Robot mimics water skimming insect

Researchers Yun Seong Song and Metin Sitti at Carnegie Mellon University have created a new prototype robot that walks on water. It does this by mimicking the design of the water strider insect(pictured above). Water striders can effectively skim across the top of water using surface tension force to stay afloat. The new robot is the first of it's kind to do the same. The researchers hope in the near future to be able to deploy hundreds of these robots with sensors to monitor environmental conditions on lakes and shallow seas.
What caught my eye in this story is that like other recent advances in both nanotech and robotics, this design is based on an organic natural creatures design. Seems like more and more, scientists are attempting to mimic nature in their designs rather than start from scratch.

Via PhysOrg: Robot walks on water

Kinetic Sculpture

The guy in the video above is named Theo Jansen and he works in Holland. Uses the crank shaft model to translate pedal movement into the circular motion of a wheel, thus maintaining his "animals" level with the ground on impact. All of his "animals" are powered by wind and nothing more. Even though he is an artist rather than an engineer, he and others have recognized the potential applications of his sculptures in the robotic field.

Here is his official website where you can watch several more videos and see a lot of pictures of his sculptures. www.StrandBeest.com
For a few more videos check out the links below.

Digitizing the Iliad using Robots and Cameras

Wired has an interesting story about work that is being done on creating high quality scans and digital images of the oldest known copy of Homer's Iliad. The book is stored in the Public Library of St. Mark in Venice. Almost all modern copies of the Iliad are based on this manuscript. A team of scholars organized by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies is carefully photographing each page in an attempt to digitize the book. They are also scanning a 3D image of each page, with all its wrinkles and blemishes, using a laser scanner attached to a robotic arm. Eventually they plan to make the entire book available online.

Check out the story here at Wired: Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D
A wired photo gallery of the team in action: Scanning the Iliad With a 39-Megapixel Camera

What happened to the future?

From the same company that brought you the Movie Spoiler T-shirt, comes this shirt. Which brings up the question of what did happen to the rosy future we read all about in the (well my parents)70s and the (me)80s? Why don't we have personal aircars, jetpacks, and robot slaves? Somebody lied! Personally I'm thinking it was the scientists, and I'm mad about it. If you are mad as well, you can buy this t-shirt and show the world.

Threadless T-Shirts: This ws supposed to be the future

The machine war begins with lawnmowers?

Not exactly terminator material, but it seems that a robotic lawnmower in Denmark has killed its operator. The lawnmower is a commercial lawnmower meant to replace the large riding lawnmowers used by lawn care professionals. I can't say I've ever heard of it before, but it looks pretty cool. The lawnmower is controlled by a remote, much like the radio controlled race cars you can buy in most toy stores.
In this case, it seems that the mower fell down a hill onto it's operator. Killing the operator instantly with a blow to the head from a blade. No word yet on whether the mower was charged with a crime or not. Lets just hope that this isn't the beginning of a robot revolt. LOL

All jokes aside, The guy did die. Not exactly a nice or funny thing. My question is why was the guy sitting directly under the mower on the hill? Seems like if the hill was that steep, then he should have been farther off to the side.

Check out the story at Ekstra Bladet Man from Ballerup killed by a lawn mower Sorry for the auto translation, but I couldn't find an English news story.
Via Engadget: Robot lawnmower kills Danish man

Robotic Spider Car

Table of Malcontents pointed out this very cool looking spider car. The guy built in his his spare time. It took him 9 months and $15,000. Not sure I would want to spend that much time, or money on it. But it does look cool.

Via Table Of Malcontents: The Incredible Steampunk Spider Car

Robotic Falcons to fight Pigeon menace

The city of Liverpool is beginning a campaign to fight the pigeon menace that is plaguing their city. As part of the campaign, they are purchasing 10 robotic falcons to be placed around the city to scare the pigeons away.
The flying rats, as many people are calling them, are all getting fat from eating trash rather than seeds. Their population has also gone through the roof. But rather than killing them, which would seem to be a more logical solution, the city is buying robot falcons to scare them away. I really wonder (sarcasm) how well that is going to work. The robots cost about $4,000 each. So it seems scaring pigeons isn't cheap.
What I would like to see, is a grudge match between Liverpool's robot falcons, and the Chinese cyborg pigeons. That would be fun. LOL

Via Popular Science: Robotic Falcons Take on English Pigeons and
BBC News: Robotic birds scare 'fat' pigeons