Robots

SMRT-1 Concept Art (1982)

This concept art for the SMRT-1 robot at EPCOT Center is dated May 3, 1982. SMRT-1 was featured at the Communicore exhibit and “spoke” with visitors via telephones while playing trivia games. The Widen Your World website has a pretty thorough breakdown of the Communicore exhibit. Their photograph of SMRT-1 appears below. Communicore was closed…

Tech News Matt Novak

Army’s Miniature Spy-Bat Concept Makes Lucius Fox Drool

Army dudes sat down with scientists at University of Michigan and other schools and asked for a simple frickin’ bionic bat with frickin’ stereo cameras, miniaturized radar, ultra-sensitive self-guidance, “energy scavenging” recharging capability and a radio to send data back to troops in urban combat zones. Was that too much to ask? Here’s how it’s…

Tech News Wilson Rothman

First Pictures of Completed Dextre Giant Space Robot

After three space walks, Dextre—the robot that will now service the International Space Station—has been completed today, and is now ready for activation. I was watching it live on NASA TV and grabbed these shots (yes, I am that sad) of this fully-assembled gigantastic space spider. To get a sense of how big it is,…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

Tennis Ball Cannon is a Dog’s Best Robotic Friend

Now, a beer launching fridge I can understand, but a tennis ball cannon? I find it amusing when someone spends a tremendous amount of time and effort building something that can automate basic functions—like throwing a tennis ball to a wiener dog. But the results speak for themselves. It is an inspiration for lazy people…

Tech News Sean Fallon

Dogoid Robot with No Head Moves in an Eerily Lifelike Manner

It looks like something out of a James Thurber illustration, with its headless body and backward-dog legs, but the Big Dog is real and autonomous. This video, by the Big Dog development team at Boston Dynamics, shows just how lifelike the bot is. It can carry over 300 pounds, and its engines make an alien…

io9 Annalee Newitz

New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It’s Spooky

Update: If you were amazed by this, don’t miss the hilarious spoof. It’s even better. Boston Dynamics keeps working on their BigDog quadruped robot, which will probably grow to be the future AT-AT of the Pentagon. Its evolution since the last time we saw it is nothing sort of mindblowing, and a bit spooky. https://gizmodo.com/video-of-bigdog-beta-quadruped-robot-is-so-stupid-its-h-372272…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

Houdini Was the First Person to Fight a Robot on Film

That headline is one of those insane things you never expect to write, or even read, in your lifetime, but newly restored Houdini movies show that he’s the first person EVER to fight a robot on film. If you’re at all interested in robots, Houdini, or some combination of the two going at it, get…

Movies Jason Chen

NASA Sending Robots into Space to do Astronauts’ Dirty Work

NASA is sending a $200 million, Canadian-built robot named Dextre (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator) up to the International Space Station to help carryout spacewalk missions too dangerous for humans to attempt. The currently disassembled robot is being flown up on the Space Shuttle Endeavour and will be built up on the Space Station. Once constructed,…

Space & Spaceflight Adrian Covert

Battlebots Returns, This Time to ESPN

Battlebots never quite made sense on Comedy Central, but hell, we’d watch robots fight on the Spanish channel hosted by that bee suit guy if necessary. Now the show is coming back, limiting the challenge pool to collegiate and pro competition and airing on ESPN2 or ESPNU. Plus, some other neat changes are in the…

Gadgets Mark Wilson

Robot Halloween Costumes (1950s)

Flickr user Neato Coolville has this great photo from the 1950s of kids dressed as robots for Halloween. See also: Robots: The World of the Future (1979) Closer Than We Think! Robot Housemaid (1959) How Experts Think We’ll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)

Tech News Matt Novak

It’s the Adam Frucci White Guy Dance Robot!

You know what you want. You want a white guy dance. You want a white guy dance right now. Unfortunately, our Adam Frucci is quite busy at the moment, which is why you’re going to have to settle for this white guy dance robot, complete with green torso, red crotch/legs, and yellow arms. If you…

Gadgets Jason Chen

Badass Robot Will Eventually Destroy Tokyo When He Grows Up

If Gigantor was the original Iron Man (he was called Tetsujin 28-gō, which means “Iron Man #28”), the sleek-black 5.5-pound 17-inch-tall BlackOx robot has to be the predecesor of Titanium Man. And like Titanium Man, this biped fighting robot is also probably the only baddy that really looks like he can kick Iron Man’s ass.…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

