Some news anchors already can’t help but act and look robotic when giving us the news. But that isn’t enough for Japan. They want actual robots giving us the news. Dubbed Kodomoroid and Otonaroid, the two robots developed by Professor Hirosho Ishiguro of Osaka University look scarily human, yet have decent anchoring skills. The robots, […]
Need a hand? Two? Look no further! Thanks to a team of researchers at MIT’s d’Arbeloff Laboratory, a set of robotic arms have been developed which can be mounted on your shoulders or waist. Now…where have I seen that before? Meant to augment actual arms, these robotic arms instead base their movements off of the movements […]
Ever have underground cables that need quick repair but have no implement to help? Well fear no more! Designed by Amos Winter, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, the robot takes pointers from the Atlantic razor clam a large mollusk found along the Atlantic coast of North America. Through analyzing how it burrows through muddy […]
Traditional sprinklers simply spread water over an area, which leads to lots of water wasted and uneven watering. Droplet wants to change all that with its eponymous robot. Instead of blindly spraying water around like Bill & Lance with a Spread gun, Droplet knows where your plants are and aims at them like Mr. Mundy in Doublecross. When […]
With conspiracy theorists teeming with excitement over Google’s potential Skynet plot (buying Schaft, Boston Dynamics, self driving cars…what gives?), roboticists Yasuhiko Ishigure, Katsuyuki Hirai, and Haruhisa Kawasaki, are adding to the fray, with this lumberjack bot. This chainsaw bot is not only capable of climbing up and down trees, but can also dismember them without human interaction. The […]
You know what’s missing from your garden or lawn right now? Of course, robots! Your garden is absolutely missing robots. Especially the sort with lots of legs and big lights on their heads. People often have to get down on all fours to move lamps and lanterns from one spot on their garden to another. The […]
It prints, it scores! Recently, Jose Julio re-purposed a 3D printer to play hockey, but not full-scale, body smashing ice-hockey, the more printer-friendly air hockey. The robot has three motors, one for the x-axis and two for moving the mallet along the y-axis. Using a PlayStation Eye camera, Julio wrote code to 1) allow his robot to […]
