Category Archives: Robots and Research

Biomimetics: Where’s it at?

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Researchers explore the state of the art of Biomimetics

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Does it make sense to study the living to make machines? Or explore the intricate architecture of a shell to design a building? Within this field, scientists look to nature for their best ideas—we’re talking about Biomimicry. It’s a scientific field that blends a flow of ideas from the biological sciences into engineering. Biomimetic research is bringing together scientists from disciplines such as Neuroscience, Cell Biology, Computation, Psychology, and many others to produce new technologies that make sense in today’s ever-changing world.
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BCBT 2013

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The  6th edition of the Barcelona Cognition, Brain and Technology 2 week summer school
bcbtBCBT is back for its 6th summer in sunny Barcelona! Check out the CSN international summer school hosted by SPECS at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

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It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Robobee!!!

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Harvard University says hello to the tiniest flying robot ever

Pictured next to an American coin, this little machine weighs in at a mere tenth of a gram. The Robobee, developed at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering,  is officially the smallest flying robot ever created and it’s just completed some very successful first flights.
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This Bot Doesn't Bite…

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Check out this robot inspired by fleas!

Scientists at Seoul National University (SNU) have recently created a robot inspired by tiny blood-sucking bugs: fleas! Pesky as these little insects may be, they’ve got an incredible physical ability that not even an Olympic high-jumper could compete with — these guys can jump over 200 hundred times their own body length! See for yourself in NewScientist’s video above.
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A Bigger and Better Robotics Industry for Europe

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The European Commission recognizes Robotics as a key industry for the future of Europe

The European Commission has recently agreed to launch a Public Private Partnership in Robotics (PPP) between academia and industry for 2013. 

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A Real Life Transformer?

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Japan’s working on robots for entertainment and emergencies!

If you’re a fan of Transformers, you’ll love Suidoubashi Heavy Industries’ new Kuratas robot. The jumbo toy currently on the market for about a million euros, is custom made for each of its owners. As both a vehicle and a robot, the Kuratas can be driven by the user seated in the robot’s cockpit. The giant bot may look pretty cool cruising down the street however it’s not the swiftest mode of transportation as its top speed is only about 10 km an hour.
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Petman is Back!

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With greater skill and finesse as the Pet-proto

You may be familiar with the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Petman robot, which was featured in one of our previous posts along with some other incredible humanoid robots. In coordination with Boston Dynamics once again, DARPA has recently released a new video introducing Pet-proto, a machine which is being developed as precursor to the Atlas robot whose making is in the works.
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Do You Speak Lingodroid?

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Ruth Schulz and Her Team at the University of Queensland Develop Robots Capable of Creating Their Own Language

 

¨ Where are you? ¨ asks your friend impatiently as you struggle to find each other in a busy park you have never been to, ¨i’m at the fountain, to the left of the swing set. How far away are you?¨ A conversation such as this is an example of how language enables us to gain information about places we have little experience with. While it’s easy to find our way around our own neighborhood, we need to be able to communicate to find our way around someone else’s. Continue reading →

The 2012 Living Machines Conference

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Here’s a taste of what went on over the 3 day event organized by the Convergent Science Network

Electro sensors inspired by fish who navigate their way through murky waters, robots that dance with the honeybees, and artificial muscles and blood vessels making their way into modern medicine. These are just a few of the research topics that were Continue reading →

Robots That Smell

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Biomimetic Robot from Vicky Vouloutsi on Vimeo.

As humans, we may take our sense of smell for granted but for many of the other members of the animal kingdom, either land-roaming or water-dwelling, a keen sense of smell serves as an invaluable tool! While cetaceans like dolphins have no sense of smell, some species of fish, such as the salmon, use theirs to guide them back to their native streams or to assist them in maintaining social hierarchy. Most of us are well aware that a dog’s nose could out Continue reading →