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Meet the robot called Hadrian, developped by an australian investor can Hadrian lay 1‘000 bricks an hour an work 24/24 and could apparently build 150 homes a year.

The robot (pictured), called Hadrian, was developed by an Australian inventor. It can lay 1,000 bricks an hour and work around the clock, 24 hours a day. A robotic 'hand' lays the brick, and it can also apply mortar. It 3D scans its surroundings to work out exactly where to place bricks

Called Hadrian - named after the wall - the…

FANUC, a Japanese provider of robotics and automation, has unveiled what it claims is the world’s strongest robot, capable of lifting 1.7 tonnes (1,700kg) – the equivalent of two small cars or 24 people.

LOS ANGELES — Farmers with rights to California water dating back more than a century will face sharp cutbacks, the first reduction in their water use since 1977, state officials announced Friday. The officials said that rights dating to 1903 would be restricted, and that such restrictions would grow as the summer months go on, with the state facing a prolonged drought that shows few signs of easing.

Gino Celli drew a water sample to check the salinity of an irrigation canal that runs through …

This is the fifth episode in a Bits video series, called Robotica, examining how robots are poised to change the way we do business and conduct our daily lives.

Matt McMullen has proved that some people are willing to spend thousands on sex dolls.

Mr. McMullen, the creator of the RealDoll, says he has sold over 5,000 customizable, life-size dolls since 1996, with prices from $5,000 to $10,000. Not only can his customers decide on body type and skin, hair and eye color, but on a recent day in th…

Aviation history is in the making -- no fossil fuels necessary.

Solar Impulse 2, the revolutionary airplane powered exclusively by sunlight, is about to depart on the longest leg of its around-the-world journey.

The Solar Impulse 2's maiden flight.

Solar Impulse 2 is mostly made of carbon fiber. It has 17,248 solar cells on the wings that recharge four lithium polymer batteries. It is extremely light at 5,070 pounds, about the weight of a Ford Explorer, but has a 236-foot wingspan, which gener…

People with Parkinson’s disease may soon be able to treat their own tremors and muscle stiffness without invasive therapy or even a trip to the doctor’s office.

A headband-shaped device can deliver daily, noninvasive brain stimulation at home and tamp down Parkinson’s symptoms.

While the prototype, developed by biomedical engineering graduate students at Johns Hopkins University, hasn’t yet been tested on humans, it’s seen as a promising first step toward helping Parkinson’s patients safely rel…

As Google edges closer to the dream of self-driving cars, Chinese search giant Baidu is trying to beat it to the finish line. The Chinese company — which has been working on self-driving vehicles for the past few years — first announced it had entered a partnership with BMW in 2014. It seems that collaboration has already paid off: this week, Baidu senior vice president Wang Jin said that his company would launch of a new self-driving car with the German car manufacturer before the end of the y…

We expect our phones, tablets, and sometimes even our watches to be connected. The next great platform, however, is about connecting everything in your home — from lights and windows to coffee machines and slow cookers. The Internet of Things is the catch-all phrase used to discuss a vast array of various now-connected objects that may or may not want to talk to one another. That's why Apple has HomeKit and Google introduced Brillo / Weave: everyone wants to own that common language for your li…

Jaguar Land Rover claims that potholes cause

When it comes to creating surfaces, it's a simple task to either make ones that are smooth or ones that are bumpy. But now researchers at MIT have created one that can be both. The 3D-printed surface they have created can be either smooth, bumpy, ridged, or channeled and can dynamically change texture through the application of pressure.

Researchers create a dynamically changing surface textures by 3D printing one material inside another (Credit: Felice Frankel)

Mutable surface textures are i…

Gizmag has covered a wealth of remarkable architectural projects involving 3D printing – including a backyard castle, a number of small homes and a room with 260 million surfaces – but a project in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is set to be particularly impressive. 3D printing R&D firm MX3D is planning to print a bridge across a canal. It is hoped that the robots used will print their own supports and gradually move across the water, creating the bridge as they go.

