Robot

Don't worry, no human police officers were harmed in the creation of these mechanical policemen. Though called "Robocop" to give their name a bit more weight and credibility, these are really more robot cops than cyborgs, all metal and computers inside. And these will be the robots that could make up a quarter of Dubai's police force by 2030. And though they currently only patrol the hallways of the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC), they will soon start their public service on streets.

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University of California San Diego mechanical engineering professor Michael Tolley and a team of researchers have created what is said to be the first 'soft' robot that is able to handle traveling on rough terrain. The robot features a total of four legs that were made using 3D-printing, and with them the robot is able to walk across rough surfaces like sand, as well as crawling over larger objects. The company demonstrated the robot's walking capabilities in a video.

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Hardware and home improvement store Lowe's is no stranger to innovative tech -- the company began testing robotic workers at some of its stores late last year, for example. Now the company is back with another development, this one made in conjunction with Virginia Tech -- robotic exosuits (eg, exoskeletons) for warehouse workers. The suits are designed to help workers lift and move heavy items without getting tired as quickly.

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Intel recently took to the stage to introduce Loomo Go, an autonomous delivery robot created by Segway Robotics. The robot can be operated like an actual Segway, at least per the demonstration by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, but it is much more than that. Using various technologies, Loomo is able to perceive the world around it and operate through it, doing so as part of an overall delivery process to bring humans objects.

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Mayfield Robotics' Kuri was the surprise hit of CES 2017, but the robot companion isn't relying solely on cutesy looks to charm users, with a new set of features announced today. Intended to bring domestic robotics into the mainstream, Kuri - which looks like a cross between a Roomba and a Wall-E character - is gaining a new set of behaviors that Mayfield calls "romojis" or robot emojis. Although they might look like they're just for entertainment, they're actually going to be pretty important for daily life with the 'bot.

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Honda has taken the wraps off Miimo, its first robotic lawn mower in the U.S. This contraption is sort of like a Roomba, but for your lawn rather than your carpet. Instead of spending time outside manually pushing around a mower, homeowners can set Miimo to cut the grass for them, leaving it to its task while going off to do something else. Miimo is able to mow a lawn on its own thanks to integrated sensors and other technology.

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Domino's, the same pizza company that has embraced drones, will soon start delivering some pizzas in Europe using delivery robots. The machines were created by Starship Technologies, a company based out of London that has developed a self-driving robot with six wheels. The deliveries will be limited to some cities in the Netherlands and Germany to start with; whether they'll expand to cover more regions in the future is unclear.

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Clothing looks and feels best when it is tailored, but few people use tailoring services with any sort of regularity. The reasons for that are numerous, and likely involve inconvenience as much (or more so) than the cost factor. The future may hold the solution, though, and that solution may come in the form of machine-produced custom-fitted clothing items made to a buyer’s exact body shape and measurements.

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Back in 2012, the original Qbo robot caught quite a bit of attention. Today, we're being introduced Thecorpora's next generation Qbo robot, appropriately named the Qbo One. Unlike its predecessor, Qbo One won't be zipping around on its own - instead, it's meant to sit atop your desk and interact with you from there.

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Even before there were smart homes and the Internet of Things, robotic vacuum cleaners, popularized by iRobot’s Roomba, have been the pioneers of the “home of the future” market. Sadly, they seem to have been shoved to the sidelines in the flood of new IoT and smart appliance products. iRobot, however, isn’t going to take that sitting down. It is now boarding the personal assistant train by making its Roomba 900 series respond to your voice commands via Alexa, for those times when you want to be more in control of the little robot.

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Spongebob's days as a fry cook will soon be over. Somewhat. But while Spongebob is a fictional character, the robot that will be flipping burgers and putting them on buns definitely isn't. It's called Flippy and it's nothing but a smaller and more dexterous version of a stereotypical robotic arm. But unlike those industrial machines designed more for power, Miso Robotics designed Flippy to be fast, precise, and smart. All for the purpose of having it flip burgers and then, when properly fried, place them on buns.

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Mayfield Robotics' Kuri robot companion may not have launched yet, but it's already getting smarter, adding facial detection as well as IFTTT integration. The personable robot was announced at CES 2017 back in January, a Bosch-backed project to put a friendly AI in the modern connected home. Now, the ways in which Kuri will be able to interact with both people and its environment have been improved.

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