A poor little Irish Orbiter UAV got lost somewhere over Chad on December 29th… The UAV was programmed to return to base if it lost contact with its operator, but this particular drone still had the GPS coordinates of its base in Ireland in its memory. The drone valiantly headed northwest towards home but crashed in the desert about 4,800 miles short. Sad.

The Orbiter drone is made in Israel; it has a 2.2 meter wingspan and weighs about 14 pounds. It’s got a color video camera with a 10x zoom and is controllable with a handheld unit by a single operator from up to 15 km away.

[ Strategy Page ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

This, people, is what a wild Keepon looks like before it’s captured, shaved, and taught to dance. Well, not really… But you can totally picture it, can’t you? No, TOFU is an entirely different robot, designed to explore techniques of expression that have been used for decades by 2D animators. It’s called TOFU because, just like the soy product, this robot is stretchy and squashy. Built with compliant and elastic materials and OLED eyes, TOFU is not quite as smooth and, dare I say it, lifelike as Keepon, but it does have a certain startled charm:

I’m not sure if those a pre-programmed moves, or if there’s some dance software running in the background… Hopefully we’ll get some more details on TOFU sometime in the near future.

[ TOFU ] VIA [ Engadget ]

We first met Nexi back in April, when she (?) was undergoing her first (quite impressive) expression tests. Now it appears as though some version of her expressive head combined with a wheeled self balancing base and a pair of 7 DOF arms and hands is now for sale from Xitome Design, a tech consulting company founded by MIT graduates. There’s no specific information on exactly what you’d be getting for the unspecified money you’d have to spend… My guess, though, is that the consumer version of Nexi is going to be in the same realm as the consumer version of Keepon: waaayyy too expensive for you and me. Sigh.

[ Xitome ] VIA [ Robot Living ]

Sega has had robotic cats and dogs out for a little while now, and it seems like the cat has been popular enough to spawn an updated version, called something that I guess translates into “Dream Cat Venus.” From the brief description in the UK’s Daily Mail, it looks to do a few basic cat-like things such as sleeping and purring when you touch it. It’ll also meow when it wants attention and yowl if you pull its tail. Seems just like a real cat to me, except you can use rechargeable batteries instead of paying for food over and over, so it’s actually better.

Dream Cat Venus will go on sale in July for somewhere around $150.

VIA [ Daily Mail ]

Last week, we posted about iRobot’s new YouTube channel. I sort of rhetorically asked the question that iRobot mentioned in their video: why is Roomba round?

I guess someone over at iRobot must read BotJunkie (woohoo!), because they’ve actually answered the question on YouTube:

Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m impressed. It took iRobot a single day to have the answer up on YouTube, given by one of the engineers involved in the original design. It wasn’t just my question, either… iRobot has answered a few others so far, including what the most expensive component of the Roomba is, when Roomba will run Linux (PackBots already do, I think), and what iRobot thinks about medical robots. Looks like all you have to do is leave a comment on this video, and they’ll get right back to you. It’s a great idea they’ve got going on here, and I really hope they can keep it up. As for me, I have a couple questions that I’d love to have iRobot answer:

-What can we expect in the Roomba 700 series?
-When can I get an iRobot Mowmylawnba?

Or more seriously, how about this one: is there anything that iRobot has learned through the development and deployment of the PackBot and other military/industrial robots that has influenced iRobot’s home robots, or vice versa?

After the jump, find out the answer to this question: does the Roomba even have a vacuum in there somewhere? (Read more…)

We first met Anybots last year when we got face to face with their Monty telepresence robot at RoboDevelopment. This year at CES, Anybots was demoing their new (and significantly more polished) telepresence robot, called QA (Question and Answer). QA can be operated remotely over WiFi or 3G, and streams VGA (640 x 480) video (and full duplex audio) at up to 20 fps. It also has a 7″ color LCD and a controllable 10 mW green laser pointer. The robot is 5 feet tall, weighs 30 pounds, and can go up to 6 mph on its self-balancing Segway style base. The lithium battery pack powers QA for up to 6 hours. Here’s the demo we got at CES:

The rear camera and laser pointer are nice touches, as is the ability to “sit” and the integrated touchscreen. However, without any manipulators, QA is fairly limited as far as telepresence goes. The question I’m forced to ask is, is QA really that much more practical a telepresence solution than simply setting up Skype on a netbook and ordering a minion to walk around with it? Yes, QA has more features and is personally controllable and is way cooler. But at the moment, it costs about $30,000, which is equal to, oh, about a hundred netbooks.

