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…
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is testing the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to patrol the sky over LA. The vehicle, called SkySeer, is built by Octatron Inc., and apparently obscure company from St. Petersburg FL.The vehicle can autonomously navigate using GPS waypoints or be wirele…
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…
Phillip Torrone over at the MakeZine Blog has just posted pictures and video from his trip to iRobot. If you've never gotten a closeup look at the PackBot and its controlls the video is well woth a look-see. The video shows the 'bot in the EOD configuration ( the giant 7" arm ). You also get a…
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…
