White Box Robotics has finally started shipping its first run of PC 914 robots. By now the first run should be completely shipped, sans the attractive outer shell, due to delays in manufacturing. You may also notice that two small vertical parting lines were added to the bottom of the robot to brin…
iRobot issued a press release this morning detailing some of their new products . Of special interest is the new 250lb Warrior robot. Warrior, which is about six times the size of the packbot, can move at over 12mph over rough terrain and can carry a payload of up to 100 lbs. This annoucement coin…
This story lands in today's "very cool, yet very scary" category - South Korea develops a machine-gun equipped robotic sentry. The sentry robot is equipped with two cameras, one for day-time and one for infrared night vision, zooming capabilities, a speaker for notifying the intruder…
Instead of having a robot crawl through your intestines, how about it gliding along on a trail of slippery mucus? A group of researchers from Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, is taking this novel approach to inter-body exploration in order to protect the delicate lining of the in…
First it was Jesse Sullivan, the first man to receive two bionic arms that are controlled via his own brain impulses, now it's Claudia Mitchell, the first woman to receive such an arm. Mitchell is the 4th such person to receive such an arm, which is controlled via nerves which originally went …
A group of scientists at MIT are working on a gas engine about the size of a quarter. Better yet, it's made out of sillicon. The device, who's individual pieces are all working, still needs to be fully assembled and tested. The engines components, like a combustion chamber, compressor, and turbine,…
Robot hobbyists (with a hefty wallet) rejoice! The long awaited 9-Series PC Robots from White Box Robotics are officially soon-to-be-shipping. The robots, manufactured by Frontline Robotics, which merged with Tom Burick's brainchild, White Box Robotics, are first being released in a low quantity, …
On Friday CMU announced via press relase the creation of the "Ballbot" (original, I know). It's a robot that dynamically balances on one steel ball. It was picked up by several robot websites and was also featured on RocketBoom. That's all fine and good, until someone cries "fowl!&…
A couple of notable interviews hit the web today.The first is Astrobiology Magazine's interview with Alex Ellery. Ellery heads the Surrey Space Centre's Robotics group and is taking part in the European Space Agency's ExoMars project. The second comes from BusinessWeek, who interviews Tatsuya Matsu…
Biomimetics is off and looking at practically anything for inspiration. Insects are a particular favorite, of course, particularly those that fly, climb, and perform other gravity-defying tricks.Take the fly, for instance. How does it walk upside down? German researchers recently proved that flies …
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created a team of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles that work together as a team to locate targets in an urban environment. The aerial vehicles have one high resolution camera that is able to view a large area, but only with a 6m accuracy. The g…
Scientists at the University of Nebrask have created a tactile sensor that is just as sensitive as a human fingertip. "The resolution of a human fingertip is about 40 microns, about half the diameter of a human hair." The device works by sandwiching a layer of semicondcuting nano-particl…
Yesterday the Korean government unveiled two new unmanned robotic millitary vehicles in their continuing effort to roboticize their military. The vehicles, dubbed XAV's, are developed by Korea's Agency for Defense Development and have the capability for remote controlled operation or autonomous. On…
A team of scientists from Italy, Germany, the UK, and Greece have designed a robot that is to be used to maneuver through your intestines. They have a demo video of it crawling its way through a pig's gut and wriggling over sand. The robot is designed to mimic the behavior of a worms, which are…
A group of undergraduate students at MIT have constructed a number of spherical droids to operate in the International Space Station. The program, dubbed SPHERES, is run by David Miller and is sponsored by DARPA. The spheres are powered by compressed CO2 thrusters and are about the size of a volley…
iRobot says that soliders are bonding with their packbots. They give their little silicone bodyguards nicknames and form emotional bonds with them. iRobot Chief Executive Colin Angle said one group of soldiers even named its robot “Scooby Doo” and grieved when it was blown up after com…
