Hot Robotics Posts — Page 2 of 3 « Robotics

News: Robo-Pop Singer With Human Backup Band

Careful or you may find yourself crushing on this cute little Android named HRP-4C. From the head up, the Japanese robot could easily be mistaken for one of her human backup singers. Freaky! Previously, Robot Dance Off Gets Creepy.

How To: Build a simple solar rope-shimmying robot spy toy

If you want to become a great robotics engineer, then you need to start out small, and this robot is a great first-time project. It's the simplest kind of robot, with only one motor and a gear box, but it moves really interesting, capable of shimmying across a rope. You can send this rope-shimmying robot tospy on your neighbors for you (when you're too lazy to do it yourself). See how it's done!

News: Tiny Robotic Curtain Thwarts Would-Be Peeping Toms

How can a small curtain cover a window three to four times its own size? With a motor and a robot brain, that's how!

News: Child-Size BattleMech Suit Strikes Fear into Hearts of Kindergarten Teachers

Goodbye, BabyBjörn; hello, cherry-red mechanical exoskeleton! Now that 400-pound steel-clawed battle suits are available in Children's Small, what kid could possibly content him or herself with getting around by stroller?

News: Gimme, the Panhandling Robot, Wants Your Pocket Change

This panhandling robot isn't too proud to beg. In fact, it's custom-built for it. And who could refuse? Get a load of that puppy-dog eye.

News: Synthetic Skin Allows Robots to Get Touchy-Feely

What feature would we most like to see in the robots of tomorrow? Why, the ability to interact with human beings without crushing them to death, of course. Happily, thanks to a new pressure-sensitive synthetic skin technology, the dream is within reach:

News: Is This All-Robot Band Better Than the Beatles?

Will the bot band be to 2017 what the boy band was to 1997? You be the judge! In the videos below, two such groups offer electro-mechanical renditions of the B-52s' "Rock Lobster" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Creator James Cochrane writes, "What do you get when you combine retro computer parts and an up and coming robot band? The Bit-52s! This idea has been simmering in my mind for the last couple of years and after many months of procrastinating it is finally complete. I was also motivat...

Some Dissembly Required: Researchers Teach Robot to Lie

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently set about creating what might aptly be described as a baby Decepticon — a small, semi-autonomous robot vehicle that purposely engages in deceptive behavior to achieve its ends (in this case, winning a game of hide and seek). Worried? You needn't be! The project also seeks to examine "the ethical ramifications of creating robot's [sic] capable of deception." Phew!

News: Uncle Sam, the All-American Robot Snake

Don't be fooled by the fancy monocle: this servo-powered serpent is as American as Apple Computers. So American, in fact, that his creators at Carnegie Mellon decided to christen him Uncle Sam. Boasting more points of articulation than a GI Joe, Sam's hobbies include crawlin' in the dirt and climbin' trees.

How To: Change the channel of the AI-01 Robot

In this video, we learn how to change the channel of the AI-01 Robot. First, you need to find the channels that are on the back panel of the robot. After you do this, turn the robot off, then turn it back on. Then, press both sides of the buttons together. After this, you will press the left button to choose the number and then press the right button to choose the team. After this, you will press both buttons together and then grab the remote. Select the channel on the remote by doing the sam...

News: Casper, the Super Freaky Robot Ghost

Androgynous. Stumpy. Creepy. The horror movie robot, created by the notorious Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, is projected to be available for around $8,000 later this year.

News: Remote Controlled Monster LEGO Robo-Bot

This LEGO Mindstorms NXT Rover Bot is a monster. Depending on the camera angle, the scale looks huge (check out the person in the background). 9 NXT's controlling 16 XL power functions motors! Amazing.

News: The Future of Pancakes

Here's another latest in robotics: researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) have developed a robot that flips pancakes. The most interesting aspect of the project is the use of kinesthetic teaching, in which the user "trains" the robot by example. The user grasps the robot's limb, and guides it through the motions the user would like it to adopt. This bot takes about 50 trials to get it, but in the end succeeds. Previously, I Want a Robo-Chef in My Kitchen.

News: Bicycle-Riding Robot Puts Pedals to the Metal

Robots have a long-standing obsession with tandem bikes. The first song ever sung by a computer? "Daisy Bell." If you don't recognize the title, you might nevertheless recognize the song's famous refrain: "But you'd look sweet/Upon the seat/Of a bicyle built for two." That was 1961. Fast forward nearly forty years and robots aren't merely singing about bicycles built for two, they're riding them. Take Joules, for example:

How To: How About a Ride on My Robo-Insect?

This simple yet odd robot moves like a four-legged, single unit of a centipede, which unfortunately makes me think of the Human Centipede (shudder, don't click on the second video in the gallery below if you're faint of heart... or at work).

News: Giant Madagascan Hissing Cockroach Pilots Robot

This project has been posted on Vimeo for the past two years, and somehow has just entered my radar now. Get this: A robot is manned by a Madagascan hissing cockroach. Each movement the roach makes (perched atop a trackball type ping-pong ball) controls the movement of the robot.

News: Hello Emily. Goodbye Pamela Anderson.

There is little design artifice to this device. This EMILY (Emergency Integrated Lifesaving LanYard is a $3500 robot-lifeguard purchased for Malibu lifeguards. Remote-controlled and capable of 28 mph, product testing confirms that EMILY just might be smarter than David Hasselhoff and more buoyant than Pamela Anderson.

