Tag archive: Robotics

Back in October, we gave you a look at Boston Dynamic’s four legged creation the LS3 — Legged Squad Support Systems — also known as AlphaDog, which was equal parts scary and amazing. For those that may be unfamiliar with Boston Dynamics’s robotic Rover, the DARPA-funded robot was designed to lift – er, carry – the burden of soldiers by effectively slugging around their equipment over rough terrain. As many active and former soldiers… Read More

Coffee tables are rarely very interactive, and unless there's something very interesting sitting on top of them, aren't usually the focal point of a room either. This would all change if you owned a Zen Table, though. The brainchild of Simon Hallam, a software developer whose previous credits include working for Rare back in the late 80s to recently developing the award-winning Wik: Fable of Souls for the Xbox, the Zen Table sees art… Read More

The heart of CES is consumer technology–the odds and ends that are sure to hit your homes and wishlists within the next year. The show floor is full of every predictable type of user electronic, from cameras and laptops, to refrigerators and cars. While it’s all new and some of it edges on conceptual, it’s based in reality. But there’s one department that doesn’t have its feet as firmly on the ground, and that’s robotics. We took a stroll… Read More

Let’s face it, robots are awesome. We, as a society, and perhaps even more broadly, as a species have had a fascination for our eventual robotic overlords dating to as far back as ancient China, Greece, and ancient Egypt. All of which are recorded to have attempted to build self-operating machines, some resembling animals as well as humans. It would appear that this tradition has not been lost on modern society, as Norwegian engineer Kåre… Read More

Robots are often used to great effect these days thanks to incredibly advanced technology giving them the ability to get to places too confined or too dangerous for humans. But did you know that they can also make sandwiches? It’s true – engineers at the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have come up with a pair of robots called Rosie and James that are capable of making salami sandwiches as… Read More

Engineers at a robotics design firm in Bristol, UK have come up with a unique snake-like machine that wouldn’t look out of place in a big budget sci-fi movie. Developed by OC Robotics, engineers have been working on the revolutionary bendy robot, known as the snake-arm, for the last 10 years. The result is a remarkable piece of technology that can, according to its designers, “reach the unreachable.” Industries around the world have been showing… Read More

Move over, BigDog, there's a new headless, quadrupedic robot in town — and its name is AlphaDog. Robots manufacturer Boston Dynamics recently debuted some video of the next-generation robotic “mule” it's developing as a method for transporting military equipment around uneven terrain. The company has been working on a four-legged machine for hauling gear since 2005, and its videos featuring the “BigDog” robots… Read More

Don't worry — if robots try to take over the world tomorrow, the average human can still outrun them. Unfortunately, that's about all the reassurance we can offer after watching a new video of MABEL, the running robot developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon. In the footage (posted below), MABEL is seen jogging around a circular track at various speeds, liftings its “knees” and running as… Read More

Back in December 2009, we told you about Touch Bionics' ProDigits bionic finger, one of the first powered bionic solutions for people who have lost fingers. The technology was heralded for its innovative use of individual motors in each finger joint, its ease of use, and, well… its astronomical price tag. In the time since their initial announcement, the upper-limb bionics specialists have moved on to creating full bionic hands, and… Read More

Designed for a class project in just under a month, the 'Jedibot' is a pre-fabricated, bright orange robotic arm that has been programmed to attack students with a red foam lightsaber. The robotic arm chooses a random attack and the student under attack defends with a green lightsaber. The arm has been set to only attack every two or three seconds, so the speed of attacks can easily be blocked. However, it's likely that the… Read More

The uncanny valley is a theory that attempts to explain the feeling of uneasiness or creepiness we've all experienced when we see a video game, movie, or robot that looks extremely human. Video games, movies, and robotics are continually present us with creations that look more and more human-like. Have you ever seen The Polar Express or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? Or perhaps you've played one of the many hyper-realistic… Read More

Today the journal Science and the National Science Foundation announced the honorees for the 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. Judges select winners from four categories: Photography, Illustrations, Informational Posters/Graphics and Non-Interactive Media. The NSF treats the contest as a way of engaging the public in scientific research. “How many people would have heard of fractal geometry or the double helix… Read More

From the moment Kinect hit shelves, people starting tearing it apart (literally, not figuratively). While the idea of a controller-free, motion-detection gaming device is an exciting one, hacking that device to pieces and exploring its full capabilities is what really seems to have gotten hold of the tech community. No sooner had it been announced that a developer had hacked Kinect to run on a PC, than Microsoft voiced it was very disappointed… Read More

Adafruit Industries, the MIT-backed, open-source-loving, DIY electronics company, has found a winner for its hack the Kinect competition. Formally called the Open Kinect (or OK) project, it was launched shortly before the release of Microsoft’s new motion-detection game console, and offered up $2,000 to the first person who could hack the Kinect (under an open source license) and run it on Windows. Why you ask? As Adafruit writes, “Imagine being… Read More

Most of us take little things like holding a glass or brushing our teeth for granted. For some people who have lost hands or fingers, these tasks can be impossible to accomplish without help or specialized equipment.