Atacama rover helps NASA learn to search for life on Mars
...ely using a robotic platform," Cabrol said. "These robots and science payloads will be a wonderful precursor to human exploration and excellent 'astronaut/astrobiology assistants' when the time comes for human missions," she added. Scientists also plan to map the habitats of the area, including its ...Knock knock knocking on rhythm's neural doors
...apture such behavior, and perhaps even give future robots a bit more rhythm in their stride -- "but don't look for them right away in hip-hop music videos," he says. Dagmar Sternad of the Penn State department of Kinesiology and Rieko Osu and Mitsuo Kawato of ATR-Kyoto were co-authors of the study, which wa...Cockroach-like robot leads new research effort
...iologists, but also to engineers who have designed robots like RHex that mimic the movements of animals. RHe...omputer science. But Full has contributed to other robots too: Ariel, which walks like a crab and was designed to operate in the surf zone and right itself if...Carnegie Mellon researchers to demonstrate autonomous robotthat will seek life in Atacama Desert
...e-year program whose results may ultimately enable robots to look for life on Mars. The project is part of NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology Program for Exploring Planets, or ASTEP, which concentrates on pushing the limits of technology in harsh environments. The first phase of the project began i...Nanotechnology pioneer slays 'grey goo' myths
...l manufacturing system. This "assembler" would use robots the size of bacteria to join individual molecules ...d of building lots of tiny, complex, free-floating robots to manufacture products, it will be more practical to use simple robot-arms in larger factories, lik...Tufts University groundbreaking research on caterpillar locomotion
... is using that knowledge to one day build flexible robots that could explore internal organs, blood vessels ...licate that movement and build our own soft-bodied robots that maneuver easily, like a caterpillar," Trimmer said. He added, "Our research has potential appli...Kinase backgrounder: Iressa discovery part of major kinase project at Dana-Farber
...t will be scanned for mutations. At the Whitehead, robots read the genes' sequences in search of "typos." Sellers estimates 1.7 million "reads" will be needed to search for mutant tyrosine kinase genes in hundreds of different tumors. One challenge is that the Kinase Project hasn't yet been fully funded. Th...MIT student dances with robots
...s robotic surgery. "There are existing steady-hand robots that [a doctor can] hold onto that will take the tremors out of their movement. Such robots could be improved by research like mine that might imbue the tool with a richer ability to understan...Aged roaches experience perils of stiff joints, find Case researchers
...sect movement to help engineer a new generation of robots that can not only move but sense information as they travel rugged terrains or locations unsafe for humans. Roaches reach adulthood after several molts. After 60 weeks into adulthood, Ridgel observed in lab studies that roach movement was much diff...Automated analysis of bee behavior may yield better robots
...s implications for biologically inspired design of robots and computers. The animal movement analysis syst...believe the language of behavior is common between robots and animals," Balch said. "That means, potentially, that we could videotape ants for a long period o...Scientists discover how brain draws and re-draws picture of world
... abilities. Now, by conducting experiments with robots and humans, scientists at Johns Hopkins have solved part of this mystery and created a new computer model that accurately reflects how the brain uses experience to improve motor control. "Now we have a much better idea of how the brain uses inform...Researchers create 'supersized' molecule of DNA
...ere or on another planet. So when we send explorer robots to Jupiter's moon, Europa, and look under the ice, we'll have an idea about what sort of life we should be looking for.'' The Science study was co-written by Stanford graduate students Haibo Liu (lead author), Jianmin Gao and Lystranne Maynard; for...Building a better atlas of yeast proteins
Using high-tech robots and old-fashioned hard labor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have measured the abundance and pinpointed the cellular locations of more than 4,000 proteins in yeast. Proteins are the workhorse molecules of the cell. They catalyze reaction......y questions they have." He points out that while robots will never totally replace the human touch that physicians provide their patients in person, they can augment the regular interactions between patients and their physicians as well as be useful when it's not practical or possible to physically send i......nsing protein to assist the U.S. Navy's underwater robots with locating and disarming explosion devices." At Duke University, with Dr. Homme W. Hellinga, associate professor of biochemistry at the University Medical Center in the lead, the newly redesigned proteins can detect everything from TNT to the neu...Engineered proteins will lead to 'synthetic biology'
...ein is intended to provide free-roaming underwater robots with the capability of "sniffing" a plume of TNT emanating from unexploded ordnance, tracking it to its source, to aid the U.S. Navy's cleanup program. The scientists' research is supported by the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Resear...'Work stinks': It's more than just a slogan among ants, researchers find
...other scientists have inspired engineers to design robots capable of interacting and performing tasks in unpredictable situations. Research on ant colonies is even being used to unravel secrets about the inner workings of the mind. "A brain consists of units called neurons, none of which can make any global...Research and development takes robots and automation into new territory
...aking large incisions. Dexterous, voice-controlled robots can facilitate efficient microscale operations by ...mors and offering visual magnifications. "Surgical robots enable the surgeon to perform the surgery at the same level of quality and time but with less pain, ...Carnegie Mellon, NASA to develop robot illustrating how to seek life on distant planets
...obot and instruments that may someday enable other robots to find life on Mars. The researchers will be using the Atacama, described as the most arid region on Earth, as a Martian analog. The group is funded with a $3 million, three-year grant from NASA to the university's Robotics Institute. They are colla...The frontier of microelectronics: Building nano-machines, part by part
...millimeters, no larger than a small housefly. The robots do not reproduce, and the idea behind Ellenbogen's research is not to make machines that assemble themselves, but to test the application of a nanocomputer. The millirobot's purpose is to be an "exercise of control," to understand the mechanics of ho...