Hasta La Gadget!

The big new trend among wargadget makers seems to be the elimination of the fleshy operator, and we’re seeing it happening with helicopters, boats, and even space shuttles. The Phantom Ray is Boeing’s take on how we can do the same to jet fighters, and it’s had its official unveiling in St. Louis this week. Primarily intended to serve as a reconnaissance and intelligence drone, this 36 foot-long airborne robot will be able to cruise at speeds of up to 614mph, and will even do a bit of suppression fire when you need it to. It’s designed to be undetectable by radar and offers a minimal heat signature for missiles to lock on to, as its engine is buried deep within the body. Sounds ominous indeed, but the Phantom Ray will serve as the testbed for even more advanced technologies and will take its first flight in December of this year. See its grand debut on video after the break.

Continue reading Boeing’s unmanned Phantom Ray makes dramatic video debut, set to take off this December

Boeing’s unmanned Phantom Ray makes dramatic video debut, set to take off this December originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 May 2010 03:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Festo’s unveiled some pretty impressive tech over the years, from fluidic muscles to robotic flying penguins, but this next one has us a bit worried. The Bionic Handling Assistant is ostensibly patterned after the elephant’s trunk, designed to be both agile and delicate… but have you seen the thing? We’re pretty sure that it was patterned after the tentacles of Doctor Octopus, and that it will crush you and everyone you care about without a second thought. But if you’re the trusting type, the company assures you that this is just the thing for all those delicate processes you’ve been meaning to automate but haven’t been able to in the past: everything from handling fruit to animal husbandry is a cinch with this “hierarchically arranged system of muscles and evolutionary optimized movement patterns”! But don’t take our word for it: peep the video after the break.

Continue reading Festo’s strong and agile robot arm is based on the elephant’s trunk, scares the bejesus out of us (video)

Festo’s strong and agile robot arm is based on the elephant’s trunk, scares the bejesus out of us (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now, this isn’t quite the height of innovation, but it’s a pretty cool compilation of existing technologies nonetheless. The femme-themed AILA robot has an RFID reader in its left palm, which allows it to obtain non-visual information about the objects put in front of it. Based on that input, as well as data collected from its 3D camera and two laser scanners, AILA can intelligently deal with and transport all sorts of items, without the pesky need for a fleshy human to come along and give it further instructions. The good news is that it’s a really slow mover for now, so if you do your cardio you should be able to run away from one in case of any instruction set malfunctions. See it on video after the break.

Continue reading AILA bot can recognize objects’ weight and fragility, render shelf stackers obsolete (video)

AILA bot can recognize objects’ weight and fragility, render shelf stackers obsolete (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hiroshi Ishiguro (or his evil android twin, one) is back in business, and nearly four years after his Geminoid HI-1 startled youngsters everywhere, the Geminoid-F has arrived to consternate the grown-ups. Shown off this weekend in Osaka, Japan, the lifelike lady you see above (pictured left, just in case you were wondering) was designed to mimic human facial expressions that are fed in to its internal computer. The rubberized face has a rather insane amount of flexibility, enabling it to pull off subtle gestures that have thus far been impossible to replicate on a robot. Sly grins, angry glares and totally-fake smiles are all possible now, with developers hoping to have these in hospitals and the like in the not-too-distant future. Currently, copies of the humanoid are expected to sell for around ¥10,000,000 ($105,780), though it’ll likely be robotics research organizations doing the majority of the buying. Hop on past the break for a video that’s guaranteed to leave you stunned — and while we’re not fluent in Japanese, we’re pretty sure someone asks if they “can rock that bad Larry on their dome.”

Continue reading Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoid-F humanoid mimics Earthlings, is definitely the beginning of the end (video)

Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoid-F humanoid mimics Earthlings, is definitely the beginning of the end (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DARPA wants to let you all know that its plans for the robot apocalypse are still going strong. The agency’s got IBM working on the brains, has an RFI out on the skin, and is handling propulsion and motor control in-house. Next up? Eyeballs. In order to give its robots the same sort of “visual intelligence” currently limited to animals, DARPA is kicking off a new program called The Mind’s Eye with a one-day scientific conference this April. The goal is a “smart camera” that can not only recognize objects, but also be able to describe what they’re doing and why, allowing unmanned bots and surveillance systems to report back, or — we’re extrapolating here — make tactical decisions of their own. To be clear, there’s no funding or formal proposal requests for this project quite yet. But if the code does come to fruition, DARPA, please: make sure autoexec.bat includes a few Prime Directives.

DARPA sets sights on cameras that understand originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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