Pixar’s Wall•e New Full Trailer Blasts Us Into Space

I’ve to confess that I wasn’t sure about Pixar’s upcoming Wall•e, the story of a robot who is left behind to clean Earth by a starbound human race. After seeing how amazingly mindblowtastic the full trailer is, it’s now higher than the greatest drunk hero of all time in the must-watch list, although still below…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

Canadian Robot Conquers Space

The looming 12-foot tall robot Dextre (pronounced “Dexter”) just hitched a ride on the Space Shuttle Endeavour to be assembled on the International Space Station. When he’s put together, the Canadian robot will be able to take on high-risk activities, like changing out components, that would otherwise require a spacewalk by the astronauts. Dextre’s arms…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Bionic Breakbeats, or The Best Robot Songs

If you’re a post-human robot living in a world that’s long since been discarded by humanity, you’re going to want some tunes to listen to. Or at least process them through your sub-neural micronet. Eventually robots will figure out how to make their own superior robo-songs, but until then we’ve compiled the definitive list of…

io9 Kevin Kelly

Robots Have Needs Too

Sometimes a robot just has to let go of some hydraulic fluid, and it’s lucky humans have provided such a convenient disposal area. This awesome robo-sculpture turned up at Lamar University, and the only thing missing from the photo is the reactions of the students who wandered into the men’s room and saw the rusty…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

ESA’s Autonomous Space Truck Blasts Off Tomorrow

The European Space Agency is launching the first Automated Transfer Vehicle tomorrow in French Guyana. Though it looks like a satellite, the ATV, christened Jules Verne, is really an unmanned cargo-hauling robot capable of carting 7.6 tons of supplies and other astro-crap up from Earth, and even tow the International Space Station itself to a…

Space & Spaceflight Wilson Rothman

The Planet of Boobies and Robots

Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity is many things: a mystery, a science fiction epic, a tale of the downtrodden rising up against a cruel master, and . . . boobies. Yes, lots and lots of boobies. Boobies in bras, boobies with robots in the background, boobies in pirate castles on remote planets. Basically, here’s the…

Movies Annalee Newitz

Sorry Dogs, Beer Robots are a Man’s New Best Friend

While dogs have been man’s loyal companion for many a era, advanced technology has made them obsolete. Thanks to Chassis, the lovable, pony keg carrying R/C beer-dispensing robot, you’ll no longer need to learn the defining characteristics of Weimaraners and terriers. Instead focus on the subtle differences between your favorite IPAs, or just stare (in…

Gadgets Mark Wilson

Robot Snakes Scare the Indy Out of Me

Unlike Indiana Jones, I generally don’t hate snakes. But seeing these modular mechanical snakes wriggling up some dude’s leg gave me shivers. The video gets scarier still when they start climbing walls and shimmying up the inside of pipes. According to the Carnegie Mellon-based developers, the elaborate “gaits” that let these robot snakes maneuver on…

Tech News Wilson Rothman

SMRT-1 Concept Art (1982)

Army’s Miniature Spy-Bat Concept Makes Lucius Fox Drool

First Pictures of Completed Dextre Giant Space Robot

Tennis Ball Cannon is a Dog’s Best Robotic Friend

Dogoid Robot with No Head Moves in an Eerily Lifelike Manner

New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It’s Spooky

Houdini Was the First Person to Fight a Robot on Film

NASA Sending Robots into Space to do Astronauts’ Dirty Work

Battlebots Returns, This Time to ESPN

Robot Halloween Costumes (1950s)

It’s the Adam Frucci White Guy Dance Robot!

Badass Robot Will Eventually Destroy Tokyo When He Grows Up

Pixar’s Wall•e New Full Trailer Blasts Us Into Space

Canadian Robot Conquers Space

Bionic Breakbeats, or The Best Robot Songs

Robots Have Needs Too

ESA’s Autonomous Space Truck Blasts Off Tomorrow

The Planet of Boobies and Robots

Sorry Dogs, Beer Robots are a Man’s New Best Friend

Robot Snakes Scare the Indy Out of Me

China Is Trying to Grow New Forests in This Notorious Mega-Desert. It’s Working

RAM Prices Are Threatening the Viability of the Raspberry Pi and Single-Board Computing

Michael B. Jordan’s First Post-Oscars Film Looks Way Cuter Than ‘Sinners’

LLMs Will Protect Each Other if Threatened, Study Finds

The Octopus Penis Arm Doesn’t Just Deliver Sperm—It Sniffs Out the Sweet Spot

Revisiting the Ending of ‘Chainsaw Man’ Through the Lens of Japanese Folklore

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