How can I determine my robot's location reliably and cheaply? [more inside]
posted by godawful on Jan 21, 2009 - 4 answers

Robotics question: simple and high-payoff project, don't have the time/leet skillz/rationale to jump in the deep end of the pool (i.e. academic smartypantses building attack vehicles), don't want to spend the money on/deal with the physical bulk of the shallow end (Mindstorms et al). What is in the middle? [more inside]
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks on Feb 21, 2008 - 10 answers

Flying Robot Planes? The analysts seem to think there is no good way to stop these things. Why isn't the government interested in using the wisdom of crowds to prevent terrorist attacks? [more inside]
posted by tweak on May 10, 2006 - 14 answers

What is the name of the curve or theory illustrating humans' comfort level with robots that look like people? Example: the more a robot looks like a person, the more uncomfortable people are in its presence, but the moment an artificial being is absolutely indistinguishable from the real thing, the comfort level goes back to normal. My Googling leads me nowhere, but I seem to recall reading about this somewhere on MeFi...
posted by Robot Johnny on Oct 4, 2004 - 6 answers