We've seen plenty of pill bots in our day -- most of the dumb little swallowable cameras -- but Carnegie Mellon University isn't messing around with this stuff. The nerds over there have built a remote controlled pillbot with small, adhesive arms that allow it to grip onto internal surfaces. That is to say, your internal surfaces. The pill can view damaged areas, deliver drugs and might eventually be outfitted with a small laser for cauterizing internal wounds. Yes, we just said lasers.

[Via Hack a Day]

Read - Controlling a Gut Bot's Position
Read - Creepy action video

Robots do all sorts of things, but climbing walls seems to be a goal engineers can't live without. Meet the Waalbot which is fitted with gecko-like micro fiber feet that can stick to vertical and ceiling surfaces. In addition, the legs are wheeled with three feet that can rotate and cruise over surface curvature and even grab onto other walls at right angles. Unlike other wall-climbing robots, this one is small and light, and given its diminutive size, capacity varies depending on the surface type and size of feet. Using a PIC microcontroller and wireless controls along with batteries, Waalbot is designed to be completely autonomous and untethered.

[Via Engineering TV]

Oooh, now we get it. HandTalk converts hand gestures like sign language into spoken words. Well, don't we feel silly. The device was developed by a group of nerds at Carnegie Mellon, and can track finger and hand gestures with a vocabulary of 32 words in its existing v0.1 model. The signals are transmitted from the glove to a phone over Bluetooth, where the words are converted with text to speech software. Not bad for a bunch of off-the-shelf components, but they could've scored double the nerd points by repurposing a Power Glove for this -- gotta think big picture, people.

[Via talk2myShirt]

Heads-up Pittsburgh residents and robot lovers across the universe: an all new exhibition is coming to the Steel City next year, and it's got high, high hopes. The $3.4 million display, which is slated to be "permanent," will be housed in the Carnegie Science Center and go by the not-at-all-puzzling title of "roboworld." The installation is expected to house an "array of mechanized devices," and given that it's being billed as the "largest and most comprehensive nationwide on robotics," we'd say it's got a lot to live up to. Of course, we'll be utterly shocked if it even compares to the now-closed Robot Museum in Nagoya, Japan, but we suppose we'll have to see for ourselves when the doors fling open in Spring 2009.

Research is still in the early stages, but the concept renders are straight out of science fiction. Some friendly folks at Carnegie Mellon University are working towards electromagnetic microscopic bots that cling together and can assume virtually any shape. Down the line that means rapid prototyping, the promise of "claytronics," and the mysterious deaths of plane crash victims, but current examples of the tech are anything but slick. The primary uniting element is that the bots being developed have no moving parts, instead using magnetic forces to pull themselves around in relation to each other. Peep the video after the break for some samples.

While you may not think a 4+ minute clip involving a monotone narrator, flashes of light and lots of sensors could hold your attention (okay, so maybe that came off a bit more riveting than we'd hoped), we'd bet the one posted after the jump could. The video demonstrates a fairly svelte automatic projector calibration system, which relies on very little hardware (and time) to work its magic. Essentially, the low-cost method utilizes rear-mounted optical fibers wired into light sensors, which can channel gray-coded binary patterns through a USB connection. From there, a PC determines precisely how the projection should be outputted for the target surface to be completely filled with an undistorted image. We know, it's tough to wrap your head around, but all the enlightenment you could ever want (on this subject, anyway) is just a mouse click away. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via HackADay]

Oh man, can you taste it? That oily titanium tang is the smack of robotic cars set for release Saturday in the DARPA Urban Challenge. The final event pits 11 vehicles in competition for a $2 million first, $1M second, and $500k third place prizes. The 60-mile course at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville CA must be successfully navigated in less than 6-hours while avoiding about 50 carbon-based drivers. Can Stanford repeat their 2005 Grand Challenge victory with "Junior" or will Carnegie Mellon's "Boss" (pictured) bust out a BFG-9000 in swift retribution? Tune in Saturday to find out.

The Robot Hall of Fame has always struck as a little odd, what with their inclusion of fictional bots, but it looks like the class of 2007 might the one that turns the tide. For the first time in the four-year history of the Hall, the jury of 25 roboticists selected more real bots than fictional -- LEGO Mindstorms (pictured), the NAVLAB 5, the Raibert Hopper, and Mr. Data made the cut this year, making the final score three real to one, uh, television. While you know how we love Mindstorms, and we're glad to see Data finally make it, the two lesser-known inductees also seem pretty trick to us: NAVLAB 5, a robotic Oldsmobile Silhouette, was honored for driving itself from Pittsburgh to San Diego way back in 1995, while the Raibert Hopper one-legged hopper made it for containing the basic tech DNA that underlies all those two- and four- (and more) legged bots we've got running around these days. Congrats to the honorees, and here's hoping the real bots keep it up.

