NASA is finally letting Robonaut 2 do some stuff, and they’re sharing it with the public – there’s actually a steady feed of news, only mildly cheesy 1st-person commentary, and some decent R2 photos & video beaming down from the ISS.
Next to Team SCHAFT’s new Google overlords withdrawing them from further competition, the poor showing of NASA’s Valkyrie robot might have seemed the DRC Trials’s biggest disappointment, but it’s nowhere near that simple: NASA JSC and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) are keeping the flame alive, and by flame we’re talking like…nuclear blow-torch.
These six teams, unique in that they’ve developed their own machines and software, will be competing with the 7 winners from the Virtual Robotics Challenge (who’ll get an ATLAS robot), and a yet to be determined number from Track D.
![Japanese Technology from the Future Friday [via Akihabara News]](http://anthrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/JTFF.AKIBA_.ANTHROBOTIC-e1368805129484-bc8093c63b0667d513eefa304751bf5e-180x124-6-nocrop.png)
THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH: JAXA & the ESA taking NASA stuff into space, Japan likes Apple’s patents better than Samsung’s, Toyota and Tesla made an electric baby RAV4, and the guy who invented DRAM got a Japanese medal and $500 Gs!
Gangly, multi-jointed arms aren’t going to cut it – we need humanoid robots in space. Robonaut2 is currently the only one up there (props, NASA), but there are others in the works, and they’re getting good – let’s check in.
Hundreds of robot & technology outlets (including this one) were scooped by a world-traveling random French guy who dropped by NASA Johnson earlier this month. Thanks to Antranik Zekian at Les Passengers (www.lespassengers.com) for permission to share!
Google’s built a beautiful galactic simulation. Go look at it. Oh, and private companies doing stuff like this, but on grand scales – is this the future of big, bold science?