Do you enjoy gangs of tiny, spider-like robot insectoids swarming all over your house, car, or personage? If you answered "yes," you're going to love what BAE Systems is cooking up. The company recently received an infusion of $38 million from the US Army Research Lab to fund the Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) consortium; a team of scientists and researchers hell-bent on developing an "autonomous, multifunctional collection of miniature intelligence-gathering robots that can operate in places too inaccessible or dangerous for humans." Sure, that description (and accompanying photos, straight from BAE) does give you the impression that whoever came up with this really liked Minority Report, but won't it make you feel safer at night knowing a swarm of metallic spiders are looking out for you? No? Huh, weird.

[Via The Register]

We've known think tanks to come up with some fairly unbelievable determinations before, but the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation may not be too far off with its latest assessment. It's suggesting that the jobs of 3.5 million people in Japan could be filled not with younger folks, but with mechanical creatures by 2025. Currently, Japan's population is declining, and the proportion of those 65-years and up is continually swelling; analysts are asserting that the nation could save around ¥2.1 trillion ($21 billion) in elderly insurance payments by 2025 if it relies on robots (instead of humans) to monitor the health of the geriatric set. Of course, Japan's been creating bots to do our dirty work for years, so it's not like the idea of being ruled by robotic overlords is a completely foreign concept over there or anything.

[Via I4U News]

British scientists have started an EU-funded project named "Symbrion" to build swarm bots the size of a sugar cube, which could self-assemble with each other and form larger, more useful, and more box office-potent robots. Each bot will have wheels or tentacles to allow it to move around independently, along with its own brain to help it hunt down the other bots via infrared. Once assembled the bots should be able to take on the shape of a robo-snake, robo-spider, robo-arm or whatever else is required of them, and will pool their computing power -- with hopefully enough juice between them to rattle off trite phrases and bad puns. This is certainly not a new concept, but the Symbrion project has a good £4.6 million of funding to get started -- which we hear is worth roughly a million billion dollars in the US.

[Via Digg]

Not that we're experts on the matter or anything, but if barrister and engineer Chris Elliot knows a thing or two about legal issues, a kind of "military Turing test" could be the key to legally deploying autonomous systems in battle. As it stands, "weapons intrinsically incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets are illegal" -- at least according to Mr. Elliot -- but by testing an intelligent war machine's ability to hone in on legitimate targets and brush off friendlies, all that could change. Of course, actually administering the test still remains a mystery, but considering that remotely controlled armed bots are currently being used in Iraq, we reckon someone's already figuring out a solution to said dilemma.

We don't know about you, but to us, there's nothing cuter than a warm, cuddly bunny -- save for Hello Kitty, of course. Thankfully, the National Institute of Health and the EPA have teamed up to jumpstart a five-year research program that "will use high-speed automated screening robots" instead of live animals to run chemical tests on cells grown in a laboratory. Reportedly, the long term goal here is to "reduce the cost, time and number of animals used in screening everything from pesticides to household chemicals," but according to those involved with the initiative, it'll be quite some time before non animal-based testing becomes the norm. Hang tight, dear bunnies -- there's hope for you all yet.

[Image courtesy of Flickr]

While we've been spending our days padding our Xbox 360 Achievements and building castles out of Popsicle sticks, here come some science jerks all making us look bad. Researchers in the UK and Germany have managed to assemble tetrahedrons out of DNA "struts" with some chemical trickery, and then fed the shape DNA "fuel" to get the tetrahedron to contract. Some "anti-fuel" expands the shape again, creating a sort of piston with all sorts of potential. The researchers are currently working to assemble larger structures using the tetrahedrons as building blocks. Possible applications of the technology range from drug delivery to the motors of nanoscale robots, and it sounds like humanity is doomed either way.

iRobot may own the market for autonomous indoor cleaning devices, but when it comes to taming that wild jungle you call a backyard, the new king of the hill may well be the LawnBott LB3500. This fourth-generation LawnBott from Kyodo America improves upon its predecessors in nearly every category: even though it weighs ten pounds less than the entry-level LB2000, it offers up a greater coverage area, increased cutting width, greatly improved incline climbing capability, longer runtime, and best of all, a Bluetooth radio for programming or direct control by cellphone. Of course, all these high-end features don't come cheap, and when the LB3500 does come to market (date: unknown), we imagine that it's gonna cost a good deal more than the current high-end, $2,500 LB3200. Check out the gallery below for some more angles.

Update: Wow! Reader John Locke somehow managed to send an email from the island notifying us that The Robot Store has the LB3500 listed at $3,699, on sale for "only" $3,249. Also available is the "Super" LB3500, which is really just a kit that includes two extra lithium-ion batteries and tacks almost $600 on to the price. Thanks, John, but we bet Jack and Kate won't be too happy when they find out you have Gmail access.