Anybots says QA is meant for intercontinental business telepresence, and yes, maybe it’s got a market there. But it’s a rather small market of people who’d actually be willing to buy one of these, I’d imagine, and most likely not enough to significantly reduce production costs via volume. I hate to be such a downer, because I love what Anybots is trying to do (“a robot in every house” FTW!), I just don’t see QA as a commercial success. Let’s just hope I’m wrong, shall we?

[ Anybots ]

First Keepon, and now Paro… I’m suffering from serious cute robot overload here at CES. As you may recall, Paro is a handmade robotic baby harp seal designed to provide cuteness therapy to people with debilitating physical and mental illnesses. I don’t have either one of those things, and I still desperately need more Paro snuggling time. Not only is Paro soft and fluffy, it’s also warm, heating itself to your body temperature. Plus, it has those big round black eyes and makes the most adorable noises:

Paro reacts to your touch, and learns what makes you happy by paying attention to how much you stroke it, and when. It’ll also learn and respond to whatever name you’d like to give it. When it needs more power, Paro gets sleepy, and it recharges when you give it a pacifier to suck on. Paro is currently for sale in the US for $5000, and they’re trying to get insurance companies to agree to cover Paro for people who might need one.

[ Paro ]

Just one day after we posted about iRobot’s current stance on the ConnectR, Engadget has linked to a brief FAQ from iRobot stating that their current ConnectR program has been canceled, and explaining why… It’s pretty much exactly what we reported on Thursday. Coincidence???

Yeah, probably. Anyway, here’s what they say:

Dear ConnectR Enthusiast,

Thank you for your support and patience while helping us explore virtual visiting robots and how they fit into our lives.

Over the last year, thousands of people like you signed up to participate in the iRobot ConnectR pilot program. After beta testing we discovered that ConnectR, in its current form, needed enhancements and modifications to meet customers’ expectations for virtual visiting. As such, iRobot has decided to cancel the current ConnectR program so that we can focus on developing new virtual visiting robots that incorporate your feedback.

We greatly appreciate the time and care you took in participating in the iRobot ConnectR pilot program.

- The ConnectR Team

Rest of the brief FAQ, after the jump. (Read more…)

If you’re wondering what the highlight of CES was for me, it wasn’t the Microsoft keynote, it wasn’t the party I just got back from at the top of the Palms Fantasy tower, and it wasn’t any of this stuff. No, as you may have guessed (if you’ve spent much time reading BotJunkie), it was finally finally getting a chance to meet Keepon, the squishy little yellow BeatBot.

Alongside Keepon (and another Keepon) was Marek Michalowski, the founder of BeatBots and co-creator of the robot. Marek was showing off some new features like Wiimote control, and talking a little bit about his current research. Check it out:

Just a reminder that Keepon is currently available in a hand-built $30,000 version, but BeatBots is working on something significantly more affordable. And I have to say, Keepon is WAY CUTER in person, and he is exactly as soft and squishy as he looks. He does that little double bounce thing and head tilt and I totally melt. Marek says he’s got two of these at home, and I honestly don’t know how he gets anything done with them around.

As far as I know, Keepon will be at CES through Sunday, so if you have any questions or picture/video requests, post in the comments and I’ll gladly go back… I’ll take any excuse to poke Keepon a bunch more in his little yellow belly.

[ BeatBots ]

Also at CES, iRobot is officially launching their YouTube channel that’s been up for a few weeks now. The idea is to allow users of iRobot products to interact more directly with the company by submitting video questions and comments. Here’s a taste of what they’re trying to do:

Okay, I’ll bite: why is Roomba round?

My guess is they’re calling it “iTube” simply because the “iRobot” YouTube channel has been taken since December 2005 by someone who may or may not be 22 years old and seems to like animals. Clever bastard, I wish I’d had that idea back then, maybe I could have gotten myself a pet PackBot in exchange for the YouTube channel name rights.

Press release, after the jump. (Read more…)