The earthquake detecting robot performs a useful purpose and looks fierce while doing so.

The devastating earthquake that struck his native State, and the recent earthquake in Haiti prompted Hiren Patel and a group of student from J T Engineering College in Gujarat, India, to develop a robot that senses an earthquake.

It may be surprising to believe, the earthquake detecting robot is connected wirelessly to sensors embedded in the ground and can somehow detect impeding earthquakes about 3 hours before they actually hit,thus warning the authorities against the danger well in advance.

Dubbed as the Earthquake Detector Robot, it is made of a single receiver and two transmitters whose circuits are kept inside the earth to sense changes in temperature and water levels and transmit the information about the changes via microwave frequencies.

When it gets a signal of impending doom, it’ll send out warnings over the internet.

The robot employs microcontrollers to sense vibrations and give off an alarm on detection. Though, three hours may not seem time enough to make significant arrangements to avoid destruction, if the earthquake detecting robot really works as claimed, many lives could be saved for sure.

Click here to read more about Earthquake Detecting Robot, Earthquake Detector

In the previous article, we featured a wall climbing robot that's able to climb up a freely configurable wall unassisted. But as I did further research on these types of robots, I've realized how new robots could climb on either a smooth or a rough wall surfaces without having to configure their paths.

I love robots and if you watch this video here, I believe you would love them more.

These wall climbing bio-inspired robots were developed at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheba, Israel, by the same engineers who brought us the web slinging spider robot.

Israeli roboticist Amir Shapiro, lead the development of these four wall climbing robots namely the

1. A magnetic robot capable of climbing on metal surfaces;

2. A snail-inspired robot that secrets hot melt glue to stick to walls;

3. A robot that has 3M sticky tape on its wheels and can climb on smooth surfaces like a whiteboard or glass;

4. A four-legged wall bot that uses claws made of fishing hooks to climb rough surfaces like a cat or rodent.

Click here to read more about Wall Climbing Robots, Bio-inspired Robots

A marine biologist and ecologist came up with the idea of creating miniature marine life robots in order to broaden the learning of school children about sea life.

Japan is famous for its diverse selection of tropical fish. In fact they are the first ones to breed several kinds of aquarium fish like the carp to produce other carp species.

Now this love for fish has gone a notch higher. One of them is Prof. Masamichi Hayashi, who combined his love for the marine life with educating little children.

He created life-like robots that mimic the movements and sounds of some of the well-known and most dreaded sea creatures like the killer whale, the manta ray, the 5 feet turtoise and ¥2 million replica of the prehistoric coelacanth.

His creations were impressively made o recyclable materials from raincoats to windscreen wipers. His comprehensive knowledge in both robotics and marine creatures has produced realistic set of hand-crafted fish.

See this playful little killer whale out here, is actually a robot!

The whale is operated by a remote control and consists of a series of a network of internal servos and motors. Some of the larger 'fish-bots' are capable of opening and closing their mouths and eating artificial 'prey'.

Click here to read more about Fish Robots or 'Fish-Bots'.

From the inventors of the famous robot suit HAL-5, comes another innovation that will help increase the efficiency of a human body movement, running.

In particular, this so-called machine is intended for people who love to run as a form of exercise. This may help our disabled friends, but the developers have designed this gadget for season runners, or joggers.

The device was not named but is already popularly known as the "motorized knee".

Researchers from Tsukuba University, Japan, developed the "motorized knee" device which comes as a small plastic kit encapsulating a tiny motor which helps flex the knee, a safety lever, a sensor that detects the degree your knee is flexed to optimize motor operation, and a backpack that carries the control unit with the battery.

Once the device is attached to the knee, it supports the flexing of the knee which allows runners to use 30% less of the muscle power needed to run unassisted.

The "motorized knee" kit is going to be commercially produced in the next three years, and we hope it's going to be smaller and lighter for increased running efficiency.

Click here to read more about "Motorized knee", Device to Improve Running Efficiency.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has finally completed the development of a tiny, armed drone, named Project Anubis after a jackal-headed Egyptian god.

Project Anubis was started in 2008 ultimately created as an assassination robot for "high value target". But a recent military R & D documents note "that Air Force engineers were successful in develop[ing] a Micro-Air Vehicle (MAV) with innovative seeker/tracking sensor algorithms that can engage maneuvering high-value targets.”

