It’s a good thing this video speaks for itself, because there is zero additional info on this robot. What you see is what you get, and what you see is a robot standing up (almost) like no robot has stood up (almost) before. Most of the time, when humanoid robots fall over, either they can’t stand up, or they do so by folding at the middle into a weird sort of pushup. This is much more graceful and damn cool.

If you can ferret out anything else about this bot, please let me know in the comments, ’cause I’d love to know more.

Update: More info over at Educating Silicon

[ TV In Japan ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Case Western Reserve has an entire lab dedicated to biologically inspired robots, some of which we’ve covered before. This guy is BILL-Ant, which stands for “Biologically-Inspired Legged Locomotion Ant.” Like a real ant, he’s a hexapod. He has 18 degrees of freedom in his legs, with a movable neck and force sensing mandibles. Also like a real ant, BILL-Ant can lift things. Although he can’t quite match the 20x lifting power of leaf cutter ants, this 6 pound bot can transport 7 pounds on his back, or stand still while holding 19 pounds. In the future, the designers anticipate multiple BILL-Ant robots autonomously cooperating to move objects and destroy all humans. Wait, scratch that, they’re just going to move objects. Let’s hope.

Click through to the BILL-Ant website to see some videos, although you’ll probably be underwhelmed at this stage in his development.

[ BILL-Ant ] VIA [ Robot Living ]

They may not be as warm or fuzzy or drooly, but a study conducted in nursing homes by researchers from St. Louis University has shown that a Sony AIBO is (in this case, at least) as equally effective as a real mutt named Sparky when it comes to alleviating loneliness. A group of 38 patients got weekly visits from either Sparky or the AIBO, and after 7 weeks, “both dogs provided virtually equal comfort.”

“The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments,” said Dr. William Banks, a professor of geriatric medicine who worked on the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. “It really improves loneliness considerably… Loneliness is common in nursing homes. Robots may be very useful for people who cannot for whatever reason have access to a living dog.”

All things considered, AIBO is actually a rather primitive robotic pet… Pleo, for example, offers tactile skin, much more in the way of movement, and a real artificial personality. The key point when it comes to real versus artificial pets is that real pets take a lot of work. If you have a real pet, you know what I’m talking about. So, if there’s no significant difference between the benefits real and artificial pets in a nursing home context, an artificial pet would be much easier to deal with on a day to day basis for most people. Hooray, Pleos for everyone!

[ Reuters ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

You can blame Yahoo news for that headline, but the content of this article quotes Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield (the one in England) as arguing that the increasing availability, decreasing cost, and constantly improving features of consumer robotics makes it inevitable that extremist groups will start using them against military forces:

“The trouble is that we can’t really put the genie back in the bottle. Once the new weapons are out there, they will be fairly easy to copy. How long is it going to be before the terrorists get in on the act? With the current prices of robot construction falling dramatically and the availability of ready-made components for the amateur market, it wouldn’t require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons.”

Sharkey suggests that a small GPS-guided drone with an autopilot could be made for about $500. In 2006, Hezbollah flew Iranian-made UAVs over Israel, and used one with an explosives payload to ram an Israeli warship. Obviously, using UAVs and other robots as weapons isn’t impossible, but I might question how practical (and realistic) it will be in the near future considering the present effectiveness of relatively primitive terrorist and insurgent tactics. Sharkey will be giving a talk entitled “The Ethics of Autonomous Military Systems” to the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London this Wednesday.

[ RUSI ] VIA [ Yahoo News ]

The SoftBank 815T cellphone may not be a cool as this robot phone, but it is slightly more functional (albeit less robot-y) than this one. The phone itself is ho-hum, with 3G, a 3.2 mpx camera, and a QVGA screen. You turn it into a little mech figure by gluing (yes, gluing) matching arms and legs to the body of the phone. I guess, um, it might be useful as a speakerphone stand, but it’ll certainly cut down on the portability a little bit. The SoftBank phone is made to accessorize a new Japanese TV drama for teenagers called Ketai Sousakan 7, which apparently is supposed to feature robotic phones in some way.

