geekosystem

Georgia Tech researchers have taken one big step towards building a robot will be able to get that jar of mustard from the back of the refrigerator without making an ungodly mess of the place. They've developed a "skin" that gives tactile sensitivity to a robot's whole arm, allowing it to snake its way through obstacles and pick up objects that in the midst of a cluttered environment without disturbing the items surrounding it.

A research lab in Iran is hard at work building a new robotic lifeguard that could respond instantly to passengers and crew who fall from ships by flying to their rescue and dropping a life preserver to them from the sky. It's a noble cause and a novel use for a robot, not to mention extremely forward thinking. Considering the state of most cruise ships lately, people jumping overboard to take their chances with the sharks rather than hang out for one more day in a feces-smeared cabin with no electricity is going to be a more and more common occurrence. Hell, these could be a whole new attraction: "Get saved from certain death in the open ocean by one of Carnival's Rescue Robots!"

David Neevel doesn't like the creme in the middle of Oreos, so he built a machine to remove it. Even though his stance on Oreo creme is horribly, tragically, and completely misguided you have to respect a guy who takes action to get what he wants, or to eliminate what he doesn't want as the case may be. Neevel is a physicist from Portland who is the type of person who sees a problem and solves it -- with a hatchet-wielding robot -- because that's how you freaking get things done.

Researchers at the CNRS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory just released this new video of a robot controlled by human brainwaves -- you think, and it acts. While it's in the early stages, this research puts us one step closer to leaving our pitiful meat suits behind and moving to a future where be bicker and complain at one another through indestructible robot bodies. We can't wait.

If you were planning on making your home safe from the coming robocalypse by ensuring it could only be reached by navigating a series of tightropes a la Prince of Persia, we have some bad news. Apparently, robots can walk tightropes now. Then again, if "tightropes" loomed large in your home defense plan against an army of mechanical marauders bent on world domination, you should probably have a Plan B in place. Because seriously, that is a terrible plan. You can see a video of why after the jump, but Protip: Turn the volume down unless you like being blasted by bad techno.

Chef Cui is a noodle-slicing robot developed by Cui Runguan, a Chinese restaurateur, that is now being mass-produced and sold in China. The robot only has the single task of slicing noodles into a boiling pot of water, though it also lights up for no apparent functional reason. Probably because it's a robot. With rising labor costs, it can actually be cheaper for restaurants to purchase a Chef Cui rather than hire on an additional worker.

In a monumental act of hubris, someone has created a robot that can defeat humans in Rock-Paper-Scissors 100% of the time. You might expect that years of observational study and an enormous, highly accurate predictive algorithm were involved in this amazing feat. You'd be wrong. The robot is a cheater; a cheater with a high-speed camera and fast reflexes.

You have to hand it to these Japanese universities: There is no end to the strange, and perhaps imaginative, things they are willing to research. The latest comes from Keio University, home of the poster you can make out with, which has developed a set of robotic eyes and mouth fitted to rings. The researchers involved go on and on about this being a brekthrough form of communication, ignoring the obvious truth that they wan to turn your hand into a Furby.

No, this isn't the terrifying spawn of C3PO and the thing from Virus. According to the YouTube information, this delightful robot baby was constructed for an soap opera by British animatronics expert Chris Clarke, so I suppose we can blame him for bringing this abomination into the world. Perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh. Besides its metal wire fingers, stubby legs that abruptly end mid-calf, and horrifying face-hole covered only by an array of moving panels, what's not love? If you think it looks creepy now, just wait until you see it start moving. See the video, after the break.

This gingerbread house is more than your eyes might initially perceive. With a few whirrs and clicks, the tasty shack becomes a battle-ready robot -- just like some kind of transformation-capable robots! The project is the brain-child of Brian Hall, who clearly had a lot of time on his hands this past holiday season. Clearly, Hall is a fan of the Incredible Change-Bots, because where else would he have gotten the idea? Video below the break.

I've often complained about viral marketing because when advertising is indistinguishable from reality, it feels more like a trick and a cheat. However, this series of videos purporting to "reveal" a robot attacking a human crowd with a chainsaw doesn't try to pull one over on the audience. This string of mysterious videos, each from a different perspective at the fictitious BotEx 2011 conference in Tokyo, all end the same way: An ultra life-like robot fires up a chainsaw and marches ominously toward the crowd. See the videos after the break.

The short answer is "no." The long answer is actually really interesting, and has to do with the nature of the mirror test, the design of the robot, and the roots of intelligence. Also, there's a fun video of the robot, whose name, incidentally, is Qbo ("que-bee-oh") learning to recognize himself in a mirror. So let's get started, shall we?

On the line between technology and art, the Senseless Drawing Bot created by So Kanno and Takahiro Yamaguchi is probably smack-dab in between. Packed full of software to move more or less at random and a mechanical free-swinging arm that applies paint to the wall, there is truly no sense behind the robot's actions. However, after looking at its work, it's surprising how patterns seem to emerge. There's a naturalness to it, and its paintings begin to look like old buildings covered with graffiti. It's a truly strange effect, and one enjoyed far more in video. Hit the break to see the senseless bot senselessly creating some art on a wall.

For years, bed sharing couples have done the delicate dance between annoyance and assault. One partner leads by snoring, irritating the other awake. The second partner rouses, and swats at the other until the snoring dies down, and the dance continues. But what about people who have no partner to be annoyed with their snoring? Don't worry, Japan has a robotic solution in the form of Jusui-Kun, the snore-swatting robotic pillow.

Since its unveiling in 2000, Honda Robotics' ASIMO has wowed audiences with its incredible dexterity and mobility. In some sense, it's been the gold standard of humanoid robotics, showing what you can do with some hard work and a deep pocketbook. After over a decade, the hard working robot is now seeing a total overhaul and expanded capabilities. Read on after the break for videos of the improved ASIMO in action.