Robotics, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2009

Robot Model Hits the Runway

What appeared to be petite woman in an elaborate wedding dress walked slowly down the runway in an Osaka fashion show earlier this week. The twist is that this was no blushing bride; this was the HRP-4C female robot. Though encumbered by an elaborate wedding dress, HRP-4C easily navigated the...

Mar 31, 2009

Robots Getting More Like Us

This is not a newsflash, but at the Robobusiness conference in Boston last week, companies showed off everything from a robot firefighter to a mechanical gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard. What we may sometimes forget is that an incredibly sophisticated robot can be just a computer hooked up...

Feb 28, 2009

Coming Today: Robot Madness

Robots have not taken over the world. Yet. But with recent advances in humanoid robots and the growing field of cybernetic enhancement of humans, a convergence looms. Exciting? Scary? In a three-week full-court press of videos and stories, LiveScience will examine how: Robots are being made in our image.Robots are...

Feb 28, 2009

Vacuum Cleaner Senses Human Emotions

A specially-equipped Roomba robot vacuum cleaner can now sense human emotional states. University of Calgary researchers published their results in a paper titled Using Bio-electrical Signals to Influence the Social Behaviours of Domesticated Robots. Using a special headband to capture bioelectric signals from the forehead of a human user, the...

Dec 31, 2008

New RoboCop Operated by Cell Phone

Paul Blart, step aside. The fat, bungling mall cop may succeed in Hollywood, going after bad guys on his oh-so-yesterday Segway. But in real life the future of mall enforcement could lie with a new robotic cop that can be operated remotely from a cell phone and can — it's...

Nov 30, 2011

Controlling Robots with Cell Phone Applications

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. If robots are to become as common as household pets, everyday people will need to control and monitor them easily. That's one of the purposes behind two apps that Polytechnic Institute of New York University's (NYU-Poly)...

Jul 31, 2012

Robot Hand Could Disable IEDs

Researchers are showing off a robotic hand that they say could be dexterous enough to disarm an improvised explosive device (IED) and cost-effective enough to be used widely by troops. Hands are considered the most difficult part of the robotic system, and are also the least available due to the...

Jul 31, 2012

Blacksmith Talks about His Robot Suit Creation

Want to ride your own huge robot that resembles a futuristic starship trooper? You can thank Kogoro Kurata, an artist who channels the spirit of both superhero inventor Tony Stark and a blacksmith from Japan's feudal samurai era. Kurata built his eponymous robot suit, called Kuratas, with a group called...

Jun 30, 2012

Uncanny Valley Watch: Making Android Faces

Can an android that looks convincingly happy or sad get beyond the creepiness of the uncanny valley trap? The FACE android's best efforts to imitate human expressions still leaves it floundering somewhere deep within the valley. The idea of the uncanny valley coined by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori attempted to...

May 31, 2012

Clumsy Insects Inspire Clever Flying Robot

Most flying robots resemble larger helicopters or aircraft that can't risk hard collisions or catastrophic crashes. But a Swiss robot takes a different approach based on flying insects — it can survive clumsily bumping into walls and learn about its environment based on such bumps. The idea allows the AirBurr...

Apr 30, 2012

Iron Woman: Paralyzed Mom Finishes Marathon With Bionic Legs

It took 16 days, but Claire Lomas of England, paralyzed from the waist down after a horse-riding accident in 2006, completed all 26.2 miles of the London Marathon last week with the help of robotic legs. She had with her at the finish line her 13-month-old daughter, Maisie — also...

Nov 30, 2013

'Terminator' Obsession: Why So Many Robots Look Like Humans

Humanity, it seems, escaped the Terminator apocalypse: Atlas, the 330-lb. (150 kilograms) robot developed by Boston Dynamics, tripped again — this time during a test at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola. But Atlas was never intended for combat. The humanlike robot is a research tool...

Nov 30, 2013

Robots of the Future: Q&A With DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — For the past two days, engineering teams from around the world have been competing in a unique competition that showcases some of the most advanced capabilities in the field of robotics. The two-day DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials began Friday (Dec. 20) here at the Homestead Miami Speedway....

Aug 31, 2013

Photos: World Maker Faire New York 2013

Innovative Instrument (Image credit: Denise Chow for LiveScience)The New York Hall of Science became a DIYer's paradise this weekend, as World Maker Faire New York, a two-day event dedicated to the celebration of science, technology and innovation, kicked off in Queens. Here, Maker Faire attendees try out an interactive percussive...

May 31, 2013

Body-Double: Lifelike Android Demoed at Futuristic Conference

NEW YORK — An extremely humanlike robot made a public appearance today (June 15) here at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference focused on the technological singularity. Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan, described some of his efforts to...