SimplySim has released an application that allows you to control either a simulated LEGO® NXT Tribot in a rich 3D environment or a real Tribot. It includes several sensors and a "claw". Some sample services are provided to demonstrate how to control the Tribot. You can also write your own services to run in this enviroment and control the Tribot. Read More...  View(21)  Comments(0)

Ever wonder what motivates those crazy RoboGames combat robot builders to put in all the long hours, money, blood, sweat, and tears? Check out the video below for some insight into the team responsible for Beer Bash - a top RoboGames competitor. There is even a cameo appearance by none other than Dr. Robot! Read More...  View(26)  Comments(0)

The single-disc edition WALL-E DVD was the bestselling DVD of 2008 on Amazon.com, the Seattle, Washington-based online retailer announced today in a news release revealing its "Best of 2008" lists, put out to highlight the year's most popular products sold on the site.It's one success after another for WALL-E: The movie recently broke the $500 million mark with its total lifetime box office gross. (See Box Office Mojo for the stats.) Read More...  View(25)  Comments(0)

Japan’s Ministry of Economy,  Trade  and Industry (METI) has proclaimed  i-Sobot the Robot of the year for 2008.Over at Make, they are claiming that the manufacturer TOMY is discontinuing making them!  Oh noes!    Can anyone confirm this?While we were hoping to get one for Christmas, we may pick one up after they holidays, before they are gone forever.i-Sobot can be programmed to dance, play drums and air guitar among other things.  It iscurrently in the Guinness as the world’s smallest mass produced robot.You can currently by one from the Maker Shed for $149.95. Read More...  View(57)  Comments(0)

This is probably the most expensive teddy bear ever built.The folks at MIT’s Personal Rbotics group have created a huggable robot with over 1500 sensors, mostly under it’s skin.  It also has web cameras for eyes, microphones for ears and a speaker for a mouth.The Hugggable was originally based on the idea of companian animals, but has taken the idea much further, including a web component that allows one to interact with others through the bear via the internet. Read More...  View(45)  Comments(1)

There are quite a few robots that will play back a song from your mp3 collection. Some, like the Miuro (video) or Sony's Rolly (video), will dance to the tunes. Others, like David Hanson's and David Byrne's humanoid Julio will perform (video). But few robots actually make music themselves. The latest episode of Robots reports on three: Haile, a wooden robot drummer, and Shimon, a Marimba player, both built by Gil Weinberg at Georgia Tech. And the flutist robot shown above, which goes back to the Waseda Talker robots, built by Atsuo Takanishi at Waseda. Tune in for some robot music! Read More...  View(65)  Comments(1)

Perfect for that holiday party is the table robot! Recently unveiled at ICRT Japan is the robot table.The dictionary.com translator says the following fun facts:Carrying the beverage which the table type robot of 2 wheel inverted pendulum inserted in the glass, you attracted the attention of the attendance person.Using an inverted pendulum, this two wheeled balancing table can carry drinks or food to customers. Kind of like a robotic waiter, but without any of the attitude. See the table in action after the break. Read More...  View(90)  Comments(4)

It might not look like much, but this little... er, big guy is a robot recently developed and employed by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd and Sumitomo Corporation in Osaka City, Japan to clean their floors. Now we've seen plenty of service robots that love to clean, some even professionally, but this one, operated by Reibi, is especially full-featured. Based on a robot developed in Tokyo in 2001, the updated version has laser sensors for detecting and avoiding obstacles. It's also been outfitted with light transmission devices which allow it to communicate with the elevators (also modified), so that it can travel between floors all on its own. Read More...  View(68)  Comments(0)

TIME magazine published today their annual 'Top 10 Everything' list for 2008 and WALL-E is placed in the No. 1 spot in the 'Top 10 Movies' section.Influential TIME critic Richard Corliss writes, in part, that WALL-E is one of very few "great science-fiction love stories" and a 'futurist adventure' that "evoke[s] the splendor of the movie past." A lot of compliments for Andrew Stanton in his role as director as well.Expect more end-of-the-year recognition for WALL-E in the next few days. Read More...  View(66)  Comments(3)

Rhodri Armour, a PhD student at the University of Bath, has created a robot that can roll across smooth terrain like a ball and jump over obstacles like a grasshopper. The robot, called Jollbot, is a design exercise intended to solve the sorts of problems that would face a land survey robot or planetary exploration robot. The spherical robot is very lightweight and inexpensive. Small motors are used to build up energy in the springy... Read More...  View(65)  Comments(1)

Like a crazy hybrid between a Roomba and a Zamboni, the "Winboni" window washing machine earned four students from MSU first place in the International Student Design Competition of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. With one push of a button, the Winboni autonomously goes to work on your windows using a suction fan (to keep it attached to the window) along with some Windex and felt pads to do the washing. Obviously, the device is a little crude at the moment, but I can definitely see a team of tiny robots washing our windows somewhere down the line. Read More...  View(55)  Comments(2)

The multi-talented Motoman SDA10, a dexterous dual-arm industrial robot manufactured by Yaskawa Electric, is demonstrating its ability to cook okonomiyaki at the International Next-Generation Robot Fair now underway in Osaka. Designed to operate independently alongside humans in the workplace, the 135-centimeter (4.5 ft) tall, 220-kilogram (480 lb) industrial robot has 15 joints — 7 in each arm and one in the torso — allowing a wide range of motion for the job, whether it be on the factory floor or behind the kitchen counter. Read More...  View(80)  Comments(1)

It's Thanksgiving, that day when robots everywhere put aside their toils and take time out from endless mental repetition of the thought, "kill all humans", to take part in traditional holiday festivities. Every year around this time, Lawrence Tech puts on the Thanksgiving RoboParade. Teams of high school students build up to 50 robot floats. After individual test runs, the fully autonomous robots follow each other down an elevated 10" wide line following course. In addition to following the line, each robot must detect the robot in front of it so it can stop or adjust its speed to avoid bumping into it... Read More...  View(74)  Comments(1)

LinuxDevices.com reports on a new robotic arm developed by Neuronics AG of Zurich, Switzerland. This new arm, called the Katana Robotic Arm, is designed for use in industry, production, lab automation, and research. The arm is controlled by a single-board computer that includes a Freescale MPC5200 CPU and six TI TMS320 32bit motor controllers. The system relies on the CAN bus architecture. The C++ communication and motion libraries that control the arm are open source allowing extensive customization not possible with traditional proprietary industrial robots. The libraries also include Python bindings... Read More...  View(62)  Comments(0)

Trossen Robotics is proud to be the first in the United States to offer the new MechRC Humanoid Robot! This new ready-to-walk robot is a breakthrough in price to performance at only $599.99 USD. High torque metal gear servos, LiPo batteries for longer run times, a fluid 3D visual software programming interface for easy custom motions, and a remote control unit are included. Everything you need to have you own walking robot is included in this ready-to-walk kit! With over a hundred pre-installed motions and sounds you can get this robot throwing some dance floor shapes or some killer fighting moves straight from the box. Read More...  View(140)  Comments(1)

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(76)  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(97)  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(103)  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(111)  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(135)  Comments(0)