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The Invasion of Cute, Therapeutic Robots

Paro the robotic seal has been used to treat elderly patients with dementia for more than 15 years in Japan and Europe. This year, they went on sale for facilities in the U.S. The robot has sensors all over its body, allowing it to react to touch, light, and sound. Paro is recharged through a pacifier-shaped plug in its mouth. Keepon is a little, yellow, spongy robot that researchers have used to interact with autistic children. The robot is usually…

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The AcceleGlove: A Cheap and Lightweight Control Glove

“AnthroTronix originally set out to make a glove capable of translating sign language. But in order to fund that niche application, they turned to the U.S. military, who was interested in new ways to control robots in the field. As decreasing size and price of accelerometers has allowed the company to make a glove much lighter and more flexible than traditional wired gloves. By Josh Romero (additional footage by Sally Adee) Additonal photos from Flickr users Tim.Deering, JulianBleecker, oskay, and…

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A Robot to Mine the Moon

IEEE Spectrum visits a warehouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Honeybee Robotics, a space technology company, is developing a next-generation rover to excavate and mine the lunar surface. Conventional digging machinery might be to clunky to operate on the moon. So Honeybee came up with a completely new approach to mining. Its robot uses gas to push lunar dirt into the rover’s storage compartment. The material could be used for construction of roads, or mined for oxygen. But first, Honeybee needs…

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