According to an article in Usine Nouvelle, the robotics market largely picked up in 2010 as opposed to 2009. Growth is very strong especially in industrial robotics. The large crowds at the Automatica 2010 exhibition in Germany confirmed the trend. Robotization in German is also stronger than …
A few days ago we told you about two new robots that have emerged in Japan: M3-Kindy and Noby. Noby is a humanoid baby that simulates a little baby aged 9 months. The purpose of this type of robot is to be able to study its interactions with humans in behaviors that resemble a real baby. The v…
This very special robot prototype is capable of climbing stairs by jumping. The same thing for the descent in which it absorbs the shocks by immediately positioning its chassis at ground level. The operation: 4 electric jacks allow this unusual feat. It's really ingenious and spectacular but it …
Electrolux has unveiled the concept of a bio robot refrigerator at the Electrolux 2010 Design Lab, which is generating chatter in the blogosphere. The idea of this cooler robot is based on a luminescent biopolmyer gel which surrounds individual items of food. The optimum cooling temperature of …
Topio Dio is a new humanoid service robot (bartender). The design company is TOSY, a Vietnamese company that specializes in robotics. This specimen has been presented at the Automatica 2010 show in Germany. TOPIO Dio is 1.25 m tall and weighs 45 kg. The robot possesses a total of 28 degrees of…
Japanese company Hitachi which specializes in electronics, has created a robot that can roller blade. The little EMIEW2 humanoid robot has small wheels and shock absorbers which allow it to roll on surfaces that are not perfectly smooth. It's 80 cm tall and weighs 14 kg. Its maximum speed is 6…
Charli-L (Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence) is a humanoid robot developed by Virginia Tech at the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory. Dennis Hong and his team of talented students have developed this robot which can speak, walk and learn from its interaction with hu…
A hospital in Scotland will be the first in the United Kingdom to be equipped with robots for staff. They will not carry out medical tasks but rather hospital staff chores. The Forth Valley Royal Hospital will welcome these new robotic employees who will carry food to rooms, be able to dispense…
Justin is a German humanoid robot created at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics in Wessling, Germany. The robot comes in several versions, including one particularly intended for space with super easy to use arms and hands, a head and a torso. The aim of Justin is to go and repair satel…
We already talked about Octavia, the Navy's android, a couple of weeks ago. Today, here's Octavia again in a video alongside a magician. The conjuring trick requires the robot to guess under which cup the object is hidden after they've been mixed up. The humanoid guesses correctly without any …
French company Parrot has just announced the prices for its AR Drone. It will be available to buy for 299 dollars from September in the United States. As a reminder, AR Drone which has been presented at the CES in Las Vegas then at E3 2010, is a quadricopter controlled by an iPhone. It has 2 v…
The manufacturer of the Kuka industrial robotic arm has unveiled a mobile platform with open interfaces and open source software. It's a first: a manufacturer of industrial robots heading towards consumer robotics. The arm has a multidirectional mobile platform, a hand with 5 degrees of freedom…
The company, Adept, a leader in industrial robotics has just acquired MobileRobots Inc, a specialist in mobile robotics. This is a significant take-over because it's unusual. MobileRobots, a New Hampshire company with annual revenues of 5 million dollars, provides autonomous robot and self-guid…
Here's yet another example of what you can do with LEGO: an exoskeleton to make a robotic hand. The designer is David Hyman from MOC pages. His prototype uses 3 rotation sensors for the fingers and two touch sensors for the wrist. It's not a whole hand but rather a hand with two fingers: the t…
This robotic hand is quite amazingly accurate. By the Ishikawa Komuro laboratory at the University of Tokyo, this hand prototype shows very promising reflexes and speed. With only three fingers, the hand can juggle with a straw, throw then catch a flying object (a cell phone here), hold and move…
Robonaut R2 is almost ready to take off for its space mission. The astronaut robot which will take off for the International Space Station at the end of 2010 is almost finalized and ready for liftoff. Robonaut R2 weighs 300 pounds, or about 136 kg. It is able to manipulate objects and perform…
