MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) recently introduced the FlyFire project. An image in space is created using miniature robot helicopters with multicolored LEDs. These helicopters move anywhere in 3D space, then hover in mid-air to create the image of your choice. Flyfire could invol…
DARPA is currently developing a robot interpreter that would support the troops at war. Right now, troops use human translators who speak in military radios. The Pentagon and DARPA seek to build a robot interpreter with 98% accuracy in 20 different languages. The project is called RATS for Rob…
We told you last week about RobotShopFr's twitter account: The 3rd Barbot Festival was recently held in San Francisco. And for the event, robotics creators and fans displayed their specimens to the people attending. For example, the cocktail robot was created specifically for this event: http:/…
The musical robot that plays drums is born. Jazari is controlled by two Nintendo Wii remotes. The designer is Jazari Music's Patrick Flanagan. The Wiimote allows accelerating or slowing down the percussion beat as well as adjusting the volume. A real gem for music geeks. Explanations: http://w…
The Japanese JO-Zero robot was introduced late in 2009 at the International Robots Exhibition. With twenty degrees of freedom (different movements), including ten in the legs, eight in the arms, and two in size, this mini-robot moves almost like a human. In the future, when a larger version is …
Here is a rather amusing T-shirt created by Goapesshirts displaying a robot couple watching TV while having second intentions in mind ;-) Let's note that the real robot couple is the one on the left, in the first picture! The T-shirt costs $ 18 and is called "While the Kids Are In Standby mode…
A joint project between the Missouri University of Sciences and the University of Missouri - Columbia has led to the development of a robot that provides 3D images of inaccessible or dangerous structures. The prototype, which required 400,000 dollars in funding for its R&D (via the Leona…
This hexapod robot is controlled by an iPhone, via Apple iPhone's touch screen and accelerometer. This is a homegrown application for the iPhone was written by the video author, Robert Stephenson. The forward kinematics includes six degrees of freedom for body orientation and three DOF for its mo…
David Bowen has built a spectacular machine that prints 3D renderings tracking the different growth phases of an onion bulb. The idea may seem a little crazy, but we can see the results :-) As a matter of fact, this is art. The artist won a prize at the 13th Media Arts Festival in Japan. His …
High school students in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) will soon be participating in the FIRST International Robotics Competition. For the occasion, Fusion Jeunesse has launched an invitation to the public for February 20 from 11:15 am to 2:00 pm at the Loyola High School located at 7272, rue Sherbro…
The video below is not brand new but it mentions 10 important points and advantages for companies considering investing in robotics. It's speaking mainly about industrial robots, but some of these arguments can also be applied towards professional robotics. Investing in robotics has a number of…
The Toy Fair 2010 this year seemed to be short in robot toys, but it had some good surprises up its sleeve. Jim Wyatt of MechRC has announced that his monkey robot will be available for sale this summer. The little monkey robot can be carried over the shoulderlike a companion and interacts with p…
Here is a telepresence prototype, a robot developed to see what the person wearing it is seeing. It wraps around the shoulders like a backpack equipped with an advanced video camera and a microphone. It may be useful for teleconferences, or if you need to talk on behalf of someone far away. This…
In Japan, "Street Marketing" is now handled by robots. A prototype is shown below distributing tissues to passers-by. It can very well replace the tissues with advertising cards for a company that wants visibility at a fair, for example. Interobots Inc developed the Mospeng-kun, a 1.20 m tall (…
iRobot, a world leader in robotics, announced today that it had sold its 3000th Packbot robot. Introduced for the first time in 2002, the PackBot is a Tactical Mobile Robot that allows military or civilian rescue teams to examine suspicious objects from a distance (such as bombs and bomb parcel…
Hasbro unveiled a toy version of Iron Man 2 at the 2010 Toy Fair. And this remote controlled miniature version of Iron Man equipped with lights, sounds, and projectiles does not hesitate to shoot the cameraman onsite :-) Price: somewhere around $ 50. It will be available in the fall of 2010 and i…
