Category: Robots
Guitar Heronoid – Android plays Guitar Hero
Okay, I thought the whole point of robots was that they were supposed to make our jobs easier, not take over our leisure time activities. But on the heels of the Wii playing robot comes an android that plays…
Mike, the emotional robot
The look of Mike, the emotional robot is probably not quite what you'd expect when you imagine empathic broadcast. However, it uses colour-changing to indicate how it feels: red for red is for anger, green is for happiness, and…
Drobo storage robot is "self-aware"
Drobo is a storage robot with four hard disk slots, which it manages as one enormous drive. If you insert an 80 gig SATA, a 250 gig SATA, and a 110 gig EIDE, it will handle them all as…
Robot calls out the vote
The robot Actroid appeared at a Yokohoma department store – to encourage people to vote. The Yokohama Municipal Election Administration Commission planned the robot display to educate voters, as turnout for the unified local elections in Yokohama has not…
Aquabot and Aquajet robot pool cleaners from iRobot
Though less sexy than most pool boys, the Aquabot and Aquajet robot pool cleaners from iRobot are, at $799 and $1,199, probably cheaper and better for your marital sanity in the long run. Each can clean a 20×50 pool…
Interview: Honda on the future for its Asimo robot
At the CES show this year, Honda’s humanoid Asimo robot was one of the big hits. He didn’t just walk and trot up and down stairs. He ran. He played football. He danced. And through it all, he cracked jokes like a Vegas pro. You can watch our videos of it here.
Naturally, Honda isn’t pumping millions of dollars into Asimo’s R&D to get a few cheap laughs. The company uses the bot in its TV ads for starters. But in the long-term, Honda wants Asimo to become a genuinely helpful companion for us humans. I talked to Stephen Keeney, North American Asimo project leader at Honda, to find out more.
Akazawa PLEN – limited edition skating robot for the filthy rich
Number up on the Lotto draw? Just made a killing on a house sale? Well, here's a good way of mindlessly spending the cash – the Akazawa PLEN robot. So what does your new robot buddy do? Cook? Clean?…
Sega Dream Chick robot is peeptastically cute
Unlike the somewhat ugly cartoon program Robot Chicken (which I watch any chance I get) the Dream Chick from Sega looks adorably like a real-life baby chick that will never grow into the ugly week-old stage where it looks…
Mobile Suit Gundam made from pure platinum
You can look all you want at the Platinum Gundam, but even if you have the $250,000 it's valued at, it's probably not for sale. Ginza Tanaka designed the 12.5-cm tall, 1.4-kg suit with 89 separate parts and a…
Androids sweep Tokyo, lifting people
In Tokyo on 28 March, a human sized android picked up a 30 kg package from a desk and a 66 kg humanoid doll from a bed. The reason this is cool is, it isn't just using more powerful…