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. Continue reading →
You may recognize this machine’s winning dance routine!
South Korean pop artist PSY’s song Gangnam Style has become an international sensation. Some consider the song to be unique and catchy yet others maintain it’s rather repetitive and annoying. While the tune might get old, most will agree that PSY’s dance moves will not! And now that Gangnam Style has gone viral, even machines are moving to the melody! Continue reading →
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. Continue reading →
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. Continue reading →
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 →
This blog explores the fields that embrace the development of an ecology of soft and sentient machines that will help and assist humans in the broadest possible sense to support and sustain our welfare.
You will find entries on biology, robotics, artificial intelligence, ecology, science-fiction, neuroscience... and many more that converge around questions like: what does it take to make our assisting machines sentient?
The blog is written by the Coordination Action initiative of the Future Emerging Technologies (FET) programme of the EU, named "Robot Companions for Citizens". Click here for more information on that initiative.