Designer Kare Halvorsen has updated his Hexapod robot. It looks more like a giant ant, very realistic. Since 2009, Kare has been improving its operation and his prototype can now manipulate objects more easily. The hexapod has 2 degrees of freedom on the abdomen and 3 on the head, and has 6 leg…
South Korea is going to inject 20 thousand won, that's 18 million dollars, to develop underwater robots. The aim is to invent robots that can swim but also walk on sea beds up to depths of 6000 meters by 2016. The initiative is supported by the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs in Sou…
Adept Quattro is known for being the world's fastest industrial robot in terms of packaging (picking/placing) objects. Watch the video below to be convinced. The speed is simply incredible. And, in order to make it more difficult, the person uses a Wii joystick which constantly moves the recept…
We were telling you yesterday about the new Robovie R3 robot prototype by ATR-Robotics and Vstone. Well, suddenly today we can finally find videos of this humanoid robot from Japan. As a reminder, the Robovie-R Ver3 is intended to act as a support guide robot for the elderly and people with impa…
Have you heard of Little Dog by Boston Dynamics? It's the miniature version of the famous Big Dog for military use. This robotic mule is able to transport material autonomously in hostile terrain. It's fascinating just how much this little quadruped robot looks like a real animal. The little …
After Robovie R2 in the desktop robot version 3 weeks ago, there's now Robovie R3, a full-size version. This humanoid robot is human sized and is intended to support the elderly and handicapped. Designed by ATR and VStone, this prototype moves at a speed of 2.5 km/h and its movements have alrea…
A Chinese farmer has created a human-sized rickshaw robot which can transport him while speaking in a loudspeaker and playing music! Wu Yulu, a well-known Chinese farmer and inventor, is getting ready to show the world his robotic creations at the Expo Shangai which starts on May 1, 2010. From …
The company Festo is currently working on a prototype of a robotic elephant's trunk, via its Festo Bionic Learning Network department. The trunk, which also resembles an octopus tentacle, uses an air pressure mechanism for movements as opposed to servo motors. Provided with a grabber, it has a …
Drones come in various sizes and with various functions (transport, surveillance, combat) but often the existing planes and helicopters are still rather on the large side. Fortunately at RobotShop we've already taken a step further in surveillance with our Skybotix helicopter drone. In terms of…
Stanford University has invented a lizard robot, an improved version of its previous prototypes (Stickybot), Stickybot III. StickyBot 3 is a lizard robot (gecko) which can climb up windows thanks to its special suction cups installed on each of its feet. These suction cups are not adhesives in …
Robonaut R2, the astronaut robot that we talked about in February, will take off for space at the end of this year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-SJyS18lA NASA has confirmed that the robot built with General Motors will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in the fall of 2010 on b…
Simon the Robot made its first appearance during The Atlanta Conference on Human-Computer Interactions. Simon is the result of 3 years of research on Technology institute of Georgia. The prototype understands what is being said (voice recognition) and has a OpenCV [Open Source Computer Vision] …
The US Navy's Fire Scout helicopter robot detected a drug deal (cocaine) at sea during a test flight. The Fire Scout has conducted tests since being based in the high seas aboard the American warship, the USS McInerney. It had completed testing when it saw that a suspicious boat was speeding du…
What a wonderful idea to send a Drone to scan the Tyrolean Alps. This drone is equipped with a High Definition camera; the pictures taken show the beauty of this magnificient landscape. It skims the trees and the summit of the mountains while flying. This is very daring since its prototype coul…
Roboplant is a decontaminating plant robot prototype by Gilberto Esparza, a Mexican designer. The prototype feeds on contaminated water. Then it transforms this water into energy needed by the robot to move via a microbial fuel cell. Then the surplus is used to feed the plant which then grows n…
It's historical! Like... the first step on the moon. Well ok, not quite but almost : -) Asimo by Honda and Tsutenkaku have formally met in a memorable face to face meeting. The two humanoid robots were a bit embarrassed at first and it was Tsutenkaku who made the first move. http://www.youtu…
