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Lost in Space B-9 Robot
Feeling rather rich and want to lighten your pockets by a sizeable sum? That’s not a problem, especially when you are a huge fan of the Lost in Space series, thanks to the whopping £25,500 price tag that is associated with the Lost in Space B-9 Robot. Yes sir, this robot has proved to be the so-called voice of reason in the Lost in Space series, and you can now have B-9 in your living room to add some dazzle for visitors whenever they drop by.
Expect this to be a family heirloom of sorts a few generations down, especially when this is a limited edition, fully licensed version in the B-9 Robot from the series. It was built based on original moulds and reference material from Robot’s Season 3 incarnation, where it sports an acrylic bubble-head, a laser-cut steel ‘brain’, engraved acrylic chest buttons, rubber tread belts, knee bellows, leg bellows, and hundreds of individually fabricated parts which make it look extremely real.
Heck, B-9 can even adjust his head, ear sensors, torso and soil sampler, while manipulating his ‘claws’. Good thing all of that can be achieved not through someone wearing a costume inside, but via the included remote control. Heck, at that price, I’d expect the remote control to be gold plated!
MABEL, the running robot
What you are seeing here is MABEL, a special project at the University of Michigan’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and it is the “fastest bipedal robot with knees”.
How fast can it go? It’s top speed is 6.8 miles per hour, and that is on a flat, circular track. The speed is pretty good, and it is due to a “human-like weight distribution”.
You can watch a video of it after the jump, and I can tell you that no special effects were used in the filming. I wouldn’t have minded if they had used a greenscreen to make the rod invisible.
Continue reading » MABEL, the running robot
Portal 2′s robot ball Wheatley comes to life as a complex puppet
I have played the Portal video game before, but I haven’t tried out Portal 2 as yet. I have heard that it has some interesting robots that look just darling. One of them is Wheatley, a robot ball that is quite animated, and it has now come to life by username TRP-Chan.
I have a video of it after the jump if you want to see it in action, and I highly recommend that you do. Even though it is limited to a lap, this Wheatley is quite lively.
The puppeteer also does an amazing job of working out all the expressions on this little guy. Actually he isn’t little, but 12 inches across. There is a hole in back, and there are wires snaking all through the Wheatley ball to make it move.
Continue reading » Portal 2′s robot ball Wheatley comes to life as a complex puppet
Self-thinking robot can learn by itself via AI
How many of us look forward to the day where artificial intelligence (AI) rules the roost? Surely AI has already come a long way by now, with many things in our lives being automated in ways we never thought possible before, but there are always new glass ceilings to break, no? Enter this unique robot that is being developed by the Hasegawa Group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where it is capable of thinking, learning and acting all by itself, thanks to the power of AI.
The technology used is known as a self-replicating neural network, or SOINN (Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network). Basically, it will help the robot think in the same manner as that of humans, especially when it makes an attempt at tasks that have never been performed before. To put it in a nutshell, this robot is capable of making educated guesses and decisions based on what it has gone through in the past as well as its knowledge database.
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Insect-like robot can literally walk on water
I’m sure most of you know about insects like the water strider that have water-repellant legs to allow them to walk on the water’s surface . It is nice to see that technology has imitated mother nature yet again as scientists in China have created a microbot that walks on water.
The robot is slightly larger than most water-striding insects as it is six inches long. It is also about 400 times heavier than a water strider, and it uses 10 water-repellent wire legs and 2 oar like legs to skim across water.
Continue reading » Insect-like robot can literally walk on water
Robot from Japan does human speech
Robots are really big in Japan as well as South Korea, as societies in both countries tend to adopt the use of robots around the home and at work far more than other countries – or at least, that is the impression that I get judging by blog posts which we filter through each day. Just how far and closely intertwined will robots be in our lives eventually? Well, they are certainly taking big steps towards being more realistic, leading us down the Uncanny Valley road headlong at speed.
Trust the Japanese to churn out a robot which is capable of replicating human speech – yes, real human speech instead of synthesized audio. Complete with moving lips as well, now how about that? Read all more about this robot-vaganza in the extended post.
Continue reading » Robot from Japan does human speech
Omnidirectional robot gallops around
We know that humans have always taken nature’s designs to be their inspiration – such as the plane and robotic worms, but how about using a snail as a model? That certainly would be farthest from most people’s minds, but snails “gallop” around such as the inchworm, sticking the front of its foot to a surface, drawing up the rest of its body right behind. The galloping technique has been studied closer, and adapted and improved for robots by the Biomechatronics Lab at Chuo University in Japan.
Known as the “Snail-Wave Omnidirectional Mobile Robot,” Toro II, it definitely isn’t a snail at all, and there is no shell to crush, but the biggest advantage would be to have it move in all directions, thanks to a large and grippy area which is always in contact with the ground.
No idea on how it is going to be applied in real world use. What do you think? I’m quite sure the military would have a good idea on implementing it on the battlefield…
Bring Jurassic Park to your home with the 20 Foot Animatronic Triceratops
I’m not too sure about you, but when Jurassic Park first hit the cinemas all those years ago, my jaw literally dropped to the floor for the first time in my life. Such lifelike special effects that made me ask, “Just how the heck did they manage to do it?” To see man and dinosaur walk together is truly one of the more spine-chilling experiences to date, even though it was only on the silver screen. Well, since Father’s Day is already over and you need to start earning brownie points with your kids to be called the “Best Father in the World” for 2012, here’s a quick tip – bring home the 20 Foot Animatronic Triceratops for them.
Continue reading » Bring Jurassic Park to your home with the 20 Foot Animatronic Triceratops
