This is Jeppe, a prototype communication robot from Nokia, that looks to be a sort of Ikea-ized version of the WowWee Rovio or the iRobot ConnectR. It’s not a new idea, but it is Finnish:

Yeah, that would totally match my Scandinavian Modern bedroom set.

[ Nokia Smart Spaces Lab ] VIA [ Core77 ]

On a personal note, I apologize again for the lack up updates. You can expect me to be back on a normal, nay, enhanced (!) posting schedule in a week or so. By then, either all of the grapes in California will have been harvested, or I’ll be dead. Meantime, if there’s anyone out there who is qualified to pilot a Cessna T182 and knows about multispectral remote sensing and GIS, I’d like to have a word with you…

Been unimpressed with the forthrightness of the present administration? You’re not the only one. Fortunately, the Pentagon has seen fit to replace its meatsack PR people with a “mobile press engagement unit:”

Unfortunately, according to The Onion, the next step for the spokesdrone is most likely going to be the presidency itself.

[ The Onion ] VIA [ GoRobotics ]

Yeah, uh, no idea what’s going on here, but it’s pretty freakin’ cool in a WTF sort of way. Can someone who speaks Japanese tell me how much I have to pay to get in there with my boffer sword and slice me up some robot ass arm?

VIA [ Geekologie ]

Last year, we wrote about some R/C helicopters from Georgia Tech that were able to land on 60 degree slopes under computer control. Looks like Stanford has its own autonomous helicopter program, and they’ve been able to teach their helicopters to do all sorts of crazy stuff without anyone at the controls. The acrobatics in the following video are not preprogrammed maneuvers… A human pilot first performs some sample sequences, and a computer “watches” the trajectory of the helicopter and figures out how to duplicate (and improve upon) them. After the autonomous acrobatics in the video, you’ll see a set of six sample trajectories in color (flown by a puny human pilot) as well as a seventh trajectory (in white) which is what the computer calculates to be the ideal representation of the maneuvers:

There’s a ton of fancy math involved (read the paper here), but the upshot is that a computer can learn how to fly a helicopter better than an expert, after simply watching the expert fly for a while. According to Stanford, “in all cases, the autonomous helicopter’s performance exceeds that of our expert helicopter pilot’s demonstrations.” In of itself, this is not surprising, but the key here is that nobody has to program the robot to do anything specific. Programming robots to do what you want them to do is one of the biggest obstacles to practical robotics since it generally takes a substantial amount of knowledge and skill. Software like this, which allows robots to watch us and teach themselves, has a great deal of promise. And not just for helicopters… It’s also good for making omelettes.

You can see more vids on the Stanford Autonomous Helicopter Project’s YouTube channel.

[ Stanford Autonomous Helicopter ] VIA [ AI Robotics ]

So, after watching this video (by the German band Wir sind Helden), here’s my question to anyone out there who owns a Pleo, Paro, Roomba, etc… What do you do (or what will you do) when your robot breaks or becomes obsolete or outdated? Will you unceremoniously toss it in the trash recycling? Keep it around in a place of honor?

Or…

Harvest its parts to make a zombie frankenbot?

Yeah, I thought so.

VIA [ Eggshell Robotics ]

We spotted the prototype of Disney’s remote control Wall-E toy at Maker Faire back in May, and it looks like Ultimate Wall-E is now up for pre-order from Pixar Disney. It’s essentially what you’d expect from the preview we had a few months ago (albeit with an obligatory price-hike to $250), but here’s a complete run-down:

* With the original voice from the hit movie, WALL•E can chat with you. He can also dance, play music from your MP3 player (cable included), follow you around, or explore on his own. His programmable infrared remote control lets you create more than 1000 action sequence combinations!
* His eyes light up and blink with the expressions you loved in the film
* Designed with advanced technology, Ultimate WALL•E has audio, motion and obstacle sensors
* WALL•E will turn his head towards a sound and respond thanks to 4 audio sensors that give him 360-degree sound detection.
* 4 motion sensors, 3 in the front and 1 in the back, allow WALL•E to detect motion and trigger his curiosity
* Obstacle sensors enable WALL•E to detect obstacles in his path to avoid collisions
* WALL•E’s arms move up and down, hands grip and rotate 360 degrees and his body tilts forward and backward plus he has real working treads
* Play modes include Follow-U mode, Explore mode, Dance mode, MP3 Music mode and Program mode plus he has an interactive Talk Back feature
* Innovative remote control allows WALL•E to be played with using Touch Pad control, dual joy sticks or any of the 16 function buttons for voice, lights, sound effects, music, expressions, special programs and more!

Oh, and one more thing:

WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, or birth defects or other reproductive harm.

That’s right, kiddies… If you live in California, Wall-E will probably kill you. And your unborn children. THANKS DISNEY! My advice? If you want to spend a ton of money on Wall-E swag, go for one of these instead. They’re guaranteed harmless*.

[ Ultimate Wall-E Pre-Order ] VIA [ Engadget ]

*May cause paper cuts, sticker shock, and/or unprovoked assaults from robot blog editors who are too poor to buy their own posters.

Can you think of any reason not to give a whole bunch of big metal orbs some motors and a mind of their own? I sure can’t. OrbSwarm, which we checked out last April at Yuri’s Night, has finally (finally!) gone autonomous:

That, my friends, is a map of the very first autonomous journey by a self propelled, GPS guided orb wandering around (appropriately enough) a soccer field. A bunch of these things are slated to be autonomously “dancing” at Burning Man this year, complete with lights and sound. Why? Why not, they’re awesome. If you don’t believe me, I’ve reposted my video from Yuri’s Night after the jump. (Read more…)

This concept vid of the 3 foot long, 100 pound Dominator UAV from Boeing is a few years old, but not only do I like the idea of UAVs launched like missiles (enabling conventional military aircraft to deploy them on the fly, as it were), but the cute part is that whole flocks of Dominators can autonomously refuel themselves from larger UAVs. Such capabilities would make semi-disposable drones like the Dominator quite versatile, and if they end up being “affordable” as Boeing says, there’d be no reason not to deploy a bunch of them as needed and then crash them into important things. What’s more likely to happen (and this may not be a bad thing) is that the concepts embodied in the Dominator will show up later on in more specialized UAVs.

Oh, and BTW, I’m totally sucking right now. Uh, that would be, metaphorically. At the whole updates thing. Don’t worry, I’m not letting any robot news slip, and you can expect a bunch, nay, a horde, of juicy bot news. Soon. I promise. And there will be some kind of prize or something to help me absolve my guilt over having a ::cough:: real job.

[ Futurefirepower ]