Also last week, we gawked over a model of a Clear Cut Robot. Although we attributed the model design to Jordan Guelde, we got an email letting us know that it was in fact a group project and was co-designed by Daniel Shankland II. Two robots were designed with common components, and then each was specialized for a specific task. The second robot was specialized with an extra set of stowable arms to assist with disaster relief operations. Check out a few more pics showing the details on this model, after the jump. (Read more…)

When you need a forest fire controlled, you can either use a little bug, or you can this gigantic, saw-equipped robotic behemoth. I know what I’d be more entertained to watch… This forest fire “Clear Cut” robot is sadly only a model, albeit a very detailed one, containing about 600 parts and built over a period of 6 months by student Jordan Guelde. The concept is that this robot tromps around the perimeter of a fire, clear cutting trees and underbrush to prevent the fire from spreading. Is it excessive? Who cares, look at those huge freakin’ saw-arms. One more pic, after the jump. (Read more…)

As soon as the world runs out of oil, suburbia is going to be obsolete and people are going to flock to compact developments along major transit lines. When that time comes, Australia’s Andrew Maynard Architects thinks that the best thing to do is build a fleet of giant robots to transform all those superfluous McMansions and lazy fat people into virgin wilderness and skinny bike riders. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

-The CV08 units will be deployed in suburban environments. Using a heat sensor, the CV08s zero in on groups of “chubbies,” the overweight residents of suburbia. The back legs have pictures of donuts on them to attract the chubbies. When they get close enough, the legs suck all the chubbies up into a liposuction chamber, where they’ll be stripped of their excess fat and injected with nanobots to increase their fitness and strength. The fat is used to fuel the CV08, and the new “thinny” is fitted with a parachute and shot out the back of the CV08.

-Meanwhile, cars and houses and stuff are sucked up by the front legs, leaving only the foundation (for future archaeologists to puzzle over). All of the man-made objects are separated, crushed, and sent to recycling chambers. The recycled materials are compacted into rocket shapes, loaded into launch tubes on the head of the CV08, and fired off to a recycling plant a few kilometers away. A small portion of the recycled materials are formed into bikes, which are equipped with parachutes and ejected for the use of the thinnies.

-Finally, the middle legs of the CV08 contain storage tanks full of native flora and fauna (koalas, wallabies, etc.) which have been frozen in carbonite. The plants and animals are thawed out and carefully placed into their new post-suburban habitat. Many of the plants will have been genetically modified to smell like donuts, attracting any stray chubbies to be captured by one of the hind legs.

This is such an obviously brilliant idea that I, for one, cannot wait until our oil reserves are gone and I have the pleasure of getting my fat sucked out by one of these machines. Be sure to check out the PDF describing the process with an awesome diagram, here.

[ CV08 ] VIA [ Robots.net ]

The blind have been using seeing eye dogs for a long time. In fact, the relationship between man and dog has worked out very well for those with handicaps. Some dogs even help paralyzed humans do all kinds of things around the house. So it was only a matter of time before robot dogs start showing up to help ease the workload of their flesh and blood counterparts. After all, no matter how useful a dog is to a handicapped owner, there are some things it just can’t do.

When was the last time a seeing eye dog read a book to it’s blind owner, for instance? RED the robotic dog, an acronym for Reading Eye Dog, does just that for the blind and reading impaired. Just hold a book up for RED to see and it’ll read the words on the page out loud so the person or persons can hear. Plus, the screen on the back of the dog allows viewers to follow along as RED reads, visually matching the highlighted words with RED’s voice.

It’s a concept for the moment, but is a great replacement for the audiobook, and would be a great addition to the classroom.

[Onomy] VIA [Red Ferret]

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…)

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 ]

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 ]

This is Monty, a teleoperated humanoid robot powered by compressed air. Despite (or perhaps because of) his questionable facility with dishes, he’s designed (in the near future, anyway) to perform tasks in industrial or hazardous environments that would otherwise require the physical presence and decision making skills of a human. He can balance on his own on two wheels (like a Segway), can carry up to 20 kgs, and will operate for “hours” off of a scuba tank. His hand is modeled very closely on the human hand, and is nearly as dexterous. As you can see from the video, operating Monty takes a substantial amount of coordination: a joystick in one hand moves his body, and a glove on the other hand will transmit the arm and hand movements of the operator to Monty’s arm and hand. In the second video clip, Monty accidentally knocks an object off the table he was at, so we asked if he was capable of picking things up off the ground (he didn’t look like he was designed to bend over). I was pretty impressed that he was able to do so, albeit with the operator standing nearly over his shoulder.

[ Anybots ]

The 40th Tokyo Motor Show kicked off on Oct. 26th and one of the neatest concept cars being shown is the Nissan Pivo 2 electric car. It definitely has a few features that make it stand out. For starters, it’s wheels rotate 90 degrees, allowing the battery-powered vehicle to be driven sideways. I think we saw that in Minority Report. The cabin itself can rotate a full 360 degrees, making parallel parking a breeze and eliminating the need for a reverse gear all together.

As cool as those features are, it just wouldn’t be complete without a decapitated PaPeRo Robot head slapped on the dash to act as your navigator, speaking English and Japanese. We told you about NEC’s cute PaPeRo back in August, when it had aspirations of becoming a blogger. Well, judging by the head being removed from it’s pudgy body, I’m guessing that didn’t work out.

In his current incarnation PaPeRo will be able to sense the mental state of drivers by analyzing voice and face image data. The voice-activated navigation is designed to soothe stressed drivers through making robot small talk. I just wish the interior didn’t look like a kid’s toy.

[Zercustoms]

The good folks at Nokia are never ones to rest. Not when they can come up with some new form of creepy pet in their spare time. This is a robot dog merged with a Nokia Internet tablet for a face. The first thing that you’ll notice is a creepy quasi-goofiness. The second thing that will strike you is that it actually gives the dog a personality which is very much lacking in most robo-pets.

The concept was thought up by some gifted Finnish children at a school that Nokia sponsors.(Just imagine what other beautiful atrocities these kids are dreaming up). Not much more to say about this puppy. Some things bark for themselves.

Check out the video after the jump.

(Read more…)