Start-up company Five Elements Robotics yesterday launched a Kickstarter campaign for its flagship product, the Budgee follow-me robot. The robot, which was first shown at the RoboBusiness conference in October, is designed to improve the shopping experience for consumers by following them around and carrying their things, up to 50 pounds. It’s kind of a

The Chrysler Foundation reported today that it will award $229,000 in grants to support FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics teams and organizations during 2014. The money will primarily be used to fund FIRST teams in the group’s home state of Michigan, with additional support for teams in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana,

After months of anticipation, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration today revealed the locations of six unmanned aircraft systems research and test sites. Congress directed the FAA to establish the sites as part of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 in preparation for integration of UAS into the national airspace system by 2015. Back

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Defense release its latest roadmap for the future of unmanned systems, which covers the next 25 years. The report to Congress, which is updated biannually, is intended to offer a vision for the continued integration of unmanned systems into the DoD. The report covers air, ground and maritime

After leading throughout the competition, Schaft, the Japanese robotics start-up recently purchased by Google, was officially crowned winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials when they ended on Saturday. Schaft has only been around since 2012, when it spun out of the JSK Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, but it thoroughly dominated the DRC

[ UPDATED: The DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials have ended, with the robot from Schaft Inc. taking the title. Hours of archived coverage of the event are available here. ] To watch the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials live from Florida’s Homestead Miami Speedway, click the following link for a YouTube stream: DARPA Robotics Challenge Live Broadcast

Right now, the best place to get permission to fly an unmanned aircraft system seems to be the Arctic, a fact that was once again proven recently when Northrop Grumman and NASA flew a Global Hawk UAS in Canadian airspace for the first time to study the Canadian Arctic. The two groups, along with a team

On April 1, 2012, plans were first announced for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, and after more than a year of anticipation, the robot competitors will finally be put through their paces starting tomorrow. The two-day event, which takes place Dec. 20-21 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., is actually the second stage of the

All unmanned aerial vehicles have a futuristic feel to them, but if you want something that looks like it came straight out of a science fiction film, you can’t beat a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The AirMule, an unmanned VTOL developed by Israeli company Tactical Robotics, certainly fits that bill, and it recently achieved

In a development that provides a glimpse of 3D printing’s potential, Cornell University researchers have 3D printed a working loudspeaker, according to the university. That’s impressive because instead of creating the shell of a product using 3D printing, they created an integrated system – albeit a simple one. The loudspeaker was designed by mechanical engineering