COOL ROBOTS - Humanoid Robots, Military Robots, Japanese Robots

Robot Rides a Bike Better Than Your Boss!

2012-04-26T21:24:00.001-04:00

The robot is called PRIMER-V2, and was built by Dr. Guero of the website AI & Robot. He pedals to move forwards, and he balances like a human rider, by turning into any falls. The balance in this case is provided by a PID (proportional integral derivative) controller which uses feedback loops to adjust for error.

Robot Rides a Bike

However the PRIMER manages to stay upright, Dr. Guero has given us a valuable insight into how the robot apocalypse will inevitably unfold. It will come from Japan, and it will come — unstoppably — on two wheels.

Check this cool robot video!

This bot can reach speeds of 6 mph and uses centrifugal force from its front wheel and a gyro that helps with steering when going in a straight line. He really looks like a kid that just learned to ride and is doing great. And just like a kid, PRIMER-V2′s braking method is to use its metal feet to slow the forward motion of the bike.

At times, our robot future is looking less scary at times, and more comical. I can’t wait to see all of the bike-riding and skateboarding bots at various parks and playgrounds. First they took our jobs, then they took our kids’ pastimes.

Sexy Japanese Humanoid Robot Woman Better Than Your Wife

2012-04-02T01:03:00.001-04:00

Japan leads the world’s robotic industries in fields ranging from manufacturing to entertainment and security.Japanese researchers have developed a humanoid robot that can laugh and smile as it mimics a person's facial expressions.By receiving electric signals from the person it is modelled on, the robot can move its rubber facial skin to imitate expressions like a smile, a laugh and a grim look.

Check this humanoid robot video below:

"I felt like I had a twin sister," the model said.

Trust Me! NAO Is The Most Amazing Robot Ever

2012-03-17T20:18:00.002-04:00

The versatile humanoid robot Nao caught Gizmag's attention at the 2009 International Robot Exhibition (iREX 2009). What Nao lacks in size, he makes up for in features and capabilities. Nao can see (via two cameras), will react to touch, can surf the Web and can interact with other Naos. He can speak (in English or French, so far) by reading out any file stored locally in his storage space or captured from a website RSS flow. The bot is fitted with an accelerometer and gyrometer so he won't fall down, he's also equipped with two pairs of ultra-sound senders/receivers on his torso that give feedback on several echoes so Nao is aware of obstacles close by and can avoid them.

I just get my little NAO last week, and now I am testing this cute humanoid robot. Check my video below:

[HD] Robot Chef NAO - My Mom's Little Kitchen Helper!

Nao reacts to touch

Nao is fitted with a capacitive sensor on the top of his head that is divided into three sections which lets him react appropriately to touch. For example, pressing once can turn him off, or this sensor can be used as a series of buttons to register an associated action. The system comes with LED lights that indicating the type of contact that has been made. Nao’s designers say it is also possible to program complex sequences into him.

NAO Is The Most Amazing Robot

Nao can communicate in several ways. For local connections, infrared senders/receivers in his eyes allow him to connect to the objects in his environment, serving as a remote control. Yet Nao can also logon to your local network via Wi-Fi, making it easy to pilot and program him through a computer, or any other object that has a Wi-Fi connection. The Wi-Fi key is connected to the motherboard and accepts a, b and g standards.

Furthermore, Nao’s SDK lets you develop your own custom-built modules interfaced with OpenCV (the Open Source Computer Vision library initially developed by Intel). Nao’s makers say it’s easy to execute modules on Nao or transfer them to another PC connected to NAO because the OpenCV display functions allow developers to test their own algorithms with image feedback.

Nao can browse the Internet, of course, and interface with any website to send or retrieve data.

"Watching two Nao’s interacting was almost mesmerizing," reports Gizmag's Mike Hanlon. "At the show the two joked and played tricks and then performed a synchronized dance routine that kept most of the audience spellbound – not too difficult for robots with the same chipset and programming, but effective nevertheless."

