Funded by the Army, the BEAR locates victims, removes hazardous materials, and can even carry 500-lb. loads over long distances. It's another 'bot in a long line of battlefield helpers that have pretty much transformed the way soldiers deal with disarming certain deadly encounters in the field. Except this one, you know, looks like a bear. [CNET]

And yes, it has a baby. Called Bebe. Cute overload, for sure. Unlike Prime-8, it's not strictly remote-controlled—it responds to touch and voice and...the baby, which is the closest thing it has to a remote control, since it'll summon Penbo and interact and play games with it. Penbo responds differently to different color babies—there are 4 colors, each with around 21 features.

But really, the best feature is the Penbo dance, which you can see in the video above: Put two together and they waddlewaddlewaddle. Which is how I guess they make more babies.

Penbo will hit QVC with Prime-8 on July 25, then Amazon later on, for $80.

BOSSA NOVA ROBOTICS,
A SPINOFF FROM CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY'S ROBOTICS INSTITUTE,
RETURNS TO CAMPUS TO UNVEIL ITS FIRST LINE OF PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT ROBOTS

Affordable Robots Feature Revolutionary 'Ani-Motion' Technology And Encourage Interactive Play

PITTSBURGH - July 9, 2009 - After four years of development, Bossa Nova Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based, robotics company and spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Robotics Institute, today unveiled its first line of personal entertainment robots. Combining the magic of agile robots with a rich play experience, Bossa Nova presented two interactive and enriching biped robots modeled after the way kids play: Prime-8, a fast-paced gorilla robot, and Penbo, an adorable penguin with baby robot.
Bossa Nova's launch comes on the heels of the opening of Carnegie Science Center's roboworld™, the world's largest permanent robotics exhibition, and further establishes Pittsburgh's position as the nation's hub for robotics education, research and development. Penbo and Prime-8 will be used in roboworld's innovative Robot Workshop to help visitors understand the many uses of robotic technology beyond familiar industrial environments and experience the many ways robots are already in their homes.
Bossa Nova's robots evolved from RHex, a fast-moving, agile, hexapod robot which was developed from 1999 to 2004 as a collaboration between the CMU Robotics Institute and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). RHex provided the platform for Bossa Nova's 'Ani-Motion' robotic technology - a revolutionary lifelike robotic mechanism loosely based on animalistic locomotion. With a vision to bring personal robots to every home, Bossa Nova spent four years further developing the RHex technology to make it affordable and capable of age-appropriate, robot-human interactivity.
Underlining Bossa Nova's research and product development is the Japan Robotics Association's forecast that the market for personal and lifestyle robots will grow to $15 billion by 2015. According to United States ABI Research, approximately 75% of the market is attributed to entertainment robotics with the majority of sales driven by children's robots.
"The technology behind Prime-8 and Penbo has only previously been seen in multi-million dollar research projects," said Sarjoun Skaff, CEO, Bossa Nova, Ph.D Robotics, CMU. "To make this kind of technology available to children is unprecedented and what we've seen in all of our focus groups is that both kids and adults are impressed by Penbo and Prime-8's technology and lifelike movements."
Continued Skaff, "Children's robotics is just the start, in the future we envisage creating Bossa Nova robots that will change the way we work, play, learn and stay safe."
Not your primitive primate, Prime-8 mimics the way boys play. Prime-8's intense interactivity is powered by a battery of sensors that allow him to respond to people and his environment. Outbound sight and sound sensors help Prime-8 maneuver around obstacles, respond to questions with grunts and growls, and express himself. A fast-paced, powerful and fun gorilla robot with a strong personality, his personality radically transforms from a friendly, funny gorilla with warm blue eyes to a ‘Gone Bananas!' robot, beating the floor and roaring from the top of his lungs, with circuits crackling and furious red eyes.
On the other end of the robot spectrum is Penbo, an adorable interactive and waddling penguin robot who surprises little girls when she lays an egg. When the egg is opened, out comes Bebe - a tiny baby penguin that will chirp and communicate with its mother. Penbo is aware of her surroundings, loves to dance, plays games and talks with Baby in Penguish, her own language; she responds to touch with blinking eyes, flapping wings, and cooing sounds and is a perfect robot companion for little girls to nurture.
Prime-8 will be available to consumers for the first time on QVC on July 25. Penbo will make her consumer debut on QVC in mid-August. Both products will be available online on August 1st and on shelves at retailers nationwide for the holiday season.

