Aug 282015
 
Robonaut 2: Alive and Suddenly Super Busy (FLASHBACKERY)

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.

Feb 162015
 
NASA's Valkyrie Humanoid Busting Fresh Moves Courtesy of IHMC (VIDEO)

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.

Jul 142013
 
NEW VIDEO: DARPA Robotics Challenge, Track A - Meet the Big 6 for December

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.

Jun 222013
 
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday [via Akihabara News]

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!

Feb 222013
 
Know Your Robot Space Torsos: Justin, Robonaut, SAR-400, & AILA

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.

Nov 202012
 
Google's 100,000 Stars & the Paradigmatic Disruption of Large-Scale Innovation Revisited

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?