Shoveling snow looks like a hell of a job at the best of times, but when faced with commercial sized buildings, apparently it’s so bad it takes up to 25 men to get the job done. That’s where the humorously named “Roofus” comes in.Roofus is happy to take the job on single handed, collecting and dumping the snow via remote or autonomously. When there’s no snow to move, Roofus can be fitted out with a variety of attachments for more mundane tasks such as mowing and cleaning. Read More...  View(6)  Comments(0)

The largest truck in the world is about to become the largest robotic vehicle in the world. Computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up with engineers from Caterpillar to automate the 700-ton trucks, which are made to haul loads up to 240 tons from mines. That's nearly two million pounds of metal, fuel and stone powered by a 3,550-horsepower, 24-valve engine moving at up to 42 miles per hour, with software and a robot at the wheel. "Autonomous vehicle technology is pretty much in its infancy," said Tony Stentz, a professor at CMU involved in the project. Stentz expects that over the next five to 10 years, the technology will expand to areas beyond mining, eventually finding its way into consumer cars and trucks. Read More...  View(23)  Comments(0)

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander bit the dust today (no pun intended). After five months performing scientific experiments that included digging, scooping, baking, "sniffing", and "tasting" the Martian soil, the seasonal changes in sunlight have ended the mission. The robot's solar panels are no longer generating enough light for the robot to operate. The robotic lander, which had its own Twitter account, posted a final tweet today that said, "01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3" - binary for "triumph". For more see the CNET story or the NASA news release. Read More...  View(25)  Comments(0)

At Georgia Tech, assistant professor Charlie Kemp has been developing a robotic dog of sorts.This robot named El-E (pronounced “Ellie”), is designed to do everything a service dog would do like open doors, open cabinets and fetch objects.It takes over two years and $17,000 to properly train a service dog.  The waiting list for these dogs is so long it can take up to 5 years to actually get one.Kemp and his team studied over 71 commands used with service dogs, but have only put 10 into El-E so far.  El-E can be controlled  with voice commands or a laser.Kemp hopes to see this technology in homes in about within 10 years.Pretty cool. Hey Spot, fetch me a beer.Check out a this press release with a video from Georgia Tech. Read More...  View(25)  Comments(0)

Mobile Robots has announced a new high-speed stereo vision system for robots. It's called the MobileRanger StereoVision System The heavy duty case is designed for indoor or outdoor use and even allows the system work in the rain. An FPGA board is included with the system to provide 752x480 images processed at 30 to 60 fps. An optional pan and tilt mount is also available. No price was specified but you can assume this one is going to be a bit too pricey for the average hobby robot. The full specifications can be found on the product page. Read on the full text of the press release. Read More...  View(53)  Comments(0)

iSobot is currently on sale for $99 at Hammacher Schlemmer. The 6.5 inch tall robot has 17 servos and a gyroscope. It responds to 10 voice commands and comes with over 200 pre-programmed actions such as push ups and somersaults. When iSobot came out in the US last year it had a price tag of about $300. Read More...  View(122)  Comments(1)

iRobot is busy working on a new project called Stingray.Essentially they are looking to create a faster UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) for operations other than bomb disposal.  They are taking a Warrior x700 and modifying it.They hope to get the robot to reach a top speed of 32 KPH.  iRobot also is aiming to create an an immersive telepresence experience for the operator and semiautonomous driver-assist behaviors.Link to video of the Stingray here. Link via (Robot Stock News) Read More...  View(60)  Comments(1)

On the side of a dormant volcano in Hawaii, a CMU robot called Scarab will pretend it's on the southern pole of the moon, autonomously navigating the terrain, and trying to extract water, hydrogen, and oxygen from the surface. The robot is equipped with a drill that can pull a 1 meter core sample out of the ground. CMU built the four-wheeled robot for NASA's Human Robot Systems program. Scarab weighs in at 400 kg, measures 5 1/2 by 3 feet, and runs on the same amount of power as a 100 watt light bulb. For more info see the CMU news release or the CMU Lunar Rover Initiative Read More...  View(70)  Comments(0)

Cathy Caplener writes, "Just a quick note to let you know that Surveyor Corporation today introduced the industry’s first low-cost, $500, 3D Stereo Vision System, now soon to be known as the Surveyor SVS, for robotics and the Web. I do not like to say things like “the first” but we are saying it because it is true of course and quite exciting for the industry because as you know, working with robots is not a cheap endeavor." The SVS sensor is based on firmware released as free software under the GNU GPL. Schematics and other documentation are available on the Surveyor SVS website. Read on for the full text of the press release and photos of the new stereo vision sensor. Read More...  View(121)  Comments(0)

CEATEC is the an annual conference where exhibitors show off cutting-edge electronics and information technology. That includes a lot of robots. Pictured above are two of Nissan's BR23C Biomimetic Robots. Akihabara News covered the Nissan demonstration and posted a lot of photos of the robots in action. The bouncingredball blog got photos of the the Murata Seikochan unicycle-riding robot demonstration. And our friends over at Pink Tentacle posted an assortment of interesting CEATEC robot photos. Want to see more of CEATEC 2008? Try the steadily increasing steam of CEATEC photos on flickr. Read More...  View(96)  Comments(0)

robots.net has long reported on insect-like micro air vehicles or MAVs. However, TU Delft's Delfly Micro unveiled yesterday puts most previous insect-inspired robots to shame. Not only does it flap it's wings similar to a real dragonfly, it's also comparable in size. Measuring a mere 10cm from wing-tip to wing-tip it is smaller than some real dragonflies. Best of all, it's equipped with a camera that streams back video to a base station - check out this video and the Delfly site for more information.  Read More...  View(95)  Comments(1)

The French start up Aldebaran-Robotics based in Paris has high hopes for its humanoid robot called NAO.  The device is 57 cm high and weighs 4.5 kilograms (about the size of a 6 month old baby) and you may be about to see a lot more of it. The company has sent a simplified version to 16 teams playing in the Robocup humanoid football league this year. Read More...  View(120)  Comments(0)

John Palmisano of the Society of Robots website writes,

"I wanted to bring to your attention my product release - a microcontroller designed to be simple enough for any beginner, but powerful enough for any expert. Its built from an ATmega640, can handle 29 servos, has 3 UART + USB, built in power bus, and a built in bootloader."

The latest episode of the Robots podcast features interviews with two experts in self-reconfiguring and modular robotics. Kasper Støy, famous for his pioneering work with robots such as the CONRO (also see previous post), shares his recent experience at the ICRA Contingency Challenge. Robert Fitch, currently research fellow with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, presents his latest self-reconfiguring robot. Read More...  View(92)  Comments(0)

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be held from August 8 – 24, 2008 in Beijing, China! We are challenging all you to create a robot that can compete in one of the summer sports on the Olympic program.You have until Sunday August 31, 2008 to enter your robot. See the Summer Olympics Building Challenge NXTLOG for more details. Read More...  View(94)  Comments(0)