This is one of the most refreshing and clever uses of robotic technology that I've come across in a while - using robots to tend a tomato garden. The garden came about from the work of postdoc Nikolaus Correll who works in the MIT Distributed Robotics Lab and was part of an undergraduate cla…
BionicOpter by Festo Festo, the german automation company, recently unveiled its latest creation: BionicOpter, a robotic dragonfly. This new robot emulates the complex flight technique of a dragonfly and is capable of high manoeuvrability as shown in the video below. Once again, Festo uses bi
Alert! MyRobots.com is introducing Alerts! Effective immediately, you can now define alerts for all your robots so they can react to their environment and signal you if there is anything worth your attention. What is an alert? In MyRobots.com terms, an alert is a message sent once a certain co…
Robot Combat League The SyFy Channel recently launched the new "Robot Combat League"; a new series featuring large, ~2m tall humanoid robots fighting against each other one on one (almost identical to the robots in the movie "Real Steel"). Each robot is controlled by two operators (one for th
Global Cloud Robotics Hackathon The 2013 Global Cloud Robotics Hackathon has been announced! This year, the organizers are addressing the issue of robot remote monitoring via MyRobots.com: Robots are intended to be autonomous agents that go about minding their own business and accomplishing t
With RoboPlow remote control robot, your days of shovelling snow in front of your house are over. And even, more importantly so is a lot of physical exertion and heart attacks when snow falls. Even your kids can have fun! Roboplow is a snowplow robot created by DIY types from their garage.
The Human Brain Project The human brain is arguably the most intriguing and complex part of our bodies and the way it works has puzzled scientists for most of human history. Enter The Human Brain Project; a European commission charged with the task of recreating a human brain inside a super
Semageek displays a setup to perform "magic" with an Arduino Kit. Arduino is an open-source robotic and electronic project (micro-controllers) for both hardware and software platforms. An object is levitated using the magnetic field produced by a magnet.
Easy: just take some parts from a Lego Mindstorms kit with some plastic parts. The legs are from a locomotion concept by Klann Linkage. They work in pairs by converting the rotational force of the motor into movement on both legs. Four gears in all make the eight legs move forward. http://www…
Humanoid robots are becoming larger and more capable, and the prices are dropping every year, contributing to the dramatic increase in popularity. Since we are privileged to have access to the most popular ones, including the Bioloid, DARwIn OP, Nao, and Robokind, we created the picture below so y
Pinokio Face Tracking Lamp Students from Victoria University (Toronto, Canada) created a real-life version of the Disney Pixar lamp and called it "Pinokio". This playful robot can detect and track faces and also express emotions using its movements and reactions. It uses servo motors to actuate …
New Apps on the MyRobots App Store Lynxmotion, the popular robotic kit manufacturer, just made all of their robotic applications available via the MyRobots App Store. Their applications are mainly used for controlling servo motors using their popular SSC-32 servo motor controller, and for makin
CIROS Robot Cuts Cucumber The Korean Institute of Science and Technology had the very good (read "terrible") idea of giving a very sharp kitchen knife to a robot and teaching it how to use it. Fortunately until now, CIROR, the knife-wielding humanoid robot, can only cut cucumbers with its new too
Nigel Ackland uses bionic hand to pour beer Nigel Ackland had the misfortune of losing his hand in an accident. He is now the proud owner (and tester) of a BeBionic3 robot hand. This bionic prosthesis senses the electrical activity in his arm muscles and activates gripping or wrist rotating a
HUBO holding a powertool We reported on the DARPA Humanoid Challenge before, but now we finally have a video that shows what would be the ideal winner of the contest, as imagined by the Universities behind the HUBO humanoid robot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3gnPp97jD8 Of course this is just…
Heartland Robotics, founded by Rodney Brooks as reported before, changed its identity to Rethink Robotics. And rethinking robotics they do as they recently released Baxter, a robot with common sense as they brand it. Baxter overview Baxter redefines industrial robots since it allows small an
