Fwd: New Scientist Newsletter 29 Jan 2000

From: John Thomas (fyreflye@bigfoot.com)
Date: Thu Jan 27 2000 - 12:53:46 MST


    Forwarded from the New Scientist newsletter:

>From: newsletter@newscientist.com
>Date: 27 Jan 2000 17:15 GMT
>
>It's a nice life if you're a robot. You just can't lose. If you're smart
>they'll want you. And if you're not, they'll still want you...
>
>For example, if you had to tackle a complex task, would you deliberately
>pick six stupid robots to help you? Ronald Kube would. Just why does a
>robotics expert at the Edmonton Research Park in Alberta want to work with a
>team of mindless machines? New Scientist finds out.
>http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns2223111
>
>Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the robotics spectrum, there's nothing
>mindless about NASA's latest leading light. Fitted with a laser rangefinder
>to detect obstacles in its path and a high-resolution camera to zoom in on
>interesting rocks, Nomad is looking for meteorites in eastern Antarctica.
>"This is not a case of a human sitting there operating the robot with a
>joystick," says program head, Ralph Harvey. "The robot is doing the search
>itself, and making decisions on its own."
>http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns2223119



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