Soft robotics are inspired by animals which don't have hard internal skeletons, like squid, worms, and starfish. Developed at Harvard, with funding from DARPA,
this particular soft robot, "not only walks, it knows several different gaits and can deflate to stuff itself through tiny little gaps."
Another design here,
and another (
also),
and another. In addition to movement, soft robotics can also be used
for grip. More information about the Harvard lab is available
here (
with a student describing the research here).
posted by codacorolla
on Nov 29, 2011 -
26 comments
To paraphrase a character in the film, The Black Hole walks "a tightrope;" if not between "genius" and "insanity," then certainly between "genius" and "banality". If you're looking at this movie as a Manichean exercise between darkness and light, then you can -- for at least a few hours -- entertain the "genius" part of that equation.
posted by Trurl
on Sep 25, 2011 -
106 comments
With hundreds of millions of variations,
Robohash is among the leading robot-based hashing tools on the web.
posted by Laminda
on Aug 8, 2011 -
14 comments
This is Zombotron. You can scavenge for items and kill the undead in this Flash game. Your less-advanced mechanical brethren may even shoot you on site, as they are only programmed to detect motion. Welcome to Zombotron.
posted by Smart Dalek
on Jul 14, 2011 -
29 comments
(notes on) biology, a short stop-motion animation (5.39) by ornana films, features a robot elephant. You have to wait a bit, but it's worth it. Stuff gets good at about 2.25.
posted by bwg
on Apr 25, 2011 -
8 comments
Meet the Geminoid DK, who looks exactly like Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. If you're wondering why on Earth someone would want an exact robotic double of themselves, besides being TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME, the
Geminoid is going to be used for researching "emotional affordances" in human-robot interaction, the novel notion of "blended presence," as well as cultural differences (from different continents) in the perception of robots.
posted by amro
on Mar 7, 2011 -
32 comments
"The boy insisted for months that he wanted to be a robot for Halloween. His sister was a robot when she was his age. We looked at various robot images on the computer and he was most intrigued by Robocop. After I showed him the trailer, there was no convincing him otherwise. He was going to
be Robocop."
posted by Katemonkey
on Oct 29, 2010 -
59 comments
Meet
Actroid-F, the "world's first true Android",
unveiled this month at a laboratory fair at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Designed to be used as an observer in hospitals to gauge patient reactions, the robot can replicate surprisingly subtle facial movements.
Previously.
posted by Dragonness
on Oct 28, 2010 -
58 comments
Get a grip on this. "It turns out that opposable thumbs aren't critical for getting a good grip. Neither are fingers. Scientists have created a robotic arm that can do everything from serve drinks to draw pictures even though it has no digits. Their robotic hand, which they describe online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a thin rubber sack filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres. When this hand comes in contact with an object, a small pipe sucks air from the sack, causing it to contract and mold to the object's shape. The contraction is small—a mere 1% change in volume–but was enough to grab most objects the researchers tested."
Inside the balloon hand.
The robotic mitt.
Via: Sciencemag.org
posted by Fizz
on Oct 26, 2010 -
49 comments
A couple decades after the
first appearance of Steam Men in the 19th century, and a few years after the
word "robot" was coined, one Professor Harry May from London
toured around the US with Alpha the robot. The one ton mechanical man was
built from a combination of modern inventions that granted Alpha certain skills, from
product model and
vocal promoter of the automatic electric toaster, to gunslinger. The problem with giving Alpha a gun was that
the robot revolted (PDF,
via), shooting his master and creator in 1932. After this incident,
Alpha became Mary Ann (
via), complete with new hair, a dress, and a soprano voice.
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 12, 2010 -
16 comments
Video of horrific, Japanese maggot-man robot allegedly designed to act as a physical presence during phone calls. More info and photos
here.
posted by picea
on Aug 2, 2010 -
90 comments
