Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) are bowling-ball sized spherical...

Syndicated 2010-01-21 21:09:57 (Updated 2010-01-21 21:11:11) from RobotNext

Robots Use Tricks From Nature to Climb Walls

The latest projects of Amir Shapiro, head of the robotics laboratory in the Department of Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheeba, Israel, are wall-climbers. In keeping with an on-going theme of RobotNext, this article is about the robot/nature...

Syndicated 2010-01-19 17:44:16 from RobotNext

Hexapod Robot Controls Chaos to Make Right Moves

This remarkable looking little robot is using what would be called muscle memory in humans to adapt to travel over rough terrain. Resembling a scorpion, it is designed to control chaotic movements and essentially make its motions non-chaotic. What this...

Syndicated 2010-01-19 05:33:35 from RobotNext

Robot Ocean Gliders

Researchers are preparing to send forth a swarm of underwater gliders for a mission to explore the tropical Atlantic. Information on temperature, salinity, oxygen and chlorophyll content as well as the turbidity of the sea water will be measured and...

Syndicated 2010-01-15 17:46:32 from RobotNext