The trailer for the upcoming short film BLINKY by Ruairi Robinson has been released. See it below. [vimeo 16755989] The film is set in a not so distant future and features a domestic robot that apparently turns into a rampaging killer...Either that, or it enjoys ketchup too much. Blinky is
Inverted pendulums (i.e. balancing a stick on a moving platform) never ceases to fascinate humans, especially when it is done by a robot. Pencil Balancing Robot The robot illustrated in the video below is capable of balancing a pencil on its tip. The motion of the pencil is tracked by two im
About a week after the Open LiDAR project was announced, the Neato XV-11 has been hacked and now its juicy LiDAR data can be used by everybody. This effectively makes the Neato XV-11 not only one of the most advanced vacuum cleaner robots in the market, but also, the cheapest LiDAR available.
Kinect Hacked The Kinect was quickly hacked a few weeks ago and now, the development around this sensor is advancing very fast. The Kinect is a 3D camera made by Microsoft that not only senses a full colour video, but also sees the depth of objects and scenes. [vimeo 17007842] In the robotics …
Some time ago, we announced the nomination for the Top Ten Coolest Robots of 2010. You voted and now the results are in. Let's have a closer look at the ten lucky robots and find out which one is the big winner. #10 Google Car and Bae Systems Taranis Tied These two robots are tied in the number
Sentient Robot The trailer for the upcoming movie Transcendent Man has been out for some time and it has now been confirmed that the long awaited film will be released early next year (2011). Transcendent Man introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the w
At RobotShop, we have a weird tendency to disassemble our robots (especially lately). This time, we bring you the total dismantling of the cute and innocent Nabaztag. This little rabbit is a very interesting piece of equipment since it has a powerful ARM processor, RFID reader and WiFi capabil
As launched by our friend William Cox, the Open LiDAR Project aims to reward the first to be able to successfully hack the Neato XV-11 LiDAR. More precisely, the first person to get useful readings out of the Neato XV-11 LiDAR and published his code and procedure under an open license, will get
For all of those wanting to have a robot floor cleaner such as the Mint but not being able to afford such a luxury, there is always the choice of doing it yourself...with LEGO! Pulito, was built following precisely this spirit. The video below shows the robot navigating and cleaning around the hou…
For quite some time now, Festo, a leading pneumatics company, has been innovating in the robotics field by creating impressive and very unique robots inspired by nature. The video below, is a good summary of their innovative work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X5KdVS1LFk Make sure you also hav
In his recent trip to Japan, USA President Barack Obama had the pleasure to meet with HRP-4C (the robotic dancing Diva) and Paro (a robot baby seal). He also got to sit in the latest Toyota i-REAL personal transportation vehicle. Below you can see a video of the event. Note how noisy PARO can be. …
Howdy folks,I got inspired by Adafruit's Kinect Hacking bounty and got to thinking. What if I sponsored a hacking project myself? So, I got to thinking and decided we really needed to get the Neato Robotics XV-11 scanning lidar system hacked and useful to robot builders. So, I'm offering up $401 ($…
Everybody knows that robots take jobs that are simply too dangerous or that human do not want to do, filming and taking pictures of bikini models is definitely not one of them. Nevertheless, a very lucky hexacopter UAV got this highly coveted job. UAV Photographing Bikini Model If you want to…
Robot World is a Korean robotic trade-show. The latest installment was held from October 28th to October 31st 2010, showcasing Korea’s latest military, industrial, and service robots. Of course, some international exhibitors Aldebaran Robotics from France (showcasing the Nao) , and DasaRobot from
For those curious to see what is inside their Mint, but unwilling to void the warranty by opening the robot up, have no fear - RobotShop had the exciting opportunity to open up and disassembling one of Evolution Robotics' Mint Automatic Floor Cleaners for you. If you thought Mint was cool on the
HRP-4C, HRP-4's older sibling, did a nice dance demonstration along with some human fellows. The female robot comes from the well known humanoid robot family made by Kawada. Although the HRP-4C is by far the most human-like of the family, it still has a long way to go in facial expressions, moti