Filed under: Robots

We’re not even going to front — we had all but forgotten about Erector’s Spykee. Granted, it didn’t do itself any favors by showing off at CES and then doing nothing for the next seven months, but we digress. If a pre-order page on Amazon is to be believed, the Spykee Spy Robot should be released on October 15th. It’s sporting a hefty $299.99 price tag and a recommended age of 8-years and up, but we’ll need to see some actual shipment notifications later this fall before we really get our hopes up. C’mon Erector, don’t let us, um, down.

[Via I4U News]

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Filed under: Robots

Industrial robots are big, stupid, and dangerous. Walk between an automated welder and the SUV it’s assembling and you’ll find yourself fused to the frame, destined to sit unwanted at the back corner of some dealer’s lot. But, keeping bots and humans separated on an assembly line isn’t always practical. Enter ARoS, a machine that’s not only capable of working safely with people, but being totally condescending while doing it! In a demonstration video it repeatedly tells its hapless helper how incompetent he is, then, after putting on one lousy nut itself, says “I enjoyed your help!” We figure he says that to all the meat-bags, but you can see and decide for yourself after the break.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading Bossy assembly robot says you’re doing it wrong

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Filed under: Robots

Although it hits retail on Thursday, you might want to get your pre-order in now given the way these things tend to go scare near the Xmas rush. We’re talking about Elmo Live of course, the singing, dancing, and story telling robot with wobbly red limbs and interactive sensors scattered around the monster’s face and ticklish belly. Available now for about $65 pre-tax at all the usual on-line shops for out tiniest consumers. We’ve dropped in the video after the break as a reminder of things to come.

[Via I4U]

Read — Amazon
Read — Wal-mart
Read — ToysRUs

Continue reading Elmo Live ready for pre-order by dutiful parents

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Filed under: Robots

Continue reading Video: Orb Swarm gets a brain, going autonomous at Burning Man

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

From the same brilliant mind that brought you the RoboStool comes something a bit less useful but equally mesmerizing. Put simply, Norris Labs’ Stonehenge is a robotic time teller which rearranges placards in order to express the current time. The concoction utilizes a CrustCrawler Smart Arm and a Parallax Propeller chip along with 14 cards to display the current time, though it does operate, um, a bit slowly. Ah well, it’s not like you’re in any hurry to see what this thing can do, right? Oh, wait… you are? Head on past the break for a quick look.

[Via OhGizmo]

Continue reading Stonehenge robotic clock: telling time never looked so fun

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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

Japan’s Impress Watch had the good fortune to attend this year’s Robo-one tournament with a Casio EX-F1 in hand. The result is vise-to-vise combat captured at 300 frames per second. See a perfectly executed German suplex performed after the break. Makes us almost feel sorry for the little guy… almost.

Continue reading Video: Robo-One carnage shot at 300fps

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Filed under: Robots

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Filed under: Robots

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Filed under: Cellphones, Robots

Tmsuk is back with even more crazy humanoid antics, this time demonstrating a shopping robot that can be controlled from far, far away. The modified TMSUK-4 humanoid showcased in Kitakyushu, Japan was actually being controlled by an elderly lady in her home via an NTT DoCoMo video-capable cellphone. Essentially, the technology enabled her to see through the eyes of the robot and presumably control its movements via the keypad. We are told that she was able to successfully browse the hat section and finally make a purchase, but who knows how many innocent bystanders were unknowingly mauled in the process.

[Via Pink Tentacle]

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Filed under: Robots

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Filed under: Robots

Just think — Zappos has been shipping out shoes .9284 minutes after you order them for years with mere humans running the show. Now, your new kicks will likely be at your doorstep moments after you think of ordering them. Said e-tailer has just completed implementation of Kiva Systems’ Mobile Fulfillment System, which will see “a fleet of Kiva’s mobile robotic drive units and inventory storage pods” hit the company’s Shepherdsville, Kentucky facility. The move is being made to keep its distribution system in tip-top shape even with the addition of new products outside of just footwear, and unless some of those mechs grow a mind of their own, we’d say things should pan out just fine.

