Posts tagged with robot

Noodle Making Robot

Posted on November 23, 2009 4:31 AM

Trust the savvy Japanese to make robots do everything; next we’ll have them making robots to make robots. But until they decide to make Terminators, it seems that we’ll have to make do with the Buckwheat Noodle Robot Sanuki Shokunin. The robot has been designed to crank out buckwheat noodles are the rate of 700 portions an hour, and of the quality that usually requires a precision knife and a skilled noodle chef. If Buckwheat noodles aren’t your thing, it can also come up with Chinese noodles, and traditional paste. Just drop some dough in, a couple of button presses, and you’re good to go!

Bandit To Help With Your Exercises

Posted on November 20, 2009 9:52 AM

Are you too busy to find a gym partner? Well, the folks over at the University of Southern California Center for Robotics and Embedded systems have pulled in the stats (and we’re fairly sure everybody is busy). The robot called Bandit is now offering Robotics and Embedded Systems exercise training. This certainly seems suitable in the gym, though you had to admit the fact that the it’s so huge would probably deter a lot of people from checking it out.

Presenter Type 2 animatronic robot

Posted on November 19, 2009 6:15 AM

The Presenter Type 2 animatronic robot doesn't go around as a regular robot, although it comes with movable arms that can wave around, while speaking its mind with LEDs that light up its face in a convincing manner. The Presenter Type 2 is meant to function as a form of animatronics in order to see action in promotions of items and products.

IMTechnology Robot Cafe System

Posted on November 18, 2009 10:35 AM

IMTechnology's Robot Cafe System offers a whole new brewing experience where you place your order via a small robot wearing a chef's hat for added effect, and letting it deliver your cuppa to your table when done. This is one place where no singles would want to go since there are no cute waitresses to chat up, eh? On the bright side, there is no need to tip a robot with money, but we wonder whether they'll accept some leftover engine oil?

Big Dog gets weaponized

Posted on November 16, 2009 10:15 AM

Remember the Big Dog robot that moves in such a lifelike manner, it is almost uncanny and unnerving? The folks at Boston Dynamics have made improvements to it by weaponizing Big Dog, allowing future robots on the battlefield to fight our wars without running the risk of injuring or getting our soldiers killed since Big Dog can be controlled remotely from afar.

High Voltage Line Robot

Posted on November 14, 2009 9:28 AM

Fiddling with high-voltage power lines is certainly a dangerous job, especially for humans. With that in mind, a Tokyo-based company, HiBot, is working with western Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. to test a new robot next year that can inspect several power cables at once, and we’re fairly sure that no humans will be hurt in the process. We’re fairly sure that these robots don’t have any fear of heights either.

Fujitsu Office Delivery Robot

Posted on November 12, 2009 9:05 AM

Fujitsu has teamed up with the Yokohama National University and the University of Electro-Communications when it comes to developing an Office Delivery Robot. This bad boy is able to carry up items that weigh up to 20kg, relying on stereo vision, a laser range finder, and UWB (Ultra-wideband) TWR-TOA (two way ranging-time of arrival) for SLAM that is accurate to within 10cm to get around carefully so that nobody ends up with a bruised toe due to a wayward movement. While there are no plans to commercialize the robot, we are pretty sure certain bosses would prefer to have a mechanized drone running errands within the office as such a robot won't stab the boss in the back at water cooler conversations.

Hitachi EMIEW goes about on wheels

Posted on November 11, 2009 8:44 AM

The Hitachi EMIEW (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Work-mate) moves about on its wheels, relying on technology that can be found in the Segway as well. This allows it to zip about robustly compared to bipedal robots, hitting a maximum speed of 3.7mph with a reaction time of 100 miliseconds. The EMIEW has been usurped by its newer sibling, the EMIEW 2 which brings better technology to the table.

Unit 33 Robot Plays Football

Posted on November 10, 2009 8:42 AM

This robot certainly looks like it’s built to play basketball, what with its 7-foot height. Dubbed Unit 33, it can walk, turn, twist, bow and even play football (though they really should have tried a basketball demo). Check out the video above, and see for yourself.

Robot Bricklayer In New York

Posted on November 10, 2009 8:22 AM

You might have checked out Gramazio & Kohler’s bricklaying robot before, but this time, the duo from Zurich's ETH Faculty of Architecture have brought the robot to America for the first time, and have digitally fabricated a wall on Pike Street in downtown Manhattan. Certainly something to check out if you’re passing by there. An exhibition will be running at the Storefront for Art and Architecture until November 14th. You can check out some pictures of the walls built by the robot here.

