Honda Asimo Robot: More human-like than ever

Honda North America makes their North American debut of their new Asimo Robot as it demonstrates its ability to pour a liquid at a news conference on April 16, 2014 in New York

It walks and runs, even up and down stairs. It can open a bottle and serve a drink, and politely tries to shake hands with a stranger.

Meet the latest ASIMO, Honda's humanoid robot.

"Hello New York! Thank you for coming today!" the little guy chirped in English, the recorded voice of a teenaged boy, at his US debut Wednesday in a Manhattan hotel.

Resembling a tiny astronaut, ASIMO, decked out in a white suit and helmet, stands 4 feet three inches (1.3 meters) tall and weighs in at 110 lbs (50 kg).

Honda's Satoshi Shigemi works with Asimo Robot at a news conference demonstration on April 16, 2014 in New York

ASIMO, short for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility—was designed to help people, potentially in cases of reduced mobility.

The first model was unveiled in 2000 after 14 years of research during which scientists studied human movements in an effort to replicate them.

The latest demonstration highlighted the robot's increased flexibility and balance, ASIMO can now jump, as well as sign language abilities. It can now also run at a speed of 5.6 miles per hour (9 km/h).

Researchers think that one day it could help the elderly, say by getting a snack or turning the lights off, when their ability to get around is reduced.

"ASIMO was designed to help those in society who need assistance, and Honda believes that these improvements in ASIMO bring us another step closer to our ultimate goal of being able to help all kinds of people in need," said Satoshi Shigemi, senior chief engineer at Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Japan responsible for humanoid robotics.

Cubli, a device that can walk, jump, and balance itself on a corner

Researchers from the ETH Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control have developed the Cubli, a device that can walk, jump, and balance itself on a corner.

The name "Cubli" is derived from the English word and the Swiss German diminutive.

The creators explain what Cubli is and what it can do: "The Cubli is a 15 × 15 × 15 cm cube that can jump up and balance on its corner.

Reaction wheels mounted on three faces of the cube rotate at high angular velocities and then brake suddenly, causing the Cubli to jump up.

Once the Cubli has almost reached the corner stand up position, controlled motor torques are applied to make it balance on its corner.

Mohanarajah Gajamohan

In addition to balancing, the motor torques can also be used to achieve a controlled fall such that the Cubli can be commanded to fall in any arbitrary direction.

Combining these three abilities—jumping up, balancing, and controlled falling—the Cubli is able to 'walk'."

The designers have presented a video showing the device in action, which is fun to watch, but the Cubli is also a serious exercise as the Institute continues its work in exploring various design challenges.

Building on principles in mathematics and physics, their research may involve aerial vehicles, combustion engines, or robot systems, studying dynamics and control "crucial to the efficient monitoring, control and design of complex systems."

Earlier this year, Mohanarajah Gajamohan, Michael Muehlebach, Tobias Widmer, and Raffaello D'Andrea presented their paper, "The Cubli: A Reaction Wheel-based 3D Inverted Pendulum," for the 2013 European Control Conference (ECC) that was held in July in Zürich.

The paper tracked the development of their cube, described as a 3D inverted pendulum "with a relatively small footprint."

Cubli balancing on the corner.

Skydiver to Attempt Record-Breaking Supersonic Space Jump

One man's quest to make a record-breaking leap from near the edge of space is nearing make-or-break time.

Sponsored by energy drink Red Bull, Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, 41, plans to skydive from a balloon in the stratosphere at an altitude of 120,000 feet (36,576 meters).

If he can do it, he'll become the first person to break the sound barrier outside of an aircraft.

He'll also break a trio of other records that have stood for more than 50 years: Baumgartner's plunge would mark the highest skydive, the highest manned balloon flight and the longest free fall, at about 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

Large Hadron Collider to jump to maximum energy

Large Hadron Collider to jump to maximum energy - Short Sharp Science - New Scientist

The Large Hadron Collider is going to skip medium-energy proton collisions, jumping straight to its maximum energy in 2013, after it finishes collecting lower-energy data and has its circuitry upgraded.

The particle accelerator, located outside Geneva, Switzerland, has recovered from its 2008 accident. And in 2009 it broke the world record for particle collision energy when its two oppositely directed proton beams each reached 1.18 TeV, for a total energy of 2.36 TeV.

That made it slightly more powerful than its US competitor, Fermilab, which has been colliding particle beams with energies of 1 TeV, adding up to a total energy of 2 TeV.

After a brief holiday hiatus, the LHC is getting ready to start up again. Its managers have decided to carry out collisions for two years at 3.5 TeV per beam. At the end of 2011, it will shut down for a year for circuitry upgrades, returning in 2013 at its maximum design energy of 7 TeV per beam, or 14 TeV in total.

There had been talk of pushing the LHC to a middling energy of 5 TeV per beam prior to the shutdown at the end of 2011. But scientists apparently decided that was not worth the risk. During the shutdown, the LHC's electrical connections will be upgraded, making it more robust against short circuits of the kind that caused the 2008 accident.

While the LHC ramps up to maximum energy, Fermilab still has a chance of beating it to the discovery of the long-sought Higgs particle – responsible for endowing other particles with mass – but only if the Higgs turns out to be relatively lightweight.