Technology / Robots

Elektro?

Seventy years ago, this seven-foot-tall, smoking robot was the future incarnate. 01.06.2009

#81: Smart-Matter Robots Reassemble Themselves

Like the Terminator T-1000, these robots can fix themselves after being scattered. 12.08.2008

3 Robots That Move Just Like Animals

A wall-crawling gecko, a paperclip-size fly, and an 8-tentacled jellyfish. 07.04.2008

Does Your House Have Robotic Vision (Yet)?

Buckminster Fuller's revolutionary ideas go on public display. 07.01.2008

The Robot Designed to Master Mars

Sandbot can scoot along any surface—including other planets. 06.04.2008

3 Ideas That Are Pushing the Edge of Science

Medical bots powered by sperm, clean fusion power, and two-dimensional time. 05.29.2008

When Robots Live Among Us

Get ready for machines that care for our elderly, clean our houses, and even have sex with us. 05.27.2008

The Sim That Saves People from Each Other

Preventing disaster in an unruly world. 03.03.2008

Tiny Robot Walks Using Rat Heart Muscle

Similar bots may one day clear clots in blood vessels. 01.22.2008

63. The First Robot That Walks Like a Human: Lazily

RunBot falls forward and reacts rather than computing every variable. 01.11.2008

4 Robots That Are Saving the World

Smart machines help fix humanity's ecological screwups. 09.07.2007

Human Think, Robot Do

Controlling a robot with an electrode-studded swim cap 05.04.2007

I Chat, Therefore I Am...

Conversation between two robots drifts into flirtation and philosophy. 05.03.2007

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Robots

Modern robots can respond to emotion and the smell of fine wines. 04.02.2007

High Powered Prosthetics

Bionic muscle is 100 times stronger than yours. 05.04.2006

The Year in Science: Technology

Carbon nanotubes, lab-grown meat, humanoid robots, and more. 01.08.2006

Man's Best Friend

Robots can now assist in surgery, navigate Mars, and even vacuum your living room. 12.01.2005

Oceanography

Scientists wire the oceans with data cables, permanent observatories, and robots that can roam for years 10.24.2005

Space Travel

Nature's tricks could teach us a lot about other planets. 10.24.2005

Laser-Guided Drones

Laser-Guided Drones 09.09.2005

Emerging Technology

The future belongs to shape-shifting machines that don't look like humans 04.28.2005

The Whole-House Machine

This is why people think robotics are the future 04.28.2005

The Super Bowl of Smart

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be slackers when the difference between success and failure is as simple as building a robot 02.06.2005

The Biomechanics of . . . Cockroaches

Inspired by roaches, a biologist creates robots that wobble but don't fall down 07.25.2004

Emerging Technology

Tap into a mechanical dog's brain and give it whatever personality you like 02.05.2004

AIBO as Research Tool

Sony's AIBO robotic dog is a peek at a bizarre future when you won't know if a dog—or the pretty girl walking it—is flesh and blood or plastic and memory chips 03.01.2003

Technology

01.01.2003

Future Tech

A sociable robot doesn't have to be smart—it just has to fool us into believing it is 08.01.2002

Future Tech

A powered exoskeleton could transform the average joe into a supersoldier 02.01.2002

Medicine

Year In Science 01.13.2002

They Invented it

08.01.2001

Future Tech

Will artificial limbs get better than the real thing? 04.01.2001

A Giant Among Robots

Virtual life-forms get more impressive all the time 03.01.2001

Future Tech

Do children know a better computer when they see it? 12.01.2000

Biobots

Can man mimic organic life-forms with machinery? Take a look . . . 09.01.2000

Modern Swinger

07.01.2000

Robot Watch

04.30.2000

Robot Watch

04.01.2000

The Physics of ... Bowling

It takes a good machine to really get a handle on axis, rotation, friction, inertia, speed, and spin 03.01.2000

Robot Watch

03.01.2000

The Future of Humanoid Robots

Owning your own mechanical servant may happen a lot sooner than you think, say our expert panelists. The big question is: Just how human should they be? 02.29.2000

Robot Watch-Claw

11.01.1999

The Robot That Loves People

Machines that walk, talk, move, and show humanlike emotions are no longer science fiction 10.01.1999

The Robot That Loves People

Machines that walk, talk, move, and show humanlike emotions are no longer science fiction. 10.01.1999

Nasa's Space Mutant

09.01.1999

Mechanical Movers

09.01.1999

Robodoc

08.01.1999

Lilliput in Space

NASA learns to think big by building small 03.01.1999

Robo-Lindy

12.01.1998

Babybot

12.01.1998

Silicon Stalkings

11.01.1998

Bendbots

08.01.1998

Technology Watch: Rocket Science

How do you launch something into orbit without using any fuel? A prototype spacecraft relies on a ground-based laser to push it aloft. 04.01.1998

The Incredible Shrinking Finger Factory

For years engineers have touted the future wonders of microscopic machines. But they have ignored a real-world-size problem: If machine parts dwindle to tiny specks, how will human or even robotic hands ever assemble them? One man's ingenious solution: 03.01.1998

The Year in Science: Technology 1997

Microrotor 01.01.1998

The Batbot

11.01.1997

Beyond the Soapsuds Universe

The universe is full of patterns, but how did it get that way? 08.01.1997

The Cutebot

12.01.1996

Perpetual Flight

11.01.1996

A Thousand Diving Robots

The new plan for exploring the ocean: let a thousand robots roam. 04.01.1996

Robot, Build Thyself

And when you finish that, build some more of you. Go ahead, fill a whole desert valley. And then produce unlimited energy while eliminating the greenhouse effect. Okay? Thanks. 10.01.1995

The Sharebots

09.01.1995

Surgery in Cyberspace

Coming soon to an operating room near you: a remote-controlled robot operates on a flesh-and-blood patient while--miles away--the human surgeon deftly cuts with virtual scalpels. 12.01.1994

Virtual Jack

He looks like a human, he's shaped like a human, he moves, works, and reacts like a human. He's the avant-garde of simulated us, and the future of virtual reality. 06.01.1994

The Robot Farm

03.01.1993

Robocar

Lean, mean, self-driving machines go cruising the streets of America. 07.01.1992

High Hopes

05.01.1992



DISCOVER Poll
Microbe Mind-Control

Which is the freakiest zombie animal? (Click here to look at the gallery.)