Tag: Robot

What the hell is this? I have no idea. Why does this exist. I also have no idea. I do know that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You will likely either find it adorable or terrifying.

Students and professors at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China have built a robot that can not only quickly cover an entire badminton court, but it can also return almost any shot. This robot is a serious opponent.

Great, now robots are free to roam the world. We can’t even contain them anymore. Apparently, a Russian robot escaped from a testing area in Perm, a city not far from the Urals, and made it on to a busy street, where it disturbed traffic as it tasted brief, sweet freedom.

One thing that robots have trouble with is walking through crowds. It comes very naturally to humans, but robots, not so much. Well, a team from Stanford University is working on making robots that can move alongside humans.

If you have ever wondered what the bee of the future would look like, here it is. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have spent the last seven years perfecting this robotic bee. For better honey? No.

Warning. Read any further, and your fear of cockroaches will be kicked up several notches. That’s because a collaboration between South Korea’s Seoul National University and UC Berkeley has created it’s latest unholy robot. Yes, mankind has built a robot cockroach that can crawl around and also jump five feet in the air.

Asus announced a bunch of new products at the Computex 2016 technology expo in Taiwan, but probably the oddest and coolest thing is probably their new cute house robot called Zenbo. Zenbo is a household assistant and companion robot that can move independently around the house, recognize faces, play games with kids, read stories and more.

SoftBank’s Pepper robot is growing up. After working at smartphone stores, it’s ready for a new career in the fast food industry. Pizza Hut Asia is partnering with MasterCard on a trial run that will use Pepper for taking orders and information in restaurants by the end of 2016.

Patting your dog is fun, but if you have a needy dog, it can become a chore. If only there was a robot that would pat our dogs for us. Fortunately, there is! Engineer James Cochrane has made a machine that will pat your animal and even give them a treat.

One of the dream – or nightmare – scenarios involving robots are ones that would automatically replicate or create other bots. One of the biggest hurdles for such a system is putting a robots’ parts together. 

If you can’t afford a table tennis coach but a wall isn’t good enough for you, check out the Trainerbot. It’s a smart ping pong ball launcher that will give you the exact shot you want for as long as you want.

Robots can do all kinds of cool stuff, but hand control could still use improvement. For the most part, roboticists have not been able to give their creations the same kind of finger dexterity as humans.

It doesn’t matter if you fear a Terminator style robot executioner or an insane “I’ll wear your skull” type of Saturn 3 Hector robot overlord, right now we are safe because robots can’t walk worth a crap.

There are lots of lonely people out there, and when these people get crafty with robots, all kinds of creepy things can happen. You see, Japanese YouTuber Mansooon0 likes to lick his computer screen as a way to “worship” his favorite anime characters.

In competitive running, pacers are hired runners who run at a pre-determined speed – and therefore time – so that the contestants can gauge their own pace or be motivated to run faster. To push its sponsored runners during training, Puma made Beatbot, a robotic pacer.

You thought it was just science fiction. Oh, another Dalek. The Doctor can handle it and it will all be over in an hour. Wrong! It looks like the first Dalek prototype is upon us in the real world.