The war in Iraq may be over (to a large degree at least), but US troops are still stationed in combative places around the world, such as Afghanistan. One problem when it comes to supporting the troops in such distant places with hard to reach terrains is providing them with the supplies they need, an operation that is usually carried out by a helicopter, putting a pilot‘s life in danger. That is the why the US Army staged a competition for developers to come up with a functional unmanned helicopter that can deliver heavy cargo on its own.

The winner was Lockheed Martin’s submission, which took an interesting approach. Instead of building an entire new robotic helicopter, they took an existing craft and gave it important modifications. Other submissions for example also presented unnamed aircrafts, but those eliminated even the possibility of using a real human pilot. Lockheed Martin’s Kanman K-Max cargo helicopter, on the other hand, allows for that choice to be made based on each specific mission, so it is much more adaptable. It is capable of lifting 6000 pounds, flying over 200km and delivering its cargo within a 10 meter drop zone. The aircraft itself weighs 6k pounds, so it can lift its own weight. It is controlled from the ground, and in the video you can see a team with a playstation 2-like controller moving it in different directions.

Besides the K-Max, Lockhead Martin also came up with the JATAS prototype system, which warns pilots of attacks in hostile environments. It uses laser sensors to detect missiles and hostile fire, alarming the helicopters in (hopefully) ample time to prevent the hit.

The video focuses on the K-max and shows the unmanned helicopter during the tests, where it drops cargo and flies away in a swift and timely manner.

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You know those little plastic tree-like structures left over when you're done building a model? They're called runners - part of the injection molding process and basically a waste. For most products, the factory recycles runners as the parts are detached, but for models they are left on to make live easier for the builder. Well, some folks over at ummmm....a place in Japan, took a boat-load of these runners and made a 3-meter tall Gundam. Check it out! And the video.

During filming for the Transformers 3 movie, a stunt went terribly wrong and an extra was injured. The accident involved several vehicles with an object going through a windshield hitting the driver resulting in a serious head injury. Filming was taking place in Hammond in northwestern Indiana. Several videos exist of the movie shooting in Chicago on Youtube, along with some funny trailers. Transformers 3 is scheduled for a July 2011 release.

Engineers must always consider the best approach when it comes to designing robots – do you experiment with the latest technology and try to make things as new and as daring as possible, or do you go for something simple but convenient that won’t scare most people? Certainly both sides have their advantages and equally well disadvantages, but some feel that when it comes to dealing with medical patients, easy and convenient is the way to go.

That’s why Japan’s National Institute of Advances Industrial Science and Technology came up with RAPUDA, a wheelchair-arm robot that goes back to the basics of joystick-controlled assistance. As the title suggests, it’s rather straightforward – a robotic arm that can extend out from a wheelchair and reach or grab different objects. It is specifically designed for people with upper-limb disabilities, so one at least has to be able to move a regular wheelchair joystick to operate the arm. The arm moves by a telescoping method, where small interlocked segments are reeled-in to achieve motion.

The video shows RAPUDA accomplishing some everyday tasks, such as reaching for a glass of water from a table and bringing it to the user’s mouth. The arm can also reach down, pick up things and put them back in their right place. Opening doors, carrying clothes and other tasks can also be made possible again for disabled patients. It’s true that the arm operates at a very slow pace, but in return it looks very stable and secure. All this allows patients to live much more independent lives, which, as documented, helps them on psychological levels as well. Let’s hope that the affordability of RAPUDA will be just as “simple” as well.

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With more biology than robotics, researchers at University of Tokyo harvested eggs from African Clawed Frogs to build inexpensive olfactory sensors. DNA from fruit flies and moths were added to stimulate production of the sensors known to be good at detecting certain molecules, then electrodes were attached to capture the receptor's output. Now for the "Robot" part - results from the sensors are read by software on a PC and a simple actuator was used to cause a robotic mannequin head to shake back and forth adding impact to the experiment. See the PDF for the full scoop.