Robotic in Biological News

Captain Birdseye's robotic nose

The Captain can't freeze smelly fish that's past its best - and Icelandic scientists can now help him out by detecting the levels of stench-making bacteria faster than ever before. The research in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Environmental Monitoring reports a new method to det...

Unmanned aerial vehicles mark robotic first for British Antarctic Survey

Scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in collaboration with the Technical University of Braunschweig (TUBS), Germany have completed the first ever series of flights by autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Antarctica. This is the first time that unpiloted UAVs have been used in the ...

NASA-funded robotic sub finds bottom of world's deepest sinkhole

A robotic vehicle designed for underwater exploration plunged repeatedly into the depths of Mexico’s mysterious El Zacatón sinkhole in late May, finding its previously undiscovered bottom 318 meters below the surface and generating a sonar map of its inner dimensions. The vehicle employed autonomo...

3-D ultrasound scanner could guide robotic surgeries

Duke University engineers have shown that a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner they developed can successfully guide a surgical robot. The scanner could find application in various medical settings, according to the researchers. They said the scanner ultimately might enable surgeries to be perf...

U of MN uses robotic surgery techniques in cardiac cell therapy research

Researchers at the University of Minnesota were successful in using robotic surgery to deliver stem cell treatment to damaged heart tissue in pigs. Using minimally invasive robotic surgery equipment, researchers injected the stem cells into the damaged hearts. The cells were "labeled" with iron ...

Penn Surgeons Use Completely Robotic Surgery to Successfully Treat Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death among American men. It is estimated that one in six males will develop the disease during his lifetime. However, promising new treatment options have been developed to help combat this threatening disease. One of the most innovat...

Penn Researchers Use Robotic Surgery

For patients with cancer of the mouth and throat, surgery is a frequent course of treatment, often leading to speech and swallowing dysfunction and external scarring. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, have c...

DNA computation gets logical at the Weizmann Institute of Science

...in something like this: Mortal(Socrates)?. To compute the answer, various strands of DNA representing the rules, facts and queries were assembled by a robotic system and searched for a fit in a hierarchical process. The answer was encoded in a flash of green light: Some of the strands had a biological versio...

Scientists report first remote, underwater detection of harmful algae, toxins

...nce many critical processes that govern HABs dynamics, such as water temperature and ocean circulation, are influenced by climate. A MBARI-designed robotic instrument called the Environmental Sample Processor, or 'ESP,' designed as a fully-functional analytical laboratory in the sea, lets researchers coll...

Research shows that 'invisible hand' guides evolution of cooperative turn-taking

... cannot evolve in this simple way." Professor Colman added: "In our simulations, the individuals were computer programs that were not only dumb and robotic but also purely selfish. Nevertheless, they ended up taking turns in perfect coordination. We published indirect evidence for this in 2004; we have no...

1-finger exercise reveals unexpected limits to dexterity

... Complete understanding of the result may help explain why manual dexterity is so vulnerable to aging and disease, and even help design more versatile robotic graspers. A research team led by Francisco Valero-Cuevas of the University of Southern California reports the paradoxical result in the Journal of...

Robo-bats with metal muscles may be next generation of remote control flyers

...es and helicopters doesn't work very well. Instead, researchers at North Carolina State University are mimicking nature's small flyers and developing robotic bats that offer increased maneuverability and performance. Small flyers, or micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs), have garnered a great deal of interest du...

Reading the brain without poking it

... electrode array to help paralyzed people move a computer cursor, operate a robotic arm and communicate. Meanwhile, researchers at the University ...that will help disabled people use their own thoughts to control computers, robotic limbs or other machines. "If you're going to have your skull o...

Autonomous robot detects shrapnel

...y piece of metal in a water bath, then directing a needle on the end of the robotic arm to it. The researchers had previously used this approach to detect micr...hree axes. For the next series of tests, the Duke researchers plan to use a robotic arm with six-axis capability. ...

