Robots

Samsung revealed yesterday (albeit, with little detail) its latest robotic vacuum cleaner -- the Smart Tango Corner Clean -- just a week before a potential CES debut.

For those of you with visions of a Samsung-made Rosey the maid robot from "The Jetsons" zipping about your home, well, we're not quite there yet. However, due to the inclusion of appendages, the latest robotic vacuum from Samsung might give pause to prospective buyers of Roomba or Neato devices. … Read more

Next time you see a cockroach, don't scurry away faster than it can flee. In fact, if you're a lover of the weirder side of life, the intrusive insect could represent one heck of a science project.

For example, artist Brittany Ransom created Twitter Roach -- a discoid cockroach that can be controlled through tweets that it receives on the popular microblogging service. … Read more

If you've never seen DARPA's version of Boston Dynamics' semi-autonomous LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) robot in action, now's a good time.

The government agency released a video yesterday that highlights one of LS3's most powerful skills: the ability to follow a leader by using computer-aided vision and GPS. In the four-minute clip, you can watch the dog-like robot following an instructor over some rough terrain -- with great ease -- in a wooded area near Fort Pickett, Va. … Read more

Fancy yourself as James Bond and want to do some high-tech spying? Now you can with this palm-size flying robot.

TechJect's Robot Dragonfly may not be ready just yet, but you can back this project at Indiegogo for just $99 to get your very own micro UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). If you're willing to chuck in another $20, you'll be able to get a noiseless version.

The basic model weighs in at just less than an ounce and can hover or flit around like a bird with its two pairs of wings. TechJect also intends to sell different types of wings that will change how the unit performs. … Read more

Here's a robotics challenge for you: create an advanced humanoid robot in only nine months.

That's what engineers at the University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Lab are trying to do with Roboy, a kid-style bot that's designed to help people in everyday environments.

Researchers around the world are trying to create useful humanoids. One interesting aspect of Roboy is its tendon-driven locomotion system.

Like Japan's Kenshiro humanoid, Roboy relies on artificial muscles to move; in the future, it will be covered with a soft skin. … Read more

Jan Scheuermann can't use her limbs to feed herself, but she's pretty good at grabbing a chocolate bar with her robot arm.

She's become the first to demonstrate that people with a long history of quadriplegia can successfully manipulate a mind-controlled robot arm with seven axes of movement. Earlier experiments had shown that robot arms work with brain implants.

Scheuerman was struck by spinocerebellar degeneration in 1996. A study on the brain-computer interface (BCI) linking Scheuermann to her prosthetic was published online in this month's issue of medical journal The Lancet.

Training on the BCI allowed her to move an arm and manipulate objects for the first time in nine years, surprising researchers.

It took her less than a year to be able to seize a chocolate bar with the arm, after which she declared, "One small nibble for a woman, one giant bite for BCI." Check it out in the video below. … Read more

Don't you hate waiting for the drinks cart to slowly make its way through economy class to your seat? This gadget might speed things up a bit.

SkyTender isn't quite the robot bartender that some are making it out to be, but as an automated drinks dispenser it could make flying slightly less hellish than it nearly always is.

This beverage trolley can whip up more than 30 different drinks, including soft drinks, coffee, wine, and cocktails, at the touch of a button or two.

Regular trolleys can be upgraded to SkyTenders with the installation of modular drinks … Read more

This is probably one of the most bizarre projects we've seen on Kickstarter: a wearable tail called "Tailly" that wags according to the wearer's emotions.

The tail, which hangs on a belt with sensors on the inside, reacts to the wearer's heart rate, wagging furiously when users are excited and swinging slowly when they calm down. We're picturing it for cosplay and costume parties, or maybe as a children's toy.

According to the Tailly Kickstarter site, one "could even wear Tailly on a date and express your true feelings through the wagging tail. Even better, your partner could also wear one... to add a level of subconscious communication between the two of you." Hey, we're not judging here. … Read more

Is a robot with muscles and bones any more freaky than one with servomotors?

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have been building a humanoid robot called Kenshiro that moves around with muscles that work with small pulleys.

Initially developed as a scrawny kid-bot in 2001, Kenshiro has been packing on muscle mass. With a total of 70 degrees of freedom, or axes of motion, it now has 160 muscles, with 22 in its neck, 12 in its shoulders, 76 in its abdomen, and 50 in its legs.

But it's still designed to mimic the body of a 12-year-old Japanese male, standing 5 feet and 2 inches and weighing 110 pounds. It also has a human-like ribcage, pelvis, and spine made of aluminum. … Read more