Cody Taylor

bugs2squash writes “Some of the parents of kids at my son’s elementary school would like to set up a robotics club for the children. I see that Lego has a new line of robotics bricks called wedo (PDF) and that seems to be the path of least resistance to doing something. But I wanted to ask: What experience do all y’all have of running a robotics club for this age group (5 thru 10 years old) and what factors made it a success (or failure)? Did you use a commercial kit of parts or brew something from scratch? What kind of projects work well with kids this age? I was thinking maybe making robot flowers (yes, I know they’d all rather build robotic sharks with lasers).” (Here’s another page about Wedo.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

carusoj writes “The folks at iRobot apparently have plenty of time on their hands. They created a prototype wireless, robotic vacuum cleaner… powered by a hamster running inside a spinning ball. The rodent’s movements with the ball are fed to and analyzed by a complex set of sensors, which then guide the actual vacuum device to mimic the animal’s speed and direction. You can see where this is going: it’s a clever ploy to then get you to buy a second robot that would automatically feed, water, and clean up after the hamster in the first robot.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new NASA-sponsored study suggests that small lawnmower-sized robots could be used to build a landing site for a moon outpost. In order to be efficient a landing pad would have to be close to any structures created, but without an atmosphere to slow down the lunar sand it would sandblast the outpost, creating the need for some sort of protection. By using small robots to either build protective berms or collect rocks to “pave” a landing pad, NASA hopes to provide protection against the sand-blasting effects of a landing on the moon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Robots the size of riding lawn mowers could be used to start building a lunar outpost before humans make their next trip to the moon, according to a study by researchers at Astrobotic Technology Inc. and Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has created software that uses colonies of borg-like cyber-robots it says will help government agencies to detect and fend off attacks on the nation’s computer network infrastructure.

The Eyeball is a softball-sized camera that can be thrown into a suspect house and transmit images to soldiers outside. Or the Eyedrive, a lightweight, four-wheel, mini-robot that provides continuous, real-time 360º audio and video surveillance. It can be thrown on the ground, go down stairs, flip over and keep on going.

Big Download is running an article with details and screenshots from the MMO under development by NASA. The game makes us of Unreal Engine 3, and it’s titled Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond. A demo is planned for later this year, and in 2010 they expect “the first episodic installment of the game” to come out. Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes, described it thus: “This game is going to be a fresh look at the future circa about 2035. … The core of the gameplay is going to be people building up their characters and as you move forward, you will have more options unlock with new places to go, new equipment to use and new things to do. We are not so much focused on interstellar flight and all that entails… the gameplay is actually about being in a habitat on a planetary surface and doing things like mining Helium-3 for fuel, operating a hydroponics facility to grow plants and create oxygen and operating robots and vehicles.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Joshua.Niland writes “Strange globs seen on the landing strut of the Phoenix Mars lander could be the first proof that modern Mars hosts liquid water. Images from the robotic craft show what appear to be liquid droplets growing, merging, and dripping on the lander’s leg over the course of a Martian month. Just when is NASA going to fix that leaking roof on the backlot?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The iCub robot, modelled on a human child, made its first appearance in Britain this week – the latest result of cutting edge robotics research funded by the European Commission