Tag: robotics

CMU to Build Robot City

The Roundhouse at Robot City

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is reporting today that Carnegie Mellon University is planning to build a hi-tech robot research and development facility called Robot City on the site of a former steelworks plant. With the stated mission of moving “robots from laboratory to life,” Robot City will be populated by robots built to handle relatively mundane …

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NXT Pre-Orders Start April 1st

Gizmodo.com is reporting that retailers will begin taking pre-orders for the forthcoming Lego Mindstorms NXT robot development kit starting April 1st. The system, priced at $249, will not ship until late summer and will be available at Amazon, Target, Fry’s and Wal-Mart. This follows the news from earlier this month that Lego had chosen 100 …

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The Mythbusters Build a Vex PackBot

iRobot Packbot Scout

For the premier issue of Robot magazine the guys from the popular Discovery Channel show Mythbusters documented their attempt to recreate an iRobot PackBot using stock components of the Vex Robotics Design System. Even though no one had any previous experience with the Radio Shack robotics kit, co-hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage together with …

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Stanley’s Successor to Drive from SF to LA

Stanley the Stanford University Volkswagen

Fresh off their 1st place finish at Darpa’s Grand Challenge 2005 and not content to rest on their laurels, the robotics experts from Stanford University have announced their next goal is to develop an autonomous vehicle capable of driving from San Francisco City Hall to downtown Los Angeles, at highway speeds no less! Gizmodo.com has …

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Robosapien Creator Mark Tilden Interviewed

I’m a little bit late posting today so by now just about everybody else has already reported this, but in case you missed it (or in case NeuralDump is your sole source for news), You-Review.net has posted an interview with Mark Tilden, the controversial roboticist who’s responsible for the immensely popular line of WowWee robots …

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Robots-Dreams.com Interviews Sean Jefferies

Lem over at Robots-Dreams.com, a great resource for robot enthusiasts and a site I frequent often for news and inspiration, managed to get Australian robot hacker Sean Jefferies, aka Sprocket2Cog, on the phone last week. The two spoke for 45 minutes about how Jefferies got his start in robotics and his work hacking, among other …

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Robot Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Announcement

Carnegie Mellon Robot Hall of Fame

In a press release today, Robotics Trends and IDG World Expo announced that the 2006 induction ceremonies for Carnegie Mellon University’s Robot Hall of Fame will be held during the third annual RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition which will take place in Pittsburgh on June 20th and 21st. The ceremony will take place on the second …

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FedEx Institute Launches Robotics Research Center

FedEx Institute of Technology

The FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis announced today that they will be launching a new robotics research center focused on developing robot technology with everyday uses. The new research center, the first since the FedEx Institute opened in 2003, will be initially funded by FedEx Corporation with corporate and government sponsorships …

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LinuxRobots.org aka Scare Michael Shiloh’s Dog

Michael Shiloh Robot

LinuxDevices.com has a posting about a newly launched website by one of its members that combines two of my favorite things: Linux and robots. The website, LinuxRobots.org, was created by Michael Shiloh, an electrical engineer, Linux buff, and robot builder for Survival Research Laboratories (SRL), the performance art group whose spectacularly noisy and destructive robot …

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Lego Announces Mindstorms NXT Robotics Toolset

Lego Mindstorns NXT Robot

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has been in full swing in Las Vegas for the last few days, and while there’s been a lot of cool gadget news and product announcements, there hasn’t been much worth mentioning here until today. To the surprise of many people, myself included, Lego announced this morning that the …

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