Japanese researchers have developed a flexible artificial skin that could give robots a humanlike sense of touch.

The team manufactured a type of “skin” capable of sensing pressure and another capable of sensing temperature.

Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a “female” android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. [...]

(Photo: Child jockeys in Qatar in April 2005 - AFP/File/Salem)

Yesterday, Qatari official announced that it will reportedly slap jail sentences of between three to 10 years on anyone using child jockeys in camel races, will also risk fines of between 50,000 and 200,000 riyals (13,800 and 55,000 dollars).

The Qatari government in December banned the [...]

October 2004, I posted a news article about the intentions of Qatar to substitute robots for jockeys in camel races. Now the robot is ready and was tested last week.

The following photos shows ‘Kamel’, the robot jockey, rides Ghazil, a Qatari camel, during a test-run at the Shahaniah camel race track in Doha, Qatar.

The Robot [...]

Qatar is set to substitute robots for jockeys in camel races, a favorite sport in the oil-rich Gulf region which has faced widespread criticism over the use of child jockeys from the Indian subcontinent.

But the sport’s supremo in Doha insists Qatar never abused child camel jockeys in the first place and that the plan to [...]

Topobo is a 3D constructive assembly system embedded with kinetic memory, the ability to record and playback physical motion. Unique among modeling systems is Topobo’s coincident physical input and output behaviors. By snapping together a combination of Passive (static) and Active (motorized) components, people can quickly assemble dynamic biomorphic forms like animals and skeletons with [...]

MIT-NASA team to test first interplanetary laser communication link.

A NASA?MIT Lincoln Laboratory team will forge the first laser communication link between Mars and Earth. This unique experiment, part of NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration, will greatly benefit the transmission of data from robotic spacecraft.

In 2010, the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration (MLCD) will test the [...]

Fort Benning’s International Aerial Robotics Competition tests ingenuity.

What if there was a robot that could fly? Perhaps, even save a life or gather information on an enemy?

That’s what future scientists and engineers set out to do Thursday at the 14th Annual International Aerial Robotics Competition at Fort Benning’s McKenna Urban Operations Site.

The first robot that [...]

New Robotcop III Set to Fight Crime in Hong Kong.

There is a new cop patrolling the streets of Hong Kong and teaching children how to prevent crime. But it’s a robot, named Robotcop III, designed and built in Hong Kong, tells us Channel Newsasia. Robotcop III can walk, dance, move in any direction, display videos [...]

The world’s lightest and smallest robot helicopter has been unveiled at a Tokyo exhibition by the Seiko Epson company.

The designers say the 70-mm-tall device could be used as a “flying camera” to enter earthquake-shattered buildings.

The prototype four-legged robot weighs 10 grammes and although it flies by remote control, it has to be linked to an [...]