Artificial earthworm made from a mesh tube and shape memory alloy muscles.

We are pleased to announce the beta version of our RoboRoach control circuit is now available, which allows you to trick a cockroach into turning left or right by microstimulation of the antenna nerves.

Courtesy of Alexandre

The video technique could lead to remote diagnostic methods, like the ability to detect the heart rate of someone on a screen.

Are there potential applications to earth observation etc..?

The film Batman Begins shows the character of Batman gliding using a rigid form of his cape. This paper assesses the feasibility of such a glide and finds that while a reasonable distance could be travelled if gliding from a tall building, the speed at which Batman would be travelling would be too dangerous to stop without some method of slowing down.

If you've ever flown an R/C plane, you know how nerve wracking it can be. Navigating in three dimensions opens up the possibility to run into so many things, and a single crash could be your last. Now, a team from EPFL's Laboratory of Intelligent Systems has been working on a UAV called the AirBurr.

An approach to robot design that makes sense. I can see applications to planetary explorers here.

The way that Mexican jumping beans move by detecting temperature gradients could be applied to designing robotic beans. Most animals move around by using their appendages, such as legs, wings, or fins. But a few exceptional creatures employ rolling as a mode of locomotion.

What does a robot feel when it touches something? Little or nothing until now. Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering publish a study in Frontiers in Neurorobotics showing that specially designed robots can be taught to feel even more than humans.

See 1:13 in the video: could be useful for GTOC!

Julius von Bismarck is only 28 years old, but his artistic resume is already several pages long. He's currently taking time off from school to be the new artist in residence at CERN ? the world's biggest particle physics research facility, home of the Large Hadron Collider.

Perhaps a new role for the ACT!?

Driverless cars will soon be a reality on the roads of Nevada after the state approved America's first self-driven vehicle licence. The first to hit the highway will be a Toyota Prius modified by search firm Google, which is leading the way in driverless car technology.

Robotics scientists at TED unleash co-ordinated drones that mimic bird behavior to play the James Bond theme song At TED2012, the University of Pennsylvania's deputy dean for education Vijay Kuma showed off his latest accomplishment in robotics: a co-ordinated rendition of the James Bond theme song.

And some interactive versions: http://skysurvey.org/

A new chip that simulates the behaviour of a synapse. 1 down, a few hundred trillion to go...

Movember (formerly November) is a moustache growing charity event during November. This month I am growing a moustache to raise awareness (and funds) for men's health. I will be putting a collection jar on my desk, so any donations of spare change would be very much appreciated! My 'mospace' can be found here: http://mobro.co/Lukeoc hijaking of diigo over...

"...the woodpecker does not experience any head injury at the high speed of 6-7 m/s with a deceleration of 1000 g when it drums a tree trunk. It is still not known how woodpeckers protect their brain from impact injury...."