This quadruped was clearly designed with the intent to show that robots are way too cute to pose a threat to humanity. In all likelihood, most robots will probably have sources of backup power, such as photovoltaic cells. Solar power technology, fueled by the fears of global climate change, has made huge advances in recent years, [...]
Archive for the ‘video’ Category
Another incredible flying robot from Festo (Video)
Posted by Eric on November 26th, 2011
Festo has created yet another spectacular biomimetic machine, called Smartbird. (To skip to the flight part of the first video, go to 2:04) https://www.youtube.com/user/FestoHQ
Boston Dynamics’ PETMAN
Posted by Eric on November 15th, 2011
Boston Dynamics, creators of BigDog, LittleDog, and AlphaDog, have a new video of their impressive biped PETMAN: There is something familiar about it, I just can’t place my finger on it… PETMAN stayin alive: [BostonDynamics] via [Engadget]
Posted in biomimetic, biped, DARPA, defense, government, military / law enforcement, video 
Tags: biped, boston dynamics, petman 
No Comments »Robot takes over control of human’s arm
Posted by Eric on November 15th, 2011
In this experiment, a robot uses electrodes to control a blindfolded person’s arm and hand, guiding the arm so that they move the ball into position and drop the ball when it is over the net. This process of controlling the muscles via electrodes is called functional electrical stimulation (FES) and has many potential applications [...]
BigDog’s big brother- AlphaDog
Posted by Eric on September 30th, 2011
Say hello to AlphaDog Proto, the latest incarnation of Boston Dynamics’ BigDog. “The AlphaDog Proto is a lab prototype for the Legged Squad Support System, a robot being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. When fully developed the system will carry 400 lbs of payload on 20-mile missions [...]
Posted in DARPA, defense, government, military / law enforcement, video Tags: alphadog, bigdog, boston, dynamics, quadraped No Comments »Worm-bot WILL FIND YOU
Posted by Eric on August 30th, 2011
Based on the movements of the nematode worm, the Worm-Bot, or some future iteration thereof, may act as a rescue bot, able to crawl through rubble and deliver food, water, or medicine before humans can get to you. Or it may come find you for other reasons, depending on who sent it. But probably [...]
Dude.
Posted by Eric on August 2nd, 2010
Okay, this abomination is a new telepresence robot with skin. In other words, if you are having a teleconference with someone, this thing is supposed to add a “human” element to the proceedings. Ummm… I hope they didn’t sink a lot of capital into this idea. Although I’m sure it will be great fun in [...]
C.R.A.B. Police robot
Posted by Eric on July 30th, 2010
C.R.A.B. (Cybernetic Remote Autonomous Barricade) police robots are just a concept for now. They will probably be more than a concept soon. And why shouldn’t they? What could go wrong? Something like this? [yankodesign] via [slashgear]
Posted in AI, autonomous, biomimetic, defense, ethics, government, military / law enforcement, video, weapon Tags: c.r.a.b., crab, ed209, police No Comments »Army uses snake robots to form claw
Posted by Eric on July 28th, 2010
No video available at the time of this posting, unfortunately. The Army’s Robotic Tentacle Manipulator will likely be useful for rescue missions, diffusing IED’s and capturing humans working with the Resistance. On a related note, here is a single robotic snake being used as a tentacle, or elephant trunk: [Army.mil] via [Cnet] via [Gizmodo]
Posted in biomimetic, DARPA, defense, military / law enforcement, video Tags: claw, snake, tentacle No Comments »Robot learns to flip pancakes
Posted by Eric on July 22nd, 2010
This robot arm doesn’t have much to do with armed robots.. but the failed attempts are pretty funny. And it does show that robots can be taught to do pretty much anything people want to teach them to do. So far this year, robots have been learning to play soccer, fetch beers, iron clothes, fold [...]
Posted in domestic, research, roboticists, study, testing, video Tags: pancakes, robot No Comments »