Brain-computer interface, developed at Brown, begins new clinical trial

...participants has explored their ability to control robotic limbs, operate computer software and drive a wheel...oving a cursor on the screen, or the movement of a robotic or prosthetic limb." A previous clinical trial ...omputer screen, controlling a prosthetic limb or a robotic arm, controlling functional electrical stimulation...

Mars mission could ease Earth's energy supply crisis

... Techniques and instrumentation initially developed for ExoMars - Europe's next robotic mission to Mars in 2016 - but now due to fly on a NASA mission in 2018, could also provide the answers to the globally pressing issue of energy supply...

Demonstration Features Commercial Technology for Combating Terrorism

...protective equipment; night vision and optics devices; non-lethal weapons and technology; physical security equipment sensor and surveillance systems; robotic vehicles and systems; unattended ground sensors; unmanned aerial vehicles; vulnerability assessment/analysis software tools; and waterside security eq...

Healing wounds with lasers, vehicles that drive themselves, other cutting-edge optics

...M's patented new methods for detecting lanes and correcting a vehicle's route, which helped them win the challenge. Though they won, don't look for robotic chauffeurs immediately. The technology must prove reliable in many different road, weather and lighting conditions. Still, says Zhang, a commercially-...

NIH announces new program to develop therapeutics for rare and neglected diseases

...collaboration with the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), initially developed as part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. NCGC has developed a robotic high-throughput screening system and a library of more than 350,000 compounds that it uses to make basic discoveries and probe cellular pathways. NCGC...

Demonstration Features Commercial Technology for Combating Terrorism

...protective equipment; night vision and optics devices; non-lethal weapons and technology; physical security equipment sensor and surveillance systems; robotic vehicles and systems; unattended ground sensors; unmanned aerial vehicles; vulnerability assessment/analysis software tools; and waterside security eq...

Humans may be losers if technological nature replaces the real thing

...cons, ferrets and fish, virtual tours of the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, and robotic dogs, seals and even dinosaurs. But what about the real deal: observing an...n's laboratory, one with a plasma display "window" and several with AIBO, a robotic dog. The plasma window study showed that people recovered better from lo...

Demonstration Targets Terrorism

...protective equipment; night vision and optics devices; non-lethal weapons and technology; physical security equipment sensor and surveillance systems; robotic vehicles and systems; unattended ground sensors; unmanned aerial vehicles; vulnerability assessment/analysis software tools; and waterside security eq...

The Burnham Buzz, February 2009

... a large pharmaceutical company. Scientists at Burnham's Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center are already using the institute's state-of-the-art robotic screening center in basic research programs. Can you hear me now? Digital Drug Search Giovanni Paternostro, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues have de...

UT Southwestern researchers disrupt biochemical system involved in cancer, degenerative disease

...es. In the current study, the researchers used cultured mouse cells that were engineered to glow green when Wnt-controlled pathways were active. A robotic device then tested 200,000 compounds to measure their effects on the cells. Nine compounds that inactivated Wnt-controlled systems thus preventing...

Feeling your words: Hearing with your face

...s a difference in how you 'hear' what you hear," said first author Takayuki Ito, a senior scientist at Haskins. When, Ito and his colleagues used a robotic device to stretch the facial skin of "listeners" in a way that would normally accompany speech production they found it affected the way the subjects ...

Robo-surgery: As safe and capable as a human assistant in key-hole gallbladder removal

... Using a robotic assistant to remove a patient's gallbladder by key-hole surgery (laparoscop...ifference. "We need more trials that see whether the success rates using robotic assistants increase once surgeons have more experience using them," said le...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- Jan. 14, 2009

...nding straight out of science fiction, chemical and biomolecular engineers in Maryland are describing development of microscopic, chemically triggered robotic "hands" that can pick up and move small objects. They could be used in laboratory-on-a-chip applications, reconfigurable microfluidic systems, and mic...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Jan. 7, 2009

... must undergo alterations in their shape, chemistry or temperature in order to work. The design of simple, more practical engines to power these tiny, robotic machines remains a major challenge, the researchers say. The scientists describe a solution tiny beads, about 1/25,000 of an inch in diameter, mad...

