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Toshiba Wheelie Is A Cute And Autonomous Robot

Toshiba looks like it’s doing its part to ensure that we all have little helper robots to serve us in the future. The company has come up with the prototype “Wheelie” robot, which is an indoor, autonomous, 2-wheeled robot. It looks a little like something a marriage between a Segway transporter and mini bar would produce, but as long as it’s cute, right? The aim of the robot is to help out with the daily chores, such as serving food. Currently you’ll still need to place the plates and glasses on top of the robot’s head, and it will sort out the rest. If you want to see this little robot in action, check out the video after the break.

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iCub gets upgraded with tinier hands, better legs

We’re pretty familiar with iCub — the humanoid robot modeled on a two year old — around here. Just because we know him well, though, doesn’t really change the fact that we get the slightest chill running down our spine every time we’re reminded of his existence. Well, iCub’s getting an upgrade which includes newer, lighter legs which will be more impervious to damage, and smaller hands. That’s right, the youngster, who is about toddler-sized, has had until now, the hands of an eight-year old: pretty embarrassing for the little fellow. The new hands are the right size, and have the correct dexterity as well. Regardless, he’s still a little creepy, but as you’ll see in the video after the break, impressive none the less.

Continue reading iCub gets upgraded with tinier hands, better legs

iCub gets upgraded with tinier hands, better legs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba’s Wheelie robot carries your dinner, doesn’t do burnouts (video)

Lazy humans, your dream has come true: a robot that could carry food and drink from the kitchen straight to your couch-borne position without you having to get up. It’s the Toshiba Wheelie, a balancing bot that zips around on two wheels like an autonomous Segway, but with the added bonus of retractable runners on the front and back to keep it from toppling should it ever suffer an abrupt power failure. It sports stereo cameras on top and a laser range finder as well, enabling it to find its way around (or under) obstacles. The demonstration video below shows it propping a plate of steak and mixed veggies on its head before taking them for a ride around a demonstration space — impressive, but given it lacks the arms to pick up the plate in the first place we’re thinking this one’s usefulness is sadly rather limited. He also can’t talk, which means rhyming is right out, but he is kinda cute.

Continue reading Toshiba’s Wheelie robot carries your dinner, doesn’t do burnouts (video)

Toshiba’s Wheelie robot carries your dinner, doesn’t do burnouts (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wheelie: Toshiba’s new robot is cute, autonomous and maybe even useful (video)

Toshiba is a huge company, but it’s not necessarily known as a maker of robots. Their “Wheelie” for indoor use is an autonomous, 2-wheeled robot, which is still in prototype stage and somehow reminiscent of a Segway in its basic design.

Twendy-One robot

The Twendy-One robot took over a decade of research by Professor Shigeki Sugano and his team of researchers at Waseda University, Japan, where they were assisted by over 20 private companies to come up with a robot that is able to co-exist with humans in an aging society. This seems to be a phenomenon with Japan (and perhaps Singapore in the near future), so robots might be their only hope when it comes to companionship and caregiving during one’s golden years. Twendy-One’s most notable feature would be its mechanical passive impedance mechanism that allows it to adapt to unexpected external forces. With a four-fingered hand, it is able to pick up tiny flat objects without a problem, featuring soft finger tips but a hard nail. If you want a caregiver that doesn’t gossip behind your back or poison you slowly over time to have a bite at your inheritance, then you might want to consider forking out around $110,000 to $210,000 for the Twendy-One.

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Sic semper tyrannis: motion control in video games

Let the record show: I think motion controllers, like the Wii, Sony Move, or Microsoft’s Project Natal, are sorta dumb. They simply don’t seem to be precise enough for my tastes—I’m far too used to a mouse and keyboard to give that up for the “thrill” of flailing my arms in the arm like the robot from Lost In Space. But it wasn’t always like that.

Aquafairy FC Stick: Efficient mini fuel cell for gadget fans (video)

Fuel cells are on their way into the mainstream, even though the commercially available models are still pretty pricey. But there are companies like Kyoto-based Aquafairy [JP], for example, preparing affordable fuel cells, too. Their four new fuel cells are intended to make gadget fans in particular happy: the micro FC Stick (0.8W), the FC-Stick (2W), the FC-Cube (3W) and the FC-Cube Dual (6W).

Robosoft Kompai introduced

Robosoft of France has introduced a brand new robot known as Kompai, where it is meant to help the elderly as well as disabled, not to mention others who require special care. Kompai is intelligent enough to understand speech while navigating autonomously. Smart enough to remind you of meetings while keeping track of shopping lists, Kompai can also play music to entertain you during those down-moments alongside functioning as a videoconference system. for users to talk with their doctors, for example. No idea on how much Kompai will cost though.

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Robosoft Kompai takes care of your elderly so you don’t have to (video)

This one has been quite a long time in coming, but Robosoft’s service drone has finally made it off the drawing board, collected a catchy name, and headed off to the big world to seek its fortune as an R&D platform. Kompai is a personal assistance bot built around speech — it understands basic instructions and requests and offers appropriate responses with its own monotonic style. It’ll serve as a note and shopping list recorder, a calendar, a music player, or a video conferencing tool for when old grandpappy needs to call his doctor. If you think having a programmable hunk of mobile metal that’s permanently connected to the net in your house is a good idea, look out for OEMs picking up the design during the Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference taking place next week. And if you just wanna see a bug-eyed bot talk to an old dude, click past the break for the video.

[Thanks, Erico]

Continue reading Robosoft Kompai takes care of your elderly so you don’t have to (video)

Robosoft Kompai takes care of your elderly so you don’t have to (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New emergency robot is wearable, opens doors at disaster sites

A Japanese robot manufacturer called BL Autotec has developed a remote-controlled robot hand [JP, PDF] that’s able to grip and turn doorknobs. Once connected to a emergency robot, it can safely open doors at disaster sites, for example in collapsed buildings without putting humans in danger.

Autotec says the robot can be used in the case of nuclear, biological and chemical disasters.

Samsung NaviBot SR8845 / SR8855 vacuum cleaner hands-on

Continue reading Samsung NaviBot SR8845 / SR8855 vacuum cleaner hands-on

Samsung NaviBot SR8845 / SR8855 vacuum cleaner hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone controls Hexapod

The iPhone is a wonderful handset, where yet another application for it would be to control a Hexapod robot via user inputs. This is made possible thanks to robotics student Robert Stephenson who came up with the idea and subsequently, program. The control method utilized include the touchscreen and accelerometer which will manipulate both forward and reverse controls.

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