[Source: Youtube Via: The Blog Herald]

Researchers at the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in La Jolla, California have developed ‘Darwin VII’, a trashcan shaped robot that has 20,000 brain cells. The Darwin VII Robot operates on biological principles and without any pre-specified instructions. Essentially, it ‘thinks’ for itself and learns and acts/reacts to it’s enviroment without being pre-programmed to do so.

Darwin crawls across a floor strewn with blocks, grabbing and tasting the blocks as it goes, its malleable mind is impressionable and hungry to learn, reports the guys over at ‘New Scientist’. It is already adapting, discovering that the striped blocks are yummy and the spotted ones taste bad, the report said. Its exploration is driven by instincts: an interest in bright objects, a predilection for tasting things, and an innate notion of what tastes good.

Darwin VII consists of a mobile base equipped with a CCD camera for vision, microphones for hearing, conductivity sensors for taste, and effectors for movement of its base, of its head, and of a gripping manipulator, university researchers Jeffrey Krichmar Gerald and M Edelman said in the report.

The only pic I could find of the Darwin VII robot is this black and white one found in a 2003 PDF entitled: Brain-Based Devices: Intelligent Systems Based on Principles of the Nervous System.

If anyone has a link to a video of Darwin VII in action, I’d love to see it.

[Source: Neurosciences Institute Via: New Scientist]

When a cow decides to be milked, it enters an entry lock where it is identified. If a sufficient amount of time has elapsed since its last milking, the cow is allowed to enter and given a dietary concentrate. A multipurpose robotic arm then extends underneath the cow and, guided by laser and photo sensors, cleans and dries each teat before attaching vacuum milking cups.

Milk flow, quantity, and milking time are monitored individually for each of the cow’s four teats, and compared with historical values. Discrepancies are reported, and can be early indicators of illness or injury, the company says.

After milking, the vacuum cup lines are retracted, and the robotic arm sprays the cow’s underside with a disinfectant solution. The gate then opens, releasing the cow to the feeding area, and the VMS system cleans itself before allowing the next cow to enter.
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The VMS is based on a 2.4.18 kernel with ext3 and some real-time extensions added, Hansson says. The filesystem is derived from Red Hat 7.3, and the graphical user interface is based on xfree86.

And if you think that’s cool, check out these videos of the Linux powered VMS in action

[Source: Linux Devices Video: DeLaval]

Living bacteria have been incorporated into an electronic circuit to produce a sensitive humidity gauge.

This is essentially a first step towards a biological computer, and would have many applications,” says Steve Ripp, a biotechnologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Ripp was part of a team that developed a sensor that relied on glowing bacteria to detect chemicals. But in their system, the electronic circuits were simply reacting to the bugs, and they weren’t hooked up to each other, he notes. Saraf’s humidity sensor melds the two together.

Ripp says that interest in these cellborg circuits is growing fast. “If you detect a chemical with a biological device, you not only sense its presence but also its effect on a living system,” he says.

Ever watch the Star Trek spinoffs like The Next Generation or Voyager, where the starships use bio-neuro circuitry? Folks, those futuristic TV programs set 300-400 years in the future may not be as far fetched as we all thought.

With all these advancements in technology, what will it really be like 300 years from now?

[Source: Nature.com Via: We Make Money Not Art]

Only the liquid in the chamber is cooled and only this liquid exits the sip opening. A seal keeps the remaining coffee at its hottest and most aromatic. This inventive system eliminates the need for coffee drinkers to blow on their beverage, add ice to it, or wait for it to cool. Instead, they have immediate access to their hot beverage, and they can enjoy it longer at its peak freshness and flavour.

Pair this one up with the Vacuum Brewing Coffee Pot we covered earlier and prepare for the ultimate caffinated experience.

[via Gizmag]

A 3-year NASA project to test a “search-for-life” robot will soon come to an end, but not before one last trip to the Chilean desert. “Zoe,” a solar-powered rover that resembles a go-cart, is a prototype of an artificially intelligent astro-biologist, or a robot that can explore and study life in harsh climates. It’s been developed and tested by Carnegie Mellon University and NASA’s Ames Research Center, which expects to use the underlying technology in future Mars missions. Zoe and a team of researchers will leave in two weeks for a third and final mission to the Atacama Desert in Chile, where the robot will travel alone across about 110 miles in two months, studying the driest desert on Earth.

Do they know something we don’t? Why would we, who live on this pristine planet full of nice people and limitless natural resources, ever want to live on another planet? If everything is all right here, then NASA has one hell of an expensive curiosity.

[via ZDNet]

“nuvo” is the first-home-use-type humanoid robot in the world, which means “the humanoid robot for everyone”, not in the movie, drama, or novel, but in your daily life. “nuvo” is developed under the concept of “Always be Together”, resulting in small and light—39cm in height and 2.5kg on weight— to realize safety and mobility at the same time.

[via Gadget Madness]

[via Kinetic Arts]

One the coolest projects I’ve seen so far at DEFCON was the kegbot, a linux based keg that dispenses beer as long as you have an iButton key. The system keeps track of who you are, how much you’re drinking and in team mode- where you rank. the Kegbot crew built and deployed a kegbot on site at DEFCON, we were lucky enough to get there and document the building of it!

More pics and instructions on building your own Kegbot at the Make Magazine web site.

Astrobiologists, who search for evidence of life on other planets, may find a proposed Neutron/Gamma ray Geologic Tomography (NUGGET) instrument to be one of the most useful tools in their toolbelt. As conceived by scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., NUGGET would be able to generate three-dimensional images of fossils embedded in an outcrop of rock or beneath the soil of Mars or another planet. Tomography uses radiation or sound waves to look inside objects. NUGGET could help determine if primitive forms of life took root on Mars when the planet was awash in water eons ago.

This pisses me off to no end. I thought of something similar back in 2001 but never did apply for a patent.

[via The Raw Feed]