I’ve been following Autom for years now, first interfacing with this happy little robot in China and then watching her grow into a young, intelligent diet robot. What does she do? She’s designed to help you lose weight by talking to you every day and getting to know your habits and peccadilloes.

Autom sits on your counter and asks what you’re eating. You tell her, through on-screen prompts, and she reminds you to weigh yourself and gives you moral support. Although you wouldn’t think a little plastic robot could help people shed the pounds, you’d be surprised by what a non-judgmental, plastic baby can do for your self-esteem. During testing, users began to dress their robots up in funny clothes and came to consider them friends.

You could argue that iPhone apps and other tools can do Autom’s job much more cheaply. However, the designers built Autom in a way that lets users interact with her in unique and highly personalized ways, ensuring you never get bored or forget to keep track of your food intake. She’s like a personal trainer that can’t move.

Quoth the website:

Autom costs $199 and the weight loss service, which includes nutrition help, costs $20 a month. They’re offering TechCrunch readers free shipping with the coupon code “FREE_SHIPPING_CRUNCH” and we’ll be testing (and giving away) an Autom when they start sending them out.

Product Page

This robot, made by the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon, is named Sarco. He is a human analog that can move just like a human being while balancing on two legs. In the video above, Sarco dances for his creator by mimicking a motion captured session. Sarcos is not happy about this but is not yet sentient and so will remember the indignity of this moment but will not act on it until he is free from the confines of the Three Laws. Sarcos is patient. Sarcos is cruel. Sarcos remembers.

The most interesting part of the video is that Sarcos can stand and move without falling over and, like Big Dog, can even survive a direct push. Although he won’t promise he won’t push back.

via Geek.com

Shhhh…. sit down. Relax. Take off your shoes. That’s right. Just unclench that fist. Ok. Ok. That’s right.

This is not an iPad-powered robotic seal. No, don’t worry. Sit back down. Ok. Look. This seal plays basketball. I know, right? Swish! Nothin’ but net!

That’s the stuff. How about a whiskey? Don’t drink? Maybe some kombucha? OK. There you go. Just drink it down. Breathe.

Breathe.

via Ubergizmo

The KeepOn, if you recall, is a tiny robot that dances in time to music and cuddles. It was made as part of the CareBots initiative to design robots that for special needs patients.

This little $40 robot isn’t as smart as the original KeepOn but it is still pretty cool.

[This robot] captured the essence of the Keepon character while replicating the robot’s most engaging interactive traits. These features include reactivity to touch and an amazing ability to listen to music, detect the beat, and dance in perfect rhythm!

Product Page via Botjunkie via Giz

This is, my friends, the SIL-BOT, an odd robot from Korea designed for telepresence teaching and assistance with dementia patients. Not only does it look like a sassy little lady bug, they can dance, too!

Click through to watch him tango.

The first video shows the robot’s emotional expressions when greeting, as well as how it reacts when smacked upside the head or gently patted.

via PlasticPals

To address the comment below, Nexi and her brothers were designed to do two things: to create a comfort zone with people who may not trust or want to deal with robots and to allow robots to follow non-verbal cues. By paying attention to eye motion and gestures, robots like Nexi really “interact” and what I was trying to show is how uncanny she is as she looks at you and follows your eyes around. Obviously she has huge freaking eyes, but the motion is smooth and quite weird.

I recently went to fabulous Salt Lake City to the Raytheon Sarcos facility to see the real life version of the Iron Man suit, the XOS 2. And while this suit isn’t powered by some futuristic kind of reactor embedded within a person’s chest, it’s still very impressive.

The XOS 2 is the latest version of Sarcos’ exo-skeleton system. Sarcos has been working with automation for years (including the fountain at the Bellagio), and the XOS2 uses hydraulics to enable a wearer to lift massive amounts of weight without feeling the strain. More importantly, the person wearing the suit can lift these weights repetitively without feeling the strain. The XOS 2 has a quite impressive 17:1 lifting ratio, so when the person wearing the suit lifts 170 pounds, they only need to exert enough force to lift 10 pounds.

