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Lifehand 2 prosthetic grips and senses like a real hand
NCCR Robotics
12 Mar 2014
Amputee Dennis Aabo Sørensen wearing sensory feedback enabled prosthetic in Rome, February 2013 (Lifehand 2, Patrizia Tocci).
Roboticists and doctors working in Switzerland and Italy have come toget...
Robonaut doctor to practice in space
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
12 Mar 2014
Astronauts all know how important it is to stay healthy in space. Weightlessness alone can cause a number of physiological changes including muscle atrophy, loss of blood volume and bone loss. Most as...
Chess, Jeopardy and now… Ping Pong? Kuka robot goes up against table tennis champion Timo Boll
Frank Tobe and Ioannis K. Erripis
11 Mar 2014
Timo Boll & Agilus robot Photo credit: KUKA
[UPDATE] - KUKA just published the well-advertised video of the table tennis match of top athlete Timo Boll and one of its fastest robots, the KUKA KR ...
3 stories of emerging tech
Daniel Faggella
10 Mar 2014
A robotic prosthetic arm that can drum … biological nano motors … ambient pervasive display ...
Robot Drumming Prosthesis
Engineers at a Georgia Tech laboratory have created a robotic arm th...
Micro bio-bots powered by beating heart cells
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
10 Mar 2014
Photo by Alex Jerez Roman, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
A paper in Nature Communications earlier this year reports on "bio-bots". These tiny machines inspired by sperm, are ...
American nuclear materials storage site guarded by robots
Frank Tobe
10 Mar 2014
Since 2011, a Nevada nuclear materials storage site has been guarded by robots (Mobile Detection, Assessment and Response System). Last week the US Marines announced that their airbase in Twentynine P...
Urban vegetable garden system with LED lighting
DigInfo TV
10 Mar 2014
Keystone Technology's LED vegetable garden system is a cultivation system for indoor plant factories that uses LED lighting instead of sunlight. The most defining feature of the system on display at t...
Privacy, Google, and Big Deals, with Avner Levin
AJung Moon
07 Mar 2014
Link to audio file (33:53)
What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics? Since last December, Google alone has acquired a handful of companies in robotics, hom...
The gateway to advanced neuroprosthetics: Jessica Feldman talks BrainGate and BCI
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
07 Mar 2014
If the human brain is considered a computer, what does that mean for science and our lives? Could we repair damaged areas, replace damaged parts, or even upgrade our own minds? It might sound like lit...
Robots in a box win LAUNCHedu at SxSW
Andra Keay
06 Mar 2014
Elad Inbar's RobotsLAB BOX was unanimously declared the winner of LAUNCHedu at SxSW. In it's third year, the LAUNCHedu conference is held in Austin TX ahead of SxSW. LAUNCHedu focusses on bringing t...
Facebook plans to offer Internet service using aerial robots
Frank Tobe
05 Mar 2014
In a story on TechCrunch, it was revealed that Facebook is in talks to acquire or partner with Titan Aerospace. Titan makes solar-powered aerial robots that can fly for up to five years without needin...
With 11,000 pre-orders, Play-i gets $8 million Series A
Frank Tobe
05 Mar 2014
It was just a few months ago that Play-i raised over $1.4 million on Kickstarter. With a heavy advertising buy during the holiday season they now have 11,000 pre-orders for their Bo and Yana...
Quadrocopter failsafe algorithm: Recovery after propeller loss
Mark Mueller
04 Mar 2014
UPDATE 04/03/2014:
In this video update, we show that a quadrocopter can be safely piloted by hand after a motor fails, without the aid of a motion capture system. This follows our previous video, ...
Engineers build brain-controlled music player
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
04 Mar 2014
Imagine if playing music was as simple at looking at your laptop screen. Now it is thanks to Kenneth Camilleri and his team of researchers from the Department of Systems and Control Engineering and th...
Robohub Digest: February 2014
Jana Witt
03 Mar 2014
A quick, hassle-free way to stay on top of robotics news from the past month, our new monthly digest will be released on the first Monday of every month.
One of the biggest news items this Feb...
Mazor Robotics is gaining momentum
Frank Tobe
03 Mar 2014
Mazor Robotics, producer of the Renaissance Guidance System for spine and neuro surgeries, reported favorable earnings for the 4th quarter and for the whole year of 2013.
4Q revenue was up 111% ove...
ShanghAI Lectures: Serge Kernbach “Collective and Modular Robotics: Fundamentials and Frontiers”
Nathan Labhart
27 Feb 2014
Guest talk in the ShanghAI Lectures, 2010-12-02
Collective systems play very important role on Earth, and we encounter them in all sizes, scales and forms; in biological and technological areas; in...
Using geometry to help robots map their environment
Autonomous Robots Blog
26 Feb 2014
This post is part of our ongoing efforts to make the latest papers in robotics accessible to a general audience.
