Tag Archive for 'robotics'
Now this is interesting. In order to improve surveillance options, new platforms are being researched, especially those that mimic things from nature. Take for instance this robotic spy plane. It’s only six-inches long, but it can use just about everything as a power source and could be used for monitoring all sensory perceptions in a [...]
Sony gave us the cute little AIBO; now HPI are giving us the Hound of the Baskervilles style G-Dog. The 37.5cm tall robot canine is powered by nine servos and a 7.2V rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery, and can walk, crawl, sit up and beg, and roll over onto its side.
Video demo of the G-Dog [...]
It’s always interesting to see the various iterations of a gadget’s design, before it reaches the shelves in all its shiny splendor, and today it’s the family album of WowWee’s Rovio mobile WiFi webcam robot. Released at the beginning of October, the Rovio hasn’t always had its Stealth Bomber-style, as these balsa prototypes from RoboCommunity [...]
Telepresence robots don’t have to look like a runaway drinks trolley - they can be cute little things, especially when you build them yourself. Instructables member Sparkyrust has done just that, with a Mac mini-powered mobile Skype robot using predominantly off-the-shelf parts.
Check out the demo video after the cut
Two-wheels good, more-wheels bad. That’s the principle behind this self-balancing DIY robot, which uses similar principles to the Segway to scuttle about the room. The work of Italian programmer Nicola, the robot is based on an Arduino mainboard and gyros, together with a couple of motors capable of feeding back their position.
Video demos of the [...]
If you’re looking for a bargain holiday robot, you could do a lot worse than the Tomy i-SOBOT. Originally priced at $300 when the 6.5-inch tall robot launched late last year, Hammacher Schlemmer currently have him listed at just $99.95. That gets you 17 points of articulation, 180 pre-programmed movements and voice-control from ten different verbal [...]
Relatively pointless, underspecified in key areas like storage, and in today’s economic climate a needless luxury; all criticisms that could fairly be aimed at the Sony Rolly, and yet people keep buying them. Latest update to the dancing, spinning, flashing and flapping PMP is the ability to control it via Bluetooth: the Sony Rolly SEP-50BT [...]
Nature might once again educate robot design, as engineers Dario Floreano and Mirko Kovac of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in Lausanne turn to grasshoppers for the next generation of search and exploration devices. The pair noted that grasshoppers handle uneven terrain by hopping, clearing up to three feet at a time and avoiding climbing over [...]








