The Sunday robot roundup!
(it’s Sunday here – anthrobotic.com broadcasts from southern Japan)
Okay, well actually I’m only rounding up two projects. First is the serious: Making Robots Safer – adding sensing technology and intuitive dexterity to working robots such as Nasa’s Robonaut 2 – which is nice. And then the playful: Virginia Tech’s Robot Soccer Team – entrants into the worldwide RoboCup soccer game [chose your own lame verb-pun: terminated, disassembled, reprogramed, hacked, etc.] the rest of the world’s teams in robo-soccer. These robots and the women’s meatspace world cup team have revealed that, though we realize the enjoyment of watching a soccer game is strong evidence of at least mild mental retardation, playing is fun – and American humans and non-biological intelligences actually CAN kick the ball and use no hands!
[VIA MIT TECH REVIEW & VIRGINIA TECH NEWS]