New ASIMO Makes UK Debut

Newcastle, England - The new ASIMO debuted in UK in the North East of England with a mission to inspire the regions’ next generation of engineers.

Honda’s humanoid robot travelled to the North East to attend the annual Youth Engineering Show (YES), this year held at Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton le Spring, near Newcastle.
Read the story »

Silicon and the Economy

The semiconductor industry is the largest economic segment of the US economy. We still dominate in a few areas. Semiconductor equipment, hard disk drives, computers as finished products, laser printers and inkjets are some of the product areas where American companies continue to dominate. And a lot of the innovation that drives technology originates in the US.

We don’t have a major position in the display technology arena, most of the flat panel display technology comes from Asia. But organic LED may be the next emerging technology and it is still substantially in American hands. Read the story »

Mechatronics in the OR

Using the da Vinci Surgical System shown here, the surgeon operates while seated at a console viewing a 3D image of the surgical field. His or her fingers grasp the console’s master controls below the display, and the system translates the surgeon’s hand, wrist, and finger movements into precise, real-time movements of surgical instruments by the robot.

A system-level approach moves robotic surgery from science fiction to reality.

By PJ Tanzillo
National Instruments

In 1981, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back featured a scene in which autonomous robotic surgeons attached a mechanical hand to Luke Skywalker after his climactic battle with Darth Vader. Real-life autonomous robotic surgeons are still just fiction, but a new breed of medical machines is taking advantage of robotic concepts to aide surgeons with complex medical procedures. Read the story »