Armed Robots in Iraq Begin to Turn on Their Masters?

Popular Mechanics reports that the armed SWORDS robots have been pulled out of Iraq after several incidents when the robot's gun started swinging around without being given a command.

Oops. Guess they're still being deployed after all. Hope our guys and gals over there duck whenever they get anywhere near these things.

Nowhere to Run

Cornell sent a robot walking round a track for over 5 miles, a new record for robots.

Sounds like a good time to buy a new pair of running shoes.

Robot Flower On The Loose

Ah, art.

This robot flower chases visitors around an airport, attempting to slice them into ribbons with its ship propeller petals.

Beware of security checkpoints...

Wedding of the Future

Maybe We Don't Have So Much To Fear After All

Microsoft is dipping its mighty toes into the world of robotics.

So what exactly do we have to fear from a Windows-based robot? We can always control-alt-delete it to death.

Will It Cry As It Tries To Kill You?

MIT develops a robot that creepily mimics emotions.

First they smile at you, pretend to be your friend, cry with you over a few beers, then WHAM! you're toast.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's RoboHawk!

From io9:

The RQ-4 Global Hawk broke the world record for unrefueled flight endurance by a full-scale uncrewed aircraft. It fills a role similar to the U2 spy plane, but it's controlled by ground crews that hang out in two separate bunkers far from the action. "At more than 40 feet long, with a 116-foot wingspan, the Global Hawk is one impressive bird. Don't think Sarah Connor hasn't noticed."

Sure, It Looks Cute...

ApriPoco controls your remote controls. Or so Toshiba says. According to PC World, this little robot recognizes voice commands to in turn control all the devices in your room that run by remote control.

Sounds like a great idea.

According to the article, The robot is called "ApriPoco" -- a name that mixes up the previous robot's ApriAlpha moniker with the Italian "poco a poco" for "little by little," which is the pace at which it learns commands from users, said Daisuke Yamamoto, a research scientist at Toshiba's humancentric laboratory.

The word "humancentric" creeps me out. Does Cyberdyne already control Toshiba? Have they got a lab devoted to coming up with cute humancentric devices that we'll let into our homes which will then turn on us when they get the call from Skynet?

What will ApriPoco do when it sees Sarah Connor? Will its little chest open up...?

First Horseman of the RoboApocalypse?

Would You Like Chloroform With That?

"Robot Fetches Object With Just A Point and A Click" says the headline.

From that article, we see pictured Charlie Kemp, director of the Healthcare Robotics Center at Georgia Tech and Emory University, accepting a towel from El-E, a robot designed to aid users with mobility impairment with everyday tasks.

Everyday tasks like "Serve Your Robotic Overlord!"

Meet iCub

According to Science Daily, iCub, a one metre-high baby robot which will be used to study how a robot could quickly pick up language skills, will be available next year.

This extremely creepy-looking baby-headed robot "will be asked to name objects and actions so that it acquires basic phrases such as 'robot puts stick on cube'."

I predict it's first words will be, "Crush, Kill, Destroy!"

TWIS

For more news of World Robot Domination and other sciencey goodness, visit the folks who inspired this blog.