"While the dancing was cute, it really showed off the possibilities of having the robots work in tandem to complete complex tasks such as geographic positioning or pooling analytical capacity."

HRP-4 Humanoid Robot Walking Like A Real Human

2012-03-17T19:57:00.003-04:00

Japan’s newest RoboCop-looking humanoid robot practices yoga, tracks faces and objects and, in what seems to be a robo-requirement these days, pours drinks.

The industrial HRP-4 humanoid robot was designed to coexist with people, and its “thin athlete” frame is meant to be more appealing, according to Kawada Industries, which built the robot with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

The 5-foot-tall, 86-pound humanoid robot is a deliberately downsized version of its larger sibling, the HRP-2. Kawada first developed HRP-2 seven years ago, and wanted to design an updated version, according to a press release.

HRP-4 Humanoid Robot Walking Like A Real Human

HRP-4 has 34 degrees of freedom and can move its arm seven ways. It can carry about a pound in each arm. All joint motors are less than 80 watts, as CNET reports. A small laptop can be installed in HRP-4’s back to increase its data processing capabilities.

Watch the humanoid robot show off its smooth moves in the video clip below. The video demonstrating how the HRP-4 can stretch and flex is pretty cool – looks like it’s warming up for a jog.

TELESAR V - Amazing Robot Avatar Developed By Japan

2012-03-04T00:44:00.000-05:00

Japan is the land of cool humanoid robots, and here we have another humanoid robot named Telesar V from Japan. Unlike other humanoid robots, Telesar V will be able to transmit sight, hearing and touch.

Telesar V is a new kind of humanoid robots, and it is created by Professor Tachi from Japan’s Keio University, and what makes this humanoid robot special is the fact that Telesar V is your real-life robot avatar. Thanks to the 3D head-mounted display, you’ll be able to hear and see all the things that Telesar V “sees” and “hears”. In addition to that, you’ll be able to feel the shape and temperature of objects thanks to the built-in hand sensors. Regarding the movement, Telesar V has 17 degrees of freedom in the body, eight in the head and seven in the arm joints, and the hand itself has 15 degrees of freedom.

cool humanoid robots - TELESAR V

How the robot operates TELESAR V
V TELESAR robot operated by the control of humans. To operate, one must use special equipment consisting of the head gear, gloves, and vests are good for controlling the robot action. Gloves made of thin polyester material coated with a semiconductor and a small motor so that users can ‘feel’ what the robot is touched, recognize a variety of sensations such as the surface is soft, wavy, and hot or cold. For vision, humanoid robot TELESAR V will capture the situation around with a camera placed in the eye. Camera image will then appear in three-dimensional format on video screens in front of the controller.

cool humanoid robots - TELESAR V

Opinion research on humanoid robots TELESAR V
Sho Kamuro, researchers are trying to operate the robot reveals his experiences. “When I put on equipment operation and move your body, I see my hands turned into a humanoid robot hand,” says Sho. “As you move the head, I saw a different scene before. It was strange to think of ourselves we really have turned into a robot,” said Sho. Check the humanoid robots TELESAR V demo video below:

Professor Susumu Tachi, a virtual reality of Keio University said that robot like TELESAR V was developed to assist human tasks. One was to go into places too dangerous if the visited by humans. One scenario is to use this robot to enter the Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power plant damaged by the earthquake and tsunami last year.

Autonomous truss-climbing robot reconfigures buildings

2012-03-01T21:43:00.000-05:00

A truss climbing robot has a minimalist design with three motive degrees of freedom that enable movement along three-dimensional truss structures. This robot can form a six-degree-of-freedom structure by connecting to another identical module using a passive bar as a medium. We present the design and implementation of this robot, control algorithms for moving the robot in a 3-D truss structure, and hardware experiments.

