ZOMG. Apparently police officers in Tennessee, having trapped an armed fugitive in his mobile home after a high-speed chase, were reluctant to enter the domicile themselves, and instead opted to use a gas-grenade launching robot to smoke the perp out. ...

An anonymous reader writes "One group of Australian researchers have managed to teach robots to do something that, until now, was the reserve of humans and a few other animals: they've taught them how to invent and use spoken language. ...

This is Luna. "The sharp dresser?" No, that's Mr. T Fred Nikgohar, the CEO of RoboDynamics, the company responsible for Luna. Luna is the dog. Jk jk, it's the ridiculous looking robot. The dog looks ...

He poisoned my bananas, I saw him! This is a video of a PR2 robot that's been programmed to scan and bag groceries. Except he doesn't so much bag them as toss them around haphazardly after spending a minute or ...

This is a Throwbot. Throwbots can be thrown (just like the name implies!!!!!11) or shot out of a cannon, then roll around recording video so you finally put to rest how your roommate keeps his privates trimmed (I'm on ...

sciencehabit writes "Computer simulations of tiny robots with rudimentary nervous systems show that, over hundreds of generations, these virtual machines evolve altruistic behaviors. They begin to share small disks — a stand-in for food — with each other so that ...

HizookRobotics writes "German Aerospace Center (DLR) designed "Rollin' Justin" to fix satellites in space. But robotics work isn't all work and no play ... In the past, DLR engineers had Justin 'dancing like in Pulp Fiction.' More recently, in work ...

Zothecula writes "In an effort to understand how animals move elegantly and in turn provide robots with the same ability, researchers at the University of Bielefeld's Center of Excellence 'Cognitive Interaction Technology' (CITEC) have developed the hexapod walking robot called ...

CWmike writes "The Smithsonian Museum of American History on Tuesday added a number of robotic technologies to its collection, including what may have been one of the smallest robots in the world. The robot known as Marv, short for Mini ...

Last week we reported on an army of robots searching for Air France 447 over a nearly 4,000 sq mile patch of the Atlantic ocean. Today mriya3 noted that "BEA, the French air accident investigation office, reports that the wreckage of ...

coondoggie writes "A small squadron of undersea robots has begun to conduct a 4-month, 3,900 square mile search of Atlantic Ocean bottom looking for the deep-sea wreck site of and black boxes from Air France Flight 447 which crashed off ...

mikejuk writes "Festo, well known for their biologically inspired robots, have a new creation called SmartBird. It is amazing to watch and all the more amazing when you realize that it flaps its wings and all of the control is ...

An anonymous reader writes "The folks over at Lockheed Martin have just released information about their new covert robot that can sneak up on buildings, detect and evade sentries, and send reconnaissance information back to the good guys. From the ...

OMG SOMEBODY GET THAT ROBOT A BEER BEFORE HE KILLS US ALL. I had to look up what a toque was because I thought it was when you smoke the marijuanas but that made zero sense in this context. Nope, ...

An anonymous reader writes "You know it's coming, and for the forever-alone crowd, not soon enough: robots that physically interact with humans. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found in a study that people generally had a positive ...

cylonlover writes "Robots are faster than humans at a lot of things, but up until now running hasn't been one of them. That is set to change with robotics company Boston Dynamics recently awarded a contract by DARPA to design ...

An anonymous reader writes "Japanese researchers unveiled yesterday a pocket-size telepresence robot called Elfoid. The device, which looks like a little ghost, transmits voice and motion over a 3G network to convey a person's 'presence' to a remote location. It's ...

gregg writes "Five knee-high androids have crossed the starting line in the world's first marathon for two-legged robots.The contestants are expected to take four days to complete the course, which involves 423 laps of an indoor track." The live robot marathon ...

Remember BigDog from Boston Dynamics? Ha, how could you forget, it haunts our dreams at night (well at least mine anyways). And now the creators have been awarded a grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to ...

garymortimer writes "AeroVironment, Inc. has demonstrated a tiny new drone called a 'Nano Hummingbird.' The hand-made prototype aircraft has a wingspan of 16 centimeters (6.5 inches) tip-to-tip and has a total flying weight of 19 grams (2/3 ounce), which is ...

HizookRobotics writes "The Bilibot Project, an open-source robot platform based on Microsoft's Kinect, was just announced by MIT researcher Garratt Gallagher on Hizook.com. Bilibot is just the first in what will likely be a torrent of robots (both hobbyist and ...

GameboyRMH writes "If you were impressed at the remote-controlled ornithopters released in recent years, then this will really knock your socks off: In the 1970s, the CIA developed and tested a remote-controlled ornithopter that was disguised as a dragonfly — ...

lysdexia writes "The X-47B is a Tailless Flying Robotic Overlord, which requires neither puny human pilot nor extraneous remote control. First flight was 29 minutes, climbing to a height of 5000 ft. Next step: landing on aircraft carrier." ...

SteeldrivingJon writes with this quote from a story at the BBC: "In Japan, robots are friendly helpers, not Terminators. So when they join the workforce, as they do often in factories, they are sometimes welcomed on their first day with Shinto ...

Note: Video probably NSFW on account of a robot trying to choke down a wiener. This is a disturbingly disturbing DISTURBING DISTURBING video of a sex-bot "sucking" on a sausage. I put quotations around sucking because she's 100% trying to ...

What's the RDA for glitter? This is a picture of a cake that has all the elements of the most beautiful daydream (unicorns, rainbows, lollipops) and most terrifying nightmare (zombies, piranha plants, robots) at the same time. I call it ...

An anonymous reader writes "Several robotics labs in the US and Europe have decided to make themed Christmas/New Years videos. The subject was left open but in the end it should have had a) something to do with the robotics ...

schliz writes "Arizona State researchers have been working on a 'self-healing' polymer that uses a fibre optic 'nervous system' to detect and fix cracks. The system recovers up to 96 percent of an object's original strength in laboratory tests. It ...

kkleiner writes "The Institute of Agricultural Machinery at Japan's National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, along with SI Seiko, has developed a robot that can select and harvest strawberries based on their color. Ripened berries are detected using the robot's ...

Csiko writes "Researchers at Boston University's department of cognitive and neural systems are working on an artificial brain implemented with Memristors. 'A memristor is a two-terminal device whose resistance changes depending on the amount, direction, and duration of voltage that's ...

Who wants a body massage? Yes, that was a G.I. Joe PSA quote. Porkchop sandwiches! So was that. Look at all your different colored hats! Okay that was the last one, I swear. Cha-meeko-ma fahs ...

Zothecula writes "The U.S. Army is currently testing a robot designed to locate, lift and carry wounded soldiers out of harm's way without risking additional lives. With feedback from its onboard sensors and cameras, the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) can ...

Inspired by anatomy expert (and friend to Geekologie) Jason Freeny and his work, artist/toy-modder Donald "Kodykoala" Kennedy went and created an anatomical cross section of Mega Man. This is it. The one-of-a-kind laser-blastered boy stands 6" tall and ...

Zothecula writes "Festo, the automation company that designed the bionic penguin and its robotic stablemates – AirRay, AquaRay, AirJelly and AquaJelly – has found another natural model in its latest application of biomimicry – the elephant's trunk. Festo's Bionic Learning ...

fergus07 writes "After a year long research program, this week Audi revealed that its Autonomous TTS car had completed the 12.42-mile Pike's Peak mountain course in 27 minutes. An expert driver in the same car would take around 17 minutes ...