MX3D will use multi-axis industria…

Empa, ETH Zürich and Bucher Municipal have developed a hybrid-electric powertrain for road sweepers that's said to consume half the energy of diesel-hydraulic vehicles and reduce emissions by more than 60 percent.

The design replaces conventional hydraulic power distribution with a more efficient electric drive system. A small natural gas engine with a power generator acts as the drive source

The design replaces conventional hydraulic power distribution with a more efficient electric drive sys…

Soon the skies will be cleaner. Thanks to Boeing's ecoDemonstrator, an inaugural flight test program that's already improving airplane performance and bringing environmentally friendly technologies to life sooner.

http://www.boeing.com/innovation/#/environment/cleaner-skies-ahead

NASA awarded Boeing $4.2 billion Tuesday to build and fly the United States' next passenger spacecraft.

“Boeing has been part of every American human space flight program, and we’re honored that NASA has chosen us to continue that legacy,” said John Elbon, Boeing vice president and general manager, space exploration. “The CST-100 offers NASA the most cost-effective, safe, innovative and proven successor to the Space Shuttle.”

Boeing built the spacecraft for NASA, but it hopes to take commercia…

NASA’s Leading Edge Asynchronous Propellers Technology (LEAPTech) project is part of an initiative to develop a more efficient, electric-powered plane.

An image of the proposed wings for LEAPTech has been circulating around the Internet lately because they look awesome, to say the least.

NASA

A total of 18 small engines sit along the 31-foot wingspan in order to lift and propel the plane forward.

The propellers, which are all electric, are powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries, each with…

Die Evolution der Windkraft; aus dem Meer, über das Land in die Stadt: Das wollen zwei Ingenieure aus Saarluis mit einer flüsterleisen Windenergieanlage schaffen.

Dirk Schul und Dominique Ouamri nutzen dazu das sogenannte Savonius-Prinzip: Zwei Schaufeln sind dafür an einer senkrecht drehenden Achse gegenüber liegend befestigt. Der Wind fängt sich, woher er auch weht, in den Schaufeln und lässt die Achse rotieren.

Die Nennleistung von drei Kilowatt erreicht die Mühle erst bei einer relati…

Spielzeuge lernen sprechen: Der japanische Spielzeughersteller Tomy verbindet dazu einen schafsähnlichen Bonsairoboter mit künstlicher Intelligenz vom Mobilnetzkonzern NTT Docomo.

Japan probiert mit Elektronik seit jeher alles Mögliche aus – und oft auch das Unmögliche. Jeden Donnerstag berichtet unser Autor Martin Kölling an dieser Stelle über die neuesten Trends.

Wer sagt, das Roboter smart sein müssen? Ein teures Rechnerhirn, eine Heerschar von Sensoren und motorisierte Extremitäten mit sic…

A company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has spent the last 3 years designing, developing, tweaking and building what's described as a new breed of musical instruments. Just when the sonic scientists at Omnipresent World of Wizkids (OWOW) had reached a point where the five "smartly built, but stupidly simple to use" MIDI devices were ready for the production line, they ran out of money. So they've turned to Kickstarter to get the wob, wiggle, drum, pads and scan into the hands of players.…

If you pay attention to tech or gaming news, you're going to hear a lot about virtual reality in the next week. Oculus will be officially launching the Rift tomorrow, and other big VR companies will be showing off their work at next week's E3. Is the world ready?

Lens-facing side of the Samsung Gear VR (Credit: Will Shanklin/Gizmag)

Full-on consumer virtual reality will be here soon. HTC says the Vive will launch later this year, while the Oculus Rift and Sony's PS4-based Project Morpheus will…

Over the years, various manufacturers and inventors have tried different ways of putting "two wheels" to the snow. The rise of fat-tired mountain bikes, not to mention extreme Antarctic fat trikes, has been the biggest news in this area, but we've also seen recreational equipment like the KTrak and BikeBoards. A group of mechanical engineering students at Quebec's University of Sherbrooke is developing a new solution that aims for a smoother downhill ride by combining elements of existing winte…