Robotics posts

Don’t feel like carrying all of your heavy bags anymore? Let Big Dog do it for you. Big Dog is a prototype ‘mule’ that was created by Boston Dynamics to be used by the United States Army. The main goal for these types of robots is to go with soldiers into the field, and tag a long with them just like a pack animal would. The robot weighs in at 240+lbs and walks on four legs. It can also carry more than its own weight in cargo. Boston Dynamics has released a video of the Big Dog in action. The robot is jogging on asphalt at 5mp. That doesn’t seem very fast to us but for a robot that just walks it is huge. Creating…

Chinese farmer turned inventor, Wu Yulu, is finally getting some recognition after designing and building homemade robots. Yulu has faced some hardships in his life: a fire that burnt his house to the ground, being splashed by battery acid, and the stress of being heavily in debt. Yulu is finally getting a break and people are highly intrigued by his new inventions. He has built almost 50 robots which can pour drinks, use lighters to light cigarettes and even paint. He’s even designed one that can help with chopping up food for meals. After working on his creations for nearly 20 years, Yulu’s robots…

A study done by a group of researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island showed that intensive therapy using a robot helps patients improve their arm movement years after having a stroke. The researchers used the machine to offer three months of training and according to the New England Journal of Medicine, many patients had a better quality of life. Stroke specialists from the UK said the progress was “exciting” but that the robots were at the early stages of development. A stroke can leave someone with long-term disabilities such as limited movement, loss of strength in upper body,…

Alright, I’ll be honest – last time I wrote about the GM EN-V vehicle, I ridiculed it for its rather, um, ‘unique’ look . And I stand by that. It looks… odd. But now that we get to see a video of a prototype in action – and hear one of its designers extol its benefits – it’s hard not to be impressed by the overall concept (if not the design). The vehicle is meant to carry a single person and uses a series of sensors and GPS technology to move itself around. What the designer in the clip envisions is entire areas that are car-free, and instead use these vehicles to create a futuristic, environmentally friendly…

Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza is helping nature take it all back. Esparza has created the Planta Nomada, a hybrid plant/robot that runs on water-faring microorganisms and looks bloody awesome to boot. Scary, when you consider plants can now move of their own volition, but awesome nonetheless. When the fuel source (the microscopic critters) need their own food, the plantbot shuffles towards water, where the organisms convert their food into electricty, to power the bot. The plants also get fed, too – everyone wins! No word on what the robot does when it’s not hungry – probably contemplates…

You may have heard about Shigeki Toyama and his Power Assist Suit before. Of course, there’s every likelihood you haven’t. Let’s rap about it, let me break it down. The PAS is a tool developed by Toyama and his students at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and when I say developed, I mean years – last time I saw this thing on the internet was circa 2006. But now, Toyama and his team are ready to have this bad boy (or girl?) manufactured, and it’s going to be available for purchase in Japan by 2012 for a cool $11000. What does it do? Why, turns you into a superhuman, of course. The suit increases…

What do you get when you have a few guys with a lot of time on their hands and a box of LEGO Technic pieces? You get a fully functional Bugatti Veyron built with seven gears. This is truly enough technicality to put any gearhead into a state of euphoria. This creation has everything: a fully functioning gearbox (7 gears + reverse), a mechanical hardtop, a functioning hood, and a bunch of technical stuff that makes us gawk in awe. It isn’t worth $1.6 million like its actual full-scale version, but this LEGO Bugatti Veyron is a thing of beauty, and the fact that they managed to squeeze seven gears in there…

If you’ve ever wandered the streets of Berlin or Munich, then you know that shwarmas (or doners as they call them) are a kind of big deal there. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that German company Alkadur has invented a robot for cutting those delicious chunks of flesh that make for some of the world’s tastiest street food. The robot uses a combination of a pressure sensor, a robotic arm and a razor sharp blade to safely slice and collect tasty meat shavings for your enjoyment. Beyond safety, the robot can obviously work all day for very little cost – 10 Euros a day – and doesn’t have to stop take bathroom…

You have got to love the Japanese. They come up with the coolest tech gadgets, and they also come up with the insanely weird stuff that has to make you think. Robots that look exactly like humans? That is another one that the Japanese are close to perfecting. Hiroshi Ishiguro, one of Japan’s most famous robotic engineers, can make you your own robot that looks almost exactly like you. It will only set you back over $100,000, but if you are willing to pony up the cash, you can own a robot that is so lifelike and so similar to yourself that it can become creepy. Granted, there are still some hints that these…

Big brother has been watching us all for some time, but Big Brother Bear is a step too far. As creepy and insidious as Teddy Ruxpin was, this obnoxious invention by Fujitsu at least has good intentions. By using a video camera built into the bear’s nose, teddy is able to recognize facial movement and expressions and respond accordingly. There are a few practical applications for a teddy bear that is always watching you, such as “entertaining and soothing” the elderly and encouraging quiet children to come out of their shell. “We just want it feel natural”, said one Fujitsu researcher, who is apparently…