[Via SuicideBots]

We get a little more creeped out each week or so, as a new form of minimally overtly invasive robotic creature somehow comes to life and sets its sights on perusing our innards. The newest species hails from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was designed to "crawl across the surface of the heart to deliver treatment." The eerily-dubbed "robotic caterpillar" measures just a few centimeters in length and can scoot about at a blistering 18-centimeters per minute via "push and pull" control wires that reside outside of the body. The lead doctor on the project suggests that the critter could "allow procedures to be carried out without having to stop the heart, reducing the risk of illness linked to heart bypass surgeries," and moreover, insinuated that patients would spend less time recovering in the hospital after he / she was all sewn up. Apparently, the HeartLander could be available for human practice "within three to four years," but according to a director at the British Heart Foundation, "a lot more research is needed to determine whether something delivered to the outside surface of the heart can modify activity on the inside."

[Via BBC]

We're absolutely certain there's a vast array of naturally gifted photographers out there that don't need a robot to do a man's job, but for those of us who can't hold our elbows perfectly still and snap a dozen or so photographs in a panoramic pattern without ruining the entire shot, Gigapan's got you covered. The robotic shooting platform was developed by Carnegie Mellon University and the NASA Ames Intelligent Robot Group, and can manhandle almost any digital camera in order to capture a wide-angle view of any particular scene without the breaks we humans often inject. The robot will click away depending on a timer and the number of snapshots that users program in, resulting in a very high resolution, widescreen image of a crime scene, vacation overlook, or your entire basement wall of Transformers posters. Moreover, the team has developed accompanying software to "piece together" the resulting images, leaving a nearly flawless reproduction of a panoramic view with an immensely increased level of detail. Expected to cost "around $200 or less," the Gigapan could be in civilian hands as early as next month, after which we'll have to start an entirely new photo contest devoted to cramming as many miles as possible into a single, uber-wide shot, but for now, be sure to click on through for a small taste of what this monkey can do.

[Via Primidi]

While there's certainly smart enough wheelchairs to get you around town without mauling a lamppost or taking out a crowd of bystanders, a Pennsylvania-based team has developed a system to get wheelchair-bound individuals in and out of their cars a lot easier. Engineers at Lehigh and Carnegie Mellon have partnered with robotic startup Freedom Sciences LLC and Freedom Lift Corporation to unveil the Automatic Transport and Retrieval System, which will supposedly "enable wheelchair users to drive while sitting in standard automobile seats that meet federal safety regulations." Currently, motorists are forced to use cumbersome, bolt-in attachments that typically require heavy modifications to the car in order to operate; the ATRS system, however, uses remote controls, wireless technologies, and "lasers" to assist drivers into a standard seat, roll their wheelchair "autonomously" to the loading dock, and close up the rear door, all while parked in the driver's seat. Sensational as it may sound, the system doesn't come cheap (nor with a wheelchair), and will cost handicapped individuals (or insurance companies) between "$15,000 and $20,000" when it goes on sale next spring.

A bioengineering team from Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh School of Medicine have presented a way to employ techniques based on inkjet printers to help stem cells become bone tissue cells. The team uses a set of inkjet-style streams to shoot little bits of proteins (like droplets of printer ink) on top of nurturing proteins (think of them as the paper) in a certain pattern. Then the team drops stems cells on top of the whole concoction, which depending on what bio-ink was used, can turn into bone-type cells or potentially even other cell types. While human trials are still a ways off, let's just hope that bio-ink cartridges aren't nearly as much of a scam as regular inkjet cartridges are when they reach that point.

[Via NewScientist]

Those humanoid robots are all well and good if you've got 30 minutes to watch ASIMO manage a 360 degree turn, but some researchers at Carnegie Mellon have been spending some time trying to figure out a bot that could actually be useful in the here and now. Their result is the Ballbot, a 95 pound unit that balances on a single metal sphere, and is tall enough to look a person in the eye. The robot can manage a smooth floor easily, and is designed for navigating human environments. When it isn't moving, the Ballbot has retractable "kickstands" to hold it up. The next step for the Ballbot is a head and pair of arms to help the robot balance and turn, and the eventual goal is a robot that is a useful helper to the elderly, disabled, or those in an office environment. We're just looking forward to shouting "Ballbot, beer me!"

[Via CNET]