http://foxnews1.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/foxnews1-foxnews-pub01-live/current/videolandingpage/fncLargePlayer/client/embedded/embedded.swf It won’t be long before the cursed machines turn on us. Already they vacuum our rooms and play our games, can there be any doubt that machines like this automated all-terrain Ripsaw tank will soon grow desirous for the blood of their fleshy… → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/player/41c202dd/ Did anyone else get a little scared when it did its mad face? This little robot is, I imagine, designed to be one of those greeter robots that tells you “welcome” and can respond when you ask it where the elevators are. Unfortunately, I think anyone that sees it will have dreams of the Robocalypse for weeks after. This is how it starts, people. → Read More
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1924675&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1 After we wrote about TiLR last week, RoboDynamics invited us down to their headquarters to check one out in person. The idea is simple, straight out of countless science fiction flicks: rather than physically going somewhere, you… → Read More
What is it about today? First hunter-killers, then Terminator spare parts, and now the machines are infiltrating our armed forces. Actually, it’s not such a big deal; the United States Army is simply continuing to take advantage of its contract with iRobot, which provides the Army with hundreds of Packbots, small robots suited for dirty or dangerous jobs. They’re pumping out about 100… → Read More
http://www.studio469.com/gportfolio/wp-content/plugins/flv-embed/flvplayer.swf Once again the world of man is threatened by a robot menace. Did we not learn from Terminator and The Matrix that down this road waits crushing oppression under an unyielding steel grip? Or a lightweight aluminum one? While at the moment this leg appears to be shaky, small, and less than deadly, it’s only a matter… → Read More
While I personally am a fan of micro-dirigibles as opposed to the (IMHO) wasteful helicopter-type UAVs, this is certainly an awesome version of the latter. Its multi-rotor setup enables some serious agility, as you can see in the videos. If you’re filming, you might need some serious image stabilization, although it’s easily good enough for recon or aerial photography. There are… → Read More
Japan’s most prestigious educational institution, the University of Tokyo, and semiconductor company Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), today unveiled an ultrasensitive sensor for robot use. The prototype was produced based on MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) nanotechnology and is as small as a bread crumb. It’s made of silicon and covered with elastic rubber. The… → Read More
Not Japanese but German robots have been leased by the Chinese government to uphold the law during the Beijing Olympics. Berlin-based Robowatch Technologies has sent a total of 16 security robots to China. Two years ago, they were successfully deployed in German stadiums during the soccer world cup. → Read More
ZMP, the world’s first venture company focusing on robot technology and – of course – based in Tokyo, is selling the source code [JP] for nuvo, one of its best-selling robots. The humanoid was unveiled in 2004 and ZMP says it’s the first robot for home use. The company’s aim is to establish a research community centered on the findings derived from doing research with… → Read More
Bet you weren’t expecting that headline when you woke up this morning! Researchers in China has proposed and prototyped a robot that moves along the inside of pipes by its own power, cleaning as it goes. Currently the way major pipes are cleaned or cleared is through pigging, which is basically shooting a big scrubber down the pipe using pressure and catching it at the other end. However… → Read More
http://blip.tv/play/ih_B21yJ5FQ (video from Diginfo, Inc. with special permission for crunchgear.com) Robots capable of supporting humans under extreme conditions are not really a new idea. However, now the so-called Kenaf Resuce Robot developed by the Japan’s International Rescue System Institute (IRS) seems to have risen the bar. The latest version of the robot – presented during an… → Read More
“Crawling is the soldier’s motion in the battlefield. I would say this is the business soldier,” says performance artist Momoyo Torimitsu as she lets her robotic middle manager make everyone on a busy Australian street feel uncomfortable. “The battery-powered robot is supposed to symbolise the Asian economic crash and Japan’s rigid ‘salaryman’ culture.” Diagonal View [via DVICE] → Read More
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst is working on a robot that can learn to use unfamiliar objects. According to MIT’s Technology Review, UMass’s Robot, called the UMass Mobile Manipulator, or UMan, ‘sees’ an object with the help of a Web cam and then pushes it around to see how it moves, identifying and recording the objects’ parts and joints. Doctoral student Dov Katz is… → Read More
You read that correctly. In yet another freaky-yet-awesome move by DARPA, a team at Tufts University has been awarded a $3.3 million contract to develop a breed of “chemical robots” based on the caterpillar form of Manduca sexta. With bodies made of bioengineered, environmentally-friendly polymers, they’d theoretically be able to fit through spaces as small as 1cm wide. Looks… → Read More
Okay you guys. If you see one of these MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) robots heading your way, do not try to pet it. The machine gun mounted squarely to the robot’s frame might look cute, but those bullets sting. The first batch of MAARS robots have been shipped out from British company Qinetiq to the US military recently and should see some action over in Iraq. The machine… → Read More
The non-profit group SRI International is designing a wall-climbing robot to be unveil it at the International Conference of Robotics and Automation. Popular Mechanics has a video of it climbing on a lot of common building materials. The robot uses electro-adhesion to stick to the wall — is the same technology robots are already using to pick up silicon wafers on assembly lines. If this… → Read More
Is it possible to write a full post on deadly military robots without making a snarky joke about SkyNet? Nope. The foot soldiers in the future super-computer overlord’s army aren’t the Terminator series robots, but mechanized drones, like the Israeli killer robot its army has just developed, called the Guardium. This isn’t just a remote controlled killbot, though; the Guardium is… → Read More
This is a short video by the NYU splinter of a DARPA-funded project that aims to improve the way robots perceive the world around them (and most importantly, in front of them). As the video notes, the resolution (both temporal and spatial) of current robots’ visual systems is very limited due to data bandwidth and CPU limitations. Consequently, it cannot process its path beyond about 12… → Read More
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