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 …
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 …
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] …
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…
We've already told you about Tsutenkaku, the tower robot from Osaka in Japan. This miniature robotic replica of Osaka's broadcasting tower, which measures 103 meters in height, is 1.70 m tall. This symbol of Osaka recently made its appearance in public as the master of ceremonies at the Electri…
After the Runbot created in 1999, there's now Runbot2, developed by the Tokyo Polytechnic University. Even if it still has loads of wires connected to its body, this quadruped robot moves very naturally. It can run like an animal (a dog or a cat for example) in a way that clearly shows us the r…
Here's a robot which looks like the Loch Ness sea monster but which comes to us straight from Japan. A hybrid between a kind of worm and prehistoric monster. It has to be admitted that the prototype is pretty successful and you would easily say it looks like a real sea mammal. You can see other…
Pirobot is a robot prototype which can focus on a ball of a specific color until it gets it and then concentrates on a second ball. In the video below, Pirobot only sees the green ball; it follows it with its eyes (with its camera) until it can finally hold it in its hands. Immediately afterwa…
We've already introduced you to PR2 in the past, the open-source robotic platform by Willow Garage. Recently we saw that the PR2 was able to autocalibrate on its own. Well, now it can also fold the laundry! The PR2 faced the test of folding 50 towels and succeeded with 100%. For now it only fold…
Do you remember Truckbot HTC G1 which we told you about in early March? Well, here is a new version of this little robot from Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman, this time flashier, in green transparent plastic and mainly, with improved capabilities. Truckbot used to respond to commands via a laptop. …
Dino Segovis has created an all-terrain robot on a roomba platform. The "Urban Roverbot" is a mobile robot which is not satisfied with rolling on flat surfaces, that would be too easy :-) No, the prototype by Segovis is inspired by Mars Exploration Rover and can roll on broken ground amongst st…
American designer Norio Fujikawa has just completed the fantastic concept of a surveillance robot in the form of a spider. Kanibot has 6 legs, a video camera + a camera, motion sensors and an antenna to communicate with its base. Kanibot can venture on almost any terrain like a real spider. …
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…
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…
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…