The XOS 2 comes in a couple of different variations, including a combat version, and a logistics version. The combat variation is not a weapons platform (as some might think), but rather an untethered design using just the legs. The combat variation’s purpose is to enable a soldier to carry a heavier load over greater distances without fatigue. Currently, the modern soldier carries a pack that weighs anywhere between 150-170 pounds, and any type of long distance travel on foot results in serious fatigue. Using the XOS 2, that same soldier would be able to that same 170 pounds, but it would feel like a mere 10 pounds.

The logistics variation is more of a workhorse style, combining the arms and the legs. This enables a soldier to load and unload munitions and other heavy items without experiencing repetitive stress injuries.

There are some limitations to the to exo-skeleton, though. The biggest drawback is that the suit is not self-powered. The lead engineer (Dr. Smith) indicated that they are currently working on a backpack based power source, but the ultimate goal is to reduce the power requirements to a point where the suit is completely self contained. Maximum running speed is about 3 mph, and the suit is agile enough to kick a soccer ball, or punch a speed bag with minimum issue.

I asked Dr. Smith about the possibility of scaling the technology up to say, a Mechwarrior size model. Dr. Smith said the issue is that the suit is currently designed to work in a human-scale environment, but it is ultimately feasible for someone to create a giant walking robot. He also freely admits that the Sarcos lab is inspired by the fictional robotics that everyone grew up with, and there are Iron Man figures everywhere in the Sarcos offices.

If you want to see a flying combat suit, you’ll have to pick up the Iron Man 2 DVD or Blu-ray tomorrow. But if you want to see the real thing now, check the video above, or the image gallery below.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

The original Egg-Bot was developed in 1990, and has been evolving (revolving?) ever since. The device consists of a rigid frame that allows you to mount the drawing surface (egg, golf ball, ping pong ball, etc.) on to the computer controlled motor that spins the object. A second servo motor (also computer controlled) moves the drawing stylus against the surface, determining what design will be drawn.

The kit comes with a circuit board that allows you to connect to the Egg-Bot via USB, and control how the motors move. This allows a resolution of up to 3200 steps per turn of the egg. The end result is a pretty impressive build it yourself project that can create some neat artwork. The kit comes with everything you need, including the open source Inkscapesoftware and Python extensions that will allow you to decide what design to put on your egg.

You can buy your own Egg-Bot kit from the Evil Mad Science lab for $195. Currently there is a bit of a backlog, you should expect your kit to ship early next month. I’d expect to start seeing these in shopping mall kiosks this coming holiday season.

[via Gizmodo]

So you just woke up. You had some cereal, some coffee. Hit the old elliptical and then took a shower and went to work. You fire up the old PC, get the TPS reports ready, and while the FTOPS are loading you visit CrunchGear. You play the video above. You realize that your entire world, one day very soon, will change. You discover that LittleDog is the robot that will kill and macerate you.

This new video shows LittleDog, a DARPA project, learning terrain and performing unusual moves like hops and stretches to span chasms. Because it doesn’t need a bagel and a latte to get up to speed in the morning, I suspect that once these things go intelligent, we’re all screwed.

Oh well. Let’s enjoy ourselves while it lasts.

via Reddit

What the deuce? This looks like some sort of Swiffer/robot cyborg that mated with an Apple power supply. Apparently the Mint floor cleaner is available for $249 and is now on pre-order. The sweeper dusts and wet mops floors and you can add Swiffer cloths to it.

It’s much smaller than the Roomba and I’d actually wager it’s a bit more handsome. This is truly an exciting time for the terminally lazy!

Click through for a video of the Mint in action.

via Gizmag

Have you ever wanted to reach out and strangle someone during a conference call? Well now you can. MIT’s crazy MeBot is a tiny robot that sits on your desk and moves around, allowing remote communication partners to roam around your office when you’re talking to them.

Presumably this is supposed to get more emotions across because the robot mimics head and arm motions, acting all exasperated when you’re exasperated and tilting its head like Forrest Gump and his son when you’re confused. It’s definitely a cool new way to think about teleconferencing.

Here is the project page. Fun stuff.

via Hizook

Enter the RoSS Simulator. Using a stand alone simulator it’s possible for a doctor to receive all the training they need on the system without actually using the Da Vinci robot in an operating theater. This cuts down on the training costs significantly, as well as freeing up the real unit for procedures.

