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Willow Garage, whose progress we cover on this blog, just announced the eleven recipients of its PR2 robot. The PR2 robot is an open source robot which is characterized by a hardware platform (Personal Robot 2) with an ROS (Robot Operating System) open source software application. Willow Garage …
iRobot has just announced its first quarterly performance, on the increase compared to analysts' forecasts. The IRBT share took +33% in 1 single day, going from 15 to 20 dollars. The company reported gains of 24 cents per share for the first quarter in 2010 (Q1), while analysts were banking on…
What if there were no more cars on our streets in a few years and instead they were replaced by robots? In any case, that's the assertion of Stéphane Malandain, a compter science lecturer in Switzerland. And he's not talking about 40 years' time but well before. The streets will be fill…
A few days ago we introduced you to the 3D Webcam by Minoru 3 (click here for the direct link to the product) which has just arrived in store at RobotShop. We showed you a video of the Unboxing of this first commercial 3D camera. Aaron from Singularity Hub has written an excellent post about th…
If you wonder whether sporty robots will one day be able to compete with our best athletes, well we believe we already have a good start for a response on that. It's no longer a question of robots that play soccer by moving about slowly. The soccer players at the Robocup German Open 2010 have g…
RobotShop currently has a special promotion on Lawnbott robot mowers. Should you be the happy winner, this exceptional offer could let you win a complete refund of a Lawnbott Spyder if you buy one, or partial reimbursement of the value of the Lawnbott Spyder if you buy another Lawnbott model. I…
photos from botjunkie & Cnet Can robots perform as well as humans in sports? This is what the designers at Ziggy wanted to find out during the Robogames. The American football player Joe Nedney pitted his strength against Ziggy to hit the ball as far as possible and accurately. Even if …
The company iRobot has just signed a partnership with electronics manufacturer Jabil Circuit. The agreement concerns manufacturing services. Jabil will produce and test iRobot's consumer goods, which also includes the robot vacuum Roomba. Jeffrey Beck, branch manager of iRobot's domestic robot…
Have you ever seen a Roomba that Tweets? We've never! But, this CoolestRoomba Twitter account announces that a Roomba forgotten in the darkness of an old garage has finally found a home. Better yet, it is in the process of resuming its life and wants to talk to humans. Where? on Twitter... We…
The Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory in Stanford (VAIL) has presented to the press a prototype of a car which drives and parks all by itself. Botjunkie was on hand to report this video in which we see a Passat driving on its own and reversing in a parking lot. The ceremony took place i…
Here's a two-part video which will delight all robotics technicians. It shows us a complete dissection of a Roomba robot vacuum. The dissected model is from the Roomba 4000 series. The man behind this instructive video is Dino Segovis of Dinofab.com. The Roomba is one of the robots preferred by…
Here's a viral video which is circulating the web to announce a new robot vacuum by Samsung, the Navibot. It shows a team at Samsung in the middle of a discussion in a conference room when suddenly the Navibot, quiet until then, takes off! Nice buzz by Samsung on Youtube. The Navibot will soon b…
The RobotShop team wishes a happy birthday to its partner, iRobot, which is celebrating its 20th birthday this year! iRobot is the world leader in vacuum robots and is also actively involved in floor-washing robots, robots which clean swimming pools as well as industrial and military robots. …
Researchers at Meiji University in Japan have teamed up with MR Corp to build a robot which allows you to train in baseball. The robot holds the ball 20 cm in the air as if it was an invisible tee so the player only has to hit it. The Jet Hitter can store 70 balls. The designers have planned t…
You have followed the progress here of Hinamitetu, the gymnast robot now capable of doing a somersault over a fixed bar then catching itself without falling. It should be clear here: this remarkable performance has not been achieved without pains. You have to suffer and persevere to reach perfect…
Wheelie the robot from Toshiba is a new two-wheel domestic robot showcased by the Japanese on March 10 at the Toshiba Science Museum in Kawasaki. It uses the same principle as the Segway in order to balance on two wheels. Wheelie moves autonomously, avoiding obstacles thanks to its laser and vi…