United States President Barack Obama announced as part of the President's FY2012 Budget, the creation of grants for Robotics Technology Development and Deployment. The funding will target companies developing service robots, drug discovery robots, and bomb disarming robots (under the DARP
Smithsonian Museum curator Roger Launius among other scientist and historians, argue that humans will eventually need to colonize other planets in order to prevent extinction from a massive catastrophe, and since the Earth resources is likely not going to be sufficient for our increasing
RobotShop Robot Hospital RobotShop announced today important changes to the RobotShop Robot Hospital. RobotShop will now be offering their very unique repair services to customers that have purchased their robot at RobotShop only. Repair services will no longer be available for customers who buy
Core Biped Transport Robot The Core project, by fuRo, the Future Robotics Technology Center, consists of a very large biped robot that can carry up to 100 Kg. It is meant to be a human transportation vehicle but we can envision how it could become a three meter tall rampaging humanoid quite easi
Kawada industries unveiled their next generation of humanoid robots. The HRP-4 is leaner (much leaner), more flexible, and faster than its predecessors. Kawada HRP-4 The new robot is 1.5m (~5 feet) tall and will sell for 300 000 $. Although this might seem expensive for the average robo
Octomag Eye Surgery Robot The Octomag, a giant but friendly electromagnets arrangement, is able to control a very small surgery robot with 5 DoF (degrees of freedom) in free space. This means that the tiny robot can be moved and rotated in free space in every possible way. It is capable o
Tandy Trower, the 57 years old retired Microsoft employee and creator of the Microsoft Robotic Studio, launched a new Seattle-based start-up called Hoaloha Robotics. The main goal is to produce a unified programming environment and robotic interface (à la ROS) in order to commercialize afford
Seaswarm Prototype A very interesting robot project has been developed by a team from the MIT. It consists in using swarm robotics to clean up oil spills. As shown in the video below a fleet, or even a single robot, can be set to tirelessly clean-up the ocean surface from floating oil. Powere
The new TRAKR from Wild Planet is a very interesting mobile spy toy on its own, but it also has lots of hacking potential. Wild Planet is even embracing this hacking movement by providing documentation about all the platform features. Soon enough, this toy will be converted in a very inexpe
Aldebaran's Nao keeps making progress and, as depicted in the video below, was able to register by itself in this year's RobotCup. The video below illustrates a rehearsal of the registration process where Nao introduces himself and presents the required forms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b
CARPI 2010 - 1st International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry The first International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry (CARPI 2010) is about to take place in Montreal. Starting on October 5th, this three-day conference will bring together experts from …
The Evolution Robotics Mint is a smart floor wiping and moping robot that will take care of floors in a new and and innovative way. Instead of using brushed and vacuum, this robot wipes the floor with well known microfiber cloths (e.g. Swiffer and Pledge). Mint Robotic Floor Cleaner The Mint uses…
We are lucky enough to have received one of the early Neato XV-11 engineering samples. We took this chance to take a few pictures and shoot an unboxing video in order to share with everyone this awesome experience. The only difference between this sample unit and the regular XV-11 is the former s…
At RobotShop, we carry a wide variety of servo motors but it only becomes apparent once all the major kinds are put side by side. Family of Servo Motors From left to right, the picture above shows the Dagu Micro, the HS-85MG (Mighty Micro), the HS-422 (one of the most popular servos), the HS-785
4S Systems Display Shields for Arduino 4D Systems has recently released four new Arduino Shields that allow their displays to be easily interfaced with the Arduino (or other shield-compatible microcontrollers). These shields allow the Arduino to display all sorts of full colour images (includ
Nao Close-up Nao keeps making headlines and becoming more and more popular. The little humanoid has been featured on Fox News. As reported by the anchors, University of Hertfordshire is developing the robot's response to human emotions. This aims to create better communication between robots