Honda has just unveiled its new model of the Asimo humanoid robot: the P4. Careful though, it's not a new version in the literal sense since this model is based on one developed in 2000. The P4 measures 1.60 m in height like the P3 but it has lost weight: from 130 kg to 80 kg. Asimo P4 has 34 …
Yesterday we were telling you about Make Faire 2010 in Newcastle, Great Britain, and a certain Skateboard on two wheels. Its designer, XenonJohn, has just provided all the instructions for making one on his instructables page. He says he's been inundated with emails and requests, as many from th…
Robovie R2 is a little humanoid desktop robot which has an iPod Touch in its stomach which allows instructions to be sent to it. It has a video camera, two microphones and speakers. This prototype, which should be commercialized soon, has been created by IRC (Intelligent Robotics & Communic…
Researchers at McGill University in Montreal (Canada) have just created DNA nanotubes which can deliver "tiny drugs" to diseased cells. The method used: the researchers take the DNA out of its biological context and rather than using the genetic code for life, it acts as a kind of building block f…
The Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University has just created an especially evolved prototype of a snake. This snake is able to climb on a vertical bar by crawling like a real snake would. It's one of the first prototypes of its kind in the world to achieve such a feat. http://www.youtube…
The Robust Robotics Group at MIT has created a QuadCopter which can travel about according to vocal instructions. The technician in the video below gives the following order to a helicopter robot: "Go across room 124, then face the windows and go up." This drone carries out the order without di…
Here is an Optimus Prime (self-robotized character from the film Transformers) which is 2.50 metres tall. It is made of 5000 recyclable parts taken from cars, boats, a dishwasher, motorbike, television and other pieces of metal. It still weighs 550 kg though. Along the same lines as with Robos…
The Manoï robot is known for its various dance skills. We have already shown you it dancing to Japonese rap and spinning upside down on its head. Now it's back with a new, rather original exercise. It moves in synchronicity with a dancer and a second humanoid robot which is life-sized. Man…
Hospi is an autonomous robot created by Panasonic and intended for South Korean hospitals. Hospi can move around patients' rooms and serve meals, clean laundry, medication, X-rays, documents to sign, etc. This type of robot has been used in hospitals in Japan since 2006. Equipped with a video …
According to Vincent Schramm, the Director of the French association for manufacturing technologies (SYMOP) in an article in Figaro, France has fallen behind its neighbours in terms of industrial robotics. In France, the biggest companies are lowering the low purchase prices which is encouraging…
Cody is a new humanoid robot, a work in progress at Healthcare Robotics Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta). This robot can open closet doors and drawers and can follow a person holding it by the hand. Cody is manipulated with a remote control just like those for video games, o…
The Boeing A160T Robocopter is a pilotless helicopter that can lift loads up to 1135 kg. The video of the A160 (2007): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gndveJE24bg This robocopter model can also reach an unbelievable height of 12 000 feet (3657 meters above sea level) with 567 kg, this is ideal …
At the Expo FC 2010 in Japan, Osaka University presented a pretty mind-blowing prototype of a robotic fish. Its movements in particular are so realistic you could easily mistake it for a real fish. It measures 10 cm in length, is powered by a solid polymer fuel cell (Power Tube) and a polymer l…
The PR2 by Willow Garage is able to autocalibrate on its own with a new ROS (Robot Operating System) software application. This saves a considerable amount of time since the robot is left alone to work in order to calibrate its sensors. And here it is in the video demonstration below. For a remi…
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) hopes to develop an Underground Robotic Munition (RUM) to be used for single use. This robot would be able to go underground and dig a hole towards a potential underground target; once it reaches its destination it would explode, thus destroying its ene…
The robot Tsutenkaku is a robot in the shape of a tower which measures 1.70 m and was developed by 7 Japanese companies. Such originality is tough to beat. The creators of Tsutenkaku say that it is the largest humanoid robot in the world. On the technical side, Tsutenkaku walks on its two legs…
