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Something tells me that the University of Pennsylvania is not in the toy business. Got to see this!

Microscopic-scale medical robots represent a promising new type of therapeutic technology. As envisioned, the microbots, which are less than one millimeter in size, might someday be able to travel throughout the human bloodstream to deliver drugs to specific targets or seek out and destroy tumors, blood clots, and infections that can't be easily accessed in other ways. One challenge in the deployment of microbots, however, is developing a system to accurately "drive" them and maneuver them through the complex and convoluted circulatory system, to a chosen destination. Researchers from Korea's Hanyang University in Seoul and Chonnam National University in Gwangju...

Robots from around Europe are flocking to London this week - but, thankfully, we won't need to call Doctor Who to fend off this particular onslaught. More than 20 cutting-edge robots from around Europe will be on display at the Science Museum's Robotville exhibition this week - including a robot designed to help autistic children, and a robot that can (sometimes) catch a ball. Naturally, many of the robots look like slightly spooky human beings - but other fields of robotics will be represented instead, including 'swarm' robotics, where tiny robots work together, a relatively new idea being pioneered in...

A debate on the future of the American economy and the role of intelligent computers and robots. Will rapid technological innovations aid American workers, or will it render large numbers of American workers obsolete?

Robots of a Feather... LIS/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology A rendering of flying robots in Switzerland; connecting lines indicate Wi-Fi links. Relying on algorithms created to render flocks of birds in computer graphics, engineers have created flying robots that travel in swarms.

On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews admitted to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that it "sounds Marxist" but he truly believes that automation in the economy has killed jobs by replacing human clerks in CVS and camera operators at MSNBC with "robots" Read more:

On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews admitted to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that it "sounds Marxist" but he truly believes that automation in the economy has killed jobs by replacing human clerks in CVS and camera operators at MSNBC with "robots":I don't want to skip to your left on this but.... [W]hen I see automation, when I go to a CVS that used to employ a lot of people just above the poverty level, above the minimum wage. And you walk in there now, it's all machines. Now it's very convenient for the customer,...

For some time I’ve been trying to justify owning a robot without coming across as “that weirdo with the robot.” Now, I think I finally found my cover: A robot that bakes cookies! Mario Bollini and Daniela Rus of the Distributed Robotics Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have taken a PR2 robot, which is made by the robotics company Willow Garage, and programmed it to mix dough from scratch, make a giant cookie and then bake it in an oven. There are some caveats though (besides the giant cookie part). The PR2 robot costs about $400,000. In June,...

AMP, as the program is called, will harness the power of public-private partnerships between universities, industry and governmental agencies in an effort to streamline innovation and bring products more quickly to market. "We need to reinvigorate our manufacturing sector to lead the world," Obama said in the speech. "We need to do it now. Not sometime in the future. Now." AMP will be co-chaired by Susan Hockfield, president of MIT, and Andrew Liveris, chairman, president and CEO of Dow Chemical. "I'm enthusiastic about the spirit and content of our joint work," Hockfield said in a press release. "and I'm also...

President Barack Obama says technological innovations such as robots can help pump jobs into the economy and spur growth in clean energy and advanced manufacturing. In his radio and Internet address Saturday, the president echoed a plan he unveiled Friday in Pittsburgh to join the federal government, universities and corporations and re-ignite American manufacturing with an emphasis on cutting-edge research and new technologies. "Their mission is to come up with a way to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the marketplace as swiftly as possible, which will help create quality jobs, and make our businesses...

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn Report Shows Taxpayer Money Spent on Robots That Fold Laundry, Shrimp on TreadmillsBy JONATHAN KARL and MATTHEW JAFFE May 26, 2011 You've probably heard of shrimp on the barbie, but what about shrimp on a treadmill? The National Science Foundation has, and it spent $500,000 of taxpayer money researching it. It's not entirely clear what this research hoped to establish. But it's one of a number of projects cited in a scathing new report from Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, exclusively obtained by ABC News. It's not just shrimp on a treadmill. The foundation...

Robots may soon be rolling through Japanese nuclear power plants, testing the air for radiation and evaluating the amount of damage to the facilities. Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot shipped four battery-powered robots to Japan late last week to help the Japanese military with the daunting relief effort in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The company, which in the past has sent robots to aid rescue and cleanup efforts in the area affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, also has six employees in...

U.S. President Barack Obama steps in to prevent a small robot from falling off a table during a demonstration of robotics at Miami Central Senior High School March 4, 2011. Obama visited the school with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for an event on the future of education funding. U.S. President Barack Obama holds a lazer-etched name plate made for him by students at Miami Central Senior High School March 4, 2011. Obama visited the school with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for an event on the future of education...

