Filed under: Robots

We’ve enjoyed watching KIST’s Hubo do crazy things like wear the face of Albert Einstein and ride a Segway, but we haven’t given as much attention to its brother Mahru. Feeling left out, the biped learned to dance with its upper body whilst walking around — an impressive feat, considering it wasn’t all that long ago that scientists first managed to get these things to take five steps without falling flat on their faces. Mahru also releases scents to express its artificial emotions, so you should be able to smell something fishy when it achieves sentience and begins angrily plotting to destroy its creators. Take a gander at a South Korean TV news report after the break.

Continue reading Mahru the robot dances to mask its emotional insecurities

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Filed under: Robots

Here’s your afternoon dose of cuteness, ready or not. David McGoran’s Heart Robot has made its way into London’s Science Museum, and for good reason. This intelligent robot not only possesses a face with moving eyes and an external heart that blinks depending on what’s happening, but it actually encourages people to hug and cuddle it like a real human. Seen as being “among the first robots to signify a new era of emotional machines used for medical treatment and enjoyment,” this creature could one day become a mainstay in nursing homes where the elderly could interact with it and hopefully benefit in some metaphysical manner. Check out the read link for a video oozing with adorableness.

[Via TimesOnline]

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Filed under: Robots

We’ve seen plenty of robots that attempt to display emotions, but none quite like this Pomi penguin bot developed by Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, which can emit two unspecified smells in addition to employing some more common means of letting you know how it feels. Those other options include a “heart box” on its chest that changes its heartbeat based on its mood, and movable lips, eyebrows and pupils that’ll let it make faces at you, along with the usual sensors to follow you around, and voice recognition to help it recite some pre-programmed answers. Unlike some other similar bots, however, this one is apparently going to actually be commercially available by the end of next month, although there’s no word on a price tag just yet.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Filed under: Robots

While we greatly appreciate the research done by the fine folks over at Georgia Tech, we can’t exactly say that we’re shocked to hear that Roomba owners (in particular) actually care about their vacuums. In a study revolving around the intricacies in human-robot relationships, gurus found that “some Roomba owners became deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and that there was a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house — even flawed ones.” Interestingly, the report goes on to state that consumers would be less likely to complain if troublesome / faulty household bots were “emotionally engaging,” and considering that some folks were willing to “buy new rugs, pre-clean floors and purchase refrigerators with higher clearances” for their Roomba, we suppose we can’t really argue with the findings. Now, robot manufacturers, don’t you go ditching quality just ’cause we’re pushovers, capiche?

[Image courtesy of Halo5]

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