truss-climbing robot

Sick and tired of your boring old truss? This handy little cool robot may well be just the solution you're looking for. It can navigate a truss structure using its 3D-printed bi-directional gear innards, unscrew a beam with its rotational mechanism and reattach it, transforming the structure into a new shape. The structure itself is specially designed for the bot, with robot lockable connectors and reflecting segments that can be picked up by its sensors to help it detect its location. The folks behind the plucky little robot are currently working a number different concepts for the project. You can see a few of them in action in the video after the break.

truss-climbing robot

Cornell's Franz Nigl and Jeremy Blum demonstrate their truss-climbing robot in this video, which accompanies a paper accepted into IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine. The robot can climb and reconfigure the trusses in a 3D structure, redesigning a building on the fly, autonomously. It would be pretty cool to see a swarm of these running a genetic algorithm, dynamically redesigning a skyscraper.

This is one of those things where the vid more or less explains it all, although I'm a little bit curious whether the robot is smart enough to know not to disassemble a structural component that's keeping it from plummeting to its own death. The video description suggests that at some point, the robot (and a bunch of its friends) might be controlled by a system that would allow them to build (and reconfigure) structures that would otherwise be too expensive or dangerous for humans to put together, but until that happens, we can at least admire the clever combinations of 3D printed bidirectional gearing that lets this little guy do what he does.

RB3D Is Building Robotic Exoskeleton For French Troops (Secret!)

2012-03-01T21:26:00.001-05:00

French defence procurement agency DGA has signed a contract with ergonomic systems and mechatronics specialist RB3D for the design and production of military robots exoskeletons for the troops, daily Les Echos wrote today.A French engineering company,RB3D,has developed a robotic exoskeleton called “Hercules”. This normally wearable structure gives additional support and strength. Military robots Hercules is battery powered and can carry 100 Kg at regular walking speed. A person needing extra strength to carry heavy weight wears the device and goes about his or her business with the added support of the exosuit. It can be used for both military and civilian applications,such as fire fighting,building construction,logistics and medical applications.
If you’re thinking Terminator here, you’re not alone. Pierre-François Louvigné, one of the exoskeleton’s creators at the French Directorate General for Armaments, says the movie was one of the inspirations for Hercule. The military robots legs are collaboration between RB3D, the French military, and Paris-based engineering school ESME-Sudria. They could be available for civilian and military use as soon as 2014.

Humanoid Robot Darwin-OP Contemplates NHL Career In 2012?

2012-03-01T21:00:00.001-05:00

It would seem that the times when we'll be able to build and own our own cool robots aren't that far away, since the Robotis / Virginia Tech RoMeLa DARwIn-OP (open-platform, hardware and software) humanoid robots is getting ready to hit the market for a price that's actually fairly interesting, especially if you're the type of person who's not afraid to spend a little cash in order to indulge in your passion for robotics.

Humanoid Robot Darwin-OP

The Birth of Humanoid Robots Darwin-OP
This development of Humanoid Robots Darwin-OP began as an NSF-sponsored project with the goal of producing a humanoid robot platform for various areas of research, convenient maintenance, and scalable. Led by Dr. Dennis Hong, of Virginia tech, the project was the effort and cooperation of US universities Virginia Tech, Purdue University, University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University. To improve scalability aspects Dynamixel of ROBOTIS has was chosen as actuators. This was the beginning for what would eventually become humanoid robot DARwIn-OP. Although the concept and ideas were excellent in the robot’s early years, but these were not suitable for final goods. ROBOTIS contributed to complete final goods aspect of DARwIn-OP and also developed a new line of Dynamixel actuators, the MX series, to match the performance requirements.

Humanoid Robot Darwin-OP

On the list of dangerous humanoid robots DARwIn is easily topped by the bow-happy iCub. Still -- we don't trust this thing one iota. While we haven't seen it pick up any weaponry just yet, our friends to the north are teaching it one of man's most notoriously violent sports: hockey. Researchers at the University of Manitoba have managed to train the former RoboCup star to stay upright while shuffling about on skates. Smacking a puck into a goal, on the other hand, has proven somewhat trickier. Eventually Jennifer, as the autonomous hockey-bot has been dubbed, managed to get the hang of it, but we don't think the Flyers or Rangers will be offering her the big bucks just yet. And, honestly, before this little guy gets too good and turns into a bully on the ice, we'd get it to switch games -- curling suddenly seems like a perfectly acceptable past time. Check out the humanoid robots video for more information.