Robot Stealth Raygun Jet

Posted on November 10, 2009 7:46 AM

It seems that Aerospace firms are quite busy competing for a classified UK MoD contract to build a robotic military stealth aircraft. Said aircraft would be rather special, seeing that it would be able to hover like a helicopter or fold its rotors and fly as an airplane. Of course, just flying around would be rather boring, that’s why it would also be able to deploy radical new weapons, such as microwave or laser ray guns. Now we wonder how many more years it will take before we as citizens will be able to purchase one of these.

Mini guide robot

Posted on November 10, 2009 7:33 AM

The Mini guide robot does not live up to its namesake in terms of size, and while it won't be up and about to the amusement of visitors and guests, this guide robot will instead be seated in your office lobby or at exhibitions. It comes with an ultrasonic wave sensor that enables it to detech where a person is standing, allowing the Mini to look in that direction while making announcements. Apart from general greetings, you can also program it to offer directions to various places including the nearest elevators, washrooms and telephones using its arms.

Mitsubishi Wakamaru robot

Posted on November 6, 2009 6:07 AM

Mitsubishi doesn't just churn out wonders like their line of Lancer Evolution cars, but they have also delved into the world of robots with the Wakamaru being one of them. Of course, forking out $15,000 for one of these might just make you baulk, but the Wakamaru, like a pooch, was specially designed for family life. It will move along to your life rhythms, waking you up in the morning and being able to understand 10,000 words connected to everyday life helps make communication a whole lot easier. Built-in face recognition technology makes it a snap to recognize up to 2 individuals within the household as its owners, and up to 8 other people at a glance. Integrated collision detection sensors ensures that he won't be a klutz when moving around.

ROLA home care robot

Posted on November 5, 2009 10:09 PM

The ROLA (Robot Of Living Aid) intelligent home-care robot was developed by National Chiao Tung University of Taiwan. Capable of understanding Mandarin, Taiwanese and a smattering of English, ROLA will help keep a watchful eye on elderly occupants of a home and is capable of sending distress calls automatically in the event of an accident to a family's cellphone or ambulance. This is made possible thanks to its live video feed, allowing people to tell the difference between an actual emergency and a false alarm. Measuring around $100,000, ROLA won't come cheap but hopefully with commercialization, the overall cost will be lowered.

Giger The DIY Robot

Posted on November 5, 2009 4:12 AM

Interested in homemade DIY robots? Well, check out “Giger”, a nice little robot that took its creator over 100 hours and more than $10,000 to build. Apparently the reason it cost so much was because the owner decided to use professional-grade servos instead of the bog-standard DIY stuff. Check out a video of the robot in action here.

Popeye The Audio Visual Robot

Posted on November 4, 2009 4:14 AM

Robots are definitely cool, unfortunately they haven’t become commonplace just yet (no, the roomba doesn’t count). A team from Perception On Purpose (POP) has come up with a technology that could facilitate robotic understanding and responses to human behavior, and even conversations. One of the challenges that they encountered was attempting to integrate 2 different sensory models, which are sound and vision, but once they overcame that, the 2 senses helped overcome the limitations of both. The whole deal is quite cool, and you can check out more details from the video here.

Wall-E eyes transplanted

Posted on November 3, 2009 10:31 AM

At least, that's the impression that we have with this rather curious robotic butler who seems to be in possession of Wall-E's eyes, albeit with an overall shape and color scheme that point towards EVE as well. Apart from the droopy eyes, nothing else is known about this robot, but we're pretty sure it doesn't compact trash into little cubes and has no feeling for cockroaches, either.

Doki robot functions as PR tool

Posted on November 2, 2009 6:54 AM

Doki is a new kind of robot that relies on computer vision software, enabling it to function as a PR tool for a company of its allegiance, where its greatest strength would be facial recognition that allows it to determine a person’s gender, estimating their age, ethnicity, and perhaps even let you know that you need to lose that flab around your belly. Doki is currently the Guiness Book of World Records holder for the Most Gender Aware Robot.

Talkie Walkie mimics paper mouth

Posted on November 1, 2009 7:23 PM

Guilherme Martins is the brain behind this "Talkie Walkie", where the robot was built based on only one servo. It is full well capable of responding to sound in real time, where it will automatically control the movements of a lip-syncing paper mouth. Creepy thing to have on any desk if you ask us.

Toyota Delivery Robot

Posted on November 1, 2009 6:41 PM

Should the future see Toyota Delivery Robots perform their tasks admirably, we guess jealous husbands need not fear their wives of starting a relationship or tryst with the well muscled delivery guy any more. The Toyota Delivery Robot is a prototype who was designed to retrieve items for people with limited mobility, making it a digitlal nursing dog without having the need to toilet train it. Other abilities include opening doors, taking out the trash, returning food trays to their tables and even playing fetch! It relies on a laser range finder and particle filter in order to generate maps and self-localize, helping the Delivery Robot navigate its environment in real-time.