PETMAN: The US Army’s latest lifelike robotic recruit

If you're a little nervous about the power of lifelike robots Uncanny Valley, which you extreme tech seen in recent months, you would probably now gone. PETMAN, the newest and most frightening creation of Boston Dynamics, walks, talks, looks and doing pushups and lunges, just as you or I. Watch the video below and then scroll back up.

Like AlphaDog (no bigdog) is being developed by Boston Dynamics PETMAN for the U.S. Department of Defense. PETMAN will not be used in active service, but instead, the rather mundane task of testing of chemical protective suits for the U.S. Army. The idea is that a very human physiology PETMAN-like, and thus stress moves clothes in much the same way as a real human would. It is clear that if the material is tested to stand up to the rigors of testing, it is better that a robot burden of toxic substances rather than a person takes.

Apparently, announced purpose aside, although it is impossible to ignore the fact that PETMAN is a near-independent, human-like, fast moving robot is strong enough to carry a weapon. If you can not imagine the battle options PETMAN, you're just not trying hard enough. The first combat-ready PETM could be controlled remotely, such as U.S. Air Force drones, but in the future that they might get an independent AI. If you want confirmation that PETMAN would one day be used in battle, look at that red light on your head, if not screaming Cylon, I do not know what does.

In addition to combat and chemical protection test, but may PETMAN used by emergency services in situations too dangerous for humans - fire, perhaps, or dig through the rubble of Chernobyl radioactive and Fukushima. AlphaDog, with four legs and a larger force, it is probably better suited for such problems, though.

The next stage, however, that the light should be replaced with a real head. We thought something sweet, Meka female robot head - but knowing the U.S. Army, something a little more Terminator can be exercised.

Now, ‘robot legs’ that improve movement in stroke patients

London, Sept 24: Dutch engineers have developed robotic exoskeleton 'legs' to improve the free movement of stroke patients.

The prototype device, called Lower-extremity Powered Exoskeleton or LOPES, works by training the mind and body of a patient to a more natural step back.

The machine, developed by engineers at the University of Twente in Enschede in the Netherlands over several years, will also be tested on spinal cord injuries in patients who already have some limited movement found in their legs.

Designed for the clinic, it is not a mobile device, it supports the patient when they walk on a treadmill.

It can make all the running for the patient, or it can be oriented support in both legs, or a portion of the running process to offer. The machine can also discover what the patient is doing wrong.

"For example, some people do not lift their feet properly. What this device does is it detects that the foot does not lift properly," BBC quoted Dr. Edwin Asseldonk working on the project, as saying.

"It should be compared with a reference pattern and then exerts a force or torque to the patient to help make it," he explained.

By Dr. Assledonk believe that by physically show how well the patients, the machine can help them develop brain signals required to drive a better move.

It is hoped that a commercial version may be available to rehabilitation centers around the world early next year. (ANI)

Robot builds its own body from sprayable foam

If a sculpture coming to life, a new type of robot body parts using spray-on foam to do. Such a construction could one day be useful in situations where the exact type of robot is not needed is known in advance, as space exploration or investigation.

By Shai Revzen and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Foambot consists of a mobile "mother ship" platform along with some simple common modules are driven flexing and bending. The platform has a built-in supply of chemical reagents and a nozzle, mixing with reagents to expand in tough urethane foam. First remote platform control modules on the floor and then spray foam to connect them into the desired shape.

Software then analyzes the information of active joints, and devises a plan to coordinate the resulting bone animation.

Revzen said the system would be useful for situations where the robots have to navigate the unforeseen obstacles. A snake-like body could be better for crawling rocks, which during a four-legged friend can be better in open terrain to traverse. Since Foam Bots can return to the mother ship to be changed, they can be used to treat a wide variety of tasks.

Grave-robbing robot could revive dead satellites

  Satellites at the end of their life, often performed in a "graveyard" orbit to make room for replacements. DARPA has now proposed a desecration robot that can stitch together parts of dead satellites to these new, avoiding the enormous costs associated with the launch of components in space.

DARPA's Phoenix program aims to re-purpose ground robotic systems, such as those used by surgeons to operate on patients remotely, so that a person on earth to satellites to separate and reuse expensive components such as antennas.

The program will also develop a new type of nano-satellite hitch a ride aboard a normal satellite launcher and throws it right when it reaches orbit. The grave-robber robot can scoop up these nano and add them to an old antenna on a new low-cost communication platform to create.

Plans are in place for a first test mission in 2015 with robotic harvesting components in an existing satellite retired and reconfigure them into a new purpose. But the grave-robber will not be able to go after an old satellite - the Outer Space Treaty means that any object sent into space will remain property of the country, to launch, although it was dumped in a graveyard orbit.