The Johns Hopkins University must employ some seriously bright folks, as researchers at the school are unveiling yet another marvel to benefit mankind, and this time their creation is headed for the nooks and crannies within your body that surgeons have difficulty reaching unassisted. Sure, the diminutive locales within your guts have been explored by robotic creatures before, but these "snake-like robots" could enable surgeons, operating in the narrow throat region in particular, to make "incisions and tie sutures with greater dexterity and precision." The invention consists of two thin rods tipped with "tentaclelike tools" capable of moving with six degrees of freedom; during surgery, the doctor would utilize a 3D visualization system to watch, control, and dictate the robotic tubes. Moreover, the snakes are crafted from nonferrous metals so it can be used around magnetic imaging equipment, and considering its ability to "make up 100 adjustments per second," nimbleness is in its nature. But if you're not exactly fond of such slithering creatures, you've still got time to escape, as researchers estimate that there's still about "five more years" of lab testing before we see Snakes on a Hospital Bed.

[Via Physorg]

Having already blown our entire travel budget attending CES, E3, and various other important events in sunny locations, we weren't able to scrape together the funds to hit up this year's annual RoboGames festival in San Francisco, but luckily Make magazine/blog has filled in the void by providing some excellent coverage. Formerly known as the ROBOlympics, the event has grown to over 20 categories and demonstrations, covering some of the same territory we saw at the Eastern Canadian Robot Games -- such as sumo wrestling, fire-fighting, and line-following -- but also throwing in a little RoboCup-style soccer football, a new 3-on-3 hockey tournament, and even a trio of so called Tetsujin events in which otherwise unathletic individuals sport hydraulic mech suits which enable them to perform amazing feats of speed, strength, and dexterity. Besides sponsoring a display table among the likes of Lego and NASA, Make also has its Media Maker Bre Pettis filing daily videocasts and flickr photosets from the scene, featuring such Engadget faves as Vstone's Robovie-M, Kondo's KHR-1, and HiTec's Robonova as well as several other non-competitive models like Mark Sherman's snakebot and a rig that can play and seemingly defeat children at Connect Four. You can follow the links below to get a feel for all the action, and stay tuned to Make because Day 3 coverage is only starting to trickle in.

Read- RoboGames site
Read- Make @ RoboGames
Read- RoboGames Day 1
Read- RoboGames Day 2

Although not quite as stealthy as some of the other spybots that we've seen, the 6.5-ton Crusher UGCV (Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle), with its 8,000-pound payload and one-kilometer range, is certainly more versatile than your typical robosnake or Packbot. Unveiled today by the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science's Robotics Institute, Crusher, like its predecessor Spinner, was commissioned by DARPA to provide combat troops with a durable cargo and surveillance option that can operate mostly autonomously even in rough terrain. Crusher is powered by a series of electric motors whose batteries are charged with a turbo diesel generator -- giving it a top speed of 26 miles-per-hour -- and manages to avoid obstacles using an array of cameras and ladar lidar. Although its first two years of service will be restricted to support role duties, Army and DARPA officials will use Crusher's performance during the probationary period to evaluate its potential use in combat as well. [Warning: PDF link]