Robot Round-Up

Is it me, or do robots seem to be more present in the news these days?


NASA's Robonaut politely shook hands with astronaut Dan Burbank, an event that was a test of its range-of-motion function. (I guess a handshake is a useful motion when repairing spacecraft?) It took a while for Robonaut to develop its fine motor-control skills enough to execute a "very firm" handshake, but even more exciting is that Robonaut is apparently making friends with other bot-buddies over the internet, via Twitter.  

While a gently-reared space robot is pretty cool, a handshake pales in comparison to the golf world, which is starting to develop robots to mow fairways and greens, as well as a robo-suit to help golfers perfect their swing. Pretty soon, it will be possible to be driven by your robo-car to the golf course, where you can don your robo-suit to golf on courses mowed by robots.