Category: Robots
Robots walking faster and learning from their mistakes – but still rubbish
The disappointingly slow development of decent robots continues disappointingly slowly, with RunBot – the latest little robot that's barely able able to walk on two feet and learn from its mistakes. It takes the thing four attempts to learn how to walk up a really small hill. And it appears to be held up with wires.
Basically, robots are rubbish.
Shiny Video Review: Roboquads – Robots taking over the Earth
Roboquads are amassing… some of them have come to save us… some of them have come to destroy us… Oh, hang on, that’s Transformers. These are more Minority Report scuttly-scary, but still. Watch them in action. We’ll be sending one to find you…
Robot receptionists get temp jobs
The job market being as volatile as it is, even robots are having to take temp jobs to make ends meet. Mitsubishi made its Wakamaru receptionist robot available for hire last month and PeopleStaff, a major temporary staffing agency based in Nagoya, has accepted 10 of them which will be sent out to work in the Tokai area of central Japan. According to Wakamaru’s resume, it can recognize faces, carry on simple conversations with a vocabulary of 10,000 words, and perform simple manual tasks. Under “Special Skills”, Wakamaru points out that it is “adept at thanking visitors for waiting and can sing songs as it shows the visitors to their destination within the building”. As for salary, Wakamaru is asking for 120,000 yen ($1,000) per day for short-term gigs, but is willing to accept 3 million yen ($25,000) for one year, which is about as much as a human temp worker gets. And like most temp workers, Wakamaru will probably spend all its time on coffee breaks and surfing itself. [GT]
Human resource agency hires Wakamaru robot receptionists
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Myomo e100 robot arm retrains your brains
Tech Digest’s Robot World Cup: Quarter Final
BJ – Sony’s Aibo robotic dog lives on!
Myomo e100 robot arm retrains your brains
Not just an assistant to a failing arm, the Myomo e100 actually helps retrain around brain damage. Developed to help stroke victims, using the e100 reinforces new neurological pathways and helps neurons reconnect. “This is an area that’s exploding,” said Hermano Igo Krebs of MIT. “There are now a hundred groups around the world working on this. In 5 to 10 years, I expect we’ll see these kinds of devices in all major clinics and rehab hospitals in the developed world, and even in patients’ homes.” [GT]
Robot Arm Gives Stroke Patients a Hand
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Blubber Bots are nearly as cute as giant baby chicks
Rocobo: the latest in semi-inanimate toy love
Is Pleo the robotic dinosaur the new Sony Aibo?
When I first heard about Pleo in January’s issue of Wired magazine, I got all excited thinking about the possibilities of owning a robotic dinosaur. We’ve seen many robotic animals such as the Furby, Robosapien and Sony’s Aibo, but this Pleo sounded like a whole different kettle of fish.
Dreams become reality, and only a few months after the interview with Chung was published in Wired, it’s now been placed on every geeks favourite boutique, ThinkGeek. Pleo the dinosaur doesn’t just look the part, he moves and react autonomously with both humans and his surroundings, in a ‘lifelike, organic movement’…
USB robot webcam is cheap and cheerful
The USB robot webcam is recording everything you do to send back to its robot masters to aid them in their quest to destroy all humans! So don’t be lured in by its four LED lights that turn on automatically when it gets dark, its 350K pixel camera, or its 30fps frame rate or that it retails for $24.00. It’s a plot to kill us all! (Though, ah, it does look sort of cute. In a murderous sort of way.) [GT]
USB Robot Cam (viaThe Red Ferret Journal)
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Tech Digest's Robot World Cup: Quarter Final
Yes, okay, so there’s been a bit of delay between Round Three of our Robot World Cup and the quarter finals. They needed some oil after three rounds of knockout action (and besides, if the Cricket World Cup can last for what seemed like 17 years, I don’t see why our robo-contest can’t be strung out a bit).
BJ – Sony's Aibo robotic dog lives on!
I was sad to see the back of Aibo, Sony’s attempt to replace dogs with a robotic variety. But at £1500 a throw, it was never going to catch on (although that’s still cheaper than a bulldog puppy). But as one robodog departs the market, another one enters – BJ from IXS Japan.
PC World starts selling robots, brings forward date of mankind's ultimate destruction
PC World is introducing a new robotics section to its stores, selling some of today’s finest automated toys.
The special areas, designed as mini “roboshops” that will sit within each store, will sell gadgety-toys rather than proper, in-home robots…
Dacky – the singing robo-dog
Yet more cuteness from Japan, this time mixed with that other national obsession – robots – to create Dacky.
