destinyland writes “Today MIT reveals a swarm of autonomous floating robots that can digest an oil spill. The 16-foot robots drag a nanowire mesh that acts like a conveyor belt to soak up surface oil ‘like paper towels soak up water,’ absorbing 20 times its weight and then harmlessly ‘digesting’ the oil by burning it off. Powered by 21.5 square feet of solar panels, the ‘Seaswarm’ robots run on the power of a lightbulb, and with just 100 watts ‘could (more…)

this_boat_is_real writes “Somewhere off the coast of Chile a pioneering underwater robot named Abe lies in a watery grave today. The Autonomous Benthic Explorer was one of the first truly independent research submersibles, being both unmanned and un-tethered to its launching ship. While on its 222nd research dive on Friday all contact with the craft was lost, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has announced.”

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Instead of mourning the loss of his lifeless Xbox 360, Jasper Stevens harvested the parts to create an awesome mechanical robot.

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Switzerland — Robert Richardson has a vision of the future: A long line of trucks wends its way through dangerous territory to bring critically needed supplies to a population in desperate need. What makes these trucks different is that they are guided by robots instead of human drivers.

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This is the story of Beer Robot, an ugly old fridge that grew into a super geeky kegerator. It started out innocently enough. After work one day at the local brewpub, three Wired.com staffers had a revelation: “What our office really needs is a kegerator!”

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Peter writes “Toyota researchers have unveiled a new humanoid robot that can run at 7 km/h, which is faster than Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO. Toyota’s robot can also keep itself balanced when pushed, as shown in the video.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sega has gone down the rather unusual route of creating a battery powered miniature robot girlfriend for lonely adult males. Called EMA (Eternal Maiden Actualization) Sega hopes this mini-fembot, which it describes as petite, friendly and big-busted, will bring joy to those in need when it is released onto the market in September.

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Hugh Pickens writes “New Scientist reports that instead of identifying chemicals that could point to life, NASA’s robot explorers may have been toasting them by mistake. Even if Mars never had life, comets and asteroids that have struck the planet should have scattered at least some organic molecules over its surface but landers have failed to detect even minute quantities of organic compounds. Now scientists say they may have stumbled on something (more…)