Iran’s got a walking humanoid robot, too (update: video!)

Two years ago, Iranian students built Sorena, a white humanoid machine that reportedly wheeled about via remote control. For 2010, robots experts at Tehran University decided to update the creature — and apparently, channel a little bit of Asimo. Surena 2 was unveiled by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week, its purpose unknown. Named after a famous Persian warrior, the robot stands 4.7 feet tall, and can walk about slowly carrying its own weight of 99 pounds. Gulf News reports the robot will get vision and speech modules later on down the road. If it ends up conducting orchestras or performing show tunes, we’ll be sure to keep you informed.

Continue reading Iran’s got a walking humanoid robot, too (update: video!)

Iran’s got a walking humanoid robot, too (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Butler Robot Can Fetch Drinks, Snacks

Meet HERB, a robot from Intel’s research labs that can fetch drinks, get a pack of chips and sort dishes. HERB or the Home Exploring Robotic Butler is a project from Intel’s personal robotics group.

The robot sits on a tricked-out Segway base and has arms that are driven by cables to allow it to be extremely dexterous. A spinning laser on the top of the robot help generates 3-D data so robot can identify objects. There’s also a camera to help it “see.”

“It (the robot) looks big but it will fit through most doorways,” says Siddhartha Srinivasa, an Intel researcher who is working on the project. “It’s about a foot longer than the human wingspan.”

Users can tell HERB what they need using an iPhone interface that the team built. There’s also a voice recognition program in the works so you can just tell the robot loud what you want it to do.

The HERB project has been in the works for nearly four years. Intel showed the robot’s latest features at its annual research day fest on Wednesday.

HERB is just one of the many robotics project that is trying to teach machines how to do everyday tasks.  Willow Garage, a Palo Alto, California based startup has a robot called PR2 that is being trained to sort laundry and fold towels.

The idea is to teach robots to go beyond carefully structured and repetitive tasks so they can move beyond factories.

Check out the video of HERB at work. HERB doesn’t move fast but if you could just sit on the couch and have it bring a bottle of beer every time, a few seconds delay shouldn’t bother you that much.

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Photo: HERB/ Priya Ganapati


Swiss lab builds lightweight, tree-perching glider robot, swarms to follow

Last we heard from Mirko Kovac of the Switzerland-based EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, he was setting a robot high-jump record with his grasshopper-inspired bot. Now he’s back with what might be an even more impressive robot — a 4.6 gram glider that can fly headfirst into any surface, perch itself, and then detach on command. The idea there being that the gliders could be outfitted with sensors and deployed en masse in difficult to reach areas — Kovac gives the example of a swarm equipped with heat-sensors that could attach themselves to trees and monitor for forest fires. What’s more, he says that the same perching mechanism could also be applied to other robots — possibly even a hybrid of the glider and his grasshopper bot that could hop and fly around before finding a spot to perch itself. Head on past the break to see Kovac explain it himself on video.

Continue reading Swiss lab builds lightweight, tree-perching glider robot, swarms to follow

Swiss lab builds lightweight, tree-perching glider robot, swarms to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RoboCup Soccer 2010 finals show impressive realism by feigning injuries (video)

The World Cup may still be ongoing (despite what the US, England, and a handful of others may think), but the RoboCup 2010 in Singapore has just closed shop with an edge-of-your-seat display of autonomous action. The final game came down to two German teams, the Darmstadt Dribblers and the FUmanoids. As seen at numerous points, both android teams have even learned the ancient art of diving, toeing the uncanny valley a little to close for comfort. Video after the break — we won’t to spoil the ending, so let’s just say Germany won by a sizable margin.

If fierce competition isn’t your cup of tea, we’ve also got footage of DARwIn-LC, a low cost (hence the name) humanoid from our friends at Virginia Tech’s RoMeLa. These adorable little guys cost about $2,500 apiece and will be going out to 11 of VT’s partner universities.

Update: Dr. Dennis Hong himself sent us a few clarifications. The DARwIn-LC is a collaboration between RoMeLa and the company Robotis. No price has been disclosed, but the $2,500 is incorrect. Additionally, the robot is being planned as a “true ‘open platform.'” In Hong’s words, “we are “planning” to post all CAD drawings, fabrication and assembly manuals, and also the basic software on-line for free. Thus any one with certain equipment, budget, and skills will be able to make one them selves – or purchase the entire thing or parts from Robotis. We want to form a community of DARwIn-LC users to share new ideas for improvement, hack it, etc. and use the robot for research, education, outreach, and of course, an easy entry point for the RoboCup humanoid division.” Also hit up More Coverage to see how RoMeLa fared at RoboCup!

