Robotics

We’ve already seen several underwater robots that mimic the swimming abilities of fish. The European FILOSE research project, however, is also interested in copying another feature of our finned friends – their lateral line. The result could be swimming robots that use differences in water pressure to navigate and save energy.  Read More

Hosting parties is always a good time, but when the host has to spend half of the party making drinks for everyone, it can be a real downer. A new project seeking funding on Kickstarter called the Bartendro hopes to rectify the situation by replacing the human drink mixer with a robot, much like the The Inebriator.  Read More

Robots, even tiny ones, are generally not known for being cheap. While this is partly because of their precision-made arms, legs, wheels or whatnot, much of the cost is due to their electronic components – their sensors, input/output interfaces, and processors. Given that most people already have all of these things in their smartphone, however, why should they bother paying for them over again in a robot? Why not just temporarily make the phone part of the robot? That’s the thinking behind smartphone-based robots such as Romo, Botiful, and Polaris. The latest such ‘bot to come our way is Overdrive Robotics’ appropriately-named SmartBot.  Read More

Boston Dynamics' BigDog may have already been replaced by the beefier LS3, but that doesn't mean it's totally obsolete. Today the company unveiled a version of the quadruped equipped with an arm where a head (or tail) would go. As can be seen in the following video, it's powerful enough to lift and toss a heavy cinder block.  Read More

At the recent Chicago Automate 2013 show of automation and robotics, Yaskawa Motoman drew huge crowds to watch its SDA10F double-armed robot deal blackjack for three players. The two-armed bandit not only deals cards, but can read the cards dealt, and play according to the rules of blackjack. The level of dexterity, along with the robot's vision recognition camera and software, wowed the throngs attending the show.  Read More

Apparently, balancing a pole on top of a flying quadrocopter robot wasn't challenging enough for the researchers at ETH Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control. Their latest project has two quadrocopters playing catch with a precariously balanced pole – the first robot launches the pole into the air, while the second robot deftly moves into position in less than a second to catch it as it falls. The incredible precision flying achieved by the team can be seen in a video after the break.  Read More

Ironically, humanoid robots may have to put aside their arms and legs if they're to gain a foothold in our daily lives. All those servos required to power multiple limbs can get expensive, they quickly drain the robot's batteries, and cause all sorts of problems if even one of them breaks. Eschewing this complexity leaves you with just a head and torso, a compromise adopted by several prospective household robots. Among those is a new communication robot by Waseda University's Ory Lab, launching later this year.  Read More

A group of four Russian robot fanatics calling themselves Konstantin Ivanov has built a walking ostrich robot with just US$1,500 and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. You can see it walking on a Russian television show, along with a robot-driven carriage, in the video after the break.  Read More

Like many people, I spend most of my time worrying about the inevitable robot uprising. MIT is doing its bit to put off that day with its experiments in teaching robots and humans to work together peacefully. Using cross-training techniques, the researchers got robots and humans to swap jobs so they could see things from the others' point of view and carry out tasks more efficiently when working together.  Read More