Robots
by Devin Coldewey on November 9, 2009

Yes. It is finished. We can shut down NASA, DARPA, all the arts and sciences, and stop trying now. The pinnacle of human achievement has been reached. Robot vacuums have been hacked to play the parts in a real-life game of Pac-Man.

Video inside.

by Devin Coldewey on November 2, 2009

There’s not much for me to add here. In addition to walking normally, robots can now play pool, baseball, volleyball, and make ramen. Anybody else feeling a bit like an endangered species?

PETMAN robot walks like a human
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by Doug Aamoth on October 27, 2009

If that BigDog robot from Boston Dynamics didn’t amaze and/or horrify you, maybe its human-like big brother “PETMAN” will catch your attention.

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by Jimin Brelsford on October 26, 2009

Seriously, who doesn’t want a pet dinosaur? Sure, Jurassic Park makes it seem all dangerous and life-threatening and such. Would you really let that stop you? I think not. But until genetics research and cloning catch up to our imaginations, we’ll have to settle for robotic proxies. And everyone’s favorite little Camarasaurus just got back on the market.

by Devin Coldewey on October 20, 2009

You may be familiar with the old DARPA Grand Challenge. Well, consider this the Petit Challenge. Roboticists whose favorite flavor of robot is micro are being challenged to bring it in the 2010 NIST Mobile Microbotics Challenge, or Microlympics. All contestants must be no greater than 600 micrometers (or rather, their robots must be), and they will compete in three grueling micro-events!

by Devin Coldewey on October 19, 2009

It’s not enough that they make ramen, juggle, and play catch — now robot arms need to play with their food? This robot arm on the right is teasing the one on the left. Want a Fanta? You can’t have one! Your feeble manipulator navigates this six-pack in vain.

by Devin Coldewey on October 12, 2009

I wanted to tell you guys to watch this without seeing the description, but it’s difficult to do so. Better find someone nearby, tell them to close their eyes, and then open them when they think they’ve got it figured out. This piano-based voice synthesizer breaks down the morphemes of normal speech into components which can be built up using piano keys. Sounds crazy in theory of course, but actually seeing the keys playing themselves and a voice coming out of it makes me think the end times are coming.

by Serkan Toto on October 2, 2009

Nissan announced Thursday [press release in English] that it has developed robots that are able to move in a group without colliding into each other. Much like a school of fish, the so-called Eporo can also avoid obstacles standing in their way safely. Nissan claims this is the first time the world sees robots that are able to show group behavior.

by Nicholas Deleon on September 28, 2009

Let’s see… a robot that responds to the thoughts of its master (is “master” the right word here?). Pretty sure that we (humans) will bring about our own downfall, either by blowing each other up, or by inventing a robot that says, “You guys are idiots, so we’re going to kill you.”

by Erick Schonfeld on September 17, 2009

You’ve heard of Deep Blue, the IBM computer that bested Gary Kasparov in a chess match a decade ago. Now, there is Deep Green, a robot that plays pool. And by the looks of this demo video, it can’t lose.

As Delicious founder, and now-Googler, Joshua Schachter points out, it is “only a matter of time before one of these kills a person.”

by Nicholas Deleon on September 17, 2009

Only a fool would pay for pornography on the Internet. It’s like, you don’t pay for air (or, more accurately, oxygen), do you? So why pay for porn? But if porn is free all over the place, what’s going to happen to our nation’s adult entertainment industry? It employs more than a few people (that’s good), and helps maintain our image abroad (that’s also good). Two good thing! So what’s the industry going to do in a world where every kid can load up uTorrent or visit YouTube-like site? One word: robots.

FOLD-E! Clothes-folding robot demoed at SIGGRAPH
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by Devin Coldewey on September 10, 2009


Who wouldn’t want one? Scatter your undies on the ground (if they’re not there already), give FOLD-E the go-ahead, and scant minutes later, there they all are, folded into packets for you. You’ll need mighty small undergarments for this little robot to do his job, though.
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The saddest robots in all of Singapore
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by John Biggs on September 7, 2009

BoingBoing points us to these creepy animatronics in Singapore’s Fort Canning Part where the British generals discussed surrender to the Japanese.
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Video: Rickshaw-pulling child robot hopes to be a real boy someday
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by Doug Aamoth on August 31, 2009

Who doesn’t want their very own a robotic rickshaw driver? Are they called drivers? Pullers?

Doesn’t matter. I just hope they’re working on a version of this thing that can pull a 200+ pound man. I’ll call him Gary and we’ll go everywhere together. Everywhere!

[via Gizmodo]

Two spider-bot videos, one post
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by Devin Coldewey on August 26, 2009

spiderbots
Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin. Comfort is overrated anyway. And robot spiders are underrepresented on this (otherwise excellent) website. That’s why I decided to put two, two, TWO SPIDER ROBOT VIDEOS in one post. We’re falling behind other blogs in spiderbot video density. Click on through and be squicked/entertained.
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by Devin Coldewey on August 23, 2009

I hate it when the best way to state something is also the punniest. You guys remember the DARPA Grand Challenge, right? That used full-size cars with super-customized navigation systems. If you’re just an engineer trying to design better crash avoidance software, or determine traffic interactions between two models of navigation, it’s not exactly cost-effective to buy a Hummer and outfit it with $10,000 worth of gear. The solution: Robocar Z.

This cute little bugger is actually an extremely advanced standard unit for working on autonomous navigation systems.

by Devin Coldewey on August 22, 2009

I’m beginning to think the Robocalypse is going to be less Terminator and more Dinobot. I mean, we’ve robotic fish, dog-monsters, and hummingbots already, and that’s just off the top of my head. And if it isn’t based on an animal, it’s named after one. The BEAR robot, in contrast, isn’t actually bearlike, but is just a handy acronym for the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot.

by John Biggs on August 18, 2009


Ian Yeoman of the University of Wellington in New Zealand posits that we could soon be heading to charming resorts on the coast where we have rough sex with robotic pleasure bots. He writes:

“Robotics will become important, because you’re going to have labour shortages in the future,” he said…Even robot “prostitutes” that would not pass on diseases such as HIV could make an appearance.”

by Devin Coldewey on August 14, 2009

Looks like the Robocalypse is going to have to wait on battery technology. The Hummingbot/Hunter-seeker we saw last month has improved somewhat, and is now capable of more than falling while flapping its wings. It can, in fact, hover in a controlled fashion for up to 20 seconds. If you’re quick, that’s enough time to get it through the ducts and assassinate the Kwisatz Haderach, but I’d wait until they can get it up to a full minute.

by Scott Merrill on August 11, 2009

You know how it is: you go down to your secret lair to work on the prototype for your armada of deathbots, and you get paralyzed by the sheer enormity of the project you’ve undertaken. Not only do you need to find the raw materials, you need to design the bodies and weapons systems, build in failsafes so they don’t attack you, and basically write a complete operating system from scratch. That’s a lot of work for a busy tyrant-to-be, and frankly such details distract from the big picture of global domination.

Thankfully, there’s a crew of people working to standardize and abstract robot operating systems to reduce the time-to-market for your electronic henchmen.

bugbugbug