| US stumbles in moon race, NASA warns
America's road back to the moon is getting rougher, and NASA's leaders are hinting that more delays could mean that the next humans to set foot on the moon might not be U.S. astronauts. Three years ago, the Bush administration's "Vision for Space Exploration" called for manned lunar landings "as early as 2015" and "no later than 2020." .
KUKA upgrades PalletTech software V 3.5
Clinton Township , Michigan - April 4, 2007 - KUKA Robotics released PalletTech palletizing software version 3.5. The new version of the palletizing software features enhanced capabilities for complicated robotic palletizing applications including augmented gripper support and multiple orientation pick up. The software is a suite of application development and run time tools that reduces engineering and development time and enables the out-of-box implementation of complicated robotic palletizing applications. Palletizing customers with complex palletizing applications have been demanding more flexibility to accommodate their processes, said Stuart Shepherd, president of KUKA Robotics Corporation. With the ability to work off line and dynamically reposition itself during pallet builds PalletTech 3.5 offers capabilities that our customers cannot easily find other places on the market. KUKA Robotics PalletTech software version 3.5 suite consists of two modules, the PalletEdit tool and the PalletRunTime application package.
BAE offers super-intelligent underwater robot
In a Tuesday release, Andy Tonge, project manager for Talisman, is quoted as saying his baby can "can perform the type of dangerous roles currently performed by service men and women throughout the world - locate, identify and neutralise mines in one single mission without the need for human intervention". .
Robotic Amoeba Use Whole Skin Locomotion
If you ever find yourself in the bottom of a pile of rubble, don't be surprised to see an amoeba-inspired robot oozing its cytoplasmic-like body to your rescue. Dennis Hong, of Virginia Tech College of Engineering is designing a Whole Skin Locomotion (WSL) mechanism for robots to work on much the same principle as the pseudopod -- or cytoplasmic "foot" -- of the amoeba. With its elongated cylindrical shape and expanding and contracting actuating rings, the WSL can turn itself inside out in a single continuous motion, mimicking the motion of the cytoplasmic tube an amoeba generates for propulsion. "Our preliminary experiments show that a robot using the WSL mechanism can easily squeeze between obstacles or under a collapsed ceiling," Hong said. The mechanism, which can use all of its contact surfaces for traction, can even squeeze through holes with diameters much smaller than its normal width.
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