TEAM DUCT TAPE

From Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy blog:
PITTSBURGH—A new four-year, $7 million educational initiative by Carnegie Mellon University will leverage students’ innate interest in robots and other forms of “hard fun” to increase U.S. enrollments in computer science and steer more young people into scientific and technological careers.
The initiative, called Fostering Innovation through Robotics Exploration (FIRE), is [...]

A post at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories about the Egg-Bot heading out to the Maker Faire in Detroit, caught our interest.  
The Egg-Bot “  is an open-source art robot that can draw on spherical or egg-shaped objects from the size of a ping pong ball size to that of a small grapefruit– roughly 1.5 to 4 inches [...]

Tufts University and Virginia Tech collaborated on an interesting study that has implications in robot locomotion ( Gut Movements in Caterpillars Have Impact on Robotic Design):
BLACKSBURG, Va., July 23, 2010 – Weird movements in the abdomens of freely crawling caterpillars are making headlines in the fields of engineering and biology, says Jake Socha, Virginia Tech assistant [...]

When TDT visited Georgia Tech, we saw Aldebaran robots used for work with special needs children.  An article in today’s St. Petersburg Times, which originally appeared in the New York Times (A Soft Spot for Circuitry), talks about growing use of “robot therapy“ in environments ranging from nursing homes, to substance abuse counseling to diet coaching. 
Paro is a [...]

Way to go Dr. Dan and Umbrella Guy! You’ll catch a couple of glimpses of Team Duct Tape, too.

Steve Willingham, co-coach of TDT, was interviewed at coolTECH by Bernie Borges back in June.  He only had 90 seconds to explain what the Borges was looking at in our booth, and we think he did a great job!  The reporter was particularly interested in the Skypebot , which showed how team members don’t confine themselves [...]

From Newswise:
 The loneliness of the long-distance robot: A Cornell University robot named Ranger walked 14.3 miles in about 11 hours, setting an unofficial world record at Cornell’s Barton Hall early on July 6. A human – armed with nothing more than a standard remote control for toys – steered the untethered robot.
Ranger navigated 108.5 times [...]