We’re starting to see some of the DARPA Robotics Challenge’s contenders take shape: Carnegie Mellon just announced that it’s …
DARPA
Scientists Finally Create a Creepy Robotic Earthworm
Ready to be creeped out? Then take a gander at Meshworm, the crawling, autonomous robot created by researchers from MIT, Harvard University and Seoul National University.
It moves by peristalsis, the same squeezing and …
Wanted: Hypersonic Aircraft That Can Reach Anywhere on Earth in an Hour
Fly anywhere on Earth in an hour. That’s the goal for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), according to Nextgov.com. DARPA is the Department of Defense’s secretive research arm known mostly for commissioning …
WATCH: Paralyzed Woman Controls Robot with Her Brain
Cathy Hutchinson hasn’t been able to drink anything without the help of her caregiver in the 15 years since she had a stroke. Now, thanks to new technology detailed today in Nature, she can take a sip of coffee simply by thinking …
WATCH: DARPA’s New Robot Can Chase You Up Stairs
PETMAN looks like the Terminator but if it ever went rogue, escaping it would be as easy as walking up a set of stairs. No longer, kids; Boston Dynamics has released new footage of one its creations demonstrating terrifying …
DARPA’s $2 Million Challenge: Five Potential Robot Contenders
Yesterday, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new contest: create a humanoid robot that can navigate a world made for humans. We take a look at five of them and examine how close they are to …
White House to Spend $200 Million on ‘Big Data’
Today, the White House is announcing that it’s spending $200 million on its “Big Data” initiative, which aims to “advance state-of-the-art core technologies needed to collect, store, preserve, manage, analyze, and share huge …
DARPA-Backed ‘Cheetah’ Is the World’s Fastest-Running Robot
There are a few humans alive who can outrun the new DARPA-funded Cheetah robot; if your name isn’t Usain Bolt, however, chances are you’re not one of them. This robot can reach speeds of up to 18 mph, breaking the old record of …
DARPA Develops Technology to Single Out the Socially Awkward
DARPA has funded a lot of crazy, science fiction-inspired projects before, but this is the first one that will be able to determine whether or not you’re socially awkward. According to Wired, the Assessment of Asymmetric Social …
10 Robots Inspired by Animals and Insects
All the research in the world can’t beat millions of years of evolution. Today’s roboticists are increasingly looking to nature for inspiration, creating robots that move and behave with uncanny similarity to living animals. …
The ‘Flying Humvee’ Exists! Who Wants One?
In a 1968 musical starring Dick Van Dyke, a vintage racing motorcar takes to the skies with helicopter blades perched on the ends of red and yellow batwings. The musical’s name: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. For some reason, those four words popped into by brainpan when I spotted MSNBC’s story about a “flying Humvee.”
Just look at that …
IBM Aims to Build Artificial Human Brain Within 10 Years
WATSON, it seems, was only the beginning.
Not content with building a computer that can win Jeopardy without breaking an electronic sweat, IBM has announced plans to create a “cognitive computer” that will simulate the same number of neurons as the human brain, yet run on less energy than the supercomputer that made Ken Jennings look …
