The Airport in Rio in Brazil has "recruited" a falcon robot in order to ward off birds of ill omen :-) More seriously, this robotic falcon is used to scare the birds which fly above the airport so that they don't collide with planes taking off. Usually, airports use real falcons, not robots. I…
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…
Gordon Bennett is a New Yorker who fully devotes all his time to his passion which is also his source of income: he creates sculptures of robots. It's a current trend as it's not the first of which we've shown you on the RobotShop blog. Gordon's robots are truly fantastic. His sculptures take …
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 long awaited film Toy Story 3 will premier June 18, 2010 in the U.S. and July 14, in France (National Independence day). And the film's team just released a new character on the poster: Sparks the robot! Sparks is a light flashing toy with several LEDs for the eyes and it really sparks. It…
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 …
GigaPan robots are automated systems for cameras. These include devices that have taken the world's most important photographs such as the panoramic Obama investiture photo with 1.5 billion pixels. The new range of GigaPan includes the EPIC, the EPIC 100 and the Epic Pro. Prices vary between 35…
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…
We told you in January about the virtual conference organized by Robotic Trends on 16 June 2010. This time the event, called Robotics Summit, has been given its own internet site: www.robovirtualevents.com. This conference aims to be a new international meeting place for roboticists, profession…
Bots High is a film in progress which shows robots fighting in American High Schools. The video documentary allows us to follow the course of several teams from the initial design of their robot to the final struggle for victory, honor but also for fun at the National BattleBots Championship. …
Here is a somewhat peculiar animation of a robot who drinks and drinks... Masahiro Ushiyama's experiment aims to create a realistic animation of a greeting robot without using facial expressions (mouth, eyes). It is indeed very successful ... even if watching a drinking robot seems as sad as wat…
Robopocalypse is a film in progress from Steven Spielberg inspired on an uncompleted comic book from Daniel H. Wilson. Wilson also wrote "How to Survive A Robot Uprising" :-) and "How to Build a Robot Army". Drew Goddard who wrote the screenplay for Cloverfield, will be adap…
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was an American writer of Russian origins. He was a visionary and considered as one of the leading figures in science-fiction, and he is specially known in robotics by his three laws (1942, Runaround): Fiirst Law: "A robot may not injure a human being or, through …