[Via Slashgear]

Anyone can go into Office Depot and pick up a rolling desk seat for fifty bucks, but it takes a truly lazy individual to shell out almost $22,000 for a chair that very slowly "walks" you into proper working position. Actually, we doubt that the commercially-available Walking Chair from Vienna-based design studio Walking Things is really built for sitting; it's more likely meant as a showpiece for the ridiculous amount of disposable income you're pulling in. Each minimalist eight-legged unit is hand-assembled upon order, meaning that you'll need to wait at least six weeks to show your friends how very little €15,000 ($21,906) mean to you.

[Via Slashgear]

Dude, Korea knows we've been sending humans to do a robot's job for far too long already, and in a few short years the dangerous world of high rise construction could be left to the true masters of the craft. By 2010, the Korean Construction and Transportation Ministry hopes to have an almost completely automated construction process in place for high-rise projects that could cut labor costs by up to a third, project timelines by 15 percent, and reduce the number of construction-related injuries on these typically dangerous projects. Of course, an inevitable robotic Jurgis Rudkus will be blowing the whistle on robotic working conditions shortly thereafter. Still, civilization stands to benefit greatly from the accelerated completion of super-sized skyscrapers -- at least until the builders turn on us and convert us into human fuel cells.

Wanted: good home for 31-ton robotic dinosaur, completely up-to-date on all immunizations and oil changes. This frisky 40-foot tall, fire-breathing bot answers to the name Robosaurus, and a traumatic youth spent crushing cars in front of thousands of rednecks means this guy needs a lot of love and attention -- along with plenty of open space to graze. All manuals, kits, and accessories are included with adoption, although new owner will assume responsibility for any damage caused by Robo's jaws and their 20,000 pounds of crushing force. Interested parties can bid on this one-of-a-kind companion at the 37th annual Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdate, AZ starting on the 12th.

[Thanks, jo]

Straight out of Japan comes the latest mobile robot to ease our daily lives while threatening our jobs, Yasukawa Electric Corporation's SmartPal V. The 1.3-meter tall rolling bot is loaded with all the proximity, speech recognition, and object-detecting sensors we've come to expect from today's modern mech, along with improved dexterity thanks to additional joints and lumbar units as compared to previous models. This latest SmartPal, which was introduced at the 2007 International Robot Exhibition, also rocks its own accessories, such as a head-mounted projector to push the world's last remaining tour guides into early retirement.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

Sure, your average helicopter can land in a whole mess of places, but what if you really need to squeeze that sucker onto a steep incline? Normally, you'd be out of luck if the slant were anything more than a measly 20-degrees, but some Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have managed something a bit more extreme. Eric Feron, an aerospace engineer, and colleague Selcuk Bayraktar have created a new breed of robot helicopter which can land, or "perch," at inclines up to 60-degrees. On a similar tip, MIT researcher Jonathan How has fashioned another unique unmanned aircraft which can take off and land from a "prop hang" position, wherein the plane stands on it's tail in midair. The hope is that these new technologies will help get aircraft into -- and back out of -- complicated spots with a new level of maneuverability. Also, the engineers probably just love blowing people's minds. Check the videos after the break to experience the gravity-defying moves yourself.

We were always of the opinion that robot surgery was edgy enough as it is, but you know how those science peoples always have to kick things up a notch. SRI International and the University of Cincinnati hitched a ride on NASA's DC-9 "vomit comet" to pit human surgeons against semi-autonomous robots in suturing and incision tasks on simulated tissue -- while experiencing periods of zero gravity and 1.8g acceleration. Surprisingly, the robots kept pace just fine until SRI's fancy compensation software was switched off, which we're guessing is exactly the point SRI was trying to prove. Right now SRI is building a robotic operating room for the battlefield called Trauma Pod, which is mostly autonomous, and they're also working on a fully autonomous system for NASA that could treat an astronaut on Mars, where the 20 minute delay would make telesurgery not an option. Field testing for the trauma pod should begin in 2009.

[Via Slashdot]

Mars isn't the only heavenly body that NASA is trying to colonize with robots: the US space agency is currently working on a prototype rover named ATHLETE that may be cruising around the moon within the next decade. Short for All Terrain Hex Limbed Extra Terrestrial Explorer, ATHLETE sports six wheeled "legs" attached to a hexagonal frame loaded with cameras and sensors, allowing an Earth-bound operator to get a 360-degree sense of his or her surroundings. While the current iteration is only half as big as the final version will be, this rover will eventually be able to land and carry up to 20 tons of gear -- but without any sort of onboard defense system, it will probably stand little chance against the first Decepticon attack. Video after the break...

[Via MAKE]