Tellme Enters Automotive Market

...se time. * Text-to-speech. Tellme has developed sophisticated voice synthesis that delivers the cadences of true human speech, rather than the robotic staccato of many current systems, which improves task completion rates. * Audio design. Tellme's natural language audio designs make it easy f...

Studies offer guide as protein interaction mapping comes of age

...human cells. The maps draw on three sources of information about protein interactions: high throughput yeast two-hybrid (HT-Y2H) procedures, which use robotic equipment to screen thousands of proteins to see which bind to each other (the binding switches on a "reporter" gene that can be chemically detected);...

Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells

...h the further customization and targeting of cancer treatments for the individual patient. It will immediately provide a model to discover drugs using robotic screening for available molecules that may have untapped potential to eradicate cancer. "Normal stem cells and cancer stem cells are hard to tell ...

Wii bit of fun at Rice University has serious intent

...ion through repetition of the motor pathways. Think of hitting a tennis ball. Learning by trial-and-error is fine, but it would be much easier if a robotic sleeve could tell you exactly where that hitch in your swing is and gently prod you to hit the ball correctly. "Using the Wii will be a great way t...

The Burnham buzz

...ncement may lead to novel therapies for muscular dystrophy. Microscopic Race for New Cures Jeff Price, M.D., Ph.D. has created a next generation robotic microscope which can be used for high-throughput cellular image analysis to discover new potential drugs. The novel instrumentation utilizes chromatic...

Animal and biological science highlights: San Antonio Fluid Dynamics Conference, Nov. 23-25

...unnel Studies Reveal Bat Flapping Secrets 2) robotic Hummingbird Offers Insight into Hovering Flight ...ings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD08/Event/89996 . 2) robotic HUMMINGBIRD OFFERS INSIGHT INTO HOVERING FLIGHT ...ation in his talk, "Flight of a Rufous Hummingbird robotic Model-PIV Measurements," at 9:31 am on Monday, Nov...

Carnegie Mellon developing automated systems to enable precision farming of apples, oranges

...uality and lower production costs. The systems use sensors on autonomous robotic vehicles or at fixed sites within the orchards to gather a multitude of data about tree health and crop status. robotic vehicles will be used to administer precise amounts of water or agricultura...

Carnegie Mellon's Philip LeDuc participates in think tank forums

...titute of Health's National Cancer Center about how systems such as cells and cancerous tissues in the human body may operate in a similar manner to a robotic system. These two events are focused on generating out-of-the-box thinking and approaches for taking on some of the biggest challenges in the future. ...

International Journal of Social Robotics debuts at Springer

...ign methodologies, human-robot interaction, robot-robot interaction, neurorobotics, biomedical robotics, robot-ethics in human society and interactive robotic arts. Nathalie Jacobs, Publishing Editor, Engineering, at Springer, said, "It is exciting to be able to play a role in disseminating ideas and dev...

Ripple effect: Water snails offer new propulsion possibilities

...cating propulsive method of land snails to drive a robotic device. Now, as a result of this new water snail f...on Lauga's water snail research, he said, is small robotic swimmers, which could crawl underneath the free su...ocomotion strategies to inspire new inventions and robotic devices. "Anything we can learn about biology an...

Robotic surgery lowers risk of a rare but serious complication of gastric bypass

...shed in the most recent edition of the Journal of robotic Surgery. Minimally-invasive surgeons at The Un...tions among the two groups of patients. "While robotic surgery may take slightly longer and be more costl...t professor in the Department of Surgery, said the robotic technique offers numerous advantages to bariatric ...

New robot scouts best locations for components of undersea lab

...hane," Delaney said. "Our plan is to build the infrastructure that will allow entire generations of scientists to study these deposits firsthand using robotic telepresence no other country is there yet." The other site is about 300 miles west of Cannon Beach, Ore., and in a decidedly different environment. ...