- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Sep 17,2011
We saw this coming when we met FRIDA, and now it’s apparently happening.
According to Xinhuanet, Foxconn’s founder and chairman chose a workers’ party last Friday night to reveal plans for a surge in the company’s robot contingent.
There’ll be 300,000 robots in operation by next year and a swarm-like 1,000,000 within three years — versus just 10,000 today. The bots will be required to spray, weld and not kill themselves.
We can only imagine how this news went down at the party, but soon stuff like that will hardly matter.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Apr 7,2011
Disappointed by the lack of companionship offered by your current media center PC? Then you might be interested in this so-called REETI unit developed by France’s Robopec.
You see, not only is it a full-fledged media PC, it’s also a robot — one capable of displaying a range of emotions, no less.
The company’s actually been working on this one for a little while now, but it just recently made its public debut at the Innorobo trade show, where it showed off its ability to track people with its eyes and respond to both speech and touch.
Still no word on availability, but it seems like the company is, in fact, planning to sell them at some point.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Apr 2,2011
A few weeks ago, it looked like robots would play a relatively small role in recovery efforts following the earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan, but as concern grows over radiation leaks, robotics companies are positioning their mechanical offspring to do jobs deemed unsafe for humans.
We’ve already heard of Aldebaran’s plans for a fleet of rescue bots, and now QinetiQ and iRobot are lending automated assistance to the cause.
QinetiQ plans to send in a set of Robotic Applique Kits — used to convert Bobcat loaders into unmanned vehicles — along with sensor machines like the TALON and Dragon.
Meanwhile, iRobot’s enlisted two each of its PackBots and Warriors to help aid in recovery — the former is used by the US military for bomb disposal. Both companies have already deployed teams to Japan for training.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Feb 4,2011
You may have recently seen telepresence robots played for laughs on The Big Bang Theory, but they do also have quite a few practical purposes, and high school student Lyndon Baty from Knox City, Texas is now using one to particularly great effect.
He has a weakened immune system that prevents him from actually attending school, so he’s using a remotely-controlled Vgo telepresence “robot” that allows him to move from class to class and interact with teachers and other students using nothing more than his laptop and webcam at home.
The bot itself is four-feet tall, self-balancing, and simply packs a basic video conferencing system up top that allows its operator to interact with their surroundings — at $5,000, it’s also considerably cheaper than some other similar options.
As Popular Science notes, however, this isn’t the first time that a telepresence bot has gone to school — a student in Russia suffering from leukemia has also been using a similar bot since September of last year as part of a pilot project from the robot’s designers.
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Jan 26,2011
Sadists at the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics are showing off their latest development in anthropomorphic appendages: a robotic hand that can take a beating from a baseball bat and still give you the middle finger (or a thumbs-up, we suppose).
Researchers apparently designed the limb to function like only a human hand can, and it seems they’ve done a decent job: it’s got five independently functioning fingers, sports 19 degrees of freedom (one less than the real deal), and can even snap them phalanges — oh no they didn’t! It’s also got the ability to exert a force of 30 newtons from its fingertips.
So what makes it so resilient? The robo-hand has a built-in web of 38 tendons, which allow it to adapt its stiffness under different circumstances: a step away, its creators say, from rigid appendages of the past.
There’s a video of the hand taking a beating after the jump, but honestly, we’d prefer to see what happens when the hand fights back. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Jan 21,2011
When first we saw Fujisoft’s PALRO robot doing its thing we were charmed but, as it didn’t speak English, we had to adore it from afar. No longer.
The little critter has obviously mastered our language quite quickly and can be seen below chatting with an even more robotic humanoid about such idle things as the weather, career aspirations, and just how great PALRO is.
How great is PALRO? PALRO is really great — but humble. Inside that barrel chest is a full-fledged PC with an Atom Z530 processor, 4GB of flash storage, and an Ubuntu kernel keeping everything in check.
It’s available as ever for educational and research institutions for about $3,600, but we’re trying to get one ourselves. If we can get it to type prepare yourselves for many more posts about software based on real Japanese cutting-edge technology. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: adryana
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Jul 7,2010
IRobot Roomba cleaning robot revolutionizing people’s habitual methods of cleaning. So there have to work, and will vacuum the whole thing for you.
Roomba returns to the single self-loading for battery recharging between cleaning cycles. In this way is always ready for use. There will remain only to change filters and empty the dust, an operation that iRobot has thought it to be, obviously, extremely simple.
Roomba efficiently clean work surface, underneath and around furniture, along walls, around corners and automatically adapts to change from carpet to floor and vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: adryana
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Jul 2,2010
Using solar energy is starting to become real, and admit, it was about time. Although renewable energy to replace our main needs, is still quite complicated, but our gadgets and toys fueled light rays, is a clever and educational. Why not? Robot Kit is a DoItYourself experience, that must be built step by step and uses only solar energy.
You can build six different models, which means that after you’ve finished building a solar airplane, comes a time when dezmontati and make it a solar boat, a windmill, a car or even a dog or a high-tech submarine.
Not only is it fun, allow us to see how solar powered even some functions, is an educational and constructive. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: adryana
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Jul 2,2010
Robot is the perfect definition we make life easier and it looks like Rovio WiFi was just built for it. Rovio WiFi robot makes it possible to “we are” in two different places at the same time, real time and simultaneously to keep in touch in a relaxing and elegant way.
Being equipped with three omni-directional wheels, no obstacle in the house / office (etc.) is not too hard, yeah .. outside stairs – still must be a limit otherwise I say not true, and so seems to have escaped from the Transformers 3.
The three-position camera and microphone + speaker built we feel at home even though we are half of the world, especially that can be controlled via laptop, PDA, Wii, mobile phones, anything that has WiFi support. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Robots
- Date: Mar 17,2010
I know we generally tend to think of Radio Controlled (RC) cars as simply toys, ultimately designed for kids to play with.
Well some people take their RC vehicles pretty seriously, and they definitely have some cool vehicles to change the way you think of RC.
Today we are taking a look at some of the Fastest, Biggest and Coolest RC vehicles on the planet. Read the rest of this entry »