[Thanks, Stefan]

Continue reading RoboCup Soccer 2010 finals show impressive realism by feigning injuries (video)

RoboCup Soccer 2010 finals show impressive realism by feigning injuries (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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3D displays and haptic interfaces come together in HIRO III

The Kawasaki and Mouri Laboratory at Gifu University in Japan are researching and developing a touch interface which, combined with 3D displays, could offer a new way to simulate the touching of objects. HIRO III is a haptic interface robot which can provide realistic kinesthetic sensations to the user’s hand and fingers, while the 3D display provides the visual experience. Possible applications include medical diagnostics training, but for now, HIRO III is still in the lab. Interestingly, we’ve seen a very similar — albeit more scholastic — take on the same idea very recently. Hit the video below for a fuller look at this one.

Continue reading 3D displays and haptic interfaces come together in HIRO III

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3D displays and haptic interfaces come together in HIRO III originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Neato XV-11 ships out next month, will assassinate dust bunnies for money

Let’s face it, a geek’s solution to keeping floors clean will typically involve either family members, robots, or a combination of both. For the latter two groups, we’ve got news that Neato’s XV-11 is all set to start shipping this week, with retail and expanded online availability by mid-July. The XV-11’s biggest selling point is a laser-based room mapping system that will theoretically allow it to avoid objects other robo vacuums would detect only by impact. That should also deliver more efficient route planning for the little sucker, while the saved up energy will be channeled into what Neato claims is “the world’s most powerful robotic vacuum system.” Whether such brazen claims are enough to merit your $399, we leave up to you. Sure looks like a mean machine, though.

Continue reading Neato XV-11 ships out next month, will assassinate dust bunnies for money

Neato XV-11 ships out next month, will assassinate dust bunnies for money originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lizard-style bot ‘swims’ through sand, straight into your worst nightmare

While robots still struggle to do basic things like hang out with us or bring us cookies, it’s comforting to know that the variety of locomotion methods for this burgeoning race shows no sign of slowing. The latest of these “this would be a cool way for a robot to make its way through a disaster site and rescue people” solutions is a robot from a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology that can “swim” through sand, much like a lizard. Sand’s a bit of a toughie, in case you’ve never found out for yourself in an ill-fated game of sand volleyball, thanks to its combo of solid and fluid dynamics. The spandex-clad, squirmy solution uncovered by Georgia Tech gets along nicely, however, going mainly with the fluid approach. Check it creeping creepily on video after the break.

Continue reading Lizard-style bot ‘swims’ through sand, straight into your worst nightmare

Lizard-style bot ‘swims’ through sand, straight into your worst nightmare originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dance Dance Revolution: 20 Robots Think They Can Dance

When 20 robots wave their mechanical hands and bend their knees in harmony to French composer Maurice Ravel’s masterpiece Bolero, it is a sight worth seeing.

A troupe of Nao fully programmable robots developed by a French company are doing an impressive song-and-dance routine at the ongoing Shanghai World Expo. On Monday, which is the France Pavilion Day at the Expo, the robots put on a 10-minute performance to a three-part music compilation.

It’s awesome and a little cute to see the robots move together in sync to the music and the choreography. Priced at about 10,000 Euros each, that’s almost $250,000 worth of dancing robots there.

Check out this 8-minute long YouTube video for a look at the robots grooving to the music:

The Nao robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics weighs about 9.5 lbs and is about 23 inches tall. The robot comes with x86 AMD Geocode 500 Mhz CPU, 2 GB flash memory, two speakers, vision processing capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity and ethernet port. It has 25 degrees of freedom, which means it can do a lot more than just tilt is head, look right, left and take a few steps –which is the ability being showcased with the dancing.

The Nao robots are also playing at Robocup, the annual humanoid robots soccer game, that will be held in Singapore later this week. Hopefully, they will do better than France’s national team at the World Cup. The robots are currently available only to universities though a general release is expected later this year.

See more photos of the Nao robots at work on their dance routine:

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Robots to invade Scottish hospital, pose as ‘workers’

A new £300 million ($445 million) hospital is set to open up soon in Stirlingshire, Scotland. Why would you care about that? Maybe because laser-guided robots will play a fundamental role in the facility’s daily running, including the disposal of waste, delivery of meals, cleaning of operating theaters, and (gulp!) drug dispensation. We’re told they’ll have their own underground lair corridors and dedicated lifts, with humanoid employees able to call them up via a PDA. It’s believed that using robots to perform the dirty work will be more sanitary than current methods, but we have to question the sanity of anyone who believes this isn’t the first step toward the robot rebellion. Well, it’s been nice knowing you guys.

Robots to invade Scottish hospital, pose as ‘workers’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nao robots get together to get down, put a ring on it (video)

We’ve seen evidence of the Nao robots’ dancing capabilities in the past, but this gigantic group of them cutting the rug together is off-the-charts impressive. Check out the video below, plus a very special video we made just for you. Because we love you.

[Thanks, Axel]

Continue reading Nao robots get together to get down, put a ring on it (video)

Nao robots get together to get down, put a ring on it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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