Service Robots

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-robots-dirty-video.html Read More

http://singularityhub.com/2011/04/26/robots-enter-crippled-japanese-reactor-for-first-time/ Read More

The new surveillance robot that has been made by iROBOT for DARPA was presented the other day. The robot called “110 Firstlook” can observe its surroundings continuously with “persistent stare” and it is able to maneuver around in very tight and difficult conditions. The robot weighs less than 5 lbs and 10 inches, can stay operational even after falling 15 feet on to a concrete […] Read More

In order to find survivors of the earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan last week, rescue robots have been deployed at parts of Japan. One example is the snake robot that can crawl into very tight spaces in debris and provide information to rescuers. The robot have a camera at the front and can move at speeds of 2.7 inches per second with its hairlike […] Read More

Exoskeletons are getting more and more common in robotics. The primary purpose of these is to amplify the movement of human muscles. A robotic suit designed for legs by Japan’s Cyberdyne company is helping disabled people to walk, by anticipating the legs movements through monitoring the signals sent from the brain to the muscles. Currently the suit, which is called HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) is […] Read More

In a new project that has just commenced, US Navy aims to build android firefighter robot. The concept of firefighter robots is actually not new however doing this task with a robot in human form involves more challenges. The ships are designed for only humans to move around, therefore a humanoid robot will perform much more efficiently in such environments. The project will last for […] Read More

A new thought controlled robot arm that was designed and tested by University of Chicago is able to move more accurately as it also provides movement sensory feedback, in addition to the previous models which was only based on visual feedback. In the experiments, monkeys were tested using brain-machine interface, where they controlled a cursor without moving their real arm, using the robotic arm. In […] Read More

In Japan the engineers developed an agricultural robot that could help farmers in picking fruits. The robot first determines the position, and then evaluates if the color of the strawberry is at least 80% red. After that it proceeds to pick up the fruit and places it into its storage. Currently the robot is being field tested by farmers and its developers say that there […] Read More

A project run in Europe called PACO PLUS has reported interesting advances in development of robot recognition. The robot called ARMAR-III is able to learn new information by its visual as well as touch sensors, and operate accordingly based on the newly acquired information. The four year project aims to develop robots that can operate in real world environments. The robot is a semi humanoid […] Read More

Making it closer to the Iron Man movies, Raytheon company of US, have developed a second generation of exoskeleton, which they call XOS2. The robotic suit has been unveiled last week in company’s Salt Lake City research center. The company says that the second version is stronger, faste rand lighter, and it uses about 50% less power than the first version. The new design is […] Read More