Hanson Robotics Zeno Human-like Robot Usually, human-like robots come from Japan or Korea, but Lately, Hanson Robotics (from the USA) has been working hard on producing remarkably accurate human-like heads for robots. These heads can express emotions through facial expressions, can talk and
SaRTrE Volvo Auto Train Volvo is testing their new Safe Road Trains for the Environment, which basically means, cars that drive autonomously. The system is intended to be used on highways where a lead (human driven) truck will be followed by autonomously driven cars. The cars will receive instr
Since the Kinect was released, lots of robotic applications have been developed around it. One of them is the teleoperation of humanoid robots using skeletal tracking. The pioneer in humanoid robot control using the Kinect is Taylor Veltrop, who controlled his Veltrobot (based on the KHR family) u…
Some time ago, Aldebaran Robotics launched their developer program for their popular Nao humanoid platform. The idea is to prepare the little robot for mass commercialization by releasing it to a select group of developers who will create applications for it. The robot is sold to the devel
From RobotShop we wish you all a happy new year. May 2011 be filled with all the robots you always wished to have. If you are looking for creative and original ways of celebrating the new year, the THKR-4 is a very good choice to have at your New Year's party. This robot is one of the competito
Internet of Things Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, believes there will be over 50 Billion "connected devices" by 2020. The world's leading telecom provider says that "in the future everything that would benefit from being connected will be connected". This effectively creates the upcoming Inte
So far Robots have been programmed to avoid things when navigating in their environment. Sébastien Lengagne of Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan developed a method for robots to use objects (which would otherwise be seen as "obstacles")
Nao, by Aldebaran Robotics, has been busy this holiday season and prepared some cool presentations for us all to enjoy! Below, its official holiday greeting. Robots can have the jitters too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqZHkxbiXWA After conquering its stage fear, Nao was able read A Chri
Aldebaran announced recently an update to the very popular Nao. The little robot has now a more robust body, longer curved arms that allow for further reach, an improved motion engine that allows for smoother movements, a cooler head with better heat management, improved speech recognition
Heartland Robotics, a company founded by Rodney Brooks (founder and former Chief Technological Officer at iRobot, and MIT professor) is developing what should constitute a true robolution. Their main objective is to change the way we currently view robots by making them ubiquitous. Heartland R
Many new things happened at Willow Garage recently. So let's go ahead and have a look at all the awesome news. ROS Turns Three The Robot Operating System celebrated its third anniversary. It has come a long way since its beginning and should go even further in the future. See the video below for
A paper presented by a group of computer engineers from Vanderbilt University at the Humanoids Conference in Nashville describes how robots can be used to diagnose and treat emergency room patients. Medical Droid from Star Wars While human would still take care of the most serious patient
Robot arms skilled at wielding knives and carving meat, can be a bit scary, specially for us fleshy humans. Nevertheless, the HAMDAS-R by Mayekawa Manufacturing is a very impressive machine. It is capable of de-boning ham using a razor sharp knife by adapting to the shape and size variat
Inverted pendulums (i.e. balancing a stick on a moving platform) never ceases to fascinate humans, especially when it is done by a robot. Pencil Balancing Robot The robot illustrated in the video below is capable of balancing a pencil on its tip. The motion of the pencil is tracked by two im
About a week after the Open LiDAR project was announced, the Neato XV-11 has been hacked and now its juicy LiDAR data can be used by everybody. This effectively makes the Neato XV-11 not only one of the most advanced vacuum cleaner robots in the market, but also, the cheapest LiDAR available.
Kinect Hacked The Kinect was quickly hacked a few weeks ago and now, the development around this sensor is advancing very fast. The Kinect is a 3D camera made by Microsoft that not only senses a full colour video, but also sees the depth of objects and scenes. [vimeo 17007842] In the robotics …