Project Anubis was built in order to address three critical drawbacks against the larger Predator and Reaper drones using Hellfire missiles in Afghanistan and Pakistan anti-terrorist wars.

First, following the "Tall Man Incident" of CIA operatives mistakenly hit a kind-of-like "Bin Laden" innocent with the hellfire missile.

Second, hellfire was originally an anti-tank missile, which is less precise and agile, making it unfit for highly sensitive missions.

Third, historically hellfire missile was frankly, ineffective causing many innocent deaths.

Currently, the Air Force is silent about the state of Project Anubis. But if it does make it to missions, Anubis would solve both of the problems associated with the Predator-Hellfire combination, Hambling reported.

Click here to read more about Project Anubis, USAF Micro-Drone Project.

You see the one that's not in the shelf gets the most attention.

Seen flying over the heads of the journalist was the Quadricopter Drone developed by Parrot. The quadricopter is also part of the CES 2010 show, and to get noticed, this UAV, being controlled by an iPhone or iPod, has to fly around hoping to get buzzed up.

The AR.Drone, a four-rotor “quadricopter” controlled by Wi-Fi signals, includes wireless cameras that can stream video to a iPhone or IPod Touch, thus allowing you to use your actual surroundings as “targets” in a “augmented reality” video game.

The A.R. copter being made of carbon fiber and PA66 plastic, can be used outdoors with the rotors unprotected or indoors with a shield which protects and allows the copter to bump gently against obstacles, so you can enjoy a search and rescue or a hunting game.

The quadricopter is controlled by accelerometers and an embedded Linux platform originally designed for mobile phones, according to Parrot.

Click here to read more about A.R. Quaricopter Drone, CES 2010 Show

In response to the long-aged problems in illegal immigration, cross-border terrorism and contraband smuggling, some nations turn to robotic surveillance systems supported by the latest and most reliable robotic systems.

A recent conference on state security was held at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK to address such mentioned problems particularly by scattering arrays of sensors in a border area in ways that robot guards can respond to any detected attempt to cross borders in a timely manner.

The need to strengthen border surveillance systems is evident everywhere in the globe. In India, a 3400-kilometre, 3-metre-high barbed-wire and concrete border wall to close itself off from Bangladesh - to Libya, placing foot soldiers on guard carrying people sensing technologies.

Libya is investing on a €300 million on technology for what it calls a "large border security and control system", made by Selex Sistemi Integrati.

And in the U.S., together with Boeing Intelligence and Security Systems, sensors are scattered on the border of Mexico, in an $8 billion project called the Secure Border Initiative network or SBInet.

SBInet uses robotic cameras to automatically zoom in when a particular intruder or any illegal entry is detected through its radar sensors.

Radar sensors are sensitive enough to pick up voices and footfalls, and will provide patrols with early warning of any activity in the border area - as far as 10 kilometers from the fence.

Click here to read more about Robot Surveillance Systems, Robot Border Patrols

Intelligent robots have brains! Yes, it's true. The brains are like your computer CPU that processes all activities inside. Just recently, DAVE, an Italian Linux firm, announced the launch of CPU module based on TIs' ARM Cortex-A8-based AM3505 and AM3517 system-on-chips (SoCs). The 2.7 x 2/0-inch "Lizard" module offers connectivity including CAN, I2C, Ethernet, and serial I/O, provides extended temperature support, and is available with a Linux-ready evaluation board.

The new module, Lizard is built to withstand extreme temperatures ranging from -40 F to 185 F. The Superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 processor clocks in at 500MHz. You get 256MB of DDR2 RAM, 2GB of NAND flash, 2 SD flash expansion ports, OpenGL acceleration, fast ethernet port, 2 USB host ports, 1 USB OTG port, CAN, 3 UARTs, 2 I2C, SPI, I2S, a keypad controller, JTAG, and some GPIO.

The module also provides display subsystem that supports up to 24 bit, 74.25MHz pixel clock, video processing front-end (VPFE), video input and output, 16-bit video input port and touchscreen controller. The Lizard Embedded Linux Kit Lite (LELK-L), which includes the Lizard-equipped LizardEVB-Lite "Zefeer" board, is available now for 500 Euros (about $748 U.S.) + VAT, says Dave. The Windows CE kit is said to be "coming soon."

Click here to read more about Lizard CPU Modules, Brains for All Robot types, and DAVE