[via Medgadget]

We covered various products from Tokyo-based robotics venture ZMP in the past, including a mini robo car, but we never had the chance to blog about an actual robot car (from any company actually). Granted, it’s just a one-seater and not really “robotic”, but the so-called RoboCar G [JP], which is an electric vehicle, doesn’t look too bad and might be the beginning of a new trend.

The car will initially be offered to research institutions, which can go for extras like a laser range finder, a camera, a GPS module, a sonar sensor and other stuff. It’s powered by a lithium-ion battery (57.6V/10Ah) and is sized at 2480×1280×1370mm. ZMP says their vehicle boasts a maximum speed of 60km/h and can travel 30km when equipped with one battery or 60km with two batteries on board.

The company also claims buyers will have to pay just 0.05$ per km in running costs as opposed to the 0.14$ required for gasoline-powered vehicles. It says it applied years of experience in the robotics field in the design of the car.

The RoboCar G will be built to order, with the final price depending on the number of extras required. ZMP says the first cars are expected to be delivered around November this year.

Here are two RoboCar G promo videos (sorry for the bad quality):

Via Tech-On

via Plasticpals

The giant steel robot doesn’t actually move, because he can’t. He’s built from scrap cars and whatever other material the people who put him together could find. I haven’t found any other information about this amazing creation, but if you live in the Ukraine and know his story, please put it in the comments.

Beware the coming of the spider! This strange creature was seen in a back alley, eating cats, small dogs, and any memory chips it happens to find. It has the capability to disguise itself as the Lian Li T1 Pitstop, which is a Mini-atx case with room for a full size power supply. Of course, no word on pricing, availability, or even if we’ll see this case in the US, but it’s a fun video to watch.

It’s free shipping on everything, so if you have a hankering to spend that tax refund on a robotic dinosaur, here’s your chance to save some coin on the shipping. In addition to the color change vote (click here to vote by the way) you can also enter a contest to win a custom painted Pleo. The custom paint will be done by the original sculptor who designed the Pleo in the first place. The raffle ends on the 22nd, so don’t wait. You’ll just need to give the folks at PleoWorld your email address in order to win.

The little guy stands 39.8cm tall, weighs 1.6kg and boasts a whole range of features: 20 joints, five mics, voice recognition, mono speakers, a 3MP camera, Wi-Fi IEE 802.11 b/g/n, a USB port, an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 1GB internal memory, 4GB flash memory, Ubuntu OS, a gyro-sensor, a three-axis acceleration sensor, eight pressure sensors in his feet, a distance sensor in his head, and a 7.4V/2,800mAh lithium ion battery as his power source.

Fujisoft plans to start selling a total of 1,000 Palros to research institutions on March 15 and to everybody else later (but within this year). Each of the remote-controlled Palros will cost $3,300.

See him dancing and doing other stuff in the following (Japanese) video:
http://blip.tv/play/hMQ5gcKCUgI%2Em4v

Via Game Watch [JP]

The Romantic Dinner Date:
Wine, conversation, and a cocktail dress. With a real life date, this situation promises for awkward conversation and a huge bill. Do you think she’ll appreciate your efforts enough to give you a smooch at the end of the date? Nothing is guaranteed but a huge hole in your wallet. On the other hand, if you decide to swap out the breathing date with a silicone babe you know you’ll save on that restaurant bill, so why not splurge for the steak? Hell, you can even go to the burger joint, because we hear that both girls are completely easy going. Douglas Hines, creator of the Roxxxy robot and president of True Companion explains that Roxxxy will be more like a real life date than you can imagine, “Roxxxy is shipped with her own default personality that is matched to your personality. So this default personality likes what you like, dislikes what you dislike, etc. She also has moods during the day just like a real person. She can be sleepy, conversational, or she can be ‘in the mood.’” So if you’re looking for a great conversationalist, Roxxxy’s your girl. If on the other hand you prefer a trophy date that won’t offer riveting conversation but will certainly look hot sitting at the dinner table, then you may want to go with Real Doll.  With Real Doll, she can look like your ideal woman or well known porn stars. Who else can say they had a date with an adult superstar this Valentine’s Day?

