Hasta La Gadget!

We prefer our robots stick to the household cleaning chores, a little DJing action even, and then go right back to the closet. But, when we first glimpsed this emoting automaton from Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, our fears of the day of robot reckoning subsided slightly. The ETRI-built robot (or ETRO for short) is currently “employed” as an ambassador for human-robot relations at Daejon’s National Science Museum, treating amused passersby to outspoken professions of love backed by its LED-lit facial expressions. Originally designed as a reading robot back in 2003, version 2.0 of this humanoid helper was created with a greater cause in mind — showcasing robotics as promising Korean growth industry. Rather than let those economic concerns muddle our whimsy, let’s just focus on the AI-assisted cuteness in the video below.

Continue reading ETRO robot wears its heart on its face, promises to love you

ETRO robot wears its heart on its face, promises to love you originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink DVICE  |  PlasticPals  | Email this | Comments

Toshiba is just the latest company to enter the robovac fray. Samsung, ASUS and LG have already tested the waters against the mighty iRobot, now it’s Smarbo’s turn to try its hand at automated vacuuming. Inside the round floor cleaner are 38 sensors that help it avoid obstacles and keep it from falling down stairs, as well as a CPU or CPUs that sport “double brain function” according to the machine translated PR. The bot is quite quick, supposedly able to clean 100 square meters (over 1,000 square feet) in about 90 minutes, and only uses a few pennies worth of electricity to do so. Toshiba’s vacubot will hit shelves in Japan for around $1,100 on October first, but it does suffer one distinct disadvantage — DJ Smarbo just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Continue reading Toshiba Smarbo takes on dirt, Roomba, music playing prowess unclear

Toshiba Smarbo takes on dirt, Roomba, music playing prowess unclear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  Toshiba (translated)  | Email this | Comments

Locked behind a gated fence and unseen by the public until now, lives Patty, Microsoft’s Surface 2.0 stress test robot. Designed to see just how much Gates’ touchscreen can take, this lady bot uses 80 compressed air-driven probes, six motors and a robotic moving head to apply maximum stress to the display. It works as such: by giving Patty a command, engineers can move probes across the screen at 25 inches per second — mimicking the movement of fingers, hands and whatever else it might encounter IRL. With so much multitasking, it’s no wonder she comes with a giant red emergency stop button — just in case. See Patty do her thing by hitting the source link below.

Meet Patty, Microsoft’s Surface 2.0 stress test robot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Microsoft Surface Blog  | Email this | Comments

MABEL the running robot has been training hard, grabbing the title of “fastest bipedal robot with knees.” Like any great sports star, it’s been plagued by many dream-crushing obstacles and injuries, but this time it’s done it: running at a speed of 6.8 miles per hour on a track. Jessy Grizzle, professor at the University of Michigan’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, attributes this bot’s success to its human-like weight distribution — a heavier torso and flexible legs with springs similar to tendons for movement “like a real runner.” This bipedal technology, which can mimic a human’s ability to run and climb over obstacles, may be used to help the disabled walk again, in rescue situations or as the basis of future vehicles that don’t require roads or wheels to drive. If MABEL doesn’t make the SWAT team this year, it can most certainly snag a spot as an extra in the next Transformers movie. Check out the PR and video of this modern day robo-Flo-Jo after the break.

Continue reading MABEL running robot snags bipedal speed title, cue ‘Rocky’ theme (video)

MABEL running robot snags bipedal speed title, cue ‘Rocky’ theme (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink University of Michigan  |  DynamicLegLocomotion (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

What’s more frightening than a swarm of robots? An award-winning swarm of robots trained to raid your library — that’s what. This SciFi-worthy outfit of mechanized literature swindlers, known as the “Swarmanoid,” landed themselves the Best Video Award at this week’s AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) conference in San Francisco. The video in question features the mixed bag of eye-bots, hand-bots and foot-bots in an Oceans 11-style bookcase heist. Of course, there are probably easier ways to reach the top shelf (e.g. a ladder), but none that get us thinking about the end times quite like this. The full video awaits you after the break.

Continue reading Swarm robots attack your bookshelf, win AAAI Oscar

Swarm robots attack your bookshelf, win AAAI Oscar originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  New Scientist  | Email this | Comments