Random Robot Roundup

Lots of interesting robot news stacking up here. Where to start...

• Connie from ArcBotics let us know about a kickstarter campaign they're doing for a new open hardware educational robot called Sparki. If you like the concept, they could use your help funding it.
   
  
• RobotGrrl has a new open hardware robot in the works too called Buddy 4000.
   
  
• An article in The Atlantic recounts a horribly botched attempt by the CIA to create a cyborg spy cat in the 1960s. Fortunately the cat did not survive long after the operation.
   
  
• Andy Martin writes: Robots, some say they'll take over the world… but what will happen next? The latest animation in The Planets series goes some way to answering this question
   
  
• A ReadWrite blog post by Lauren Orsini talks about the impact of ROS on robotics research (and even quotes a "robotics expert" you may know)
   
  
• NASA's autonomous, solar-powered GROVER rover is making its way across the Greenland ice sheet using ground-penetrating radar to study the ice.
   
  
• Two Pinckney Community High School students designed and built a robotic locker door opener for fellow student with Muscular dystrophy. They now have a minigrant to build more.
   
  
• The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has launched the Domestic Drone Information Center (DDIC) to aggregate information on the estimate 30,000 drones that will be watching American citizens within the next 20 years.

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