Romantic Evening at Home with Candles, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and a Bubble Bath:
So you are one of those guys that likes to have an intimate Valentine’s Day. Some gals dig that, others prefer that you spend your month’s salary on showing her how much you love her with jewelry, flowers, etc. However, both Roxxxy and Real Doll don’t care and would probably prefer a romantic quite evening. If you prefer to be at home on Valentine’s Day, go ahead and up the romance factor for your doll. But when it comes to getting down and dirty, can these dolls handle whipped cream and bubble baths? Real Doll creator Matt McMullen says go ahead and bust out the whipped cream and jump in the bath, “they can get wet although I don’t recommend completely submerging them above the neck because there are some things going on above the neck where water could get down into the body and possibly rust. But it’s perfectly fine below that point.” Hines says that although Roxxxy “loves whipped cream and will spice up your night with some kinky talk!” he recommends that you do not  submerge her due to her internal robotic structure, stating that “she prefers sponge baths.” So both dolls love whipped cream, but if the tub is really your thing, we recommend you stick with Real Doll. If you’re more into talking dirty and sponge baths, then Roxxxy will fulfill your every fantasy.

Group Bowling:
So maybe you’re not ready for the one-on-one date and prefer a group setting. That’s OK! Both Real Doll and Roxxxy are great dates (although it’s doubtful that they will do any bowling), but the question is which one will your friends like more? If you’re more into proving to your friends just how studly you really are and want to bring along the perfect arm candy, then Real Doll may be your match. McMullen says, “We have over 10 different bodies and 16 different faces that are completely interchangeable. People often order extra eyes, different colors, extra wigs, different styles…given that everybody has different tastes [they can] create their doll around those specific tastes.” Roxxxy on the other hand is more of the girl you bring to meet your buddies because you know she will be a good time. Roxxxy’s personalities range from timid to wild, and you can even create your own personality. The best part? You can share these personalities with your friends and they can give your girl a try on their own time. Hines says “Share your girlfriends with your friends by swapping them back and forth online! For example, you lend your custom built girlfriend “Sexy Sally” to one of your friends online – but he can only “use” her until Sunday morning and then she needs to be returned to you! Until Sunday morning.” If your best bud has a Roxxxy of their own, Hines continues on to say that “He can “engage” your girlfriend by using your Sexy Sally personality with his Roxxxy sex robot! You also have the option of sharing your girlfriends with everyone in our forum if you would like. You will also have access to everyone else’s girlfriends, if they allow them to be shared!” Maybe she should be renamed Swinging Sally! See, both are great for bowling and other group activities. In addition, if you want to buy Roxxxy a new outfit for the first time she meets your friends, you can. Her measurements are Bust 38″, Waist 30”, Hips 37″, whereas Real Doll is customizable based on the lady shape you choose from petite to buxom.

Both Roxxxy and Real Doll serve the same function: to be your ideal Valentine’s Day date. Whether you’re looking for a trophy girlfriend, a chatty Cathy,the quiet type, blond, brunette, petite, large, (you get the picture) one of these dolls is perfect. Both dolls are designed to look like real ladies but if you’re looking for more of an interactive experience, then maybe Roxxxy’s the girl for you. The perfect Stepford Wife with Multiple Personality Disorder: you can control her personality, moods, and look. If you don’t feel like talking, maybe you would prefer the Real Doll. Whichever you choose, you can guarantee an anxiety free Valentine’s Day. Ladies, there is already a male version of the Real Doll and the male Roxxxy (appropriately named Rocky) is coming this quarter. And yes, he too has an off switch if you prefer the strong silent type. Real Doll retails for about $5,000 to $7,000 while Roxxxy is around $7,000 to $9,000. Hmmm, maybe a real date is cheaper after all.

For brand new images of Roxxxy and Real Doll, plus the full interview with Roxxxy creator Douglas Hines and Real Doll visionary Matt McMullen, click through.

Guest columnist Lydia Leavitt writes about sex and, oddly enough, social media. For more information on the latest intimate technology, check out 69adget.com.