Type02: Secret Son of Darth Vader and C-3PO can Rip Your Head Off
This cross between Darth Vader and C-3PO is not really a robot like we told you before, but I bet it can still squash your head like a ripe melon with its air servos. The 220-pound, 6-feet-tall beast with 24 movable parts is really an automaton designed to mimic a protocol droid, which means that…
Robotic Vanity Mirror Concept Follows Your Mug Around the Room
Face-tracking webcams are a dime a dozen, but this is the first time we’ve seen a mirror that zeros in on your face, following our ugly mug regardless of whether we duck or tilt. The mirror was created by Marie Sester, and although it’s only a concept, it works just like you’d imagine. The only…
Afghanistan Rescue Robot Hauls Suitcases, Drags Ass
I encountered this Star Wars reject at the RoboBusiness 2007 conference in Boston this week. Not only can this crane-happy robot diffuse bombs, hold a fire hose, and give injections, it will also drag your ass six ways from Sunday across the craggy desert—usually to safety, though in my case it was at high velocity…
Robot Fights in Osaka, Where Referees Talk to Things Without Ears
Dum-da-duuuuuuum! I wish I had some fabulously portentious-sounding music to play you, complete with booming timpani, to announce some mano a mano between a bunch of Robotos and their crazy machines. Oh, hold on. Play that video and you’ll have it. This is a recent Robot Fight, which took place in Osaka between a bunch…
RoboBusiness Roundup: Some Robots Get Emotional, Others Get Physical
The IZI Robotics development team must be composed of elves, oompa loompas, or leprechauns. I couldn’t find a robot that was bigger than a Swiffer head at their booth. They had roving robots that traced dark lines, wheel-based cubes that kicked around a golf ball, wireless "emotional network robots" (Netoys) that looked like winged Boos…
Bionic Baby Seals Keep Old People From Feeling Lonely
Want to know what the Japanese government has been doing with 12 million dollars for the past two years? Developing Silver Technology, that is, robots for lonely old people. The intuitive baby harp seal, which I encountered at the RoboBusiness 2007 conference in Boston, is equipped with internal motion sensors and responds to petting, scratching…