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
Boston Dynamics' Cheetah Boston Dynamics' "Cheetah" robot just broke its own speed record. This in and of itself is quite an achievement, considering it was already the fastest legged robot in existence, but it also broke Usain Bolt's record (100m and 200m sprinting world champion)! The cheeta
CRX10 Educational Robot The CRX10 is designed to satisfy the demand for versatile, affordable and safe educational robots. This capable little rover is easy to use and links theory and practice in order to help students learn the principles of robotics. The robot includes wireless communication,
We all certainly love robots and we are thrilled to see new advancements in robotics. However, sometimes we wonder if humans have already gone too far in their quest to make ever more capable (and dangerous) robots. The "LaserSnake" illustrates well this well: LaserSnake Cutting Through Metal Res…
Kinect@Home Discerning shapes and recognizing objects takes humans several years to learn and it is an essential skill to survive and interact with the world around us. Machines also need to learn this important skill and although some researchers have made progress in recognizing objects, shap
Biotac Sensor Robots just gained a new sense: touch! Researchers from the University of Southern California, developed a sensitive robot finger that is filled with fluid and features a fingerprint just as human fingers do, they call it Biotac. As shown in the video below, they are usi
Curiosity on Mars The Mars Curiosity Mission is by far one of the most important robotic achievements of all times. Today, we got the first 360 degrees panorama from the rover and it is quite stunning. See it for yourself over at 360cities.net. Needless to say, NASA is very proud of their achi
Kuratas Ride-in Giant Robot The Japanese did it again. This time they are fulfilling the dream of pretty much any robotic geek: to have your own functional giant Battle Mech that can be piloted by a grown adult and used to cruise through the city and defeat all your arch-enemies. Suidobashi heavy…
It has been years in the making; hundreds of engineers and scientists and debate after debate of where and how to land - but the rover Curiosity has finally touched down and is working properly. Image from Curiosity - Courtesy of JPL The rover, equipped with not only a multitude of cameras (1…
iRobot already has robots for the home, the military and even for undersea exploration. In 2009, iRobot launched "iRobot Healthcare", but until now we have not heard much from that division. Now, with the release of RP-VITA (based on iRobot's AVA platform), iRobot is making its way into hospitals
Don't you hate standing up to throw that candy wrapper or paper ball to the garbage? It takes a lot of energy to stand up, walk over to the garbage can, and then throw the litter away. If you have a garbage can without a lid, you might be tempted to throw (basketball style) your trash into the can,…
Researchers from the Vere project are using an fMRI machine to "read" thoughts from a human user and use those signals to control the motion of a small humanoid robot as demonstrated in the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXFmRzNZHqc This project is very interesting because the use o
Not many robots enjoy full autonomy; humans often prefer to supervise them and make sure they are doing their job right. However, there are some situations where direct supervision is impossible. For instance, when sending robots to explore space, the communication latency increases as they get far…
