Robots

Ford's RUTH robot arm extends hand to North America

If you're driving around in a 2013 Ford Fusion and think to yourself, "My, but this seat is comfortable," there's a good chance you have RUTH the robot to thank.

Ford's Robotized Unit for Tactility and Haptics -- a modified consumer packaging arm that tests interiors for quality and comfort -- has crossed the Atlantic from Europe to bring her touchy-feely testing skills to North America.

The robot simulates human motor skills to measure parameters like roughness, hardness, and temperature on points such as the steering wheel, knobs, and armrests. RUTH has already been used for several years at the automaker's European Research Center in Aachen, Germany, to poke and prod European versions of the Focus and Fiesta.

RUTH 2.0, located at Ford's Product Development Center in Dearborn, Mich., measures seat comfort too. She has extended her six-jointed arm all over the seats of the 2013 Fusion, the first North American car headed to production that she's had a major hand (or arm, we should say) in testing. … Read more

Flying drones getting smaller, smarter, cheaper, and scarier

A little more than a year ago, we did a Roundtable episode on aerial drones and UAVs. The discussion mostly focused on how remote-controlled and robotic vehicles were getting bigger, more capable, and more scary. Since then, a funny thing happened. The drone revolution downsized. Today we're talking about cheap and small drones. Today, perhaps, a collection of a hundred $1,000 drones can be just as capable -- and just as scary -- as a $100,000 drone.

It's not all Skynet doom-and-gloom, though. Small robotic flying vehicles can be used to save lives, keep repressive governments … Read more

Meet Skippy the stone-throwing robot

Robots are getting mighty specific these days -- what with machines that specialize in tasks like playing hockey and winning at rock, paper, scissors.

Meet today's super-specific robot, Skippy, who skips stones -- and with impressive height and consistency. Based on the shores of a lake in Sun Valley, Idaho, Skippy's sole purpose is basking in the sunshine and flinging stones across an idyllic little body of water set against the mountains. Ah, the simple life. … Read more

Two-armed robot takes on risky lab work

We've seen robot pharmacists before. Here's a robot lab technician whose speed might make "CSI" plots a little more believable.

Developed by automation giant Yaskawa and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), co-creator of the HRP series of humanoid robots, Mahoro is a two-armed droid that looks like a modified Yaskawa Motoman assembly robot.

Unlike most assembly robots, its arms have seven joints, allowing it to use human tools and to perform humanlike motions easily. … Read more

To serve man burritos

If there is one thing our eventual robot overlords (will) have taught us, it's that everybody needs to eat. Whether it be bolts for the robots or burritos for their fleshy subjects, sustenance is required for all moving parts no matter the form.

While the not-so-distant future holds many questions regarding robot-human relations, at least for now they still willingly do our bidding. Our burrito-building bidding, that is.

The Burritob0t is a food printer designed by (human) Marko Manriquez. Conceived as a thesis requirement for the graduate program at NYU-ITP, the project is constructed using mostly open-source hardware and software. The complete details are documented and presented on the tech section of burritob0t.net.… Read more

Japan eyes driverless cars by early 2020s

I can't wait for the era of self-driving cars. I can't believe it's 2012 and we still have to turn a steering wheel and push pedals to get around while we could be doing better things like sleeping, reading, or actually watching the scenery roll by instead of the road.

The Japanese government has started talks on the goal of getting self-driving cars on public roads by the early 2020s.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism has said it's the first in the world to seriously consider robot cars for the masses, according to Nikkei Automotive News. … Read more

Rock, paper, scissors robot can't be beaten

In case you were in any doubt about the superiority of robots to humans, Japanese researchers have unleashed a machine that's unbeatable at that timeless human test of wills, rock, paper, scissors.

The boffins at the Ishikawa Oku Lab in the University of Tokyo call it a "human-machine cooperation system," but this robot hand doesn't seem interested in cooperating at all.

It's only interested in winning, and it does that by cheating, in a sense. … Read more

Meet Shimi, a robot DJ that shuffles

The soundsmiths at Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology this week revealed Shimi, a 1-foot-tall musical robot that aims to serve as a musical assistant.

Created by center director Gil Weinberg, Shimi's dual-speaker visage bobs its "head" and taps its hand/foot to the beat of a song while a range of features become available after docking an Android smartphone. Weinberg co-developed Shimi in collaboration with the Media Innovation Lab at IDC Herzliya, led by professor Guy Hoffmann.

For example, the pint-size Shimi utilizes facial recognition through the front-facing camera of an Android phone to position its speakers toward the listener for optimal sound. A summary of the device from Georgia Tech mentions a unique song selection method: "If the user taps or claps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone's musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion."… Read more

Roomba 790 adds wireless remote, accessories aplenty

If you like your vacuum-cleaning robots on the fancy side, iRobot's latest addition to the Roomba lineup has a few features that make it easier to use.

The Roomba 790 is part of the 700 series but has a blue faceplate to distinguish it from other models.

The main selling point for the 790 is a radio-frequency remote control that lets you steer Roomba around from almost anywhere in your house (also perfect for when your cat pounces on it), clean specific spots, schedule vacuuming, and order the bot back to its charging station.

For $699.99, you also … Read more