About Bossa Nova Robotics
Bossa Nova Robotics has been redefining the robotics industry since 2005. A spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotic Institute, Bossa Nova creates enriching entertainment experiences by combining the magic of agile robots with the power of play. Based in the nation's robotics capital, Pittsburgh, PA, the Company designs and manufactures personal robots for consumer use. Bossa Nova was created based on a dream that kids everywhere would one day have an opportunity to interact with a new generation of toy robots. Unlike anything on the market, Bossa Nova's robots showcase a new relationship between technology and toys. Kids love Bossa Nova's robots because they're exciting and funny; parents love them because they have a family-friendly play pattern. In the coming years, Bossa Nova will apply its robotics expertise to security, health, education and home care markets. For more information about Bossa Nova Robotics, please visit www.bnconcepts.com.

Prime-8 and Penbo (shown here) are the launch products for Bossa Nova Robotics, a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute with a really simple goal: To take awesome robotics tech out of the lab and put it in the hands of real people.

Here, the primary technology repackaging is its form of locomotion, inspired by the biomechanics of a cockroach, whose pliant legs allow it to quickly scurry over rough, broken terrain without thinking about it. These make a complete revolution (unlike the roach's legs), but the mechanics of them are similar—neither RHex nor Prime-8 need sensors to move and balance. To see some of the relation between Prime-8 and RHex, RHex climbing some stairs:

Prime-8 does more than run circles around other robots, though—it intelligently re-balances itself automatically, plays games, can run amok autonomously, shoot rockets and synchronize with other Prime-8s. It's controlled via an infrared remote that's shaped like a generic videogame controller. It's designed for kids around 8 years old. (I hope they haven't played too many videogames before picking Prime-8's controller, actually, since there's a lack of precision in the controls that someone used to precise responses from inputs might be frustrated with.)

That said, it's a lot of fun to play with, and pretty easy to pick up and start slamming into stuff. I'd love to run it around on some rougher terrain, as well, since it's designed to be tough—supposedly, it can hold up after falling off of a table. There's definitely a more visceral joy playing with Prime-8 than with some of the other robots I've play with—the speed, the form (not a generic robot shape), the kinetic-ness of it.

Both Prime-8 and Penbo launch on QVC on July 25 for $100 and $80, respectively, before hitting Amazon a little bit later, and possibly online stores for Walmart and Target for the holidays.

Bossa Nova is planning on using the same movement tech in future robots as well, so they all move in roughly the same manner—Penbo, a penguin, uses the same movement system, just slightly tweaked so it waddles.

PITTSBURGH-BASED BOSSA NOVA ROBOTICS,
A SPINOFF FROM CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY'S ROBOTICS INSTITUTE,
RETURNS TO CAMPUS TO UNVEIL ITS FIRST LINE OF PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT ROBOTS

Affordable Robots Feature Revolutionary 'Ani-Motion' Technology And Encourage Interactive Play

