Military demand for unmanned ground vehicles will likely decrease in the short term, due to fiscal and military realities, but as UGV capabilities expand during the next decade, so will their use, according to a report released last week by London-based business information provider Visiongain. The report, “Military Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Market 2013-2023,” predicts

One of the ways Motorola, which was acquired by Google last year, is attempting to set itself apart in the crowded mobile marketplace is by giving users an unprecedented ability to customize their phones, and they’re doing it with a technology tailor made for highly custom manufacturing: 3-D printing. 3D Systems, a leader in the

When your car breaks down, you generally don’t chalk it up as a total loss and leave it for dead on the side of the road. However, that’s essentially what happens when a communications satellite fails in orbit 22,000 miles above the Earth, where thousands of such devices now float as space debris. Many of

Common sense, which gets its name because it comes so naturally to humans, is not so common among robots. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, however, are trying to change that with a computer program called the Never Ending Image Learner, or NEIL. NEIL is currently running 24 hours a day, searching the Web for images

The Internet of Things, which is helping bring robotics and various related technologies to the masses, is increasingly entering our homes. After last week’s announcement of a substantial infusion of capital at start-up SmartThings, the latest example comes from home automation company August, which today reported $8 million in Series A funding. The company’s flagship

Lincoln Electric Holdings, an Ohio-based company that specializes in arc welding products, reported today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Robolution GmbH, a robotic arc welding systems provider located near Frankfurt, Germany. Robolution currently serves a number of automotive manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Robolution expands

The last six months have seen a number of moves toward standardizing the development of the “Internet of Things” on the part of major tech firms. Efforts as wide-ranging as a partnership between Oracle and Freescale and a consortium of ABB, Bosch, Cisco, and LG are telling signs of the increasing sense of both opportunity

The latest installment of the White House “We the Geeks” series of Google+ Hangouts, scheduled for later today, will feature a maker movement theme. “We the Geeks” is designed to highlight the future of science, technology and innovation in the United States. A previous edition, held in August, was all about robots. Today’s event —

The economic effects of innovations like 3-D printing and robotics aren’t always readily apparent. For instance, 3-D printing is recognized as a way for businesses to cheaply create prototypes, but it’s not widely viewed as a way to reduce expenses in school classrooms. 3-D printing company MakerBot, however, sees an opportunity. MakerBot is holding a

3-D printing has been hailed as the next big thing for a while now, but as the technology continues to improve and cost decreases, it appears to be on the cusp of breaking out in a big way. Exhibit A — a newly released research report by MarketsandMarkets predicts the segment will expand at an