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Written by William Cox
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Tuesday, 21 June 2005 |
So I go and get this nice news post all typed up and Firefox crashes on me.
Doh! Anyways, it should be obvious I've been pretty busy around here.
I'm teaching a three week long robotics summer camp and between that and
family stuff I don't have much robot time. So, here goes a big link
dump:
The robot display of park benches and trash cans at Cambridge got canceled
because the robots didn't work very well. "... The bins and benches
lasted just three hours before being recaptured
after running amok, slamming into everything in the vicinity." That
certainly was £110, 000 well wasted. There's also another story of a pill dispensing robot going crazy and busting in on a doctor doing an examination of a patient. Both humans fled the scene.
Here's an interesting High School invention competition that goes by the name, InvenTeams,
and is sponsored by none other than MIT. The teams are given $10,00 USD
and 9 months to solve a problem of their choice. " ... projects
included an automatic pill dispenser, a wind-powered
water-pump, a remotely operated vehicle for education and research,
a[nd a]
robotic tennis ball retriever."
Where was that when I was in highschool?
Look out Japan, but Korea wants to become the next robot superpower.
They're aiming for the number 3 slot by 2013 and are spending $29.5
billion to get there. They estimate $20 billion in exports and the
creation of 100,000 new jobs. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Il simply says, "we
don't need no stiiinking robots, comrade."
Robot surgical nurse.
And no, this isn't like the ones we've seen before. This one
independantly did the procedure by following commands given to it by
the doctor. I imagine this could have major implications for the
plastic surgery industry - robot surgery on the go. Punch the buttons
and let the robot do it's enlarging/lifting/tucking job.
And finally, a new robotvac is on the horizon,
but this one claims to be really smart. According to the article, the
robot navigates by reading RFID tages embedded into your carpet.
Doesn't work so well on the antique Persian rugs, but will the carpets
of the future be laced with silicon?
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