Robots Can Now Feel Pain, Thanks to German Scientists
news, Science, Technology Jamie O'Flinn news, Science, Technology Jamie O'Flinn

Robots Can Now Feel Pain, Thanks to German Scientists

Have you ever looked at the electronics in your life and thought “I wish I could hurt you”? Well soon, you can! Researchers from the Leibniz University of Hannover are working on a way to get machines to feel pain. Granted, their goal isn’t sadism, but rather preservation. They hope that by responding to the stimuli of pain, machines will get themselves out of harm’s way before they are damaged or broken.

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Humanity is safe. This video of high-tech robots falling down is the funniest thing you'll see today
Technology, news Jason England Technology, news Jason England

Humanity is safe. This video of high-tech robots falling down is the funniest thing you'll see today

The DARPA Robotics Challenge has been fascinating to watch, but one of my main concerns (as is evident in most robotics stories) is how close are we to a Terminator-esque extinction of the human race? Based on this video of robots falling over quite comically, turns out the apocalypse is not here yet.

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Science, news Jason England Science, news Jason England

Researchers Build Robots Capable Of Evolution

A team of researchers have designed a program that allows robots to actually evolve, building themselves out of cubes of virtual muscles and bones.  This simulated chain of evolution makes for a remarkable discovery in robotics that, much like Skynet, has very well doomed us all.

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news, tech Jason England news, tech Jason England

Terrifying 'BigDog' Robot Sports Herculean Throwing Arm To Doom Us All

 

Meet BigDog, a horrific robotic crab-like abomination with wires and cables protruding from its metal skeleton like something straight out of your most eldritch nightmares. This rough-terran "mule" robot is terrifying enough to look at, but now, with the addition of a front-mounted arm, it can throw a cinder block at your face the way us weak, fleshy humans would fling a tennis ball.

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Science, news, tech Jason England Science, news, tech Jason England

MIT Invents Shape-Shifting Robots. Small Step Towards Real-Life Transformers

This device, known as a milli-motein, doesn’t look like much more than something you'd find in a home-workshop drawer.  But this millimeter-sized set of motorized components inspired by proteins may be a harbinger of real-life Transformers, with the ability to naturally fold themselves into incredibly complex shapes.

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8-Foot Tall Boxing Robots Take To The Ring In New SyFy Show

A fan of Robot Wars as a kid? Syfy might have you covered. According to Entertainment Weekly, US cable TV channel SyFy has already green-lit and shot the entire first season of a new show entitled 'Robot Combat League' in which eight-foot-tall humanoid robots battle it out in the ring until one is 'defeated'. Presumably meaning when all that is left in the ring is a pile of contorted metal, electronic innards and pools of hydraulic fluid...

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