robots

News

• Researchers build a robot you can’t knock down; Robot apocalypse begins

  After all of our advancements in walking robots, we still have yet to see one that can pick itself back up. Current automatons either need to be helped back up or specifically designed to do so.

• Scientist unveils mind-controlled robot

  A professor at a Swiss university has unveiled a robot that can be controlled by the brainwaves of a paraplegic person wearing an electrode-fitted cap, news agency ATS reported.

• Pole-dancing robots wow world tech fair

  Of all the weird and wacky futuristic gadgets at CeBIT, the world's biggest high-tech fair, few have turned heads like a pair of pole-dancing robots.

• Flying robots play James Bond theme

  A video shows flying robots darting through hoops, working together in swarms and even forming a band to play James Bond film theme music.

• 11 cool robots you may not have heard of - check 'em out

  What do Mars, the Terminator, an ostrich and hair-washing have to do with each other? Ask the robots

• Cyborg plants render humans even more obsolete

  The cyborg plant is not a new concept. The robot plant replacement is even less new: You can buy one for a price of $4.19 from ThinkGeek, after all. But a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich isn't interested in solar-powered plastic toys or surgically-altered self-lighting plants that hang on a wall (creepy!) -- they're giving plants the ability to feed, water, and sun themselves, by augmenting them with iRobot technology and wheels.

• Google Blames a Human for its Robo-Car Crash

  One of Google's self-driving cars got into an accident earlier this week. But Google is claiming the auto-pilot-equipped Prius was actually flipped into manual mode when the accident happened, making this a case of user error.

• Robotic Herds Could Be the Next Step in Farming

  Fully autonomous herds of robots could be the future of farming, or at least that's what one roboticist thinks. Trossen Robotics forum member Vanmunch has developed an "Autonomous Micro Planter," which he's named Prospero.

• Robot speeds up cancer research effort

  A robot like an oversized inkjet printer is dramatically speeding up the Australian search for new cancer-fighting drugs for children.

• Robotic privacy curtain fails, but amuses the masses

  More than ever, people are taking their online and real-life privacy more seriously. Swedish inventor Niklas Roy also felt that his privacy was being invaded on a more basic level--by passers-by looking in through his large workshop window. Most might have just opted for a normal curtain, but Niklas got inventive and created the robotic curtain.

• WA robot off to NZ mine

  The West Australian government is sending a robot to New Zealand to assist in the rescue operation for 29 miners, including two Australians, trapped underground at the Pike River coal mine.

• Pike River NZ mine robot reconnaissance hits snag

  A military robot sent into the collapsed Pike River mine on New Zealand’s West Coast to survey conditions for the 29 trapped miners has broken down, mine officials have said.

• Get Snooping With a Nosy Japanese Robot

  If you're a homeowner and have done any sort of do-it-yourself home projects, chances are you've had to get into the crawlspace beneath your home on some occasion. It's a dirty job, sure, but somebody's got to do it. However, a robot out of Japan can save the hassle.

• Behold the robotic future of cake decoration

  Developments are still continuing apace in the field of delicious-food-making robots. This time we have an automated cake decorator that extrudes designs onto your cake in a process that's one part frosting, one part spirograph, and 100% awesome.

• iRobot demos 'shape shifting' next-gen robots

  Meet the next generation of robots that shape-shift, are squish-able, and can troll the world's oceans for months on a single battery charge. iRobot, best known for its Roomba disc-shaped robotic floor sweeper, is going way beyond scooping potato chips from under couches with its latest robot offspring.