France’s equivalent of DARPA has a lofty task for you. The National Research Agency is challenging engineers to design and build an autonomous oil-drilling robot that can operate continuously for six weeks at a time. And they’re willing to pay you handsomely.
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[CES 2014] The folks over at WowWee have churned out their fair share of high tech toys in the past, and this year is no different for them as well. Apparently, WowWee has been working alongside UCSD (University of California in San Diego), where this particular collaboration has resulted in “MiP” hi-tech toys. MiP stands for Mobile Inverted Pendulum (MIP), where it would come across as a robot toy which can be controlled using hand gestures or by Bluetooth, with a smartphone or a tablet in the background to run proceedings.
Apart from that, the MiP also boasts of the ability to maintain its balance as it carries an object about using its attachable tray. Users will be tickled to know that this tiny robot that could would also come with an interactive capability to be more “friendly” to its surroundings, including a limited “voice” such as the likes of the famous astromech droid, R2D2, being able to dance with your iTunes, as well as play games with humans. Those who are interested in picking up the MiP from WowWee will have to play the patience card here, as it will only be released officially this June for $99.99 a pop. [Press Release]
WowWee Develops MiP Toys original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Remember OmniCorp, the sinister mega-corporation that built Robocop and his unstable robo-cousins? With the advent of surveillance drones and mechanical police officers
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If the phrase ‘caveat emptor’ (aka buyer beware) applies to anything, it’s Kickstarter and other crowdfunded products. Wonderful things are promised by optimistic designers, inventors, and marketers, but rarely are they delivered
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The DIY revolution means that people can now print their own 3D models, build their own websites and apps, and even build their own mobile devices and custom computers using things like Raspberry Pi. The Modbot team taking part in this year’s TechCrunch Battlefield at CES 2014 wants to do the same for robotics – not hobby robotics, but serious, full-fledged industrial and commercial robot building.
Modbot founders Adam Ellison and Daniel Pizzata identified a problem in prototyping and building robots for use in manufacturing, research and basically any other application: parts were unnecessarily complicated and expensive, when in reality they could be much more affordable and much simpler, too.
Ellison and Pizzata have created a simple system consisting of a servo, a link and a joint component, along with a base upon which to build your projects. The Modbot vision is one where people can combine pre-assembled parts that cost significantly less than their professional industrial counterparts in order to build a wide range of robots for any number of purposes, including small scale production. Imagine, then a future where entrepreneurs could not only create a concept for a hardware device and send that away to a production partner, but also build the thing themselves in-house.
Honda’s Asimo costs roughly $1 million just to make, according to Modbot’s founders, and most of that cost comes from actuators and hardware. By dramatically decreasing the price of this part of the process, Modbot is hoping to encourage innovation and make it possible for even the smallest companies to build anything from a giant robot death spider to a fully functional prosthetic arm.
Modbot is launching its Indiegogo campaign today, to produce its hardware and to develop its app, which is a rapid prototyping campaign that lets you design your robot in virtual space with just a few clicks, and then instantly click a button and order everything you need to build that design right from the prototyper and have it shipped to you directly.
Raspberry Pi has helped pave the way for a future where you could easily see kids coming to school with coding and electronics experience in hand. Modbot could offer the same sort of thing for robotics, albeit with pricing that while affordable, still reflects a target market of small business users and entrepreneurs rather than kids and hobbyists. But it could still be sort of equivalent to the 3D printing revolution, putting manufacturing capabilities once relegated to multi-billion dollar companies in the hands of five-person shops and startups.
When my wife and I moved a few months ago one of the reasons we chose out new place was because my wife liked the tile floors throughout the house. I hate tile floors because you have to mop a lot rather than just vacuuming and moving on. If you live in a house where you have to mop a lot and you are tired of doing it, iRobot has a gadget for you.
iRobot has unveiled a new robot floor cleaner at CES 2014 called the Scooba 450. The robot uses a three-cycle cleaning process that promises consistently clean floor with zero input from you. At least the only input you have to make is to fill the water tank and empty the waste water. The Scooba 450 has the ability to automatically sweep and pre-soak the floor. It then rolls back and scrubs the floor clean with its 600 RPM roller.
The Scooba 450 can be used anywhere you would normally use a mop and bucket. The device has two cleaning options including a 40-minute full clean cycle for up to 300 square feet and a 20-minute cycle for smaller spaces.
You can get the Scooba 450 for $599.99(USD) over on the iRobot website.
Ozobot gaming robots are basically spherical robots that follow lines. They also see color and interpret flashes of light to respond accordingly. The robots have five sensors on the underside that help them stay on the tracks, while the colors and flashes cue them for behavioral changes.
Right now, Ozobots has only four pre-programmed games available, including one in which players can watch their Ozobot escape a maze, and a two-player game that requires players to reach the finish line first.
Does this idea have potential? Probably. It will be interesting to see what kinds of unique things they can come up with to keep us entertained with these diminutive robots.
You can expect to see Ozobots on Kickstarter soon with a funding goal of about $100,000.
[via New Launches]
I don’t mind shopping, by myself. I hate shopping with my wife because she expects me to carry everything. I think she waits all year until I go with her and then tries to buy everything at once. Typically, I end up with a 75-pound bad of clothes in each hand, with nothing in the bags for me. People like my wife need Budgee.
Budgee is a lightweight robot that carries your stuff for you. The ‘bot is a three-wheel unit with a soft bag attached for you to put your stuff into. It can carry up to 50 pounds, and uses a rechargeable battery good for up to eight hours of use per charge.
Budgee is designed to follow you from a preset distance. The robot knows to follow you because of a small transmitter you carry with you. The robot works in conjunction with a smartphone app to warn you if you get too far away from it as well. You can also control the robot thought the smartphone app.
Budgee is on Kickstarter now seeking funding and a pledge of at least $1299(USD) by February 1, 2014 will get you one of the first robots with delivery set for July.
If you attempted to convince a kid that electric cars on a plastic track were once a great way to pass a rainy afternoon, they’d just stare at you for a few seconds, and then go back to playing with their iPads. Which is exactly why these tiny autonomous Ozobots are designed to work on either an electronic display, or a printed track.
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[CES 2014] When it comes to robotic house cleaners, the Roomba name is probably one that is familiar to a lot of us, but let’s not forget that there are other alternatives readily available in the market, and one of them is Moneual, a company which has decided to debut the Rydis H68 at CES 2014, a follow-up to the Rydis H67 that was unveiled back in 2013 not too long ago. So what sort of features are we looking at here? Well instead of merely being a vacuum cleaner, the Rydis H68 will double as both a vacuum cleaner and a mop, and will be able to hold a fair amount of cleaning agents which Moneual claims is the largest in the market at the moment.
Users will have the option of choosing between either mopping, vacuuming, or both which will be done in the same pass, which admittedly sounds highly efficient! The robot will be able to scan a room thanks to its built-in 42 omni-directional sensors, track its own position, and map out a route that will cover as much floor space as possible. Similar to its predecessor, the H67, the H68 will feature a microfiber cleaning cloth under it, but the difference is that it can be moistened with cleaning agents that basically helps mop up the floor in the event that a vacuum isn’t enough. Pricing was not mentioned but the Moneual Rydis H68 is expected to be made available later this spring.
The Rydis H68 Robot Is Both A Vacuum And A Mop original content from Ubergizmo. 
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