A Massachusetts engineering firm known for creating futuristic military robots has received multimillion dollar contracts to develop two more battlefield bots for the Department of Defense. Boston Dynamics, which in 2008 unveiled a four-legged robot called BigDog, has been tapped by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development arm of the DOD, to create a human-like robot and an agile, robotic Cheetah that developers said will eventually be able to run 70 mph. WATCH VIDEO OF THE BIGDOG BELOW The human-like bot, Atlas, will have two arms and legs, but no head, and be able to...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/german-researchers-build-terminator-robot-hand/ Because this is a wired.com article, it must be link only, per Free Republic rules.

n the 'Terminator' universe, Skynet was built as a Global Digital Defense Network, an artificial intelligence that could command all computerized military hardware. The military installed Skynet because it would remove human error and guarantee faster, more efficient reaction time. It also guaranteed nuclear armageddon when it gained self-awareness and forced the surviving humans into slave labor. So that part was bad. But the first thing, the network command of all computerized hardware, that was a good thing, right? Hey, guess what, everybody! That first thing is starting to happen, and its name is RoboEarth! And just in case you're...

Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands. The stark warning, which includes discussion of a "Terminator" style scenario in which robots turn on their masters is part of a hefty report funded for the US Navy High Tech and secretive office of Naval Research

The cameras used for a documentary on polar bears were designed to be as unobtrusive and resilient as possible. Polar Bear: Spy on The Ice used hi-tech "spy cams" to get as close as possible to the bears during summer in the Arctic islands of Svalbard. But while they were built to withstand temperatures as low as -40C, in the end most could not cope with the curiosity displayed by their subjects. Polar Bear: Spy on The Ice is broadcast on BBC One at 2000 GMT on Wednesday 29 December - or afterwards on BBC iPlayer.

<p>Among the number of plant closings announced in the United States this week: A printing plant in Greenburg, Ind., costing 220 jobs; a tomato processing plant in Westover, Md., with 103 people fired; an office-supply facility in Mattoon, Ill., with 129 jobs lost.</p>

Modern warfare relies increasingly on robotics for intelligence gathering and increasingly for strike capabilities, but the decision-making capacity still rests solely in the hands of human commanders. But British defense company BAE systems is testing a way to turn over battlefield decisions over to robot troops as well. ALADDIN (Autonomous Learning Agents for Decentralised Data and Information Networks) is BAE’s response to the overload of sensors and data now confronting battlefield commanders who now have UAV observations, soldier-based sensors, satellite data, and reams of other intelligence washing over them in such volumes that, as Air Force Lt. Gen. David A....

Robots are a major part of the cultural fabric of Japan; they’re performing weddings, buying groceries and keeping people company. A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo is taking this robotic cultural immersion a step further — they’re making animal-robot hybrids. Sort of. RatCar is a brain-machine interface that uses a rat’s brain signals to control a motorized robot. The rat hangs in the air, and the robot does what the rat’s limbs would do. It’s far from the only brain-robot locomotion contraption, but it’s arguably one of the strangest.

Well, this isn't good. A robot at the Italian Institute of Technology led by Dr. Petar Kormushev has taught itself how to use a bow and arrow. It only took him eight shots to start hitting the bullseye every time. And I don't know about you, but I'm not sure that seven shots is enough time for me to run away.

Participating in sports or playing an instrument may seem like a normal part of a teenager’s busy schedule, but for Gabby Gutierrez it’s a wonderful reminder of life. A sophomore at White Oak High School, Gabby juggles participation in soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball and playing clarinet for the band. The 15-year-old says she is appreciative of every moment — and owes a lot of thanks to a special robot that helped save her life. Several months ago, she discovered a frightening and potentially fatal medical condition after returning from a volleyball match. Gabby noticed a lingering sore throat that she...

It sounds like something straight out of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. But, in a chilling echo of the computer Hal from the iconic film, scientists have developed robots that are able to deceive humans and even hide from their enemies. An experiment by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology is believed to be the first detailed examination of robot deception. The team developed computer algorithms that would let a robot ‘decide’ whether it should deceive a human or another robot and gave it strategies to give it the best chance of not being found out. Read more:...

The Terminator-style technology uses artificial intelligence and could be the next big thing in military training. "People train on static pop up targets or targets that move predictably on rails," Alex Brooks from Marathon Robotics, based in Redfern, told Nine News.