Is this creepy humanoid robot the future of shopping?

2012-03-01T20:49:00.001-05:00

If this creepy humanoid robot is the future of shopping, I’ll be shopping online more often.

Japanese department store Takashimiya installed an eerily lifelike interactive humanoid robots for its Valentine's window display in order to lure shoppers. The retailer called on humanoid robots guru Hiroshi Ishiguro to provide the humanoid robots dummy, which can not only wink and yawn as people approach, but also display a range of emotions -- beyond boredom, indifference and oblivious content, we assume. While this was just part of the store's seasonal promotion, it might be a hint at where visual merchandise is going. Whether Ishiguro's model "model" will crossover into more professional roles like her sister, however, is unclear. Want to see that cheeky wink for yourself?

humanoid robot

Takashimaya, a department store in Tokyo, is working with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka University to demonstrate their concept of the next generation of retail merchandising. The timing couldn’t be better – the female mannequin is pushing their Valentine’s Day promotion as its first target.

Ishiguro is known as the master of lifelike humanoid robots and is best known for his work on the incredibly realistic humanoid robots line of androids. This is the first time his humanoid robots work has been applied for commercial purposes.

“I see this as the future of shop displays,” said Dr Ishiguro. “They don’t represent real life at all which is what I see as the point of some displays”. Then hit up the humanoid robots video after the break.

With the ability to display over 60 facial expressions that reflect her “emotions” (including the ability to yawn when bored from inactivity), the latest humanoid robots mannequin senses people around her and interacts with them. Animatronic technology has been used in the past to draw attention to retail display windows, but they have never been this realistic or interactive.

HRP-4 - Japan’s Latest Humanoid Robot

2012-02-26T03:23:00.000-05:00

The HRP line of humanoid robots from Kawada Industries and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have come a far way over the years. I became fascinated with one the HRP-3 Promet Mk-II a few years ago and while going through my feedreader recently I realised that the, the latest model of the HRP line – the HRP-4 has come a far way in a few years.Check the video below for more information about humanoid robots HRP-4.

HRP-4

HRP-4 is one of Japan’s Latest Humanoid Robots. This RoboCop-looking humanoid robots know how to practice yoga, tracks faces and objects and, in what seems to be a robo-requirement these days, pours drinks. The industrial HRP-4 cool robot was designed to coexist with people, and its “thin athlete” frame is meant to be more appealing, according to Kawada Industries, which built the robot with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The 5-foot-tall, 86-pound humanoid robot is a deliberately downsized version of its larger sibling, the HRP-2. Kawada first developed HRP-2 seven years ago, and wanted to design an updated version, according to a press release.HRP-4 has 34 degrees of freedom and can move its arm seven ways. It can carry about a pound in each arm. All joint motors are less than 80 watts, as CNET reports. A small laptop can be installed in HRP-4’s back to increase its data processing capabilities.

HRP-4 humanoid robots have already been proven helpful around the house, pouring drinks and washing the dishes. After doing your chores, this graceful yoga-bot might even inspire you to get off the couch and get some exercise…

iPhone Powered Robots at DemoFall 2011

2012-02-24T03:48:00.002-05:00

Here at the DEMO Fall 2011 show, there's a lot of software companies, Web sites, plug-ins and other cloud-based services debuting. Users can control the smart robot via a smartphone, and the $300 to $400 robot is expected to liven up parties some time in 2012 (hopefully, if the company can get some funding).

OLogic introduces a cellphone dock that makes interactive apps much more interactive.Please check the video below for more information:

Hiriko-Best Folding Electric Car in 2012

2012-02-24T03:26:00.001-05:00

Hiriko-Best Folding Electric Car in 2012

'Hiriko' is a folding electric car, based on MIT media lab's 'citycar'.
The first working prototype of the device, which is the commercial version of MIT media lab's 'citycar' concept, has just been presented in brussels, belgium. Cool Robots will share you the all the latest information about this car.

