http://www.robodaily.com/index.html Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST en-us Almost 15 years after being paralysed by a stroke, a 58-year-old US-American woman was once again able to serve herself a drink of coffee. This was possible thanks to a state-of-the-art DLR robot arm and hand that she controlled with neural signals sent directly from her brain. It took just a few moments for her to grasp the drinking bottle with the robot hand, bring it up to her mouth and]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., invites the public to its annual Open House on Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event, themed "Great Journeys," will take visitors on a "ride" through the wonders of space. Highlights include a life-size model of Mars Science Laboratory, the NASA/JPL spacecraft currently bound for Mars; demonstrations from ]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST On April 12, 2011, nearly fifteen years after she became paralyzed and unable to speak, a woman controlled a robotic arm by thinking about moving her arm and hand to lift a bottle of coffee to her mouth and take a drink. That achievement is one of the advances in brain-computer interfaces restorative neurotechnology and assistive robot technology described in the journal Nature by the Brai]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Advanced Solar Photonics has announced that it has expanded production of its 400 Watt monocrystalline solar panels manufactured in Florida. The capacity expansion includes an enhanced production line that features a combined tabbing and stringing machine and the use of robotics to reduce the handling time for solar cells. The process has the latest vision alignment system and non-]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Japanese technology titan NEC has unveiled a gadget that allows users to control their TV, mobile phone or tablet computer using a virtual input device. The company said a camera that recognises three-dimensional shapes and their movements will combine with a projector that could show the image of an input device - such as a keyboard - on almost any surface. Users can then gesture at t]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River in a field test organized by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley. The smartphone-equipped floating robots demonstrated the next generation of water monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies monitor one of the state's most precious resources. The Floating Sensor Network proje]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Autonomous robots created by 11 teams of engineers from across the country will compete for a NASA prize purse of $1.5 million on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in Worcester, Mass., June 14 -17. The challenge: design and develop the next generation of robots to explore the landscapes of other worlds. The NASA-WPI Sample Return Robot Challenge requires the competing te]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Japanese electronics giant Sharp said Tuesday it had created a robot vacuum cleaner capable of recognising and responding to simple voice commands in several languages. The Cocorobo understands dozens of phrases such as "good morning", "clean the room" and responds differently "depending on the cleaning situation", Sharp said in a statement. It will also update owners on the battery leve]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Gaining access to the inner workings of a neuron in the living brain offers a wealth of useful information: its patterns of electrical activity, its shape, even a profile of which genes are turned on at a given moment. However, achieving this entry is such a painstaking task that it is considered an art form; it is so difficult to learn that only a small number of labs in the world practice it. ]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST They can be deployed as additional surveillance resources during major events, or as high-resolution 3D street imaging systems. Intelligent swarms of aerial drones are a universally useful tool for police, crisis managers and urban planners. Special 3D sensors developed by Fraunhofer researchers ensure fl awless aerobatics and prevent collisions. Like a well-rehearsed formation team, a flo]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Challenged to design a background for a small rover controlled from space, students in Germany have delivered a futuristic cityscape. The cool space art will be seen by astronauts in orbit via the rover's camera eye as they remotely control their avatar later this year. The ultimate goal is for robot astronauts to roam around hazardous places like Mars and asteroids guided by human controllers s]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Can a computer be taught to automatically label every song on the Internet using sets of examples provided by unpaid music fans? University of California, San Diego engineers have found that the answer is yes, and the results are as accurate as using paid music experts to provide the examples, saving considerable time and money. In results published in the April 24 issue of the Proceedings]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST NASA's first dexterous humanoid robot, has successfully hitched a ride to the International Space Station. Built for the specific purpose of working on the space station, its robotic hands work like human hands with the ability to use human tools to assist astronauts with tasks that are simple, repetitive or potentially dangerous. The technology development demonstration will serve as a sp]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST Astrobotic Technology Inc. has announced a NASA contract to determine whether its polar rover can deploy an ice-prospecting payload to the Moon. The ice could yield water, oxygen, methane and rocket propellant to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration. "Astrobotic seeks the immense resources available on the Moon to both accelerate space exploration and improve life on Earth," s]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST A team of scientists representing several international institutions, including Texas A and M University, has succeeded in installing the first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3-1) at the Chinese Kunlun Station at Dome Argus, the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau. The telescope is the first of three, half-meter devices to be installed at PLATeau Observatory (PLATO-A), a fully]]> Fri, 18 MAY 2012 10:50:38 AEST