I love you, Japan… You and your crazy robot phones.

VIA [ Akihabara News ]

The Bow Shooting Mechanized Boy Robot is a fully functional archer, who never misses his target. Well, as long as the target remains stationary. He pulls an arrow from the his quiver beside him, then loads the bow, aims and fires. Sure, it’s not maniacal robot carnage or anything, but the clockwork art of this mechanical device is to be appreciated. It’s made in the traditional style of traditional Japanese Karakuri puppets, which are mechanized dolls that date back to at least the 17th century.

Simple and elegant, it consists of the pedestal, the boy, and a hanging target. The craftsmanship outside is matched within, by the complexity of the gear assemblies. The English instructions make for quite a read, with over 50 pages, detailing everything. You get almost everything you need in the kit: tools, gears and parts. It also comes completely assembled for $300. Check out the video after the jump.
(Read more…)

When you hear about a robot that makes food or drink of any kind, your first thought is that the end result must be good, right? Otherwise, why bother using a robot at all? Surely a robot must be capable of making a great cup of joe. I’m sure that’s the case. However, this robot from the DEXMART project, known as Justine, while being agile enough and precise enough to make coffee, only makes the instant variety. I guess they figure it’s a start, and maybe the bot will go on to better things one day, but I think I’ll pass.

Naples University Professor Bruno Siciliano heads the project. He believes that useful, two-armed robots are only now being realized. After all, one-armed robots work a variety of jobs, like assembling cars. He thinks that the era of the two-armed robot is at hand and that they will revolutionize our lives in less that 15 years.

[DEXMART] VIA [Dvice]

Do you fit into one of the following categories:

-Girls who are reaching or having reached puberty, hope to improve the growth of breast.

-Women, who are under pressure, want to relax themselves.

-Women who want to improve the quality of their sex activities.

-Women who want to have pretty breasts.

If so, the Breast Massage Robot, designed by Wei Wang and the Beijing BUBBY Robot Technologies CO., LTD, may be for you. Details are alarmingly sketchy about this amazing new technology, but according to the website soliciting corporate investment, “the massage is performed by both head and poles, during the massage the former circles as well as the latter draws and drops.” Ah, I get it now. More than 1,000 units per day are projected to sell in North America alone, and the designers say their goal is nothing less than “to make the BMR the hottest high-tech product worldwide.” Best of luck, guys, best of luck.

[ BUBBY BMR ] VIA [ DRB ]

Believe it or not, some of the toys that get DARPA money do make it into general use in the armed services. The Crusher UGV has just graduated from its birthplace at Carnegie Mellon, and is entering the army, albeit a stateside research arm thereof. From the video, it looks like it’s been updated with a new sensor suite, probably to improve its autonomous obstacle avoidance capabilities… It looks a lot like some of the sensors on DARPA Grand/Urban Challenge vehicles, for good reason: they work, especially when designed by CMU. This version of Crusher is designed to navigate itself between GPS waypoints without human intervention, although fully autonomous deployment is still a ways away. Hopefully, passenger cars will be categorized as obstacles to avoid, rather than crush, by then. Video after the jump. (Read more…)

I’m not entirely sure what Pleo was doing at the Game Developer’s Conference taking place in San Francisco this week, but I’m not complaining. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that despite having written about robots since last August, I’ve never actually seen a Pleo in person until today. And he’s so cute that I want to stab my eyes out with his tail.

If you’re not familiar with Pleo, he’s a little robotic dinosaur with all kinds of artificial intelligence. He has cameras, touch sensors, and motion sensors all over his rubbery little body, and his personality (which he has in spades) actually evolves over time depending on how you treat him. He’s $350, available online. After the jump, check out another video of the typical Pleo reaction, which is generally some variation on OMG CUTE I WANT ONE!!! (Read more…)