Hasta La Gadget!

The world’s largest walking robot is crazy. It’s a 51-foot-long fire-breathing dragon named Tradinno. Surprisingly, this is not a Japanese creation, but a German one. It was made for a play called Der Drachenstich by industrial robotics company Zollner Elektronik AG.

This beast weighs in at 11 tons, and despite that massive weight it can still move and flap its 40-foot-wide wings. The size is impressive of course, but also impressive is the detail. The movement is a bit unrealistic, but who cares? This thing is badass! It breaths fire and squirts buckets of stage blood! And while it can walk short distances on its own, they need to move it on the back of a trailer for anything longer than a jaunt around the stage.

Check it out in action right here in the video. It looks like it was quite an undertaking to create this epic monster.

And if there’s any doubt that it’s the world’s largest walking robot, check the Guinness World Records.

[via C|Net]

You might want to take notice of the name Charalampos Ioannou from now on, as he is one smart teen who decided to work on an exoskeleton glove after seeing his grandmother’s hand being unable to hold a remote control within. Well, we are glad to say that his hard work as well as genius has paid off, as Charalampos Ioannou’s exoskeleton glove has managed to make its way to one of the 15 coveted spots at the international Google Science Fair competition.

Just how does this exoskeleton glove work? Well, it happens to be a metallic prosthetic glove which is capable of fitting over the hand, where it will then help support the movement of the aforementioned hand. Targeting those who happen to experience upper-hand disabilities, as well as others who are no longer able to fully grasp or hold things, this unique glove can be controlled by the kinetic stimulus of the user. In plain English, it works like a natural hand, being able to tell the difference in the amount of strength required when it comes to various activities. For instance, picking up an egg would mean applying very little pressure, while opening a stubborn pickle jar would require a whole lot more mechanical exertion.

Exoskeleton Glove Created By Teen original content from Ubergizmo.

Nowadays, we often hear about unmanned aerial vehicles aka UAVs or drones in the news as next generation weapons of war. The researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab want to dispel that notion and show people that this new technology can be used in more positive ways. For example, as tour guides.

The SkyCall project uses a Wi-Fi network, a mobile app and quadcopters equipped with GPS, a camera and other onboard sensors to create smart tour guides. A prototype of SkyCall is already being tested at the labyrinthine grounds of MIT. To summon a drone, the user uses the call feature on the SkyCall app. When your friendly guide arrives, the user enters the alphanumeric code for his destination (I don’t know how he gets the code in the first place though). The guide will then start moving at a leisurely pace.

The drone will even talk about landmarks along the way and can be stopped by the user through the app. The drone also uses GPS to detect if the user has fallen behind a certain distance and will wait and then alert him through the app.

The SkyCall: why ask people for directions when you can build a sophisticated network of satellites and robots to guide you through life? As someone who is socially inept, I’m only being half sarcastic. I’d love to have a drone buddy to guide me around and perhaps even protect me.

[MIT SENSEable City Lab via Dezeen]

NASA has announced that the Curiosity Rover took its longest drive yet on the surface of Mars earlier this week. The longest one-day drive in the rover’s history occurred on September 5, putting it within viewing distance of a patch of rocks NASA calls Waypoint 1. NASA says that arriving at Waypoint 1 will signal that Curiosity is about 1/5th of the way to Mount Sharp, which is its ultimate destination.

During this drive Curiosity traveled 464 feet to a location called Panorama Point where it took photos of the rocky outcrop it’s heading towards. Click the image below for a hi-res view of this rocky vista.

The good news is this time NASA engineers have apparently succeeded in driving Curiosity without leaving the image of a massive penis on the surface of the red planet. I have attached the now infamous Mars penis image below, purely for scientific reasons.

Once Curiosity reaches Waypoint 1 it will spend a few days sampling area with its tools. The team hopes to determine if the rocks are related to what they expect to find that Mount Sharp. Curiosity landed inside of Gale Crater in August 2012.

The desolation of Smaug? You can just leave that in the realm of your imagination, no matter how real it looks like on the IMAX screen, and how 3D it gets, but it sure as heck cannot go up against the experience of seeing the Tradinno in person! Tradinno has been described to be a fire-breathing dragon robot which also happens to lay claim as one of the world’s largest walking robots around, measuring a mammoth 30 feet in height and 51 feet long. Of course, this is no Jaeger, but you sure as heck would not want to upset this mammoth mechatronic beast. Especially not when it is capable of spewing fire, but thankfully, it does not covet your ATM and credit cards as well as bling you wear around your neck.

In fact, its position as the world’s largest walking robot has been verified in the new “Guinness World Records 2014″ book. Tradinno was named so based on a play of words on “tradition” and “innovation,” where it is capable of walking around, flap its leathery looking wings, and have fire exit from its mouth and nostrils. Tipping the scales at a whopping 11 tons, it will be way too heavy to take off, but would make for a great guard at your castle’s doorsteps.

Tradinno Is A Fire-Breathing Dragon Robot original content from Ubergizmo.