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Shimi, Your Robot DJ
Photo of Shimi from Georgia Tech
Shimi, a robot invented by Georgia Tech’s Gil Weinberg, is a robotic DJ. The robot contains an Android phone dock and uses music and apps on the phone to strut its stuff.
Shimi can even follow you around the room by tracking you with it’s head. Hopefully other developers will create more apps for the robot.
Weinberg with the help of a company called Tovbot, hopes to make Shimi available to consumers by the holdays in 2013.
Check out the video below.
Robots Map Interiors
Photo: Gary Meek / Georgia Tech
Henrik Christensen from the Georgia Institute of Technology is building tiny robots to map building interiors. These small robots communicate with each other to map out the entire interior of a building. This could be very useful in dangerous situations. Henrik states:
If those first responders could send in robots that would quickly search the structure and send back a map, they’d have a much better sense of what to expect and they’d feel more confident.
The work at Georgia Tech is part of MAST (Micro Autonomous Systems & Technology), a program sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and led by BAE Systems. The objective is to create tiny palm sized devices that help civilians and the military with situations in confined spaces.
Mapping by the robots is done with a video camera, a laser scanner and a technique called SLAM. In the future they hope to make the robots smaller than they are now and add radar, to detect objects or people through walls.
New Robot Simon Unveiled
Dr. Andrea Thomaz of Georgia Tech has won a MIT Technology Review Young Innovators Under 35 Award.
At the same time her lab has unveiled their new cute robot shown here called Simon.
Simon is designed to study human and robot interaction. With hands from Meka Robotics, an articulated torso and a cute face, Simon is poised to be a winner.
Of course, our favorite part of Simon is his ears that light up with LEDs.
Click through for a video of Simon in “action”.
Robots Invade Antarctica
Robots will soon invade Antarctica, thanks to Ayanna Howard of Georgia Tech.
Ayanna is working a robot called SnowMote. This small ski mobile shaped robot will be used to collect temperature, radiation and wind speed readings from Antarctica. This will help scientists study why the ice shelves are melting.
Ayanna envisions a fleet of SnoMotes invading the frozen south pole. The robots will communicate with each other and decide on their own what place is best to investigate, while the scientists stay warm inside.
The robots will navigate by using lines from snow banks as markers.
Ayanna hopes to be able to make these robots for about $10,000 each.
Sure, first they invade the south pole, then the rest of the world.
Link via (Washington Post)