Tatsuya Matsui is exhibiting robots with the ability to evoke human emotions, which is an absolute necessity if we are to get them in every home and be treated like a family member. A robot can’t live side by side with emotional humans, if it can’t share and respond in the emotional experience of humans. The exhibition is entitled “Flower Robotics”. Matsui believes that robots are like flowers. That they can be delicate and beautiful at the same time. He also believes they are endearing and need nurturing.

Take Posy for instance, a wedding maiden designed to express a 3-year-old girl’s pure view of the world. She can’t do much but proffer flowers, but never fails to evoke empathy in the viewer. This emotional response somehow manages to overcome the creep factor of the blank face and dead eyes of the robot.

Metri is a large and grub-like robot with soft skin that gropes about in a creepy fashion. Matsui is interested in our reactions to inanimate objects that seem to be alive. His machines somehow manage to sooth rather then frighten.

Palette, the mannequin robot is a white humanoid on a spotlighted black dais. Palette actually has a practical use though. By gracefully swinging its arms it can enhance the appeal of any blouse it wears. It’s resume already includes modeling for Louis Vuitton and Hane Mori designs. Plus, a vision sensor allows Palette to react to any viewers’ presence.

Tatsuya Matsui somehow succeeds in bridging the emotional gulf between humans and robots, where many others have failed.

[Japan Times]

It looks like a stealth tank with a digital camera attached, so you might be thinking warfare/spying as soon as you see this jet-black bot. The truth is, Sanyo has a much more mundane job for this crawling cam. It won’t be seeing any military action, but it will be spending some time in the “urban trenches”; think crawlspaces under apartments, office buildings and homes for example. Its job is to check for structural damage. It will crawl around beneath any given building, while being very adept at avoiding any obstacles in its path. A full charge will give it about 2 hours of life while it beams back live video of what it encounters.

The operator can zoom in on any areas of interest and hopefully find any potential problems that need to be fixed. You’ll have to wait until next year to get one. By then, you’ll hopefully have the $8,736 saved up and ready to spend. It’s pricey, but it does beat running into the odd snake or rat beneath your dwelling.

…Or you could mount a cam on a toy tank for a lot less.

[AkihabaraNews] VIA [EnGadget]

At Tokyo’s Edogawa Kyotei boat races, they have found an innovative way to soothe the bruised egos of those left holding losing tickets. Presumably, their solution also helps to keep trash in it’s place. What is it? You get to feed your losing tickets to a robot goat, of course. When a ticket is placed in the goat-bot’s mouth, a sensor is triggered, telling it to start chewing away at the ticket. You just know they are taking bets on how many tickets it will take before a finger is devoured.

His diet consists of about 500 tickets per day. Those who provide the meals believe that the goat-bot will bring them luck in the next race. Somehow I doubt it. If that were true, the goat would be starving.

[asahi] VIA [Gizmodo]

A five hour armed standoff with a suicidal elderly man in a North Fort Myers, Florida trailer park ended in the evening of October 27 when a sheriff’s bomb disposal robot was shot. “As night was beginning to fall, deputies stepped-up their tactics by using a bomb robot to assist [in reconnaissance?]. The subject shot at the robot, breaking the robot’s lens, and then deputies subdued the man.” The man was taken to the hospital, but it’s unclear whether it was for a physical or mental reason. No word on the condition of the robot, but getting shot at is exactly what it’s there for.

[ WINK News ] VIA [ Engadget ]

Not having reliable internet access made it somewhat difficult to post from the RoboDevelopment conference last week. But in retrospect, I’m glad I’ve had a chance to digest it for a few days. The overwhelming feeling, alluded to in almost every keynote speech, was that robotics is going to be HUGE over the next decade(s). It was more than just speculation, too… According to one of the Thursday keynotes (given by Tandy Trower, the GM of Microsoft Robotics Group), the robotics industry in general is going to double in market size by 2010 to nearly 25 billion dollars. By 2025, it’s projected to be approaching 70 billion, over half of which will be made up by robotics in the home.

