A sea-going robotic glider that harvests heat energy from the ocean has been tested by US scientists.

The yellow, torpedo-shaped machine has been combing the depths of seas around the Caribbean since December 2007.

The team which developed the autonomous vehicle say it has covered “thousands of kilometres” during the tests.

The team believe the glider - which needs no batteries - could undertake oceanographic surveys for up to six months at a time.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Robot glider harvests ocean heat

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Tags: Ocean, Science, Exploration

Yesterday’s Coding4Fun on MSDN was Introduction to Programming Lego Mindstorms, with .NET none the less.

Today Microsoft is showing off their new Robotics Studio at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006.

PITTSBURGH— June 20, 2006 — Today at RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006, Microsoft Corp. showcased the community technology preview (CTP) of a new Windows®-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotic applications for a wide variety of computing platforms. In addition, early adopter companies, universities and research institutes offered demos and provided support for the new Microsoft® Robotics Studio development platform. The community technology preview of the Microsoft Robotics Studio is available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics.

Read the full announcement…

What’s really fascinating with this technology is they allow you to simulate a robot and to run code without having to invest in hardware.

Stanford’s robotic Volkswagon has been proclaimed the winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge. Which the recipients win a $2 million dollar grand prize.

This year 4 vehicles completed the race in the requisite 10 hours. The path included dangerous obstacles, such as a 10 ft wide path with 200 ft drops on either side.

The Volkswagon completed the race in 6 hours and 53 minutes. The team which designed the car has said they want to use the technology to make next-generation cars safer for everybody, not just the military.

Three robots have completed the 132 mile course DARPA has setup in the Mojave desert. The winner of the $2 million dollar prize was not immediatly declared since the robots had staggered start times. Racing against the clock instead of each other. DARPA will award the price to the fastest team to complete the race in less than 10 hours.

This was a major improvement over last years race. Where most of the vehicles didn’t even leave the starting line. And at best only went 7.5 miles.

DARPA began the Grand Challenge in 2004 to meet a congressional mandate to have a third of military vehicles drive-less by 2015.

Basic rules of DARPA Grand Challenge

• The vehicle must travel autonomously on the ground in under ten hours.
• The vehicle must stay within the course boundaries as defined by a data file provided by DARPA.
• The vehicle may use GPS and other public signals.
• No control commands may be sent to the vehicle while en route.
• The vehicle must not intentionally touch any other competing vehicle.
• An autonomous service station is permitted at a checkpoint area approximately halfway between start and finish.

DARPA or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the research arm of the U.S. Defense Department which is best known for developing the Internet back in the 1960’s.

UPDATE: A fourth robot has finished the race, a Ford Escape Hybrid.

The sentimental favorite, a Ford Escape Hybrid by students in Metarie, La., was the fourth vehicle to finish Saturday. The team lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast.

Let’s just say I can think of a few uses for this technology. The Japanese, the crafty inventors on the other side of the world, have created a female android. Created by one Professor Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University, a card carrying mad scientist if there ever was one, who believes one day androids could pass as human. He think they can fool us gullible bags of mostly water, for a full 10 minutes.

The android can respond to external stimuli, including touch. But Professor Ishiguru admits there is still a lot of work to do. Right now the android moves, and even appears to breath, by way of an external air compressor. Although she can only sit at present, she has 31 actuators that enable human-like movements.

All I can say is I for one welcome our new Asian female android overlords.