Remember Robonaut 2, NASA’s latest robotic astronaut? Well, now it looks like this awesome android might be launching as soon as September. Check out NASA’s latest video of R2 being put through some final tests [after jump].

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Tags: Aerospace, Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, Robotics

This week, April 10-18, is National Robotics Week. That means it’s time to read up on robots, and maybe even enter a local robotics competition!

To celebrate, here are some of the coolest robot videos from our blog [after jump].

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Tags: Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, Robotics

No one has conversed with Eric Ramsey since 1999, when a car crash paralyzed him, leaving his conscious mind trapped inside an unresponsive body. The rare condition is called locked-in syndrome, and it has left Ramsey unable to even blink. But now, scientists and engineers are helping him reconnect with the outside world.

Five years after the incident, scientists implanted a device in his brain linking it directly to a speech synthesizer.  After years of practice, Ramsey can now generate vowel sounds just by thinking of them.

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Tags: Biomedical, Computer, Electrical

Check out this convenient roll-up laptop design from Orkin Design in Germany.

What iPad?

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Tags: Computer

Four years ago, Fanxing Science and Technology of China created AIC-AI, “the world’s first cooking robot,” which can rustle up thousands of disparate Chinese dishes. Since AIC-AI burst onto the culinary scene, the New York Times reports, roboticists around the world have devised “a veritable army of new robots designed to serve and cook food.”

Japan’s Motoman SDA10 has spatula arms that can handle savory pancakes. The Famen restaurant in Nagoya, Japan, serves ramen, a soup, prepared by two giant robot arms. The Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, came out with the Chief Cook Robot, which can make omelettes — provided someone first cracks the eggs.

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Tags: Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, Robotics