Remote-controlled

By now, many readers are probably familiar with the da Vinci robotic surgery system. It allows a seated surgeon, using a 3D display and hand controls, to operate on a patient using robotic arms equipped with surgical instruments. Not only does the system allow for more laparoscopic surgery (in which surgical instruments access the inside of the patient’s body through small incisions, instead of one large opening), but it even makes it possible for the surgeon and the patient to be in separate geographical locations. Now, a researcher at the Netherlands’ Eindhoven University of Technology has developed a similar system, designed specifically for operations on the eye.  Read More

Remote-controlled unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have proven exceptionally useful in military applications, but according to Swedish company Rotundus, they can be equally well applied to civil security. Rolling through mud, sand, snow, or even floating in the water, the Rotundus GroundBot spherically-shaped robot is equipped with a pair of cameras, providing its remote operator with a live video feed in 3D.  Read More

If you have both a laser pointer and either a cat or a dog in your home, you probably know how much fun it can be to watch your critter chasing after the laser light point on the floor. If you don’t have any pets, however, now there’s something else that will chase a laser for you – a toy car. Thinkway Toys’ Lazer Stunt Chaser is a remote-control vehicle that goes wherever its user shines its laser light controller. Oh yeah, and its wheels light up, too.  Read More

When you think about it, smartphones are more than just fancy phones – they’re actually tiny portable computers. Given that so many people now own these tiny computers, why should they have to pay to buy another computer that’s built into an electronic device, when they could instead just use their existing smartphone as the “brain” of that device? That’s the approach that has been taken by products such as the Bubo camcorder rig, and now also by Romo-The Smartphone Robot.  Read More

Of all the products on display at CES 2011 in Las Vegas, one that drew a particularly large number of spectators was ... a ball. Not just any ball, mind you. Developed by Colorado-based tech firm Orbotix, Sphero is a self-propelled rolling ball that users remotely control via Bluetooth, using an app on their smartphone. While it was still in the prototype stage when we last saw it, Sphero has now been redesigned for the retail market, and is available for preorder.  Read More

According to UNICEF, there are currently over 110 million live land mines buried in the soil of various countries around the world, left over from conflicts that occurred up to 50 years ago. While various organizations are working on locating and removing those mines, it’s proving to be a long and laborious process. Instead of precisely pinpointing and then disarming each device, however, one has to wonder ... wouldn’t it be easier to just go around thumping on the ground and getting them to go off? Well, it just happens that DIGGER DTR’s hulking D-3 robotic vehicle does exactly that.  Read More

Pretty much any time a patient is placed under a general anesthetic, a plastic endotracheal tube is inserted down their throat, in order to keep their airway open. The procedure is known as intubation, and has so far always been performed by hand. In this age of robotic surgery, however, it’s perhaps not surprising to hear that surgeons at Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre are now trying out a remote-control intubation system on human subjects.  Read More

The 'RoboMara' or robot marathon has just come to a close in Osaka Japan, with a pair of bipedal bots battling it out in surprisingly close dash to the finish. After 422 laps of a 100-meter track, two robots found themselves only inches apart as coming out of the final turn.  Read More

Vstone, an Osaka-based technology firm, is organizing the world's first marathon for robots. As many of you will already know, a marathon is 42 kilometers (or about 26 miles), and these little mechanical men are ready to run the whole thing.  Read More