I've been taking a break from writing to work on another project this spring and summer but managed to find the time to finish off a story about the iCub. This open-source robot is designed to allow academics to concentrate on implementing their theories about learning and interaction without having to focus on designing and building hardware, and is part of the general trend towards open source in the field. You can find out more by reading the full piece in EE Times.

Photo: The iCub is an artificial toddler with senses, 53 degrees of freedom, and a modular software structure designed to allow the work of different research teams to be combined.