So, that’s the future, but where are we now? Lots of speakers throughout the conference were comparing the current state of robotics to computers in the 70s. And there certainly are a lot of parallels: Both large industry and the government have been using robots for years, and are starting to rely on them more and more heavily. Most people, though, still view robotics as a hobby, much as PCs used to be. Consumer robots currently take some degree of specialized knowledge to interact with, and are only effective for very specific tasks. Like the PC, robots are evolving towards user-friendliness and more generalized integration into daily life. A more appropriate metaphor for robots might be the automobile in the early 1900s: you’ve seen them around, you know they’re useful, but at the moment they’re pretty esoteric and anyway, you’re happy enough with your horse. It’s just a matter of time, though, before your horse gets run over. A bit more, plus some spectacular video, after the jump. (Read more…)

You might remember Robosaurus, created 17 years ago by Monster Robots in Southern California. The 40-foot-high, 31-ton behemoth quickly became famous for crushing cars and breathing fire all over the country, before dwelling in the land of obscurity. Apparently, it’s current owner or owners are finally sick of burning and crushing all manner of large things. Robosaurus will be auctioned off during the annual Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona between January 12 to 20.

Interestingly, the metal beast is actually controlled by a pilot who occupies a cockpit inside the dinosaur’s head. All I can say is, that Pilot has incredible self control to have not gone all Godzilla on a small town or two. Just pray you don’t see this thing and it’s new owner coming down your street anytime soon.

[Robosaurus] VIA [Cnet]

Best-Selling Mystery writer Kyotaro Nishimura has his own museum. Now, thanks to Fujitsu, he has a robot to go with it. Jointly developed by Fujitsu Frontech and Fujitsu Laboratories, the robot will act as a visitors’ guide at the Museum beginning September 21. Enon will autonomously move to the entrance of the museum to greet guests, then guide visitors through the exhibits using its voice, gestures or its LCD screen. It will even play video greetings from Mr. Nishimura.

And if after all of this you still don’t think that Mr. Nishimura is important, you can take a quiz related to his exploits via Enon’s LCD chest. If you answer all of the questions correctly, you get…

(Drumroll please…)

A commemorative certificate from the Museum.

Joy.

[Frontech] VIA [Engadget]

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has always been on the bleeding edge of what’s new and techy, all the way from Segway Polo to Kathy Griffin. So it’s great to hear that he’s looking to the personal robotics market to develop in much the same way as the personal computer market did, through easy programmability. Here’s an excerpt from an eWeek article about an event he spoke at this past weekend:

Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak says one of the primary emerging technologies that is capturing his imagination these days is area of robotics and how artificial intelligence will be applied on those types of systems. Wozniak said he hopes that someday the robotics field will take a page from the personal computer era by creating robots that are easily programmable by users to perform specific tasks rather than solely focusing on creating system that are preprogrammed to perform specific functions. “People want things that are useful as opposed to things that do a lot of little things that we call artificial intelligence,” said Wozniak.

First Bill Gates, now Woz? Hmm, maybe we’re actually on to something here…

[ eWeek ] VIA [ Robots.net ]

And he just may be. Apparently the folks at www.greathouselabs.org take him and some other heavy duty bots on tour. He has toured and had gigs at Burning Man as well as other venues. He operates with twelve separate movements that can be programmed or operated manually. Plus, his mouth moves to any soundtrack placed in his MP3 player. You just know he has sung his share of Heavy Metal.

The kids love him. Especially when he sings anything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Adults like the fact that Robobust recites classic movie lines from such movies as MommyDearest. “NO MORE WIRE HANGERS”. The best part? He is capable of shooting fire.

Video of Robobust in action and Links after the jump.

(Read more…)

Honda’s Asimo is back after taking a fall last year and literally breaking his face, when he fell down some stairs.

He is returning to the Disneyland stage, running at about 4 mph. Apparently, he is also doing a lot of interacting with a live host in the Say Hello to Honda’s ASIMO show which started on August 29. The show demonstrates all of ASIMO’s new technological advances, including his new speed and artificial intelligence capabilities for human interaction.

It is the only permanent installation in North America where you can see Honda’s robot, who is smarter and more mobile then ever before. ASIMO continues to advance closer to in-home applications.

Nice to see one of our favorites back in action and better than ever.

[Gizmodo]