DARPA Creates Humanoid Robot That Jumps, Climbs And Avoids Obstacles With Ease
DARPA's most recent creation, the PET-PROTO Robot, has the capability to navigate such obstacles as climbing, jumping, and traversing a wall-to-wall hole in the floor. The company says it's designed to perform complex tasks in "dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments;" but the possibilities of outrunning Skynet are now lower than ever.
US Navy's Humanoid Robot Dances Gangnam Style
The CHARLI-2 Humanoid, created by Virginia Tech and used for US Naval Research to become a potential future war machine, has continually demonstrated amazing stability and speed in walking. And now, giving an entirely new meaning to a 'warrior dance,' he also dances Gangnam Style.
Artificial Intelligence Advances Being Led By Honey Bee Research
As part of a £1 million research project designed to advance the understanding of artificial intelligence systems, scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex are studying the brains of honey bees in the hope the results will eventually lead them to create a flying robot with artificial brain able to make decisions, think and act like a bee typically would.
Cheetah Robot Outruns Usain Bolt
A new speed record has been set by Boston Dynamics' Cheetah robot, running at 28.3 mph - faster than Usain Bolt's top speed of 27.78 mph.
World's First Mind-Controlled Robotic Legs Demonstrated
A pair of robotic legs controlled solely by the user's mind have been successfully demonstrated by Researchers at the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Centre and the University of California. This brings new potential to the future of prosthetic limbs for paraplegic people.
Fund The Bid To Build A Two-Tonne, 18-Foot Wide, Six-Legged Robot
There isn't a lot in robotics that doesn't get us excited, let alone this hugely ambitious build by a team of Massachusetts roboticists. Nicknamed 'Stompy', it's an 18-foot wide, 4,000 pound (1800kg), six-legged hydraulic robot that you can ride. Told you it was exciting.
Guy Spends Two Years Building Life-Size, Working WALL-E
It’s a testament to Pixar’s immense talent as an animation studio that it is able to bring such heart, emotion and unbridled cuteness to a mute, rusting trash compactor. For California-based robotics enthusiast Mike Senna, WALL-E deserved to exist outside of the realms of Disney animation…
Japanese Create 13-Foot Armed Mech, Controlled By Smartphone
Japanese engineers from Suidobashi Heavy Industries have built a 13-foot-tall, 4.4-tonne mech called 'Kuratas,' which is controllable via iPhone and fires gattling guns when you smile. The company plans to take it into mass production, selling it for the price of $1.35 million (about £860,530).
Shoulder-Mounted Robot Gives You A Borrower-Sized Companion
To conquer the modern day pressures of loneliness, this rather bizarre shoulder-mounted MH-2 (or 'miniature humanoid') will follow you through the day, perched on your shoulder, and offer a holographic visual presence of any of your closest people.
Researchers Hoping To ‘Eliminate Death’ By 2045, Working On Humanoid Robot Avatars
It is estimated that a total of 55.3 million people die each year, equivalent to almost 2 every single second. Death is a fact of life, or so we thought. A project by the name of Russia 2045 is ambitiously attempting to conquer immortality in as little as 33 years by way of creating humanoid robots that have human personalities stored on artificial brains.
The Japanese Robot That Helps You Find Lost Things
Whether it’s losing your car keys just as you’re ready to step out the door to work, or misplacing your phone after a heavy night drinking, losing property is quite simply a fact of life. No matter how hard you strive to keep things in your possession, somehow fate always comes along and puts it in some obscure place nowhere to be found. That all might be a thing of the past however, if a robot being developed by Japanese electronics firm Hitachi ever becomes commonplace in residential homes.
Scientists Develop Crab-Like Robot To Remove Stomach Cancer
Scientists have designed and created a miniature crab-like robot - complete with pincers and hook - that can remove early-stage stomach cancers without leaving any scars. With the help of the robot, like-for-like surgery time is cut significantly, while its use is also said to reduce much of the risk typically associated with keyhole surgery, where the risk of infection is much higher.
Web connected robot gives your online notifications their own scent
Meet Olly: a small, rather minimalistically designed gadget which is, according to creator Mint Foundry, a 'web connected smelly robot.' What does this mean? If sight and sound are already stimulated by the very device with which you are reading this from, then imagine adding smell to this combination.
Your girlfriend/boyfriend messages you on Facebook or Twitter, for example. Instantly your nasal capacity is filled with the scent of their perfume, due to Olly emitting that individual scent as part of the notification.
DIY Cardboard Robot takes its first steps
Ever thought of building a hexapodal robot out of cardboard, including servos and controllers for $85 (about £55)? This is a thought process that creator Mike Estee had, and we've got to admit, the DIY, homebrew look of it all (not intentional as it is actually homemade) is awesome.
Hajime Research is building a 4 metre tall robot
The people at Hajime Research have started on their path of creating increasingly taller robots than we humans, starting with a 13-foot humanoid.
This new iterative front for the company comes from the strategic goal of building a robot very much in the style of those from 'Gundam' Japanese anime: a 59-foot robot that will be the ultimate challenge, reached through gradual increases.
Jukusui-Kun: the snore-stopping robot Polar bear
Ever looked at the creepy Polar bear of the Birds Eye adverts and thought "that right there is an attractive creature?" Missing the feeling of soft tickling that comes with the spooning that you last experienced what feels like aeons ago? Combine the two and we have your answer!
Embrace the DARPA Robo-Ostrich [VIDEO]
Because robotic dogs, cheetahs and humans just aren't enough. Military agency DARPA are teaming up with MIT to develop FastRunner: a robotic ostrich with the capability of running at up to about 20mph.
OLogic AMP brings a new meaning to 'Robot butler.' [VIDEO]
OLogic introduced two robots designed for interface with your smartphone at this year's RoboBusiness Conference.
We have the classic "Furby"-esque format, Oddwerx, using your smartphone as a digital pet face for itself. However, the one we're focussing on is the AMP: the Automated Music personality. It will follow you and stream your music through it's speakers, making for an impressive start, which is made all the more awesome with the inplementation of a cup holder.
Foxconn chairman signs for an 'intelligent robot kingdom,' hopefully trained in the 3 laws
Following the company's announcement in August to implement one million robots in the next three years, Focus Taiwan has reported that Hon Hai, the manufacturer's parent company has concurred and decided to move forward with plans to build an "intelligent robotics kingdom" in the Central Taiwan Science Park.
Researchers retrieve 250GB of personal data with socialbot
Ever had those random adds from attractive (or extremely photoshopped) ladies wearing next to nothing, who have an extremely bare profile and don't talk to you? Chances are that's a Socialbot, and as researchers from the University of British Columbia have concluded, they prove extremely effective at infiltrating Facebook's circles of friends and harvesting data.