To get around unknown environments, most robots will need to build maps. To help the...
Wise birds enter Robot Launch 2014 early
Andra Keay
26 Feb 2014
We were really excited to see so many entries in the first days of Robot Launch 2014. What most people don’t realize is that you can enter the startup competition immediately but still keep updatin...
New book on disaster robotics
Robohub Editors
25 Feb 2014
A new book by MIT's Robin Murphy documents the use and performance of tactical ground, aerial, or marine robots at 34 incidents between 2001 and 2013....
150th Episode Special, with Dario Floreano
Podcast team
21 Feb 2014
Link to audio file (26:55)
Did you know that Robohub started right here, with the podcast? This is our 150th podcast episode, and to celebrate we brought together the original team to reenact our ver...
168,000 robots were sold in 2013; 5% more than in 2012
Frank Tobe
21 Feb 2014
Based on the results of the IFR Quarterly Statistics, the IFR estimates that in 2013 about 168,000 industrial robots were sold, 5% more than in 2012....
Robot Launch 2014: The first global startup competition for robotics is here!
Andra Keay
19 Feb 2014
Ready, set, launch! Is your prototype the next breakthrough in home robotics? Or are you developing a smart device, sensor, component or software that will help build the robots of the tomorrow? Roboh...
Packbot: Serving the Military and World Cup Football
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
19 Feb 2014
PackBots will be deployed in Brazil during the 2014 World Cup Soccer season to bring a high-tech approach to security. The nation’s government has secured a $7.2 million deal with PackBot’s crea...
Hexagon acquires Aibotix
Frank Tobe
18 Feb 2014
Hexagon, a Swedish provider of R&D and design, measurement and visualization products, with 14,000 employees in over 40 countries, and which serves a broad range of industr...
What do teachers mean when they say ‘do it like me’?
Autonomous Robots Blog
17 Feb 2014
This post is part of our ongoing efforts to make the latest papers in robotics accessible to a general audience.
Teaching robots to do tasks is useful, and teaching them in an easy and non time-i...
Announcing the new Drone Social Innovation Award
Andra Keay
11 Feb 2014
The Drone Social Innovation Award is a new initiative of the rapidly growing Drone User Group Network (DUGN). With over 3000 members across North America, Australia and Europe, DUGN is the largest com...
Industry and Society, with Rezia Maria Molfino
Per Sjöborg
07 Feb 2014
Link to audio file (33:13)
In today’s episode Per Sjöborg speaks with Rezia Molfino from the PMAR group at University of Genova about how all robots are service robots, it's just that they serv...
Microsoft pays 5M CHF to ETHZ and EPFL for research on flying robots and new memory architectures
Robohub Editors
07 Feb 2014
ETH Zurich and EPFL are jointly entering into a new research partnership with Microsoft Research. Over five years, Microsoft Research will provide five million Swiss francs of funding to support IT re...
SAE defines six levels of driving automation
Bryant Walker Smith
07 Feb 2014
Photo: Osvaldo Gago
SAE International's On-Road Automated Vehicle Standards Committee, on which I serve along with experts from industry and government, has released an information report defini...
Human error as a cause of vehicle crashes
Bryant Walker Smith
07 Feb 2014
Source: Wonderlane.
Some ninety percent of motor vehicle crashes are caused at least in part by human error. This intuitive claim is a fine place to start discussions about the safety potenti...
Flying Donkey Challenge
Andra Keay
05 Feb 2014
Sadly, the Flying Donkey Challenge was put on hold indefinitely. See details here.
Will we see flying donkeys racing around Mount Kenya with 20 kilo payloads in 2020? The dream of lifting Africa w...
GuardBot: From protecting territory to playing with dolphins
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
30 Jan 2014
What has the capability to strengthen homeland security, produce a ball’s-eye view of a soccer match and swim underwater with dolphins? GuardBot: the latest development in unmanned amphibious vehicl...
Startup Funding, with Jan Westerhues
Per Sjöborg
24 Jan 2014
Link to audio file (25:51)
In today’s episode Per Sjöborg speaks with Jan Westerhues, Investment Partner with Robert Bosch Venture Capital, about how they fund robotics companies. As a stepping st...
How biotech might pool the power of the human brain – with Proteo.me CEO Ivo Georgiev
Daniel Faggella and TechEmergence
22 Jan 2014
Artificial intelligence has it’s advantages. Systematically, over decades of research and development, AI has come to dominate human intelligence in a number of specific and often limited tasks. Yet...
Robot tourism coming soon to Korea: Masan Robot Land project finally breaks ground
Jong-Oh Park
20 Jan 2014
With permission finally given to occupy lands that include an existing road and stream, the Masan Robot Land Project that went adrift for almost two years was officially launched on December 7, 2013 w...
