Two New Samsung Robot Vacuums: VC-RS60, VC-RS60H
Samsung has added two new robot vacuums to their lineup in Korea, the Zairo-designed (who?) VC-RS60 and VC-RS60H. Although the robots self-recharge like good robots do, they also can be called up when you’re out and told to clean up the place. Having had two Roombas crap out on me in the last few weeks—one…
Lego Mindstorms NXT Impressions
Although I received my Lego Mindstorms NXT kit in the mail early last week, it wasn’t until yesterday that I really had a chance to dig in, spending a whole day working through the included instructions. It’s difficult to completely review NXT in the entirety of its potential as it’s the first set of new…
PSP-Controlled French Robot
France must be riding high, having just knocked Brazil out of the World Cup. When not crushing South American dreams, it seems the French have a passion for robots and devising unique methods of controlling them. Take this mod, for example, that uses the PSP’s Wi-Fi capabilities—and a little homebrew magic— to control this haggard-looking…
COGNITRON: It Feels Your Pain
This whole release is pretty weird—lots of rhetorical questions and little meat—but Dr. Raja Chatila of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique is working on a robot system called the COGNITRON designed specifically to help us with our every day tasks. Research breaks down into four capacities required by a cognitive robot companion:…
Swiss Planning Unmanned Marketing Drones
In the hard-edged world of international marketing, you do not want to put your boys at risk when trying to beam your message to millions via Bluetooth. Swisscom, a Swiss telecomm (hence the name), is working on remote controlled planes that will fly over concerts, malls, and battlefields, beaming down advertising messages to the surging…
Microsoft to Do the Robot
Strangely enough, Microsoft is working on a robotics toolbox for programmers to create Windows powered automatons. They are funding a lab called the Center for Innovative Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University (Go Tartans!) and should be creating BSODing help droids in the next fifty years. Could this be Bill Gates’ attempt to create a team…
BomBots Deployed in Iraq, Living Rooms
BomBots are small robots that are designed to deliver different payloads in areas of conflict, most recently in Iraq. Because of their relatively cheap price ($5,000), the U.S. military scooped up a whole bunch of them to assist in the war effort. Their small size (only 22 inches tall and 15 pounds) make them ideal…
Chimpy McChimphead and Roboreptile
Wow Wee showed us their latest and greatest last night, including a fellow we’ve seen before and who I call Chimpy McChimphead—he’s an absolute freak: just imagine some crazy chimp head screaming at you from a table—and the very cool Roboreptile. https://gizmodo.com/animitronic-monkey-head-from-wowwee-132580 Roboreptile has a new remote control and is very fleet. He can rear…
FunkIt iPod DJ Thing
We’re reposting this for the young ladies who claimed we overtly disparaged the FUNKit DJ ninja-tastic iPod speaker/robo-DJ combo. First, if you read the original article, you’ll see that our own Jason Chen was very kind to this little hunk of dancing plastic and, after closer inspection, we can honestly say that this belongs in…
Robot World Cup: Yes, We’re Obsessed
Pelé-bot, Diego Maradona-bot, Ronaldinho-bot. All names that inspire young robot boys and girls everywhere. While the real tournament is being held in just a week’s time in Germany, the RoboCup will be starting shortly thereafter on June 14, also in Deutschland. The whole point of this tournament, where robots play against each other (and by…
Robotic Roach Fools Real Ones, Teaches Them To Party Down
Europe, the same continent that produced conquistadors and the Inquisition, has now produced robotic cockroaches that scientists hope will influence cockroach societies everywhere. The scientists call the robotic roach an “Insbot” and it’s nothing more than a tiny robot the size of a matchbox that’s just oozing pheremones, causing the real roaches to accept it…