Here's a quick link dump to catch up on my lack of posts.Jim, over at The NXT Step, pointed out that the New Yorker is doing a cartoon caption contest with a robot theme. Go and submit your idea, let me know what you think up.Here's a story I picked up about a suicidal man being subdued by a SWAT t…
A new South Korean startup, D2E Robotics, plans on releasing a two-legged hobbiest robot in October. In what appears to be a move to compete with other companies, such as Kyosho, Kondo, and Hitec, the robot, dubbed D2V-ZN, will have simple voice recognition and a vision system. Though, strangely
A new Japanese robotics magazine, Robot Life, has polled 500 Japanese females to ask them who was their favorite commercial robot. The grand winner was the PaPeRo robot, pictured at left, built by NEC. Also making the top 10 list (though, at a dismal 10th), is our friend Robonova. Wakamaru and Mano…
Here's a round-up of the latest news relating to Ugobe's robotic dinosaur Pleo, courtesy of our sister-site, PleoBot.com.Exclusive ROBOT Magazine Interview with Pleo’s MakersUgobe Announces Release Date for Pleo!Forbes Says Pleo One of 7 Robots That Will Change Your LifeMore News from Ugobe …
It seems the Japanese are always one step ahead of us. This time it's the opening of a combination robot museum and department store. The store plans on stocking about 1,000 different robot goodies, and will feature the Nuvo robot as its main attraction. In order to create a market for its expens…
We've talked about robotic blimps before, but not for this kind of application. This time a Californian entrepreneur, Bob Jones, is floating the idea of having large fleets of autonomous blimps provide wireless communication coverage for large areas. The blimps could take the place of both te…
I was recently offered the chance to review Microbric's Viper Robotics Development Kit. I always love to try out new robot kits and see what's on the market, so I jumped at the chance. Prior to Microbric contacting me, I had heard some about the kits. You may have read a prior review of the kit fro…
Ugobe seems to be facing a bit of controvery over its new Pleo toy. Hot off the heels of a big story on Digg about Pleo, came another, even bigger story, about how the dino wasn't all that smart after all. Somone took the two released videos of Pleo and compared then, noting that they were almost i…
Servo Magazine is giving away a Robonova. Just fill out their reader's survey and you'll be automatically entered to win. Click on the picture of the Robonova on their website. They survey has 23 questions and took me under 10 minutes to fill out. Questions range from how much of the magazine you …
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!&…
Kyosho has announced the release of the Manoi AT01 robot. He's set for a full release in September for around $1,300 USD. He has more abilities and a longer battery life than the original Manoi. Lem, over at Robots Dreams, has a whole list of information and videos of Manoi AT01 in action.There's …
Here's the final standings for the 9th Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition:University of Florida Duke University Ecole de technologie superieure University of Rhode Island University of Texas at Dallas Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cornell Uni…
Carnegie Mellon has announced this year's inductees for the Robot Hall of Fame. The real-life droids include Aibo and Scara. From the fiction category, there is David from AI, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Maria from Metropolis. "The five robots were formally inducted at a June …
Will Microsoft Go Robotic? The answer: yes. Microsoft is moving several of its pieces into play. Microsoft Research is working with Carnegie Mellon to launch the Center for Innovative Robotics. "Microsoft also has several academic and commercial partners that plan to support its software. Those inc…
Well, we knew something was going to happen, but we weren't sure what. I'm not sure I would have guessed Microsoft would be releasing a software package though. Yes, as of Today, Microsoft is now an official player in the robotics market with the release of its Robotics Studio. The software can…
PleoBot.com has posted a new vide of Pleo the robot dinosaur from Ugobe. You may remember Pleo from our story earlier this year. Pleo was first announced at DEMO2006 and generated a bit of buzz. Since then the news-waves have been relatively quiet.In the video you'll see how Pleo responds to touch…