Hollywood and robotics researchers have long struggled with the "uncanny valley," where a movie character or robot falls into the unsettling gap between human and not-quite-human. One psychologist likes to demonstrate this by holding up a plastic baby doll and asking audiences if they think it's alive. They say no. Then she takes out a saw and starts cutting the doll's head off, but quickly stops upon seeing the uncomfortable audience reactions.

Even as the U.S. begrudgingly watches it own 21st century Moon-landing aspirations fade into the sunset, other nations are more than happy to pick up the slack. We've already covered China and India's lunar ambitions extensively. Now another Asian superpower is thirsting for the resources buried on Earth's largest natural satellite. According to a report in Japanese publication NODE, JAXA, Japan's space program, is looking to pour $2.2B USD into plans to put an army of robots (peaceful robots, of course) on the Moon.

Unsuccessful in its latest bid to plug the oil leak off the Louisiana coast, BP on Sunday announced a new attempt to place a "containment cap" atop the gushing well one mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Dudley, managing director of BP, said Sunday on CNN that the new remedy, which could take up to seven more days to take effect, is not a sure thing, and wouldn't capture all the leaking oil even if it works.

For the first time, microscopic robots made from DNA molecules can walk, follow instructions and work together to assemble simple products on an atomic-scale assembly line, mimicking the machinery of living cells, two independent research teams announced Wednesday. These experimental devices, described in the journal Nature, are advances in DNA nanotechnology, in which bioengineers are using the molecules of the genetic code as nuts, bolts, girders and other building materials, on a scale measured in billionths of a meter. The effort, which combines synthetic chemistry, enzymology, structural nanotechnology and computer science, takes advantage of the unique physical properties of DNA...

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Underwater robots positioned a giant 100-ton concrete-and-steel box over a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as workers prepared to drop the device to the seafloor in a first-of-its-kind attempt to stop oil gushing into the sea. A spokesman for oil giant BP PLC, which is in charge of the cleanup, said the box was suspended about 200 feet above the main leak Friday and was being moved into position, though it could be Saturday before that happens. Several undersea cameras attached to the robots were making sure...

Japanese professor Hiroshi Ishiguro yesterday unveiled a female android that can laugh and smile as it mimics a person's expressions. Using a motion-capture system, the robot, called Geminoid TMF, can move its rubber face to imitate a smile, a toothy grin, and a grim look with furrowed brows. Prof Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University, developed the android with a team of researchers together with Japan's robot maker Kokoro. Geminoid TMF was modelled on a young Japanese woman, who was present at the unveiling today. 'I felt like I had a twin sister,' the woman said afterwards. The developers said...

When the Air Force recently mapped out a game plan to 2047, its report contained a big surprise: Fewer pilots and more robotic planes acting on their own. Will the airman-centric service accept a future with fewer cockpits? And are we ready for UAVs that can fire their weapons without human permission.Like its waterfowl namesake, the Heron unmanned aerial vehicle has the excellent vision of a hunter. Today, the 27-foot-long Israeli UAV is making a rare flight over the United States, using a high-definition video camera to track a speedboat buzzing across the Patuxent River in Maryland. The camera shares...

President Barack Obama reversed a Bush administration effort to try another moon landing with the ultimate goal of putting a man on Mars, arguing amidst a budget crisis that NASA should scale back its lunar landing efforts. However, that doesn't rule out sending robots on extraterrestrial vacations -- and bringing some meatbag human friends along for the ride. The Obama administration based its decisions on NASA's 2009 report from its Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, better known as the Augustine Commission report.

In a dangerous legacy of the world's deadliest conflict, 150,000 World War Two-era sea mines litter the Baltic Sea. The danger these bombs pose to a proposed gas pipeline has prompted Russia to hire the British firm Bactec International to clear the sea of unexploded ordnance. And for Bactec, that means it's time to bring out the robots. Bactec, which previously worked clearing mines from around the Falkland Islands, will use a specially designed robot to scour the ocean floor in search of the 70 bombs blocking the path of the pipeline. When the robot finds a mine, a surface...

The US military is taking a serious look at resupplying combat troops in Afghanistan using unmanned aircraft, an Air Force general said Wednesday.

For 10 side-splitting seasons and one feature film, the crew of the Satellite of Love orbited Earth, faced with the arduous assignment of watching and lampooning only the most wretched movies ever made.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) which used to be in favor of human wave tactics has revealed its growing interest in military robot systems such as the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) mounted on trucks that appeared for the first time on National Day parade. A total of ten short and mid-range UAVs, obviously driven by a two-bladed propeller at the top or end of the fuselages, are painted with blue and red strips on the fuselage and wings.

