Shimon, a Georgia Tech Robot not only can play the Marimba, but also improvise and play with humans.
You can read more from Robot Magazines article SHIMON CAN JAM
This image, taken from orbit by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is of Curiosity parachuting down to the surface of mars.
Here is a simulation of the various orbiters in relation to the landing Curiosity. As shown above, the MRO was in the right place at the right time to capture Curiosity’s Landing.
To keep up on all the news goto http://www.nasa.gov/mars
Last night Curiosity landed on mars. The landing went perfectly (even with parachutes, cranes and rockets). Within minutes it sent back two black and white images. The first picture to be received was one showing one of the wheels of Curiosity touching the surface and the other showing the showing the rover in shadow. These pictures were taken though a protective cover (hence the dust one cloudyness of the image).
Update: they created a video of the landing
Actor William Shatner narrates this thrilling video about NASA’s Curiosity rover, from its entry and descent through the Martian atmosphere to its landing and exploration of the Red Planet in NASA’s hardest planetary science mission to date.
If you are more a Next Generation fan, Wil Wheaton also narrated the same video:
Jul 31, 2012 by itnnews
Twenty-nine teams from China, Mexico, Russia and South Korea take part in a robot dancing competition in China.
From: Tech Crunch
By:John Briggs
July 30, 2012
gadgets
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Real Life Japanese Mech Robot Fires BBs With A Smile
John Biggs
posted 4 hours ago
12 Comments
The Kuratas Mecha robot is an art/aspirational nerd project by Suidobashi Heavy Industry. This full-sized Mech robot features a ride-in cockpit, “rocket” launchers, and a “smile controlled” BB Gatling gun. That’s right: when you smile, this thing unleashes thousands of tiny plastic BBs.
Unveiled at Wonder Fest 2012 in Tokyo, you can control the robot with either a set of master-slave joysticks or using a more fluid Kinect interface. It runs something called the V-SIDO (Bushido) OS and includes touchscreen support inside the cockpit as well as 3G wireless connectivity so you can control it via phone.
You can “price out” your own Mech here but rest-assured you won’t be able to drive one of these off the lot any time soon. It’s a one-off project and, as cool as it is, it only moves at about 10KM per hour.
There are some who are suggesting this is CG but considering the AFP/Getty picked up some photos of it, it looks about as real as you can get.
This is the 2012 Game Teaser for BEST Robotics:
Today Davis Fortenberry (who I told you about in March [See Post]) was on Nickelodeon’s “Figure It Out” trying to stump the panel and also demonstrating his robot. Not only did a 10 year old beat college students in a robotics competition, he was on national TV and GOT SLIMED!
Here is the episode (he is in the 2nd half):
Figure it Out: "Pedal Pull & Robotics" S1
Get More: Figure It Out Episodes,Figure It Out,Figure It Out Games
The Memphis area now has a registered First Tech Challenge team! FTC Team 5952 “Reapers Robotics” is associated with Boy Scout Troop 45 up in Arlington. For more info, see their website at https://sites.google.com/site/reapersrobotics5952/.
So now Memphis has teams in all 3 robotics competitions held by US First
from: IEEE Spectrum
Posted Tue, Aug 16, 2011
by Evan Ackerman
It was only a year ago that the University of Michigan’s MABEL biped robot was breaking its ankles trying to walk over rough terrain. Now the robot is defying death once again by becoming the world’s fastest bipedal robot, with the ability to sprint at up to 10.9 kph. More specifically, MABEL is the world’s fastest “kneed” bipedal robot, which just means that it’s the fastest robot that can run in a similar manner to us humans, leaving those Toyota robots (4.3 kph) and ASIMO (3.7 kph) in the dust.
MABEL is capable of such blistering speeds thanks to an innovative mechanical design which, although it may not look like it, incorporates a lot of the characteristics of a human runner. For example, MABEL has a torso that’s substantially heavier than its legs, just like a human, and it’s also got a system of springs that act like tendons. This gives MABEL a very human-like, bouncing gait, and the robot spends 40% of its time running in a “flight phase” with both feet off the ground, similar to humans:
For reference, MABEL’s top speed of 3 meters per second probably isn’t enough to catch a tolerably in-shape human, as Olympic sprinters can run at up to 10 meters per second over short distances. But the thing about robots is that they’re determined, so in the end, it’s a good thing that MABEL is tethered to that pole. And that it doesn’t have any arms to grab you with. Or any vision sensors, either. So even if you can’t run, at least you can hide.
For now.
