Teat-seeking robot to help cows milk themselves

Davies' company IceRobotics has just received a $157,000 grant from Britain's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts to develop its rubbery manipulator - the 'continuum activator' - into a flexible, teat-seeking robotic arm. [...] It is made of a rubbery polymer, and fluid is pumped at varying pressures down three central chambers to make it extend, contract or bend at any angle. Finger-like manipulators at the arm's end add dexterity - stiff-armed robots "can have trouble catching all the angles teats can take", says Davies.

Using an infrared camera, the arm will zero in on one of a cow's warm teats and use it to locate the others. It will then place conventional suction-powered milking cups over each of them. [...]

Davies says that the strength of his device is its softness. "I build robots that can shake hands with people without the risk of slicing their head off," he says.

But its not just robotics that's preventing every dairy farm from going automatic, notes Meijering - it's also the cows. Some animals happily visit existing robotic milkers day and night. But in every herd there are a stubborn few that spurn automation, prefering the human touch. "Several cows have to be fetched a couple of times a day," says Meijering, which makes the cost of robotic milking of large herds difficult to justify for the time being.

Please keep in mind that the primary function of stories like this is to distract us from the fact that a whole fucking lot of people are going to die.

That said, this is pretty neat:

Military robots well trained for war

[...] But the new conflict persuaded the military to move faster. At the time, the state-of-the-art means for clearing a cave was to tie a rope around the waist of an infantryman, who would crawl in and toss ahead a grappling hook to probe for mines or booby traps.

[...] Able to ride on tracks like a small tank, climb stairs and work under 3 meters of water or force of up to 400 times gravity, Packbots made their debut just six weeks later at a cave complex outside the village of Nazaraht, near the Pakistani border.

[...] Later, they offered advice, complaining that the signal wasn't penetrating the walls of deep caves. So Tom Frost, an iRobot engineer at the scene, built a makeshift network of radio repeaters by scavenging old Soviet trucks that littered Bagram Air Base. And when soldiers asked Frost if PackBot could work with the computers integrated into their clothing, he downloaded the necessary code over a satellite.

[...] And sometimes, especially in towns, what the soldiers really wanted was a "throw bot" they could toss over a wall or through a window.

Frewer Eyes More Headroom?

Matt Frewer told a chat on SCIFI.COM that he's trying to resurrect his most famous character: Max Headroom. "We're putting together a deal on a new Max Headroom project," Frewer told fans. "Then I'm doing a film with my brother. The Headroom project is still in the deal-making process, so I can't say anything about it."

Frewer played the "computer-generated" character and his human counterpart, Edison Carter, in a British TV series, TV movie and subsequent American series set "22 minutes in the future." Frewer said that he's pleasantly surprised by the character's continuing popularity. "When we were making it, we knew it was way ahead of its time," he said. "I think if it was on the air [now] it would still look cutting-edge. I don't think the network was ready for it. It made a huge splash over a short time. It went as quickly as it came. That in a way was probably a plus. It never had time to go stale. Always leave 'em wanting more."

"Food for Thought"

Holidays are always a time to gather around the dining table with family and friends to share good food and stories about times gone by.

Now graduate student David Small, working with Sony Career Development Professor John Maeda in the Media Lab's Aesthetics and Computation group, has found a unique way to merge the stories and the stuffing. He is using the lab's commercial laser cutter, whose usual purpose is for etching plastics and other industrial materials, to "custom engrave" food. Now family favorites-whether text or images-can actually appear on the fruit, nuts, and vegetables being served.

Bulldozers work to construct a wall against the scalding river of lava creeping down the slopes of Mt. Etna, Sicily, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002, toward the 'Rifugio Sapienza' a refuge for hikers and tourists. By evening, the lava had rolled down to about 250 meters from the complex. Rocked by two earthquakes (news - web sites) five minutes apart Sunday, frightened people raced out of their homes on Mount Etna's slopes, where a thick river of lava was rolling toward a refuge for hikers and tourists. (AP Photo/Fabrizio Villa)

Chinese riot police, wearing newly designed uniforms, take part in an exercise in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, November 6, 2002. The exercise was part of a ceremony attended by more than 1,000 policemen to take an oath to maintain safety and stability ahead of the 16th Communist Party Congress, due to convene on November 8. REUTERS/China Photo

Who will be 'haggis king' 2002?

BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Hardy stomached men from around the country will scarf sheep's entrails for a chance to be named "haggis king."

The haggis eating contest Friday is part of Bethlehem's Celtic Classic Festival. The winner will be the first to finish a pound and a half of the Scottish dish, a mix of sheep's organs, oats and spices.

Tensions are high this year as two former champions prepare to go head to head. Steve Cunningham, of Bethlehem, and Peter Stefchak, of Anchorage, Alaska, have both won twice.

Stefchak said his training regimen includes starving himself for 24 hours before the contest. [...]

Extreme Urban Farming: Bees Gone Wild

Cool photos of the process of vacuuming 15,000 bees out of the walls of a house and relocating their hive!

http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=warposter

Remember those propaganda poster parodies from homepage.mac.com? Now he's selling prints!

MechWarrior Treehouse

"A child places his arms in a tray full of milk as rats drink at the Karni Mata Hindu temple in the town of Deshnoke in India's northwestern state of Rajasthan. Rats, hundreds and hundreds of them, are everywhere at the temple in the state and woe betide anyone who takes fright and steps on one. June 20, 2002. Reuters/Kamal Kishore"

"The U.S. government has returned to its old ways of bursting budgets and so New York's landmark national debt clock lit up again on July 11, 2002 after a two-year hiatus, whizzing higher by $30 a second. A spatter of puzzled pedestrians stared up at a bustling corner near Times Square as workers switched on a massive 11-by-26-foot digital clock that had lay dormant for nearly two years. (Peter Morgan/Reuters)"

story.news.yahoo.com

Muslim woman to challenge ban on veil in driver's license photo

(Someone on IRC said, "for religious reasons, I'd like to spray-paint the lens of your camera before you take my picture.")

June 27, 2002

ORLANDO, Florida. (AP) -- A judge ruled Thursday that a Muslim woman can pursue her legal fight to wear a veil for a driver's license photo, despite objections from the state that it jeopardizes public safety.

Judge Ted Coleman denied a state motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Sultaana Freeman, whose driver's license was revoked when she refused to replace her photograph with one showing her face unveiled.

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