] A military reconnaissance robot being developed at a
] British lab can keep moving even if it gets damaged on
] the battlefield. When any of the snake-like robot's
] "muscle" segments are damaged, clever software "evolves"
] a different way for it to wriggle across any terrain.

It relearns how to slither, like Brooks' little bug-bots learn how to walk. These folks use a genetic algorithm for the learning.

New Scientist

I know this is lame, but after years of using unix machines this find exec syntax has never stuck in my brain. Recommending it to Memestreams will make it easy to find again.

Unix find - grep command

] SAN DIEGO, Calif., August 28 -- Chemists have developed
] minute grains of silicon, or "smart dust," that
] spontaneously assemble, orient and sense their local
] environment, a first step toward the development of
] robots the size of sand grains that could be used in
] medicine, bioterrorism surveillance and pollution
] monitoring.

Each grain of dust is a single "moving" part which aligns itself according to the material sensed. The self-assembly comes from a whole bunch of them doing the same thing and clumping together in the process.

'Smart Dust' Could Lead to Tiny Robots - Photonics.com Feature Articles

Regarding "cognitive prosthesis":
] It's not a term that trips off the tongue. However, the
] concept behind the words inspires the work of the more
] than 50 scientists affiliated with the Institute for
] Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) that Ford directs at
] the University of West Florida in Pensacola. In short, a
] cognitive prosthesis is a computational tool that
] amplifies or extends a person's thought and perception,
] much as eyeglasses are prostheses that improve vision.

A different approach to "artificial intelligence".

Mind-Expanding Machines: Science News Online, Aug. 30, 2003

] TinyOS:
] An operating system for
] Networked Sensors

Original home page for TinyOS at Berkeley. Moved to http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/

TinyOS An operating system for Networked Sensors

] Samuel Madden, a researcher at the University of
] California Berkeley, and Wei Hong, a researcher at the
] Intel Research Laboratory at UC Berkeley, are
] co-developing TinyDB technology, which obtains
] information from a network of tiny wireless sensors.

TinyOS to control the sensors (also at Berkeley) and now TinyDB to accumulate the data. The page for the whole collection of projects is http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/

Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: Spotlight

] But fear not -- this is not a new incarnation of Clippy
] the paperclip, Microsoft's much maligned "helper
] application."

More on Chris Forsythe's work at Sandia.

Wired News: Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is

] Sensor networks promise a mammoth extension of the
] Internet. To date, the Web has been a showcase for the
] human brain. It specializes in the words, numbers, music,
] and images that mankind produces. With sensors, the
] network stretches to the far vaster field of global
] activity. This means such networks can cover every single
] thing that moves, grows, makes noise, or heats up.
] Potentially, much of the world will be bugged. Moreover,
] those bugs will be doing most of the work. "Most of the
] data traffic won't be between human beings this time
] around but between these silicon cockroaches,"

Fusing the data into a coherent picture sill still be a challenge.

BW Online | August 25, 2003 | Tech Wave 2: The Sensor Revolution

] PITTSBURGH -- Picture a robot that sets the table, serves
] dinner and clears everything away when the family is
] finished eating. Or a washing machine that not only
] cleans clothes but also presses and folds them -- and
] sews missing buttons. Or an obedient shopping cart that
] lugs groceries up the stairs.
]
] These scenarios may seem to be straight out of Star Wars
] or The Jetsons. But in labs around the globe, researchers
] are devising a slacker's paradise in which loyal servants
] and other brainy machines tackle mundane chores, freeing
] us up for more fulfilling activities.

Soft story, but the folks referenced or quoted in the article are doing signifincant work. Google on "RoboCup", "Maja Mataric", or "Manuela Veloso" to get to the source.

Robot science puts on a friendly face 'Jetsons' future faces obstacles

] Researchers at the Universities of Essex and Bristol will
] soon be launching a ground-breaking project to develop a
] 'conscious' robot.
]
] The aim of the project, which involves computer
] scientists and neuropsychologists, is to advance the
] technology of intelligent machines, while also extending
] the understanding of human consciousness,

Press release announcing the project.

University of Essex news release