Thursday, December 30

Fly-eating robot powers itself

"Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.

Instead, it generates energy by catching and eating houseflies.

Dr Chris Melhuish and his Bristol-based team hope the robot, called EcoBot II, will one day be sent into zones too dangerous for humans, potentially proving invaluable in military, security and industrial areas.

Melhuish, who is director of the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab at the UWE, told CNN that the EcoBot II was a result of a quest for an intelligent robot that could function without human supervision.

"That means they need energy. It is one thing to have a robot getting its energy from a household socket, or maybe from the factory floor, but it is another thing when the robot goes outside buildings," he said.

"Of course, there is solar energy outside. Little robots can use solar energy to move about. But mostly, if there is not a lot of solar energy about, you have to give robots batteries -- which eventually run out."

The EcoBot II powers itself in much the same way as animals feed themselves to get their energy, he said.

At this stage, EcoBot II is a "proof-of-concept" robot and travels only at roughly 10 centimeters per hour."

From CNN.com

Thursday, December 16

Honda Upgrades ASIMO

"ASIMO, Honda's feisty little humanoid robot, is getting an upgrade.
Honda Motor Co. announced yesterday the latest technological tweaks aimed at making the machine more nimble and better suited to interacting with people.

ASIMO serves as a sort of Apollo mission for Honda, a long running research project that's slowly rooting out all the technical issues of delivering a truly humanoid autonomous robot to market.

Posture Control, Autonomous Continuous Movement and 'enhanced visual and force sensor technologies' lead the list of improvements. ASIMO has also grown a bit, with an extra 10cm in height and 2kg in weight ASIMO also has a much longer battery life: 1 hour, up from the 30 minutes of the previous model. "

From extremetech.com

Wednesday, December 15

Robotics firm gets $27M government deal

The Robotics Foundry this week received a $27 million government contract to research and develop defense-related robotic technology. Robotics firms within the Western Pennsylvania region and some from outside of the region will do the work, increasing their bottom lines and bolstering Western Pennsylvania's robotics mecca image.

From the Pittsburgh Business Times

Wednesday, December 8

Beautiful House Sitting Robot

From I4U News:

"Sanyo and tmsuk launch new house sitting robot dubbed Roborior.

The Roborior name is derived from Robot and Interior. The Roborior can be remote controlled with a FOMA phone. The robot can move around and it has a built-in Camera. The Roborior is lighting up in flourescent blue, green and red colors. The Battery holds for 2 hours.

The Roborior sells for 280,000 yen (~$2,696).

More details on Roborior (Japanese) and on PC Watch (Japanese). PC Watch also has a short video of the Roborior. "

Tuesday, December 7

Second Career for Old Robot: Art

From Wired News:

"Assembly-line robots can do more than just build cars. A European art group claims they can draw, dance, even DJ a party.

Robotlab acquires industrial robots -- the metal arms on factory floors that wield welding torches and other manufacturing tools -- and reprograms them to become performers in public spaces. Some of the reprogrammed beasts spin tunes, others paint, and still others perform intricate dances to music."