Featured Story

5 Homemade Robots That Offer Hope for DIY Geeks (With Video)

Ever wanted to build your own robot army, but didn't think you had the chops? Take heart in a middle-aged software engineer who's slapped together everything from automated furniture to a walking webcam—and even a Wii-mote to rule them all.

Previous Robotics Stories

MIT Submarine Is Most Autonomous Robot Ocean Researcher Yet The Odyssey IV can reach depths of more than 19,000 ft to explore the ocean's depths on its own, fight strong currents and gather crucial data. Our intrepid reporter uses it to run down a seagull.
Without Winner, TechX Offers Gut Check for Worldwide War Bots Popular Mechanics was the only major media outlet onhand in Singapore for this weekend’s TechX Challenge with answers to those questions—and videos—from the next robo research frontier.
TechX Contest Preps Non-Superpower Military Bots for Urban War From Singapore, PM gets a sneak peek at the latest new robot showdown. And these iRobot mods could lead the way for smaller countries to hand-build autonomous armies of their own.
Inside a Student-Built FIRST Robot: Interactive How It Works You don’t need an expensive lab to engineer a sophisticated robot—just the vision of a maverick inventor, the spur of competition and a bunch of high school students armed with power tools. (Published in the September 2008 issue)
Top 4 Military Robot Teams From Britain's Grand Challenge Following the lead of DARPA's Urban Challenge, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has held its own robotics competition. PM profiles the winning team and three others that took innovative approaches to the challenge.
New Military Robots to Face Off in Two Summer Contests Following the lead of DARPA's high-profile contests, both Singapore and the United Kingdom are staging robotics competitions this August to develop their own autonomous war machines. (Published in the August 2008 issue)
4 Real-Life WALL*E Robots Cleaning Up After Nuke Waste Much like the fictional cleaning robot currently packing movie theaters, robots are being used to clean humanity’s worst messes. Here are a few doing some of the dirtiest jobs imaginable.
The 5 Most Underappreciated Robots in Hollywood History With WALL*E, Pixar appears to have done it again, creating a character that’s painfully cute, but not so precious that you want to step on his animated neck. Here are some other lovable lame-os from the big and small screens.
The Problem With Asimo: Tabloid Humanoid Is Holding Back Bots Sure, the superstar Honda robot can conduct orchestras and run around Disneyland. But at $1 million and without specific research goals in sight, can Asimo actually lead the consumer robotics revolution—or just the hype machine? PM's resident geek offers his report card.
Autonomous 3D Robot Doc Gets X-Ray Powers With DIY A.I. Looks like the robotic uprising could be headed for the OR after all, as a new feasibility study from Duke University portends to usher in a new era of unmanned surgery.
View Full Science: Robotics Archive

Digital Hollywood

Geeked-Out Movies '09

The holiday movie season has come and gone without so much as a certified blockbuster. Thank goodness for 2009!

PLUS: The Top 10 F/X Scenes of 2008

Solar Thermal Power May Make Sun-Powered Grid a Reality
It's solar's new dawn. Now new innovations are exiting the lab and plugging into the grid - turning sunlight into serious energy.

Automotive

Detroit's Wild Ride in '08

There's never been a wilder year for the automotive world than 2008. Here are the most important events of the year.

PLUS: 5 Reasons GM Teeters on the Edge

Current Issue

Out Now: Snoop Tech

For January, PM explores how gadgets are leaving our personal info vulnerable to hackers. With features on hi-def epics, full-size pickups, welding and more!