Robot-eyes for producing human-like 3D images of the surroundings

Xiaolin Zhang is at the Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, and inventor of ‘active stereo vision systems’, based on a deep understanding of the cooperative movements of human eyes.

“My robot-eyes-system enable the realization of three dimensional visualization of objects,” says Zhang. “We conducted a thorough analysis of binocular movement based on system control engineering.”

Based on this analysis, Zhang developed a robotic system consisting of two CCD cameras with unique peripheral control mechanisms, enabling unsurpassed 3D imaging. The robotic system is capable of maintaining a constant distance with respect to a target—for example a human face—even when the target is moving.

Source: http://www.titech.ac.jp/bulletin/innovation.html

Robots that care for us

University of Auckland researcher, Associate Professor Bruce MacDonald, and his team of researchers (both in New Zealand and in South Korea), are creating robots to help care for the elderly. By monitoring vital signs and location, detecting falls and prompting users to take medication, the robots can fill the gap between the number of available caregivers for the elderly and the growth of our aging population.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_o7bFbzMRM

Source: http://www.youtube.com/researchworkswonders

Robotic Soccer

The UNSW robot soccer team has made it to the grand final of RoboCup 2010, the world’s toughest test of android ability - only to be knocked out by a team from Germany.

Source: http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2010/jun/Robocup.html

Maker Bots

MakerBot Industries creates open source robot kits that transform your digital designs into physical objects automatically.

Makerbot

Japanese University Robot Research

Please see: http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Frobot.watch.impress.co.jp%2F&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

Mind-Controlled Robot

Honda Research Institute have unveiled the world’s first brain to machine interface.

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Robotic Hand Powered by Compressed Air and Rubber Bands

It's name is RAPHaEL (Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments), and it was built by four Virginia Tech mechanical engineering students as part of a larger project to create a humanoid robot. The arm alone, having no motors, and a safe, inexpensive design with adjustable grip, has potential for use as a prosthesis. Its four creators have already won a slew of engineering awards - here's hoping their next trophy is for turning it into a medical device.

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The future of Robots

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Megnetic flying micro-robots

A research team lead by professor Mir Behrad Khamesee manipulated magnetic fields to levitate and move a robot weighing less than one gramme around three axes.

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Surgical Robot

After making a small incision, the robot compensates for the natural shake and movement of the organ caused by heartbeats so that surgery can proceed as if the organ is still. That little trick could enable minimally invasive, endoscopic heart surgeries in the future.

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Waseda University

Robot fish to monitor pollution

A school of mechanical, battery-powered robots in the shape of fish will be released into a Spanish port to help monitor pollution there, scientists said Friday.

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Cyber-robots

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has created software that uses colonies of borg-like cyberrobots it says will help government agencies detect and fend off attacks on the nation's computer network infrastructure.

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CirculaFloor

The CirculaFloor is a series of autonomous tiles that reposition themselves quickly so that whoever is walking above can move in any direction across them, without going anywhere at all. It's designed to make virtual reality more immersive. In robotics holonomicity refers to the relationship between the controllable and total degrees of freedom of a given robot (or part thereof).



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An evolving robot

British artificial intelligence engineers have created a robot that mimics the evolutionary process in just the span of a few hours. They programmed a robot’s “brain” to automatically grow in size and complexity as its physical makeup is modified.

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Robot helps stroke victims

A hand-holding robot can help partially-paralysed stroke patients regain their ability to grasp and pick up objects.

VIDEO HERE

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UNITX

UNITX (united networks international transport exchange) is a concept for the transportation of goods to your house using logibots which would travel through a massive network of underground tunnels. It's a project by Viennese entrepreneur turned artist Michael Marcovicia and author of the book, "The end of EBay".

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UNITX

Robot Shop

The World's Leading Source for Domestic and Professional Robot Technology.

Robor shop

Robotic Prostheses For Human Faces

The design of prosthetic limbs has taken huge strides in recent years – But internal prosthetics, like those used to reconstruct injured faces, have yet to incorporate such advanced features, and still tend to be awkward and unrealistic.

Surgeons Craig Senders and Travis Tollefson of the University of California, Davis, plan to change that by using artificial polymer muscles to reanimate the facial features of people suffering from severe paralysis.

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Patent

The Bionic Body Shop

Advanced medical devices are the tools that enable humans and robots to merge, perhaps signaling the dawn of a technological singularity. How close are we now? Take a tour on IEEE's Bioengineering Body Shop HERE.

Robots to fight in place of US troups within a few years

Robots will fight the wars of the future, a prominent military expert told an audience of luminaries Wednesday. "We are at a point of revolution in war, like the invention of the atomic bomb," writer and Brookings Institution fellow Peter W. Singer said.

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