Elvis the cat got into an accident with a truck and lost the use of his hind legs. His owner, BattleBot designer Carlo Bertocchini, did the only sensible thing and built a robot to help Elvis get around. Elvis is able to accelerate and steer the bot with his front paws, and he seems to get the idea. It turns out that Elvis is not the first cyborg cat; apparently the CIA tried to turn cats into eavesdropping devices back in the 60s. You can read more about that, and decide for yourself whether it’s true or not, here.

[ Team BioHazard ] VIA [ Fark ]

In Fact this little robot has a taste for wine. He’s what is known as a sommelier.(That’s fancy talk for a wine taster.) And that’s what got him into the 2008 Guinness World Records Book. They have recognized him as the world’s very first robot sommelier. He was developed by NEC and Atsushi Hashimoto’s team at Mie University. As far as robots go, he’s got one of the snootier jobs. You can almost feel him thinking that he’s better then you. And he is. He can accurately assess the type of wine and the ingredients by simply holding a sensor over the bottle.

This little guy is not a one trick pony either. If his divining of wine doesn’t impress you, he also has the ability to differentiate between various kinds of fruits and cheeses. Thankfully, this robot still resides in the lab, he’s not quite ready to piss off high society as a Robo-Know-It-All just yet.

[The Yomiuri Shimbun] VIA [Dvice]

Developed by Japanese researchers, this is the world’s first Saxophone-playing Robot. It’s capable of playing some highly complex pieces like John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, which you can see in the video after the jump. I’m no music critic, but it’s fascinating to watch as you can see it’s “fingers” moving to open and close the valves on the instrument. Now if they can hook this one up to some other robot-instruments, pretty soon they are all going to be able to play together and have it sound halfway decent. Maybe this one can team up with Toyota’s violin playing robot. Personally, I think the Cantina song from Star Wars would have been more appropriate.

Video after the jump.
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This is a concept video of the Blackswift unmanned hypersonic bomber. It’s powered by engines which transition between turbojets under Mach 2, ramjets to get near Mach 6, and finally scramjets to put the cruise speed (not sprint speed, cruise speed) up to around Mach 10. That would give the bomber 2 hour worldwide precision strike capability.

Lockheed is currently designing a technology demonstrator of the Blackswift, designated the HTV-3X. If DARPA secures $800 million in funding for it in 2009, this thing could actually be built. Part 2 of the above vid, after the jump. (Read more…)

Tatsuya Matsui is exhibiting robots with the ability to evoke human emotions, which is an absolute necessity if we are to get them in every home and be treated like a family member. A robot can’t live side by side with emotional humans, if it can’t share and respond in the emotional experience of humans. The exhibition is entitled “Flower Robotics”. Matsui believes that robots are like flowers. That they can be delicate and beautiful at the same time. He also believes they are endearing and need nurturing.

Take Posy for instance, a wedding maiden designed to express a 3-year-old girl’s pure view of the world. She can’t do much but proffer flowers, but never fails to evoke empathy in the viewer. This emotional response somehow manages to overcome the creep factor of the blank face and dead eyes of the robot.

Metri is a large and grub-like robot with soft skin that gropes about in a creepy fashion. Matsui is interested in our reactions to inanimate objects that seem to be alive. His machines somehow manage to sooth rather then frighten.

Palette, the mannequin robot is a white humanoid on a spotlighted black dais. Palette actually has a practical use though. By gracefully swinging its arms it can enhance the appeal of any blouse it wears. It’s resume already includes modeling for Louis Vuitton and Hane Mori designs. Plus, a vision sensor allows Palette to react to any viewers’ presence.

Tatsuya Matsui somehow succeeds in bridging the emotional gulf between humans and robots, where many others have failed.

[Japan Times]

Surface tension is really, really neat: it’s what causes liquids to form spheres in microgravity, and what allows insects like water striders to skate across still water without sinking. It’s a very efficient means of travel, and it’s also fast: water striders are some of the fastest moving insects in the world, able to traverse 100 body-lengths per second (that scales up to a human running 400 mph). What better insect to inspire a robot? Carnegie Mellon University’s NanoRobotics lab has been able to create this robotic water strider, which is able to walk (and even bounce) on still water. Potential applications are diverse, but include obvious things like water quality management, espionage, and creeping people out. Video:

[ CMU Water Strider ] VIA [ Environmental Graffiti ]

This cool little project by Jelte van Geest won’t record what you’re saying or reconstruct itself, but it will follow you around and provide comfortable seating. There aren’t many technical specs, but it looks like you can check the chair out with a RFID card. The chair follows discreetly behind you, and is there whenever you need a little break. As soon as you leave the library, the chair returns autonomously to a charging slot. A whole bale of chairs can be controlled at once, automatically arranging themselves into seating appropriate for lectures and such.

Apparently, part of the inspiration for the Take_a_seat project is that, according to Jelte, robots have an image problem. Here’s his perception of things, which I got a kick out of:

[ Take_a_seat ] VIA [ Core77 ]

Twendy One’s odd name comes from the name of its predecessor and sister bot, Wendy. As Japan braces for a labor shortage in human services, they are hoping that robots like Twendy One will help in a variety of ways. Twendy has apparently mastered the difficult art of the soft touch, which comes in handy for chores like taking toast out of the toaster without crushing it and serving you crumbs. He could probably handle an egg without breaking it. The fingertips are made of soft material and modeled after human hands. The torso even has four degrees of freedom allowing it to bend to the floor to pick up objects, or wipe spills with ease.

With the same arm length and reach as an average human female, the robot should be able to tackle a lot. The hand alone has thirteen degrees of freedom for dexterity. It’s clear that a lot of attention was paid to detail with this robot. The head is more then just a spine ornament. It has two CCD cameras and a force sensor that will detect anything touching it. So you can smack it and it will know, which makes a human feel good.

You can watch some new videos here.

[Twendy-One] VIA [RedFerret Journal]

We all shed a tear when Sony’s AIBO was discontinued in 2006. It’s almost too much to hope for that the robot shown above might actually be produced, and Stuff magazine agrees, giving the concept a depressing 53% probability of becoming a reality in the consumer market. Supposedly, the Sony AIBO PS would be able to integrate with PS3s and PSPs, allowing you to control the robot directly and view a live feed from its camera. I don’t really buy the rumor that the AIBO PS is an attempt to “bolster the PS3′s arsenal,” since it’s not likely to be cheap, and (based on other similar robots) would probably be much more effective as a robot with PS3/PSP integration, as opposed to a PS3/PSP with a robot accessory.

Click on the pic above to see a fullsize version over at Kotaku.

VIA [ Kotaku ]