Robots are learning to fall with grace
Atlanta (UPI) Oct 14, 2015 -
Robots aren't yet perfect. As they learn new skills, they're likely to be even less perfect. For this reason and others, it's important for robots to learn to fall and fail gracefully.
At Georgia Tech, engineers are working to do just that - teaching robots to fall.
One of the physiological skills that robots have had trouble picking up is improvisation. When a person begins to ...
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Back to the Future: Truth is stranger than sci-fi
Paris (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 -
When Marty McFly and "Doc" Brown burst into 2015 in a time machine, straight from the year 1985, they encounter a brave new world of garbage-fuelled flying cars, self-tying shoes and robot waiters.
For audiences in 1989, when CDs were the height of hi-tech, science fiction comedy "Back to the Future II" portrayed an exciting world 30 years down the line in which people would flit around on g ...
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Magnetic sail tech alternative to rocket-based space travel
Albuquerque NM (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
What if it were possible to travel to Mars without using traditional rockets? That is the question being explored by local start-up Dark Sea Industries, an aerospace company focused on developing new propulsion technologies for space-related industries.
The company is a virtual tenant in STC's Cecchi VentureLab and is currently conducting a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise money ...
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Putin slams delays in building showpiece cosmodrome
Moscow (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 -
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticised delays in the construction of a new cosmodrome in the country's far east, which has been plagued by corruption and strikes over unpaid wages.
Russia is building the new Vostochny Cosmodrome to reduce its dependence on the Baikonur launch site that it rents in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Construction of the cosmodrome - which will be ...
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What smacks into Ceres stays on Ceres
Providence RI (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
A new set of high-velocity impact experiments suggests that the dwarf planet Ceres may be something of a cosmic dartboard: Projectiles that slam into it tend to stick.
The experiments, performed using the Vertical Gun Range at NASA's Ames Research Center, suggest that when asteroids and other impactors hit Ceres, much of the impact material remains on the surface instead of bouncing off in ...
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