Windows works for me. But I'd never recommend it to anybody else, ever.I admit it: I'm a bigot. A hopeless bigot at that: I know my particular prejudice is absurd, but I just can't control it. It's Apple. I don't like Apple products. And the better-designed and more ubiquitous they become, the more I dislike them. I blame the customers. Awful people. Awful. Stop showing me your iPhone. Stop stroking your Macbook. Stop telling me to get one. Seriously, stop it. I don't care if Mac stuff is better. I don't care if Mac stuff is cool. I don't care...

Lately I have been looking at the moon and wondering if it will someday kill me. If I live another 50 years (which is entirely possible) I assume I will eventually be a robot, having shed my old skin and bones body and uploaded a scanned and digitized version of my brain to a machine. My fellow robots and I will live among the meat people for eons until the moon's orbit degrades, either gradually or because a meteor gives it a nudge, and Earth is annihilated in the collision. You might say I worry too much. But I've successfully...

Soldiers these days have a lot of experience playing video games when they're growing up, and they're really familiar with these controls.

One of the most captivating storylines in science fiction involves a nightmarish vision of the future in which autonomous killer robots turn on their creators and threaten the extinction of the human race. Hollywood blockbusters such as Terminator and The Matrix are versions of this cautionary tale, as was R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), the 1920 Czech play by Karel Capek that marked the first use of the word "robot."

John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design I'll come right out and say it: Star Wars has a badly-designed universe; so poorly-designed, in fact, that one can say that a significant goal of all those Star Wars novels is to rationalize and mitigate the bad design choices of the movies. Need examples? Here's ten. R2-D2 Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design are obvious the first time he approaches anything but the shallowest of stairs. Also: He has jets, a periscope, a taser and oil canisters to make enforcer droids fall about in...

With the development of killer drones, it seems like everyone is worrying about killer robots. Now, as if that wasn't bad enough, we need to start worrying about lying, cheating robots as well. In an experiment run at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, France, robots that were designed to cooperate in searching out a beneficial resource and avoiding a poisonous one learned to lie to each other in an attempt to hoard the resource. Picture a robo-Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

A Swedish company has been fined 25,000 kronor ($3,000) after a malfunctioning robot attacked and almost killed one of its workers at a factory north of Stockholm. Public prosecutor Leif Johansson mulled pressing charges against the firm but eventually opted to settle for a fine. "I've never heard of a robot attacking somebody like this," he told news agency TT. The incident took place in June 2007 at a factory in Bålsta, north of Stockholm, when the industrial worker was trying to carry out maintenance on a defective machine generally used to lift heavy rocks. Thinking he had cut off...

Robots are the most efficient workers in the world. Moreover, they do not complain about hours worked, ask for raises, or seek collective bargaining agreements. Nonetheless, In Japan, Machines for Work and Play Are Idle . Japan’s legions of robots, the world’s largest fleet of mechanized workers, are being idled as the country suffers its deepest recession in more than a generation as consumers worldwide cut spending on cars and gadgets. At a large Yaskawa Electric factory on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, where robots once churned out more robots, a lone robotic worker with steely arms twisted and...

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command. Toyota's system, developed in a collaboration with researchers in Japan, is among the fastest in the world in analyzing brain waves, it said in a release Monday. Past systems required several seconds to read brain waves, but the new technology requires only 125 milliseconds — or 125 thousandths of a second.

]-->Staff Sgt. Joseph Ray (center) watches as Iraqi National Police officers operate the Talon robot during training at the 225th Engineer Brigade's Task Force Iron Claw Academy on Camp Liberty, June 24. Photo by Lt. Col. Pat Simon, 225th Engineer Brigade. BAGHDAD — Playing with video game remote controls that power motorized robots may seem like a fun way to start the day. For ten Iraqi National Police (NP) officers, this arcade experience is a critical part of training at a new engineer training academy here on Camp Liberty. Members of the Iraqi 1st Mechanized Brigade, 2nd NP, wrapped up...

In a development that realizes a scenario out of a science fiction movie, scientists have developed technology enabling a robot to be controlled by thought power. A user wears a helmet that detects changes in blood flow and brain waves in different parts of his or her brain and converts them into radio signals that are transmitted to the bipedal humanoid robot, operating its limbs and making it speak.

Telegraph: She can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks and make facial expressions – including anger – thanks to 18 motors hidden behind her latex face.

"Action packed! These little robots have some fast moves, battling it out for fame and glory. Funny stuff." I can't figure out if this is the coolest robot duel ever -or just a group of drunken unemployed Japanese techies having a good time? Enjoy!