Previously I'd told all of you to go out, exercise your democratic right, and vote in Engadget's "Year's Best" elections. Well, whether you did or not (you better had ... ), the results are out! And the winner is, the Honda Asimo! The Engadget editors picked Stanford's VW Touareg "St…
Here's finally some video of Ugobe's Pleo robotic dinosaur. If you're not up to speed on Pleo, check out our previous post on the little guy. For about $200 he's supposed to have "life-like" motion with 14 motors and over 40 sensors. From the video, he does actually look pretty life-like.…
A robot created by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), with help from MIT, has taken 7,000 photographs of an ancient greek vessel that wrecked in 350BC. For over 2,300 years the vessel has remained hidden. The ship, which was laden with over 400 ceramic jars, was photographed by the &quo…
Here's an insightful article from the Wall Street Journal about Lockheed Martin's foray into the robot done market. Lockheed, which helped develop the Dragon Eye, and the Desert Hawk is trying to play catch-up to larger robotic drone makers, like Northrup Grumman and Boeing. There're working on inn…
In a tribute to Joseph Weisenbaum, Andrianne Wortzel has wired up a Robosapien to a chatbot and a webcam. The Robosapien sits in the studio and provides psychoanalysis over the Web. The project is Eliza Redux and is named after Weisenbaum’s famed Eliza. Curious idea, though more as an art piece th
iRobot and John Deere are continuing work on their R-Gator autonomous vehicle. According to a recent press release, they have selected LynuxWorks to provide an embedded Linux RTOS. One wonders why the R-Gator team selected LynuxWorks over Wind River, maker of the software running on the M…
As a followup to our previous story about Ugobe, it appears that they've just announced what their breakthrough product is - Pleo the robotic dinosaur. The official press release says, Pleo is modeled after a 1-week-old Camarasaurus sauropod, or long neck dinosaur, and incorporates basic trai…
Need a break from the 6-wheel boggy design? Looking for a Martian rover that offers something new? Then take a look at this month's Popular Science, which poses the question "Is This the Machine That Will Finally Find Life on Mars?"The machine is the latest from Carnegie Mellon Universit…
Caleb Chung, the creator of everyone's favorite obnoxious furry robot pal, Furby, is helping start a new company that claims to revolutionize the robot toy industry. The new company, dubbed "Ugobe", which sounds vaguely like an African nation, is creating a lifelike pal that will, ".…
Nothing phenominal here. Just a neat commercial from Nike showing robots wreaking havok in a city playing spots with cars and such. Funky music and cool graphics to ensue.This is similar to the music video, Scent of a Robot.
Don't like the thought of a shiney metal arm pounding on your flesh? Well, neither do I. However, a company called Meilus Muscular Therapy & Sports, Inc. thinks it's a good idea Their Therbo Robots are called, A "New Tool" to traditional techniques like massage, physical therapy …
The Grand Rapids Press has a review of the Scribbler robot. The inherent geek-cool factor is what attracted me to the Scribbler. But after an hour of testing, the benefits were obvious: Programming and using the Scribbler do indeed provide the stereotypical hours of fun for the whole family. T…
Here is a link that recently came to our attention: Crab Fu Steam Toys! If you have ever wondered what would happen if a Gakken Mechamo Centipede or Mechamo Crab was crossed with a steam engine, Crab Fu shows the way. There are videos of these creations in action. As an aside, the downside of the…
As Spirit continues to roam Mars ahead of the coming Martian winter, news comes in that the Nasa rovers are starring in an IMAX movie.The 40-minute film, "Roving Mars," is the story of the journey of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity -- as well as the journey of their creators.
The rumor mills are hard at work churning out speculation that Sony is going to kill it's robotics division. The fuel for this fire is an excerpt from Sony's Q305 fiscal reports that Akihabara News found. The text reads: New product development for AIBO has already ceased, and production is targe…
PeopleStaff, an employment agency in Japanese, is adding robots to its usual roster of people. PeopleStaff is recommending companies recruit Hello Kitty Robo and Ifbot. The positions are receptionists and hospital care, respectively. One wonders if the company is also considering a name change.
