Technology Effect

Bangalore: Japanese scientists claim to have created a two-legged robot which can carry a person, weighing up to 100 kgs. A team at the Chiba Institute of Technology has developed the robot which is 6 feet 2 inches tall, thoroughly modern, and in possession of a remarkable pair of legs strong enough to carry weights up to 100 kgs in its stride. The robot, called Core, is essentially just a pair of legs, which are able to bend and move around. Crucially, the legs are topped by a platform that can be loaded with weights of up to 100 kgs, the 'Daily Mail' reported. It comes complete with shock absorbers and weighs in at around 36 stone. At the moment the device is a prototype but the scientists believe that Core could be used on building sites or even to move disabled people around. Some bloggers have also speculated that the robot could have military purposes. The team at Chiba hope to have a fully finished mobility robot by 2012.

China is planning giant strides into deep space exploration by sending its first lunar manned mission by 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015, intensifying its space race with India which also plans Moon and Sun missions. China’s first step toward expected to orbit the Moon, land and return to Earth by 2020, said Ye Peijian, Commander in Chief of the Chang’e (lunar landing) programme and an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ye told a meeting Space scientists that China plans to launch its first manned moon landing in 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015. “China has the full capacity to accomplish Mars exploration by 2013,” Ye was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times newspaper. The unmanned mission to the Moon was seen as a counter to India’s Chandrayan-1, which left its foot prints on the Moon by crashing on to the lunar surface with the tricolour, stealing a march over China by becoming the fourth country to do so after the U.S., R...