Steven Hawking chimes in on the debate about whether to spend valuable resources sending humans on planetary exploration missions, or to use robots. After all, it's a lot cheaper to send a machine that doesn't need oxygen, isn't sensitive to radiation, and doesn't need to be returned to their family at the end of the mission. But there are some legitimate scientific reasons to send humans including real-time tweaking of the chemistry experiments looking for life, and to initiate unplanned tests based on unexpected observation. Also, the tax-paying public gets more emotionally invested in human missions and would possibly be more willing to continue funding. The ultimate answer is likely a mixture of the two, but exactly what that mixture will be is still being hotly debated.

Popular Science and Google have partnered to scan and published 137 years of magazines full of inventions, interviews, and science news from around the globe. Oh, and don't forget those cool ads!. I'm not sure the search feature is 100% yet but I did find a few older articles that might be of interest to robotics enthusiast:

Sept 85 - Robot Sentries Patrol Prisons and Factories
Sept 62 - Teachable Robot Can Remember 200 Commands
June 83 - Computerized Personal Robots

The latest episode of the Robots podcast interviews Dr. Alvar Saenz-Otero from MIT on the SPHERES project. SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) are basketball-sized satellites able to fly in and maintain formation at nanometer precision. In the second part of this episode we continue our quest for a good definition of a robot by looking at a well-known definition dating back to 1979. Read on or tune in!

The Black Eyed Peas have released a new mash-up video for their songs, "Imma be" and "Rock that Body" featuring an assortment of robots; friendly robots, evil robots, big robots, small robots. You also get to see a robot junk yard, teleporting band members, a hover car, futuristic dance guns, Taboo missing the bottom half of his body and Fergie sporting futuristic silver Louboutin heels and some sort of sexy cyborg leotard. For more on the story behind the video, see the Imma Be Wikipedia article.

Robots.net is the oldest robot blog on the planet, right? Sorry. Believe it or not, when robots.net started in early 2001, there were other robot blogs and websites already around. The oldest surviving robot news blog that I'm aware of (and I'm sure someone will correct me here if I'm wrong) is GoRobotics.net. GoRobotics is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. What's even cooler is that they're celebrating by giving away great robot prizes to their readers every month this year. It's not too late to get in on February's prizes - just check out the GoRobotics Feb prize giveaway posting for all the details on how you can enter and win. Meanwhile, the editors at Robots.net would like to pass along our best wishes to William Cox for a job well done. Trust us, we know how hard it is to keep the robot news rolling for years on end!


Last Refreshed 3/10/2010 4:52:48 AM