Robot Living

Coming April 10 – 18 is the first National Robotics Week in the US.  It is being launched by an alliance various academic and non profit organizations.

Look for events in your area. Shown below are only some the exciting events coming in April.

Boston, Mass.

• New England Botball Regional Tournament and New England Botfest, University of Massachusetts Lowell, April 10
• Robot Block Party, Museum of Science, April 17

Pittsburgh, Pa.

• Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute 30^th Anniversary Open House
• Announcement of the Class of 2010 Robotics Hall of Fame Inductees
• Carnegie Science Center Café Scientifique Event

San Francisco, Calif.

• Young Innovators Day, The Tech Museum in Silicon Valley, April 11
• Robot Block Party, Stanford University, April 14
• Robots in Action, Adept Technology, April 16

See the full National Robotics Week press release or check out the website National Robotics Week.

17,600 NFL toy robot figures similar to the one shown here were seized at customs in Seattle recently.

The toys were manufactured in China and found to have 6 times the acceptable level of lead in them.  The toys are valued at around $96,000 and will be destroyed. Chalk up one win for the humans against the coming robo-apocalypse.

You can buy similar NFL robot action figures currently on Amazon, but we have no idea what the lead levels in these toys might be.

(Chicago Breaking Sports) & (Yahoo News)

Cool lego hexapod by Gus Janns . See photos on the Flickr Lego Hexapod Walker set.

Link via (Make)

The world’s first robotic cosmonaut has been unveiled by NASA and GM.  Would that be called a robocosmonaut?

Wow, NASA ok, but GM and cutting edge technology?  Sorry, when I think of GM all I can think of is clunkers.

All that aside, this robot looks impressive.  The robot is ambidextrous and can lift up to 20 pounds. The press release states:

The two organizations, with the help of engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems of Houston, developed and built the next iteration of Robonaut. Robonaut 2, or R2, is a faster, more dexterous and more technologically advanced robot. This new generation robot can use its hands to do work beyond the scope of prior humanoid machines. R2 can work safely alongside people, a necessity both on Earth and in space.

See the GM R2 Robot Press Release.

Click through for a video.

Via (Gizmodo)

Swisslog has teamed up with CCS Robotics to bring you two robots.

SpeciMinder is avalable now and can automatically navigate doorways a small as 27 inches.  RoboCourier will be available later this year and can interface with doors and elevators.  Reminds me of R2D2 interfacing with the computer to open the trash bin door in Star Wars. Is RoboCourier an R2D2 prototype in the making?

From the press release:

Swisslog SpeciMinder is available now and is designed exclusively for INTRA-departmental materials transport. For example, a large one-floor laboratory or pharmacy in which several workers frequently move goods among multiple workstations is an ideal environment for SpeciMinder. The primary benefit of SpeciMinder is a tremendous increase in operational efficiency.

Swisslog RoboCourier will be available later this year and is designed for INTER-departmental materials transport. Like SpeciMinder, RoboCourier will be able to interface with doors, but it will have the added capability of interfacing with elevators and navigating hallways. This capability will allow RoboCourier to navigate multiple floors within a hospital, meaning it can transport materials from one department to another

Check out the full CCS Robotics press release (PDF file).

Click through for a video of SpeciMinder in action.

Link via (PRWeb)
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