News: Pet Dragon Breathes 8-Foot Fireballs!

This year's fifth annual Maker Faire featured a fully articulated, fire-breathing animatronic dragon named Saphira (after the dragon from the book Eragon).

News: First Ever Marriage to be Blessed by Robot Priest

The first marriage to be officiated by a robot took place in Japan this past Sunday. A humanoid robot named I-Fairy stood in as witness at the ceremony between Tomohiro Shibata and Satoko Inoue of Tokyo.

News: Robo-Elephant Tentacle Moves Just Like a Real Trunk

Robotics company Festo Bionics has released footage of a robotic manipulator arm modeled after an elephant's trunk. The first video in the gallery below is the concept animation; click on the second video to see the real thing in action. (Love how the grabbers hand off "giant peanuts" in the second video).

HowTo: Take Photos in the Wild Without Getting Mauled

Robots are great for performing tasks that are otherwise too dangerous for man (e.g. dead body extraction bot). BeetleCam is a cute little bot that takes all the danger out of wild life photography. Controlled remotely from a Range Rover about 50 yards away, BeetleCam ventures where no sane photographer dares to go (at the feet of a charging elephant, say). "We thought that Elephants would be an easy subject for BeetleCam’s first outing. We were wrong… we quickly learned that Elephants are wa...

News: Hot Android Chick is Even Creepier on the Inside

IEEE Spectrum has posted new pictures of Geminoid F, and yes indeed, underneath that smiley, soft, convincing exterior is a stone cold, emotionless robot.

News: PAARRRTY! Robo-Drummers and Pole Dancing Stripper Bots

Artist Giles Walker's robot peep show/DJ installation piece gives us a little glimpse of what strip clubs could look like in the future (well, let's really hope not, guys). Walker also teams up with Frank Barnes and his robot drummers (second video in the gallery below, check it out - pretty sweet). Previously, Sexxxy Roxxy: World's First Sex Bot (NSFW).

News: Meet the Human-Spined Robot, Kojiro

Kojiro the robot has muscles, tendons and a flexible spine- just like you! Combine Kojiro with the doppelganger bot and you'll have something supremely sci-fi freaky.

News: Help! Child Swarmed by Bots

This kid looks less than pleased (skip to 2:37). The goal of Swarm-bots is to show how many small robots can work together to achieve a larger task (such as dragging a little girl's body across the floor):

News: Slithery Snake Bot Scales, Sidewinds & Rolls

CMU’s Biorobotics Laboratory modular snake robot slithers in all sorts of different ways. Check out the three videos in the gallery below.

How To: Make a talking robot mask using an iPhone

This video describes how to make a talking robot mask using iPhone. For that you need Reading scale, Cutter scissor, Box to fix into head, Cutter Knife, Screw Driver, Glue, Cello tape, Aluminum Foil, Pen, 2 Bottle caps, used paper and an iPhone with mouth analysis software. First take together, now take that Box and have to two parts for make it convenient to wear into head by sticking both using Cello tape, now we have to make the mouth with size of "50mm by 75mm" which will fit with iPhone’...

News: Humanoid Robots To Take Over the World

Don't worry, the robot apocalypse is not upon us...yet. Wired reports it may be closer than you think:

News: Creepy Baby-Bots

OK, first thing's first: need to get this insane picture out of the way. I think this might classify as horror movie creepy.

News: Ceiling Robot Pranks From Above

Office workers beware, or a snarky robot may unleash a barrage of ping pong balls upon you. A somewhat sinister individual from the CKBot group at UPenn’s Modlab concocted the prank.

News: Merry Christmas Bots Play You a Song

A Merry Christmas robot medley of song and dance, courtesy of Bot Junkie.

How To: Build a DIY combat robot

In this episode of the popular web series Systm, RoboGames founder and SFSU School of Engineering instructor David Calkins shows you how to create your own combat robot using a kit from RoboGames.

News: Get Yourself a Doppelganger Robot This Christmas (Just $225K)

This holiday season, two lucky consumers will have the opportunity to purchase a robot twin, specially made by Japanese robotics firm Kokoro.

News: I Want a Robo-Chef in My Kitchen

This year's FOOMA International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition had a few robots I wouldn't mind hanging around my kitchen. The sushi-bot's hand is amazing... if only it could make the sushi, not just transport it. Oh well. There's always next year.

News: Super Robot Has Powers of Levitation

This robot hasn't levitated any humans yet (especially not pictured Days of Our Lives star Deidre Hall), but it looks like the sky may be the limit with the Robo-Air Jet System.

News: Robot Dance Off Gets Creepy

As November was coming to an end this year, the "6th Robo-One Gate in International Robot Exhibition 2009" dance competition took place. The contenders are just a little bit creepy, to say the least. Particularly exhibit A, Britney Spears wannabe, "LOVE & JOY, Yuhi Kimura", by Doka Harumi.

News: Creepy Crawler Ant Robot

Wow, this robot has incredible movement. "A-Pod is an ant inspired hexapod robot with a 2 DOF abdomen (tail), a 3 DOF head with large mandibles. 6 legs with 3 DOF each. Total 25 servos. This video demonstrates body movement and mandible control... The robot are remotely controlled with a custom 2,4 GHz RC transmitter."