If you thought these bots were small, Duke University’s microbots are smaller. Much smaller. Measured in microns (that’s millionths of a meter), they’re 100 times smaller than any similar design at 250 microns long, 60 microns wide, and 10 microns high. The floor that the robots are dancing around in the above video is a mere millimeter across.

The tricky part (one of the tricky parts) about robots this small is getting them to do what you want them to do. These microbots move forward in tiny (10 billionths of a meter) but quick (20,000 per second) little steps in response to electrical impulses applied to the surface they’re located on. To turn, a different signal pulls one end of the bot to the surface, creating a pivot point. By slightly altering the way each bot responds to the “turn” signal, a bunch of them can be controlled at the same time, and fancy math can get the group to respond in specific ways.

Look for these bots microbots to be showing up probably a long time from now in a brain cell near you.

[ Duke University ] VIA [ Engadget ]

This adorable little teddy bear is nothing less than a fully equipped GPS guidance system for your car. In fact, he is more than fully equipped. He’s borderline over equipped. In addition to providing verbal directions, the one foot tall robot has six motorized joints in his head and neck which allow him to gesture which direction to turn while he’s talking to you. If you stroke his head, he’ll tell you about any interesting things nearby, like landmarks. Now, here’s where the over equipped part comes in: if you stop (or accelerate) suddenly, he’ll start complaining (”watch out!”). And if he smells alcohol on your breath (yes, he’ll be sniffing you), he’ll say, “you haven’t been drinking, have you?” If you don’t admit to it, he’ll punch you in the face and then issue you a DUI.

Just kidding about that last part, but he could conceivably prevent you from starting your car until you pass his Breathalyzer test. Teddy’s designers, iXs Research Corporation, would like to have a smaller version on the market next year, and he won’t be just a teddy bear. You’ll be able to choose from a variety of characters, or a purely robotic version that hopefully you’ll be able to clothe in whatever friendly costume you can tolerate taking directions from.

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

University of South Florida professor Robin Murphy has received a $500,000 grant from Microsoft to develop a robotic companion to be friends with people who find themselves stuck in uncomfortable situations. I’m not talking about airplane seats or blind dates; these robots would be designed for people stuck in disaster areas or pinned down by snipers. The “Survivor Buddy” would be able to maneuver into hard to reach or dangerous places, and could do all kinds of things to help you feel better. Like, play soothing music. Or let you video chat with loved ones. As far as actual, physical help… Well, the robot will be able to monitor your vital signs, and it can bring you some water, but don’t expect it to do much digging or drag you anywhere.

[ St. Petersburg Times ] VIA [ Smart-Machines ]

Okay, so even by my definition of robot (i.e. if I think it’s a robot, it’s a robot), this thing may not completely qualify. But there’s just something about it. Something sinister. I don’t know whether it’s the legs, the way it moves, or the scorpion tail with a decapitator on the end of it. If it ever figures out how to scuttle, I think it would seriously freak me out.

Yeah, eek.

[ Plustech ] VIA [ Like Cool ]

This Wall-E toy doesn’t appear to be either of the models we’ve seen before, and the Eve toy is definitely new. Called the InterAction Wall-E and Eve, it looks like bringing the toys near each other gets them to start pining for one another. Say it with me now: awwww. The toys also light up and make sounds and stuff; Wall-E moves his arms and head, while Eve has light-up eyes, movable arms, and makes whooshing and laser noises when you pick her up and fly her around. Looks like fun to me; I’ll be picking myself up a pair for an unknown price when they show up sometime this summer.

VIA [ Electric Pig ]

What’s round, travels in straight lines until it runs into walls, and likes to eat stuff? That’s right, Roomba. And Pac-Man. And especially Pacmba, A Roomba covered in LEDs by Ron Tajima to make a Pac-man shape. Nom nom nom.

VIA [ GetRobo ]

This piece of robotic art by Paul Granjon features a male robot and a female robot who occasionally go into heat and attempt to mate with each other. The video does a good job explaining how it all works (and don’t worry, it’s pretty sterile), but I thought it was quite interesting how these robots have been able to so effectively reduce the human sex act to the most basic mechanical action. My feeling, though, is that emulating humans is a time consuming and inefficient way for robots to reproduce. What robot sex should be is an exchange of “genetic” information (namely data) that can be used to create a more effective robot. In some ways, every time a robot downloads a new program from a computer, you’ve got a form of reproduction happening, but on that level, it’s only creating a clone, a genetic duplicate. “Sex” implies the recombining of data from two different robots to create a new and improved robot (not necessarily in the physical sense) with the most successful characteristics preserved. ‘Course, robots getting too smart is the root of just about every evil machines enslaving humanity nightmare, but if we want our robots to learn and grow and be able to adapt to serve us better, metaphorical sex is going to have to be a big part of it.

[ ZProd ] VIA [ Communist Robot ]