There have been progress to aid wheelchair-bound people with their daily lives during the past decades, but still not all buildings have ramps, not all elevators can accommodate a wheelchair, they still could not climb stairs, and the sidewalks are still not friendly to people on wheels.
But a pair of robotic legs could just be savior to the paraplegic. A New Zealand-based company has been developing the Rex exos… Read More »

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a new Asimo-like robot, which they intend to use in “sensitive jobs,” according to government newspapers. The report did not elaborate what the robot can do apart from dragging its feet across the floor.
Soorena-2, which was named after an ancient Persian warrior, measures 1.45 meters (4 feet 9 inches) in height and weighs 45 kilograms (almost 100 pounds). It wa… Read More »

A newer version of the EMIEW2 (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate2) humanoid robot by Hitachi has been introduced with a series of videos demonstrating its smoother movement. It can now scoot around on uneven ground, as long as the bumps are up to 1.5 centimeters high, thanks to its new “adaptive suspension control.” The robot can also recognize and distinguish different human voices (t… Read More »

The University of Bonn’s Autonomous Intelligent Systems Lab has come up with an “omnidirectional mobile robot” that moves around using four Roombas. To keep the Roomba QuadDrive from walking at the direction where dirt is located, each Roombas is equipped with a Robotis Dynamixel RX-64 servo for steering purposes.
According to the AIS Lab, the QuadDrive can support loads up to 20 kilos and can move at a … Read More »

The Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) in Japan has unveiled its robotic creation that can be controlled using an iPod Touch (either by WiFi or touching the screen).  The robovie mR2 stands 30 centimeters and weighs about 2 kilograms.  According to ATR, this cutesy-sounding robot (who is a “he,” by the way) can “use information gathered with the iPod by means of gestu… Read More »

Robots powered by smartphones are nothing new, but robots powered by Nokia smartphones are a rarity.  Make has recently introduced Niko, a robot made from Lego Mindstorm NEXT 2.0 components and uses a Nokia N900 as its brain.
This video shows Niko roving around and taking photos whenever it bumps into objects.  It can now also accept commands and post messages and photos on Twitter .  Of course, t… Read More »

The Lego Mindstorms is not your nostalgic Lego.  This line of constructible toys is meant to create robots .  Many developers have done amazing things with the Lego Mindstorms such as a robot golfer, but imagine a robot completely made from Lego components aimed at solving Rubik’s cubes in seconds.
This is what Mike Dobson of Robotics Solutions have achieved with its Lego CubeStormer, which is att… Read More »

At the Adult Entertainment Expo recently held in Las Vegas, a New Jersey-based company presented what they claim as the world’s first sex robot.  The lifelike robot, named Roxxxy, stands 5′7", weighs 120 pounds, and contains an anatomically-accurate mechanical skeleton encased in a flesh-like exterior. 
Representatives of True Companion, Roxxxy’s manufacturer, explained that the … Read More »

At the recent All Japan Robot Tournament, Fuji Soft introduces its first commercial bipedal humanoid robot.  The unnamed robot, standing about 15 inches tall and weighing about 3.5 pounds, has 20 degrees of freedom on its legs, arms, and head.  It also has a LED array in its visor that would display various expressions, similar to the AIBO robot dog back in the day, and is capable of image and speech re… Read More »

NEC’s PaPeRo helper robot, which has been around since 1997, was introduced in its 2009 version at a recent exhibition in Tokyo.  The PaPeRo R500 is 38cm tall and weighs 6.5kg.  This cute robot can perform up to 200 different operations, such as holding simple conversations with humans or even blushing when being kissed by a girl.  It also has a built-in face recognition software, so it can i… Read More »