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Robots

AiKo, Anna Konda — you two had a good run, but it’s time to pass the torch onto something that slithers a bit better. Cybernetics and optical measurement scientists at SINTEF are currently creating a wheeled pipe inspection robot that would “be able to climb, navigate intersections and at any given time know its location in the pipe system.” Currently, the project is still stuck in the design phase (that’s the Pneumosnake pictured), with some members working on a propulsion solution while others munch on snacks develop a new visual system. Just what the world needs… robots that can maneuver out of whatever holding cell we desperate humans encage them in.

[Thanks, Isindil]

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Filed under: Robots

While they may be lacking in technical prowess, Crabfu bots never are lacking in charm, and this here remote controlled Tortoise bot charmed our very pants off. Video is after to the break, but be sure to be on your guard for Tortoise bot’s war of attrition with an indifferent kitty — you may just end up trouserless, and we can’t be held responsible. Hrm, that didn’t come out right.

[Via technabob]

Continue reading Crabfu strikes again with Tortoise RC bot

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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

Look at that little guy. No, seriously, look at him. You know why he’s sad? He’s sad because you haven’t built him yet. He’s thinking: “Oh, sure, life is grand on this work bench, picking up nuts and bolts, but I want to explore the big wide open. I want to be built by that person, reading this post right now on Engadget, so we can be friends forever and ever.” Now, how can you resist a face like that? This particular DIY Wall-E’s creator wrote up a 50 step tutorial so you can get to work right this very moment bringing this robotic little fuzzball to life. Don’t delay. Video is after the break.

[Thanks, Joe]

Continue reading DIY Wall-E bot sweeps our heart up into his cute little storage compartment

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Filed under: Robots, Transportation

You’re looking at a very Futurama looking man-robot from the latest mashup to hit the industry. This one has a brain. It’s the result of research from Riken and BSI-Toyota whose goal is to develop robots and automotive systems driven by neurotechnology akin to that of our carbon-based brains. The research is expected to result in more sophisticated auto-safety technology, mind-controlled machinery, and a new breed of baby-shoe wearing robots for domestic friendship and health care. Fortunately, this wobbly tyke has a long way to go before he begins bending the steel girders required to produce the forced-suicide booths of our doom. First steps after break.

[Via Impress]

Continue reading Video: Riken and BSI-Toyota robot goes on a neural bender

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Filed under: Robots

It’s been a few years since we checked in on Navirobo. The iXs developed bot is now fully grown and fettered to Fujitsu and Kawasaki on a Japanese press tour. The bot features an impressive bag of tricks including an accelerometer (”ooo, it’s bumpy”), light sensor (”don’t forget to turn on the lights”), and voice guided navigation with the ability to point the way and describe nearby points of interest (read: honey pots). It’ll even detect alcohol on your breath and presumably take a swipe at your jugular in just retribution. See for yourself in the videos over at Impress or check the few posted after the break.

Continue reading Video: Fujitsu’s NaviRobot smells beer, tells you where to find more

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Filed under: Robots

We won’t even front: Duke’s quasi-invisibility cloak is far cooler than this, but a team of microscopic robots sure have the potential to do more good than a glorified figment of someone’s imagination. Bruce Donald, a Duke professor of computer science and biochemistry, has teamed up with a few other mad scientists in order to create ridiculously tiny robots that can dance on objects smaller than a pin’s head. According to Mr. Donald, they are “almost 100 times smaller than any previous robotic designs of their kind and weigh even less.” Sure, watching these critters do the tango is undoubtedly entertaining, but he’s hoping to collaborate with the medical center in order to “probe the molecular and cellular architectures of very small things such as cells.” We appreciate the dedication to mankind and all, but don’t pretend like you don’t goof off with these guys on your coffee breaks, Bruce.

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Robots

If that kid looks a tad uncomfortable, it’s because he just schooled Vstone’s new Tichno robot on the pitch. Hard not to, really. Although the four-and-a-quarter foot tall / 26-kg (57-pound) Tichno features 2- and 3-axis accelerometers, an aluminum / carbon frame covered in an ABS resin, and the same control board as the Robovie-X, it’s slow, like old-man slow. However, with a price of just ¥10,000,000 (almost $100,000), we guess you get what you pay for. Video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Vstone’s Tichno hates children, slower than Jens Lehmann

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