Robotics

Saturday September 13, 2003: Sony have updated the AIBO Companion Robot with a new design that incorporates a richer LED "face" display, eyesight three times sharper than previous models, built-in Wireless LAN connectivity and for the first time, you can give the robot dog a bone - the "AIBOne" to be exact, a pink toy that the new ERS-7 AIBO can pick up in its mouth.  Read More

Wednesday July 2, 2003: The Volkswagen electronics research group has been working on the "Autonomous Driving" project for several years and although "Klaus" won't be taking to the highway in the near future, Volkswagen has succeeded in teaching it how to drive.  Read More

October 22, 2002 Decades after "The Jetsons" and "Lost in Space", you could be forgiven for thinking that the robotics revolution has been slow to take shape. But things are changing fast with the arrival of a range of single and multi-task robotic devices with real practical uses for everyday living are beginning to emerge in the consumer marketplace. Evolution Robotics, NEC, Sanyo and Husqvarna are just some of the companies bringing home robotics to the marketplace so that humans can hand-ball those mundane tasks like mowning the lawn or answering the door to the battery operated help.  Read More

October 11. 2005 There may be a different fish to see for every day of the year at the London Aquarium at County Hall, but there's a new variety that has never swum any of the world's oceans. Since October 6 the Aquarium’s unique robotic fish has been swimming in a specially-designed tank. Three stunningly beautiful robotic fish have been created with jewel-bright scales and sinuous, astonishingly life-like movements. They have been produced by Professor Huosheng Hu and his human-centred robotics team of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Essex. Professor Hu's team have been working with the London Aquarium for three years to develop a biologically inspired robotic fish which mimic the undulating movement of nature's fish species – aiming for the speed of the tuna; the acceleration of a pike, and the navigating skill of the eel.  Read More

Japanese machinery and robotics manufacturer Sakakibara-Kikai has released the first genuine bi-pedal exoskeleton – a landmark event and one which is certain to attract a lot of attention for the company. Mechanatrons and BattleMechs have long been the subject of scifi books, comics and movies with the promise of cyborg technology popularised by the smash sixties television series “The Six Million Dollar Man.” We’ve previously seen some celebrated exoskeletons in films such as Alien (Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley takes out the Queen alien in an exoskeleton), Star Wars (the AT-ST Imperial Scout Walker) and RoboCop (the ED209), but until now, the nearest thing we’ve seen in the metal was the 3.5 metre superhero exoskeleton Enryu from Tmsuk in Japan. Sakakibara-Kikai’s Land Walker is just a tad shorter than Enryu at 3.4 metres, weighs 1000kg and shuffles along at 1.5kmh. Enryu is a lot faster than Land Walker but uses caterpillar-like tracks rather than legs to perform its chores – the strapping 3.5 metre Enryu will be called upon to rush into burning buildings, lift heavy objects and rescue people.  Read More

December 15 2004 Honda Motor has released details of its next-generation ASIMO robot that has now been under development for 19 years and is widely regarded as the most advanced humanoid robot in the world. The new version processes information far quicker than previous models and is hence more capable of responding to real-world environments. ASIMO incorporates three new major technologies, including "Posture Control" technology, making it possible for ASIMO to run in a natural, human-like way, "Autonomous Continuous Movement" technology, enabling ASIMO to choose a flexible route to a given destination and enhanced visual and force sensor technologies, enabling ASIMO to smoothly interact with people.  Read More

Fujitsu Laboratories and Fujitsu Frontech have announced their joint development of a service robot that can provide support for various services in offices and commercial facilities. The newly developed robot features functions that enable it to provide such services as greeting and escorting guests onto elevators, operating the elevators, moving parcels using a cart, and security patrolling of buildings at night. Fujitsu Frontech Limited will commercialise the robot, with sales scheduled to begin in June 2005. Fujitsu Frontech Limited will commercialise the robot, with sales scheduled to begin in June 2005. Details of the robot are to be presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan scheduled to be held from September 15 at Gifu University in Japan.  Read More

And the winner is - Shakey the Robot! It's not the Oscars but it is the robot world's closest equivalent - the Robot Hall of Fame, an annual award to honor landmark achievements in robotics technology and the increasing contributions of robots to human endeavors. Established by the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in 2003, the Robot Hall of Fame honours two categories, robots from Science - which have served a useful function and demonstrated real skills in accomplishing the purpose for which they were created - and robots from Science Fiction. Shakey enters into the Hall of Fame this year in the Robots from Science category.  Read More

Carnegie Mellon has announced the 2004 inductees to the Robot Hall of Fame at the Carnegie Science Center. The robots honored in this first annual Hall of Fame event included NASA's Mars Pathfinder Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX), better known as "Sojourner"; Unimate, the first industrial robot; R2-D2, the unforgettable droid from the Star Wars movie trilogy; and the evil HAL-9000 computer, featured in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," created by science fiction writer and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick.  Read More