Robot Living

Willow Garage, the folks behind the robot that can recharge itself has put out a call for proposals.  Willow Garage is giving away up to 10 of its PR2 robot shown here to research facilities that submit a proposal.

Willow Garage’s goal is to facilitate progress in the area of personal robotics, and to develop a world-wide community of researchers and developers contributing to open-source. Willow Garage works to facilitate progress in the area of personal robotics by sponsoring community-building activities and events, internship programs and visiting scholars.

This Call for Proposals is the beginning of an important open source robotics community-building effort. It is our hope that the PR2 platform will focus attention and foster the sharing of open source code to enable the development of new robotics systems, tools and applications.

Click here for the PDF proposal form.

Link via (Boing Boing)

We are not really sure if sex with a robot is a good idea, but the company called TrueCompanion thinks so.

The robot called Roxxxy was unveiled last week and features distinct personalities including Frigid Farrah, Wild Wendy, Mature Martha, and more.

Roxxxy will go on sale this week for $7,000.00 – $9,000.00.

Also see David Levy’s book on robot sex and relationships.

Link via (Yahoo News)

Happy New Year! In celebration of the new year, check out this video of a drunk robot.

i-Sobot and his many different weapons eliminate the competition.

What more needs to be said?

Tags: i-sobot

For about $223,000 you can get a robotic clone of yourself.  It will have a face just like yours and the creators will even match the robots voice to yours.  Why would anyone want this you ask?  Well, it could fill in at work for you…

The robot will be made by Kokoro, the same company that makes Actroid.

Only 2 robots will be made in a special New Years promotion.  If you live in Japan, then head on over to a Sogo, Seibu or Robinson’s department store on January 1 – 3 to spend all of your money.

Click through for an interview with Hiroshi Ishiguro, the creator of these robots and the man in the photo.

Link via (Pink Tentacle)
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Tags: japan