PITTSBURGH - July 9, 2009 - After four years of development, Bossa Nova Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based, robotics company and spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Robotics Institute, today unveiled its first line of personal entertainment robots. Combining the magic of agile robots with a rich play experience, Bossa Nova presented two interactive and enriching biped robots modeled after the way kids play: Prime-8, a fast-paced gorilla robot, and Penbo, an adorable penguin with baby robot.
Bossa Nova's launch comes on the heels of the opening of Carnegie Science Center's roboworld™, the world's largest permanent robotics exhibition, and further establishes Pittsburgh's position as the nation's hub for robotics education, research and development. Penbo and Prime-8 will be used in roboworld's innovative Robot Workshop to help visitors understand the many uses of robotic technology beyond familiar industrial environments and experience the many ways robots are already in their homes.
Bossa Nova's robots evolved from RHex, a fast-moving, agile, hexapod robot which was developed from 1999 to 2004 as a collaboration between the CMU Robotics Institute and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). RHex provided the platform for Bossa Nova's 'Ani-Motion' robotic technology - a revolutionary lifelike robotic mechanism loosely based on animalistic locomotion. With a vision to bring personal robots to every home, Bossa Nova spent four years further developing the RHex technology to make it affordable and capable of age-appropriate, robot-human interactivity.
Underlining Bossa Nova's research and product development is the Japan Robotics Association's forecast that the market for personal and lifestyle robots will grow to $15 billion by 2015. According to United States ABI Research, approximately 75% of the market is attributed to entertainment robotics with the majority of sales driven by children's robots.
"The technology behind Prime-8 and Penbo has only previously been seen in multi-million dollar research projects," said Sarjoun Skaff, CEO, Bossa Nova, Ph.D Robotics, CMU. "To make this kind of technology available to children is unprecedented and what we've seen in all of our focus groups is that both kids and adults are impressed by Penbo and Prime-8's technology and lifelike movements."
Continued Skaff, "Children's robotics is just the start, in the future we envisage creating Bossa Nova robots that will change the way we work, play, learn and stay safe."
Not your primitive primate, Prime-8 mimics the way boys play. Prime-8's intense interactivity is powered by a battery of sensors that allow him to respond to people and his environment. Outbound sight and sound sensors help Prime-8 maneuver around obstacles, respond to questions with grunts and growls, and express himself. A fast-paced, powerful and fun gorilla robot with a strong personality, his personality radically transforms from a friendly, funny gorilla with warm blue eyes to a ‘Gone Bananas!' robot, beating the floor and roaring from the top of his lungs, with circuits crackling and furious red eyes.
On the other end of the robot spectrum is Penbo, an adorable interactive and waddling penguin robot who surprises little girls when she lays an egg. When the egg is opened, out comes Bebe - a tiny baby penguin that will chirp and communicate with its mother. Penbo is aware of her surroundings, loves to dance, plays games and talks with Baby in Penguish, her own language; she responds to touch with blinking eyes, flapping wings, and cooing sounds and is a perfect robot companion for little girls to nurture.
Prime-8 will be available to consumers for the first time on QVC on July 25. Penbo will make her consumer debut on QVC in mid-August. Both products will be available online on August 1st and on shelves at retailers nationwide for the holiday season.

About Bossa Nova Robotics
Bossa Nova Robotics has been redefining the robotics industry since 2005. A spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotic Institute, Bossa Nova creates enriching entertainment experiences by combining the magic of agile robots with the power of play. Based in the nation's robotics capital, Pittsburgh, PA, the Company designs and manufactures personal robots for consumer use. Bossa Nova was created based on a dream that kids everywhere would one day have an opportunity to interact with a new generation of toy robots. Unlike anything on the market, Bossa Nova's robots showcase a new relationship between technology and toys. Kids love Bossa Nova's robots because they're exciting and funny; parents love them because they have a family-friendly play pattern. In the coming years, Bossa Nova will apply its robotics expertise to security, health, education and home care markets. For more information about Bossa Nova Robotics, please visit www.bnconcepts.com.

The signal from the tape head is transmitted via FM radio to a receiver, which then records the glitchy sound of a robot dutifully following a strip of magnetized acetate. Future revisions will add remote-control. [Instructables via MAKE]

This is great news for HAL's target market: Its ability to grant its wearer tenfold strength increases during specific actions could change the lives of people with degenerative muscle diseases, or accident victims who would otherwise need long, difficult rehabilitative therapy to regain basic mobility. And with a five-hour battery life, it could be quite practical for day to day use.

It's also great news for extreme hobbyists, certain factory workers and the children of the rich, who can enjoy near-full robotization for about $4200 when these things start rolling off the line. The first run, to be sold in Japan, is planned at 400 units, so unless you can make the case that your RoboCop fantasies are more important than giving a dystrophic Japanese child his legs back, you might still have a while to wait. [HPlus Magazine via Slashdot]

But what's this "soft robot" thing, you ask? Easy. It's your traditional autonomous robot, with limbs that bend, flex and fit into a variety of places, a la our aquatic friend the octopus. Like the cephalopod, there will also be no hard surfaces or bones, meaning—in theory—this robot will be able to survey the ocean floor with the dexterity as the octopi.

You can see how these limbs work in the video (short commercial to start), as well as how scientists are trying to recreate this organic feat in something artificial as part of a multi-million dollar research effort to explore the world's oceans.

Aside from looking like a Pinocchio dildo, the artificial soft robot limb does sort of resemble an octopus. Robots have long been portrayed as humanoid, clunky, or at the least very mechanical in nature. If soft robotics pans out, it could change that dynamic pretty substantially.

[New Scientist]

They're also quicker. A human's muscle fibers can contract 10% per second, but these can contract 40,000 percent.

