Tag Archives: robots

Coffee has all sorts of untapped potential, as we saw with the Nespresso-powered clocks and radio. DARPA takes a handful of sweet caffeine-assisted glory with this mechanical coffee grounds-filled balloon. I know, it sounds like the leftovers of a futuristic Starbucks office party, but the resulting product is actually a helpful gripper which sucks objects into its crushed coffee grounds ...

After hearing that one of his friends had been stung upwards of 90 times while trying to exterminate wasps from his property, Professor Sekine of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, who was undoubtedly dealing with a wasp problem of his own, decided to come up with an easier way to conquer the problem of painful and potentially dangerous insect stings. Mohican, ...

NASA has a little treat for all of us robot and/or space junkies out there. From 8 a.m. PT (11 a.m. ET) every morning, Monday-Friday, work begins at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, as engineers carefully assemble the Curiosity Mars Rover. And you can watch them do it live with NASA’s Curiosity Cam. Other than occasional “maintenance periods” ...

We’re sure that there are plenty of people who wouldn’t mind strapping into a jet pack and soaring 8,000 feet in the sky at 60 mph, myself included. But out of those people, how many would be willing to not only fly a jetpack, but fly it into the crossfire of a war. Not many. Not to mention the government ...

Hands down, the most convenient way to build a robot in your own home is LEGO’s Mindstorm NXT set, which fuses robotics and LEGO bricks in a combination of geeky and nostalgic joy. LEGO just released MindDroid, an Android app which lets you remotely control your Mindstorm creations from your Android device. MindDroid uses Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to the ...

Now PR2 doesn’t only fold your socks, but also doesn’t crush your bones when you shake its hand. PR2 by Willow Garage has been a robot in the spotlight since its creation in late-2006 by ex-Google employee Scot Hassan. PR2 has pooped up in the media a few time throughout the years, and he finds himself the subject of headlines ...

“Have you filled out your robot census? No? You know that’s illegal right?” We’re not quite there yet, nor do we really have the need, but eventually, robots might have a census of their own. In fact, a small scale version is already underway. Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University launched a robot census to determine how many robots existed on the ...

The Hawthorne Army Depot, a 600,000 sq. ft. storage facility in western Nevada, has employed a new race of guards to protect the security of their weaponry and nuclear waste. The MDARS (Mobile Detection Assessment Response Systems) robots patrol the outskirts of the military installation with expert precision only a machine can provide. With a top speed of 20 mph, ...