Robot

Even before smart homes were a thing, iRobot has been making autonomously moving cylinders and boxes that leave families fewer reasons to argue over chores. Over the years, the Roomba has become a household name, literally and figuratively, for such robots. Now iRobot is taking the technology and lessons it learned from inside homes to the outdoors. With the iRobot Terra robot lawn mower, not only will you be able to escape the hassles of mowing, you will also escape the tangles of boundary wires.

Continue Reading

Toshiba has built a new robot designed to probe the damaged, radioactive reactors in Fukushima, the company has revealed. The robot features a variety of tools to assess the damaged Unit 2 reactor, building upon the data gathered by previous probes to help determine what equipment will be necessary to remove the melted fuel debris. This removal is a key part of the overall decommissioning process.

Continue Reading

This week the folks at Amazon are field testing Amazon Scout. This is a 6-wheeled autonomous robot (an automaton of sorts) made to deliver packages to Amazon customers. This robot is "fully-electric" and may one day replace all delivery people in the world, for lack of a reason to run out and get payed to do a job a robot would gladly do for free.

Continue Reading

Sony's aibo robot dog is getting a new sibling, with a limited-edition aibo chocolate edition adopting a three-color coat. The new version - which has only been confirmed for Japan at this stage - arrives alongside a new version of Sony's software for the entertainment robot, which will turn the pup into a miniature guard dog.

Continue Reading

A few recent technologies have drastically changed the way we make things and learn. 3D printing has opened the floodgates for makers and tinkerers to create all kinds of things previously possible only with an assembly line. Robotics has also given the younger generation a more exciting introduction to science and technology. But in both aspects, quality experiences and results are often out of reach, both in terms of price and availability. Enter Hexbot, the world's most versatile all-in-one desktop arm. Whether you're 3D printing a unicorn, engraving your own phone case, or simply stacking cups, Hexbot is the artistic robotic arm for anyone and everyone.

Continue Reading

So you'd like to see a 290-million-year-old creature walk the earth here in the year 2019, would you? You're in luck, because that happened. You're about to see the work of evolutionary biologist John Nyakatura at Humboldt University in Berlin. He teamed up with robotics expert Kamilo Melo at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne to map and recreate the look of an ancient animal by the name of Orabates pabsti.

Continue Reading

Humans are worrying that robots are out to get their jobs but they may have failed to imagine that said robots could also be fired. OK, it’s not exactly that dramatic but when a hotel that made a name for itself for employing more than 200 robots “retires” half of them, you can be something’s amiss. As it turns out, Japan’s and the world’s first robot hotel may have bitten a bit more than they could chew and may now have to rely on hopefully non-robotic humans to keep things running smoothly.

Continue Reading

Forget drones. Your future parcels might be delivered by autonomous and electric quadrupedal “robodogs” instead. German automotive company Continental unveiled at CES 2019 its vision for “seamless mobility” which included not only a self-driving van but also a prototype of a similarly autonomous vehicle that will take care of the “last mile” of the delivery right to the doorstep. And those who have been keeping tabs on Boston Dynamics robots may have flashbacks to the robotics company’s Spot robots.

Continue Reading

Home robotics company Trifo has launched its first smart vacuum, the Ironepie. The robotic vacuum takes on Roomba and other competing models via an array of AI-enabled capabilities, including multi-sensor obstacle detection, zig-zag floor cleaning routes, surveillance tools for home monitoring, and more. Trifo undercuts is competitors by around $200, according to the company.

Continue Reading

Segway made a name for its self with its initially odd-looking “personal transporters” and, later on, the first hoverboards. But while they may look like toys for some, Segway’s mission has always been about conquering the “last mile” of transportation, those few hundred steps between your card and your actual destination. At CES 2019 next week, it will be showcasing not just its current lineup of products but two new ones, including a self-driving delivery robot.

Continue Reading

A crowdfunded smart speaker called Lily is a personal Chinese language tutor, according to the team behind it. This is the first smart speaker designed to teach language learners how to speak Chinese, doing so in a natural way that includes interactive conversations and vocabulary-based language games. The team behind the speaker anticipates launching Lily in March.

Continue Reading

Of all the major consumer electronics companies, LG is perhaps the one that’s most obsessed with robots. Not the cutesy but practically useless robot dogs like the new Sony Aibo but ones that are designed to assist customers and reduce worker injuries. The strangest of them all, however, is the CLOi SuitBot, which doesn’t look like a robot at all. LG has now redesigned the janky-looking half-exosuit into one that looks more like a somewhat futurist back brace instead.

Continue Reading