Japanese lab creates self-propelling chemical material for future Terminators

via DVICE by Adario Strange on 4/30/09

If you were hoping that our future robot masters would be of the readily identifiableTransformers breed, or at least of the fetching Summer Glau variety, you may be in for a disappointment. A group of Japanese roboticists, led by Shingo Maeda at the Shuji Hashimoto applied physics laboratory at Waseda University, have created a chemical gel capable of independent motion, similar to that of a caterpillar.

Using a process that combines polymers, the material not only moves on its own, but also can change colors and can be used to perform calculations. According to the scientists involved in the project the morphable material could even one day be used as components of a future robot, thus making the notion of the incredibly scaryTerminator T-1000 a real possibility. You can check out video of the terrifying "baby steps" of this new material here.

Via New Scientist

Happy Birthday, Horrifying Japanese Child Bot: You're Two

via Gizmodo by John Mahoney on 4/6/09

Since we first met Child Robot with Biomimetic Body (CB2), he's been taking a lot in through the black pools of terror he uses for eyes: The little guy's taught himself to walk. Yikes.

CB2 is one of Japan's most advanced robotics projects—using 197 sensors under its pallid gray skin, eye-cameras, 51 pneumatic "muscles" and the high-end processing power to drive it all, it has learned to recognize facial expressions, follow the gaze of its "mother" and even teach itself to walk. Says PhysOrg:

[Osaka University professor Minoru Asada], also a member of the Japanese Society of Baby Science, said his team has made progress on other fronts since first presenting CB2 to the world in 2007.

In the two years since then, he said, CB2 has taught itself how to walk with the aid of a human and can now move its body through a room quite smoothly, using 51 "muscles" driven by air pressure.

In coming decades, Asada expects science will come up with a "robo species" that has learning abilities somewhere between those of a human and other primate species such as the chimpanzee.

It also talks:

Thank goodness Christian Bale will be able to protect us in the future. Until then I'll be hiding in an underground bunker. [PhysOrg]