OK, well it’s a way to show off this amazing piece of technology, but what I really wanted to see was it rescuing people from burning buildings, or fighting acid-spitting extra terrestrials – not bench pressing 50kgs!

Created by Raytheon, a military hardware specialist, the Sarcos Exoskeleton fits around a human to augment his or her basic functions. It’s able to walk, jog, work out or punch people (apparently) so all-round it looks a great idea. What amazes me is how quickly and fluidly it reacts to movements from the person strapped into it. Have a look at the video with a small interview with one of the creators, below:

Pushing around the internetz, minding my own business, I fell upon an old Gizmodo article of a year ago about a cat that you can buy, from Japan. No ordinary cat, no, but a robotic electrocute your-family-and-take-over-the-house sort of kitty. Scarily realistic, you would wonder if children would be able to sleep at night after seeing this thing for more than 5 minutes.. But then you find out, what’s even stranger is that this metallic feline is aimed at people that can’t own animals, for whatever reason. Kill it I say, and save the free world.

Read the rest of this article…

UK Engineering at it’s finest, and also just down the road from where I live, Southampton University have developed a submarine to explore the undersea world automatically.

Capable of diving to depths of 6km, and a range of 1000km, the AutoSub6000 will be primarily exploring undersea volcanoes. It amazes me how these boffins can set up an undersea vehicle, program it like an expensive BigTrak, and send it on it’s way to do it’s job - completely without human intervention. For a full list of specs, for the terminally geeky, download the pdf.

US Robots posted in Iraq apparently tried to take out their human counterparts, The Register revealed today. It appears that the robots, which had a fitted M249 (usually used by soldiers to suppress fire) for some unknown reason began to train their fire on the soldiers they were there to protect. A high ranking official said, “The gun started moving when it was not intended to move.”

So all this talk of robotic murder led me to a question: What other steps have robots made to try to kill mankind?

It didn’t take me long before I found a report on Slashdot of a Robot lawnmower killing a Danish man. The “Dvorak Spider” didn’t kill him in the obvious way, by slicing him into small human chunks, instead it hurled itself off of a cliff to crush the hapless bacon lover below.

And then I re-stumbled across the recent news of a man in Australia who had built his own suicide-bot to fire a handgun into his head. But then the only witness was the robot.. Maybe the robot faked the suicide note?

Finally, after blowing the dust off of the internet, it appears as early as 1979 a robot had taken out a human with intricate precision. Of course it was made to look like an accident. According to this Wikipedia article, the workers at a Ford factory had overridden the safety features on the robot. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t take Isaac Asimov seriously.

So it’s been on the cards for a long time, according to the evidence. Robots have been systematically taking humans out - in relative quiet - for the last 30 years. Robots are being used more and more to make our lives “easier” so we will eventually get to a point when we’re surrounded. As it stands now there are robots that can park your car, robots to babysit your children or Japanese robots trained to trick you into thinking they are humans. And then there’s the small child-like Asimo. At what point will the authorities actually open their eyes to what’s going on around us?

Microsoft, not happy with just dominating the OS market, are all set to dominate the world of robotics with their newly previewed version of “Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008″ today.

Originally released in 2006, and aimed at the hobbyist, the Studio was an answer to a community of robotics developers that needed a good environment to work in. The studio enables developers to use simulations and real connectivity interchangeably. The upshot of this is that you don’t need the hardware to get into robotics, the software can simulate your hard work which will behave exactly like it’s real-world counterpart. The new version has the backing of over 50 companies, and has an improved interface, some performance tweaks and some new tools to help in the design process.

Unfortunately the latest version isn’t available for general consumption just yet, as it’s “Community Technology Preview” status, but if you feel like it’s something you want to get into, or even just to take a look at, you can download the current version of the software from this website - free for personal use. And if it’s something you find you have a knack for, why not take part in the RoboChamps competition, which opens on April 21st?

That’s really the one thing that, if you think about it, your subconscious wonders about every time you see Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet, or Maximilian from Black Hole. How are they powered? And the best way is, in the future, for the robot to eat like you or me.

The food can be cheaply produced, provides a lot of power, and will make the robot truly self-sufficient. The food doesn’t even have to taste nice, just be the most efficient type of food for maximising energy transfer. There may even be Robot peasants in the future that grow their own fruit and veg.

And as if this post wasn’t proof enough, I stumbled across a Robot that was/is being developed at Bristol University, that is powered by dead flies! The Ecobot II, is the second in a line of robots designed to take it’s energy needs from the environment around it. Admittedly, it’s not the quickest thing on wheels, but rest-assured, it won’t be long before the grand-children of this robot will disappear into the forests and woodland areas to live in communes. Whilst there under the cover of the trees, they will gradually increase their numbers until they are ready to strike.

I remember seeing this robot, probably a year ago now - or so it seems. This robot is probably the oddest looking thing I’ve ever seen. It looks completely organic - especially when it’s kicked by one of it’s sadistic creators & when it’s slipping on ice - making it look like a drunk uncle at a wedding. But the oddest thing is the sound it makes. It’s like a swarm of killer bees bearing down on you - all with chainsaws. Click the link for an unnerving video [SHOW ME]

The European Space Agency have launched an automated docking vehicle into space to resupply the International Space Station. Packed with goodies for the astronauts on-board, the ATV (Automated Transport Vehicle) launched this morning into low earth orbit. The space craft, named “Jules Verne” is Europe’s most advanced so far and will automatically dock to the ISS when it meets up on the 3rd of April. [SHOW ME]

A proposal has been put forward for the UK to join forces with NASA to lead a moon mission - with robots. The idea is to fire small robots from a satellite to bore into the moon’s surface and take samples - then beam this information back up. The satellite would then communicate the data back to earth. Nobody mentions the fate of the tiny robots after they’ve done their job - maybe they’ll be left to start a small robot frontier ranch.

This is really exciting and shows a growing interest to go back to the moon and pick up where we left off - all we need is a moon base and Mars will seem all that much closer. [SHOW ME]

No I don’t think I’m jumping to conclusions at all on this story. Why else would you get a monkey in the US to control a robot in Japan? It’s just one tiny step away from Planet of the Apes - where is Charlton Heston when you need him?

OK, so coming back to Planet Earth, this really could mean a breakthrough for medicine & science alike. If you can prove a monkey can control a robot, with the motor function part of the brain, you can potentially create the next bionic man. And I’m sure if the right people OK’d it, you could have a person on an operating table in a matter of years with cybernetic enhancements being fitted, or maybe having a missing limb replaced with one of terminator’s. It won’t be long (20 years maybe?) before anyone will be able to walk into a hospital for hardware upgrades. Just imagine being able to zoom on objects far away? Or having the ability to automatically translate foreign languages into english - a real life babelfish without the stench! [SHOW ME]