Archive for the ‘Robots’ Category

NASA’s Global Hawk completes unmanned airborne refueling simulation, will do it for real next year (video)

While some bot makers are busying themselves designing AI to simulate humans’ natural and distinct lack of intelligence, it’s nice to see there are still old-fashioned researchers out there keeping the Skynet dream alive. Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics gurus have paired together a Global Hawk unmanned aircraft with a manned Proteus ship way up in the skies — 45,000 feet, to be precise — with the vessels of ingenuity managing to fly in tandem at a distance as short as 40 feet. Unsurprisingly, this is the first time such intimacy has been reached between UAVs (the Proteus had a monitoring crew on board to ensure the insurance bill wasn’t through the roof) in high altitude, and the ultimate goal of having two Global Hawks doing the deed without any human intervention is said to be within reach by next year. That’s when these light and agile air drones will be able to refuel themselves and go on for a mighty 120 hours in the air… plenty of time to complete a well planned extermination down below, if one were so inclined.

Continue reading NASA’s Global Hawk completes unmanned airborne refueling simulation, will do it for real next year (video)

NASA’s Global Hawk completes unmanned airborne refueling simulation, will do it for real next year (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Robots.net  |   | Email this | Comments

Dave The Funky Shoulder Monkey Has Elmo In His Sights This Christmas Season

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve lost count how many years Elmo has been on the ‘most wanted’ list for Christmas, but this year a small robotic chimp named Dave is hoping to be the source of holiday shopping-related stampedes. Tech Digest recently had a demo of Dave, who’s designed to strap to your shoulder and perform one of 30 different actions with accompanying monkey sounds thanks to an included wireless remote. And besides entertaining kids of all ages, he also seems like the perfect sidekick for pirates who might be allergic to the real thing. He’ll be available for ~$40 (£24.99) in the UK at least, and since you’ll be able to find him at Toys ‘R Us stores hopefully it means he’ll be available in North America at some point as well.

[ Tech Digest - Video: Robot chimp? You got it; enter Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey ]

Surena-2 robot from Iran

Iran, the nation whom many nations have already imposed sanctions against it, has come up with a robot known as the Surena-2. This is the country’s second full-sized humanoid robot, and was named after a warrior of ancient Persia. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a look at Surena-2 recently with some of its 20 robotics researchers from Tehran University. This 45kg robot stands 145cm tall, and it walks slowly with the regular movements of the arms and legs, where researchers hope it will see action in performing difficult and sensitive tasks. We’re guessing President Mahmoud could use it to hold up an iPhone 4 the right way while he speaks on it, eh? That ought to solve the zero signal issue.

Permalink: Surena-2 robot from Iran from Ubergizmo | Hot: Evo 4G Review, iPad Review

Japan Gets A Gundam Phone With Most Awesome Dock Ever [Robots]

Just in case you weren’t aware that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Gundam figurines, Bandai has teamed up with Japanese network Softbank for a limited edition Gunpla phone. More »










Gundam – Bandai – Anime – Japan – Model

SIGVerse simulates cooperation between humans and robots in virtual space

Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII) has developed SIGVerse, a piece of software that makes it possible to simulate how human beings and “intelligent” robots cooperate in a virtual space. The goal is to assess how robots can be “trained” to better work together with humans one day – without actually having to build robot prototypes in real life.

SIGVerse is supposedly the first software of its kind. The current version of the simulator system enables a virtual robot and a human being to work on simple tasks, such as baking a savory pancake, together. SIGVerse is supposed to make it easier to study how that robot converses with the human or how it behaves, while a real person can assume the role of the avatar.

For example, a virtual robot that doesn’t talk when being asked a question during the simulation can hardly be called cooperative and thus would need to be reprogrammed (in C++). SIGVerse can also be used to determine non-verbal communication skills, for example by examining how a robot turns its look when interacting with a human.

The NII plans to make SIGVerse available for everybody to use for free soon (it’s completely open-source).

« Older Entries