Robotics

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Uber isn't limiting its autonomous work to passenger vehicles and trucks, according to a new job listing. The company reportedly revealed plans to bring its self-driving technology to electric scooters and bicycles over the weekend, something that will take place through a new division called Micromobility Robotics. The company has starting hiring new employees for this team, but details remain slim.

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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.

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Amazon has supplied its warehouse workers with safety vests that let nearby robots know when they need to slow down. The wearable was designed by Amazon Robotics and is intended to keep warehouse workers safe when they must enter a space where robots roam. Between sensors in the vests and the robots' obstacle avoidance tech, the machines are better able to avoid collisions.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Honda's Walking Assist Device, a partial exoskeleton to help those with difficulties moving unsupported, has been given the green-light for release by US regulators. The wearable robotic gadget was given Premarket Notification by the US FDA, after clinical trials helped demonstrate it can significantly help in rehabilitation.

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A company called UBTech has unveiled a pair of robots at CES 2019 that the firm calls its most advanced robots ever. The bots are a new version of the Walker bipedal humanoid robot and Cruzr, a cloud-based rolling humanoid service robot. Walker now has arms and hands while Cruzr has improved performance and reliability.

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