I had no idea synthetic muscles materials have come so far. A few years ago, when I was covering JPL's robotic arm wrestling challenge for Wired, the materials had a fraction of the potential of organic muscles. [Wired]

It's got a new butt sensor, in addition to the usual antennae. It's cheap too, only $10.

As it moves, the legs undulate in a wavy, spooky motion. If it was as big as Theo's creatures it would mulch any puppies or small children caught in its path. And if it want to, it could bring them or any other prey closer with its extendable grippy claw.

They're not sure yet if they're going to sell the kit, which uses standard Vex electronics, but new customized metal parts. If they do, they'd be aiming for a $99 price point.

There's nothing terribly groundbreaking here, but this online exhibition is the next best thing to seeing him live at Disneyland. How does he balance? It's there. How does he see? Got it. How heavy is his battery? Find out! Can he love? On this, Honda is silent (yes?). [Honda via BusinessWire via Crunchgear]

Seriously, the guy is obviously a genius, but everything he makes scares the crap out of me. In this case his Einstein head, debuted in Long Beach, CA at the TED exhibition and covered by Reuters, runs a "machine empathy" program developed by the Institute for Neural Computation at UCSD.

Using two cameras, cleverly hidden within Einstein's big gray eyes, the bot recognizes a face then gazes into it, looking for feedback on 13 parameters like an eyebrow raise, a nose wrinkle, and of course a smile.

This is apparently the fourth creepy Einstein that Hanson has cooked up, but the first with this advanced software, and the first with 32 motors to mimic face muscles. Clearly it has the "drunk grandpa" look down, but I still want to see it do "sad puppy" and "I understand the workings of the universe and you don't."

Says Hanson, "This is a robot that can understand feeling and mimic." Here's a couple more of the Dallas-based maverick's machinations:
• Zeno the robot Hanson named after his own son
• Jules, the bald emo man-baby

OK so what comes next, you brilliant weirdo? One thing's for sure, I'd hate to read your dream diary. [Reuters]

Built by Dutch designer Ivo Vos in 2006, this is one of the coolest robots I've ever seen. It's amazing in its simplicity, and its ability to stare at a screen and respond with its little fingers just like we do.

Once a robot can out-solenoid me at Street Fighter, though, then we might have a problem. [Ivo Vos via BBG via Gizmowatch]

Kuka robot arms are nearly ubiquitous in heavy automated manufacturing plants for cars, airplanes, IKEA—everything. These two particular Kuka DJs are from an installation called juke_bots from a few years back. They can select any number of records from their nearby crates, and play selected parts of them by lifting them up to waiting styli. Grandmasters they are not, but they're also, er, machines. [robotlab via Bot Junkie]

Murata claims that Little Seiko is designed to look like a kindergarten-aged girl, but I can't help but see the likeness to EVE, WALL-E's incorrigibly charming onscreen lady interest. The odd, outstretched arms (which are likely vital for balancing) and Pith helmet make the robot a little less endearing than its Pixar counterpart, but the resemblance is undeniable. Little Seiko's big debut is slated for CEATEC 2008, when we'll actually get to see this thing in action. [CrunchGear]

In the second part Kamen talks about how the arm's control systems were developed, simplifying an 18-degrees of freedom movement space so that it could be controlled almost subconsciously by the user.
Part three is where Kamen talks about his not-for profit scheme to get young people interested in science through robots: "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" (FIRST); "like sports, nobody ever walks around saying 'I wanna be second'."

Interesting stuff, as I said, and the Luke arm seems to have a pretty astounding future ahead of it. I can't help thinking I'd've asked a few more direct questions though. Is the arm dexterous enough for it to let a wearer/user use the toilet? When the Luke arm gets to that level of sophistication—and, more importantly, when its developer/users trust it enough to do intimate tasks like that with it—that's the point at which I reckon the arm will stop being a science-technology showpiece and really make a difference in people's lives. Over to you in the comments. [Kara.AllthingsD]

I'm a sucker for animatronic noises. They always make me laugh for some reason.

[RoboCommunity]

Though news of the Waalbot actually surfaced last fall, EngineeringTV has good footage of the gecko-like robot in action. The Waalbot has two legs with three micro-suction adhesive pods each, letting one pod stay attached to the wall while the other two rotate forward. It is also an autonomous bot with an RF transmitter on its back, allowing for wireless control. This is cool and all, but is it too much to ask for some giant-sized pods for my own usage? Check out the video below. [Carnegie-Mellon via EngineeringTV]