Robotics

On July 6, 2005, in Uncategorized

A new robot to support daily living introduced by Hitachi is evidence of Japan’s vision of the need and market for robots, and of its skill in developing them. However, the country’s strategic robotics initiative could be another “Fifth Generation Project”* in the making, and the West may soon catch up or overtake it. At […]

Robotics

On May 6, 2005, in Uncategorized

Korea on a Roll; Morphing Robots; Shape Shifters 2; World Robotics Expo Korea on a Roll www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/02/200503020022.asp A government-backed consortium of Korean information-technology companies plans soon to roll out consumer robots that will “take care of your simple daily chores, such as checking blood-sugar levels for diabetics or even reading to your children.” Three prototypes […]

Robotics

On January 5, 2005, in Uncategorized

Another new lifeform — a “biobot” made of silicon and animal cells — has been created. * * * Like South Korea, Japan is starting to get serious about networked robotics. * * * Chemically-powered artificial muscle that works more like natural muscle than current electrically-powered artificial muscle is under development for the US military. […]

Computing, Telecommunications, Devices

On January 5, 2005, in Uncategorized

An IBM-led public grid project to analyze masses of proteomics data could accelerate the search for cures to major diseases. Three smart and progressive US states are also acting to tap the potential of grid supercomputing, to boost research, jobs, and the economies of their states. Other computing/telecom news: The US National Institutes of Health […]

Robotics

On August 21, 2004, in Uncategorized

The robotics industry today can be compared to the PC industry in 1977, when the first kit PCs appeared and were followed within five years by the truly useful, multi-purpose IBM PC that changed the world. We believe the world is in for another major change in about five years, when truly useful, multi-purpose robots […]

Robotics

On July 21, 2004, in Uncategorized

The personal computer revolution, you may recall, started with a kit PC sold through an amateur electronics magazine. A humanoid robot kit just out on sale in Japan could ignite the robotics revolution. PCs changed life and business drastically in just a few decades; robots will do it again, and faster. In a reverse of […]

Robotics

On June 21, 2004, in Uncategorized

If The Graduate were to bump into Mr. Robinson today, the word would not be “Plastics!” It would be “Robotics!” The market for consumer robots will sail past industrial robots in volume by next year, and there could be some six million professional service robots — including care robots — in use by 2010. A […]

Robotics

On June 21, 2004, in Uncategorized

NASA has built and is testing an intelligent robot assistant to accompany astronauts as they walk on Mars. NASA is also developing engineer robots that can work cooperatively to build structures in space. Such robots could benefit from an evolutionary algorithm applied to neural networks, which has resulted in robots that learned to play a […]

Robotics

On April 21, 2004, in Uncategorized

Japan’s strategic focus on robotics is paying off in the emergence of real products, such as a robotic bath, to meet the health challenges of its elder boom. And they have only just begun. Having already overcome the engineering challenges of robotics — Aibo and Qrio, QED — Sony is founding a new robotics lab […]

Robotics

On March 21, 2004, in Uncategorized

Renewed interest in pilotless passenger planes should at least make one think about the possibility of surgeonless surgical robots. Making them “look and feel” like real surgeons is the job of social roboticists. However, robots that don’t need to interact with people, such as the robot bench scientist, probably don’t need such an extreme makeover. […]