Mars Rover Tests Driving, Drilling and Detecting Life in Chile's High Desert

Mars Rover Tests Driving, Drilling and Detecting Life in Chile's High Desert Moffett Field Ca (SPX) Mar 15, 2017 - Due to its extreme dryness, the Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the most important environments on Earth for researchers who need to approximate the conditions of Mars. Working in 90-plus-degree heat in arguably the driest place on Earth, the team behind NASA's Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies, or ARADS, project just completed its second season of tests. The project aims to sh ... more

3D Pizza Printer to Feed Hungry Astronauts in Deep Space Washington (Sputnik) Mar 13, 2017 - Has this ever happened to you? You're drifting through the vacuum of space, millions of miles from Earth, when suddenly you have a craving for pizza. To satisfy this probable demand, a startup has raised $1 million in seed funding to create a 3D printer that they hope can be used as a spaceship's pizza oven. The company, BeeHex, intends to build "3D printing robots that prepare food faster ... more

Songs that make robots cry Osaka, Japan (SPX) Mar 13, 2017 - Music, more than any art, is a beautiful mix of science and emotion. It follows a set of patterns almost mathematically to extract feelings from its audience. Machines that make music focus on these patterns, but give little consideration to the emotional response of their audience. An international research team led by Osaka University together with Tokyo Metropolitan University, imec in Belgiu ... more

DARPA robotic servicing program has become stalled Bethesda MD (SPX) Mar 07, 2017 - DARPA has been developing a program that will leverage successes in space robotics in order to accelerate in-orbit servicing of satellites. Of particular interest are the satellites that populate the geosynchronous orbit at about 36,000 km above Earth. There are hundreds of these vehicles that operate as military, civil and commercial satellite assets. However, once launched, there is no w ... more

'Global startup' vows autonomous car by 2020 in US Washington (AFP) March 10, 2017 - A "global startup" which makes electric racing vehicles unveiled plans Friday to sell a fully autonomous electric car in the US market by 2020. The company called Nio, founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li and with offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and China, unveiled a prototype of the vehicle called Eve at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas. According to a Nio ... more

Rafael completes test firing with Protector USV Tel Aviv (UPI) Mar 8, 2017 - Rafael Advanced Defense Systems completed a test firing demonstration using its Protector unmanned surface vehicle, or USV. During the demonstration, the vehicle conducted a series of launches with a variety of munitions, including the Spike missile. The event marked the first missile test firing with a fully operational, remotely-controlled Protector platform. In a video release ... more

Robot uses social feedback to fetch objects intelligently Providence RI (SPX) Mar 07, 2017 - If someone asks you to hand them a wrench from a table full of different sized wrenches, you'd probably pause and ask, "which one?" Robotics researchers from Brown University have now developed an algorithm that lets robots do the same thing - ask for clarification when they're not sure what a person wants. The research, which will be presented this spring at the International Conference o ... more

Shape-shifting molecular robots respond to DNA signals Sendai, Japan (SPX) Mar 03, 2017 - A research group at Tohoku University and Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has developed a molecular robot consisting of biomolecules, such as DNA and protein. The molecular robot was developed by integrating molecular machines into an artificial cell membrane. It can start and stop its shape-changing function in response to a specific DNA signal. This is the first time t ... more

Switzerland taps Kongsberg for Protector weapon system Washington (UPI) Mar 2, 2017 - Norwegian company Kongsberg received a $15 million contract to deliver updated Protector remote weapon systems to the government of Switzerland. The weapon system was ordered by Armasuisse, Switzerland's federal procurement office. According to Kongsberg, the Protectors to be delivered will be modified to integrate with modern platforms. "Kongsberg has delivered Protector remote ... more

Tracking the movement of cyborg cockroaches Raleigh, NC (SPX) Feb 28, 2017 - New research from North Carolina State University offers insights into how far and how fast cyborg cockroaches - or biobots - move when exploring new spaces. The work moves researchers closer to their goal of using biobots to explore collapsed buildings and other spaces in order to identify survivors. NC State researchers have developed cockroach biobots that can be remotely controlled and ... more