The electric two-seater (whose name is basque for 'city', or 'urban') measures just 5-feet (1.5-meters) long and contains no doors; passengers instead enter through an upswinging windshield. the vehicle's motor is distributed among its four wheels, each of which contains a drive motor, steering, braking, and suspension. as a result, the car can be folded together for parking purposes, permitting about three 'hiriko' vehicles to fit in the space of a single ordinary parking spot. the wheels also enable a zero-turn radius, capable of spinning completely in place.'hiriko' is expected to have a range of about 60 miles (100 kilometers).

Check the video below to know more about cool robots Hiriko:

The cool robots Hiriko EV uses a hub-mounted electric motor at each wheel, though that's not the most interesting aspect of the vehicle. According to The Telegraph, the Hiriko uses an interesting rear suspension design that allows the vehicle to fold up, rotating the cabin vertically, to take up less space while parking. The partnership behind the vehicle say the car consumes approximately one third the parking space of a Smart ForTwo. Occupants enter from a single front door, and the Hiriko ditches the traditional steering wheel in favor of a joystick. The vehicle is set to begin production in Spain next year, and the partnership behind the vehicle's development aims to use several European and American cities as testbeds for the bubble machine. The two-seater has been co-developed by a collection of Basque businesses, the Spanish government and theMIT media lab (you may remember the concept, from 2007). A total of 20 test vehicles are currently being built, and each vehicle is said to cost $16,253 to manufacture. No final price tag has been set, nor are there solid details on range, power or charge times.

Top 5 Cool Robots Controlled By iPhone/iPad in 2012

2012-01-31T23:48:00.000-05:00

1. TankBot: The iPhone-controlled tank robot
TankBot sounds like a kind of Military Robots. It's one of the coolest robots in 2012 which can be controlled by your iPhone! This is TankBot from DeskPets, a fairly inexpensive (sub-$20, they say), treaded, remote-controlled toy robot that you can control with aniPhone or an iPod Touch, or even an iPad.

TankBot

Once attached, an app is downloaded. The device then uses its built-in accelerometer as a steering mechanism, allowing one to drive the TankBot around, chasing pets and scaring old people.While using iDevices as a remote is nothing new--indeed, Apple has an app simply called "Remote" for controlling the Apple TV--the TankBot is unique in that it doesn't use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi as an interface but rather a dongle that plugs into the headphone port of the iWhatever. It charges via standard USB, giving a 15-minute run with a 30-minute charge, which we like. Buying batteries is so 2005. And it's not just a remote-controlled bot. It has infrared sensors as well, allowing it to navigate freely while avoiding obstacles or even navigating mazes. Or so the press release says; until I get to try one myself I'm not yet sold.

2. Make iPad and iPhone to walk!
I have developed a way to communicate with external devices by using headphone jack on iPhone / iPad.

3. Romo, the iPhone-Powered Robot

Romo is a fully motorized, acrylic cool robot that is both controlled and powered by an iOS device. The vehicle is a treaded, motorized chassis with a cradle for your iPhone, and interfaces with your handset through its audio jack (so technically any smartphone will work). Once you’ve connected Romo to your device, the robot is controlled by its complimentary iOS application. Not only can the app direct Romo, but it can receive live video and audio from the connected gadget.

Romo is the brainchild of engineers Peter Seid and Phu Nguyen, a.k.a Romotive. It’s a Kickstarter project that has recently blown past its $32,000 funding goal with over $114,000 in pledges. The robot is currently still in beta, but should be available in a few months.

