We've seen how flying quadrotors can form spectacular displays in the sky, but what if they could roll along the ground too?
Engineers at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Robotics Lab have been developing a power-efficient machine that can move on land and air. It also happens to be extremely Crave-worthy. … Read more
I was once served tea by Honda's Asimo, arguably the most advanced humanoid robot in the world.
Watching the machine sidle up to my table and serve the tea with the elegance of a veteran waiter, and then bow to me before retreating, was nothing short of astonishing.
The experience reinforced my belief that no matter how many times you see robots in photos or videos, nothing can match a real-life experience.
Asimo can be hard to meet, but with a lavishly illustrated new educational app from IEEE Spectrum, you can get interactive with him and 125 other bots -- from Rethink Robotics' Baxter assembly bot to Waseda University's keyboard-playing Wabot 2, and learn all about them. It's the next best thing to seeing robots up close. … Read more
Japan is again trying to field some more robots to work at the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but this walker from Toshiba froze during a press demo.
Tetrapod is a quadruped designed to withstand high levels of radiation, but it couldn't seem to take the glare of cameras.
The wireless remote-controlled machine recalls Boston Dynamics' BigDog robots, with legs than can tackle uneven terrain. It can carry up to 44 pounds of equipment and has an onboard camera and dosimeter.
It's designed to survey the plant's highly radioactive buildings and debris, and can apparently withstand a 100 millisievert environment for a year. … Read more
When you're maxing your credit card on Black Friday, creepy store mannequins might actually be eying you.
Retailers are deploying mannequins equipped with cameras that watch for shoplifters and record shopper behavior to improve sales.
The EyeSee mannequin from Italy's Almax SpA is being used with facial-recognition software that can identify the age, race, and gender of shoppers and record how long they spend around a display. Almax says the technology doesn't violate shoppers' privacy. … Read more
"Now, this is the plan. Get your ass to Mars."
We all remember Schwarzenegger motivating himself to go to the Red Planet in "Total Recall" (anyone bother watching the remake?) and sure we'd like to go too. Now NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has determined that radiation levels on the planet's surface are safe for human explorers.
"The astronauts can live in this environment," Don Hassler, principal investigator on Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector instrument (RAD), told a news conference.
"Basically, we're finding that the Mars atmosphere is acting as a shield for the radiation on the surface and as the atmosphere gets thicker, that provides more of a shield and therefore we see a dip in our radiation dose," Hassler said.
The findings mark the first time that cosmic rays have been measured on the surface of another planet, and come 100 years after Victor Hess discovered cosmic rays on Earth by using a hot-air balloon.… Read more
Your Roomba can do double duty as an air-quality tester and even a cat transporter, so why not a fragrance factory too?
Robot Add-ons has a nifty little accessory for your favorite robot hockey puck: RoomAroma is a stick-on fragrance that sweetens the air in your home while Roomba cleans up.
It's quite an innovative way to improve your air without bothering to plug in air fresheners, and it attaches to Roomba in a snap. It's no wonder the two guys behind Robot Add-ons are from iRobot. … Read more
Hurricane Sandy has destroyed houses, cars, and boats, and caused some $20 billion in property damage, but one robot rode out the storm at sea without a scratch, as far as its maker can tell.
Liquid Robotics said one of its Wave Glider marine robots named Mercury was 100 miles east of Toms River, N.J., when Sandy hit, but the machine continued to function.
It withstood winds of up to 70 knots and continued to transmit real-time weather data about the storm. … Read more
Prepare to witness a tantalizing glimpse at our future robot overlords.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency yesterday released a stunning video showing how an autonomous robot can navigate and jump over obstacles with great ease.
In the clip, the Pet-Proto robot -- a predecessor to DARPA's Atlas robot -- traverses a simulated hallway containing a very tall step and a thin walkway. Pet-Proto easily uses its strong arms to balance itself as it climbs a step, then perfectly leaps down with a thud. The highly agile walker stretches its legs to continue its journey along the thin edges of a gutted hallway floor. … Read more
The people have spoken and the machines are immortalized.
More than 17,000 humans voted online for the 2012 inductees to the Robot Hall of Fame, and they chose a mixture of friendly and terrifying bots, depending on your perspective.
Come on down, Wall-E, BigDog, Nao, and PackBot. You've earned a place among the stars.
Although the 12 nominees were selected by robotics experts, it was the first time that popular votes chose the inductees to Carnegie Mellon University's hall of immortal robots. … Read more
How do you contain a leaky nuclear reactor when you can't find the leak? Send in the robots.
Japan continues to struggle with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that was smashed in the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. It's radioactive and very dangerous. Decommissioning it will take decades.
Several robots and other tech are being thrown at the mess north of Tokyo, and Chiba Institute of Technology's Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo) is developing another. Sakura is a small recon bot on treads that's designed to get into the bowels of the plant.… Read more
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Take the best in technology for a spin with Brian Cooley.
