robotics - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• UTS awarded grant for robotics research

  The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is the recipient of a $320,000 grant to fund the development of technology to enable robots to navigate unknown environments.

• Foxconn's parent may be planning to make robots

  The parent of Apple supplier Foxconn has broken ground on a new R&D (research and development) facility in Taiwan to produce what could be robots that will be used in the company's manufacturing facilities.

• IBM's Watson edges Harvard students in 'Jeopardy' quiz

  IBM's Watson supercomputer eked out a victory in a "Jeopardy" quiz-show battle with a trio of Harvard Business School students on Monday, pulling out the win with a higher wager on the Final Jeopardy clue that ends every game.

• Artificial skin can feel touch; robots prepare to out-human humans

  Researchers have found plenty of uses for carbon nanotubes, but a team at Stanford's of the Bao Research Group found a new use for them: artificial skin. The researchers created a stretchable, transparent skin-like sensor that not only is elastic like skin, but can also sense touch and pressure like the real thing.

• Europe's GPS satellites blast off

  Europe's GPS program, Galileo, became a reality on Friday with the launch of its two first operational satellites from the European Space Station in Kourou, French Guiana.

• Europe's satellite GPS to blast off after technical hitch

  Europe's space ambitions are scheduled to blast off on Friday with the launch of the first two operational satellites of the Galileo program, the European global satellite navigation system.

• Microsoft debuts software for homebrew gadget builds

  Hardware hackers building their own gadgets may want to take a look at a new offering from Microsoft that promises to save time in prototyping new devices: a software development platform for home-built gadgets, called .Net Gadgeteer.

• Japan caretaker robot kneels to lift people off floor

  A caretaker robot developed in Japan has been equipped with powerful motors in its hips and advanced feedback sensors so that it can bend over and gently lift infirm patients from the ground.

• Foxconn to rely more on robots for manufacturing

  Foxconn, the maker of Apple's iPhone and iPad, plans to rely more on robots for manufacturing over the coming years, allowing the company to invest more in research and development and save on labor costs.

• Robots learn to share and help each other

  Robots have officially learned how to help each other -- like animals and humans do -- in a laboratory evolution experiment.

• US roboticists complete mission to Japan's tsunami-hit coast

  A team of American roboticists from the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue wrapped up five days of underwater search and rescue operations in northern Japan on Saturday.

• What the robots saw: Inside Fukushima nuclear power plant

  A stepladder bent and broken against a rack of electrical equipment, debris covering the ground, on-screen radiation readings in the red zone. These are the first images provided by robots from inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the massive March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami led to the world's second-worst nuclear accident.

• Robots enter Fukushima reactor building for first time

  A pair of remote controlled robots entered a reactor building at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Sunday morning for the first time.

• Debris prevents robots from entering stricken nuclear plant

  Tokyo Electric Power is looking to send radiation-hardened robots into the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but obstacles literally stand in the way of their use.

• Robot hand picks up gooey mess with scary accuracy

  A patent-pending robot hand, originally revealed back in October, seems to be capable of picking up liquids, messy mayonnaise and other sauces without altering or changing its gooey shape. Say hello to the SWITL. You'll want to check this out.