4. Bipedal Cool Robots

We propose an operating method for bipedal cool robots by using two-fingered gestures on a multi-touch surface. We focus on finger gestures that people represent the human with moving fingers, such as walking, running, kicking and turning. These bipedal gestures are natural and intuitive enough for the end-users to control the humanoid robots. The system captures those finger gestures on a multi-touch display as the direct operation method. The capturing method is easy and simple, but robust enough for the entertainment applications. We show an example application with our proposed method, and demonstration at the international exhibition. We conclude with the results of observation and future implementation of our method.

5. iPhone using touchOSC to computer running processing to arduino.
Leave a comment if you would like the code. Check this cool robots video below:

Let your iPhone FLY - Cool Flying Robots: iHelicopter

2012-01-31T00:27:00.000-05:00

Let your iPhone FLY - iHelicopter

Are you interested at all in helicopters or flight? Cool robots will introduce you the latest cool flying robots which could be controlled by your iPhone or iPad. They’re tiny, stabilized helicopters that are perfect for indoor flying. Most of the time, these little copters are controlled by bulky generic flight controls. The Cobra iHelicopter is a bit different, as it accepts signals from a small dongle that attaches to the headphone jack of your phone. An app is required that is freely downloadable on the Android Market or App Store.

iHelicopter

The controls for this cool robots are displayed on-screen, allowing you to move upwards, downwards, left, right, forward and back. There is also a motion-control mode, although I found it to be far less responsive than the touch mode. It might work better in very large spaces, but in general you’ll want to stick to the touch controls. Check the demo video below:

How much do you have to pay for an iHelicopter? At about $70, it’s a bit pricier than the standard micro-copters like the Syma S107, which runs about $30, but it does have the iPhone control module and missiles, which most of them do not. It also is one of the most stabile micro-copters I’ve flown, making it a good choice for first-time flyers.

MorpHex- Transforming Robot Invades Your Nightmares!

2012-01-08T23:41:00.002-05:00

MorpHex- Transforming Robot Invades Your Nightmares!

MorpHex- Transforming Robot

We love cool robots, and it is fair to say that the Morphex Hexapod caught our eyes right away. It can transform from a globe into a spider-like (ok, really maybe crab-like) Hexapod walking robot. It’s quite amazing to see this type of garage project, but beyond the technical feat, we really like the quality of the design which is always one of the most important factor for robot coolness. It’s very clean, elegant, and we were not surprised to learn that its creator, engineer Kåre Halvorsen, is from Norway… Nordic design is not just for furniture, we can vouch for that.

Star Wars destroyer droids and Metroid morph balls might be beyond modern technology, but their basic trappings are within reach. Norwegian engineer Kåre Halvorsen built this cool robot sphere in his spare time, with six retractable, expanding legs that let it dance when it's not rolling. Well, technically, it doesn't roll quite yet, as the prototype's 25 servo motors haven't been programmed to do that, but Halvorsen says that's next. Then, we just need a few propellers, some hydraulic jumping legs and a smartphone app to control it, and we'll be in business.

Luckily for us, the MorpHex Robot is completely harmless, in fact it will even dance for you and interact with its environment. Unfortunately, one thing it isn't capable of doing, is rolling around in its ball form, though Halvorsen says that function is coming in the future. Powered by 25 servo motors, the MorpHex is quite an advanced robot, despite its creepy skittering nature.

ROBO-ONE - ROBOT FIGHT IN INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION 2011

2012-01-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

ROBO-ONE - ROBOT FIGHT IN INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION 2011

ROBO-ONE

ROBO-ONE Japanese Robots

INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION 2011 organized by Japan Robot Association (JARA) and the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Ltd., was held in Tokyo International Exhibition Center (Tokyo Big Sight) on Nov. 9-12th, 2011. The exhibition is carried out every two years. The exhibition grounds were divided two big zones. One was for the industrial robot zone and the other was the service robot zone.

Two cool robot fights took place at the main stage in the service cool robot zone on 12th, which were ROBO-ONE GP Tournament and ROBO-ONE GP Challenge Match. ROBO-ONE Grand Prix (GP) is a biped cool robot competition which just excellent ROBO-ONE Fighter cool robots ( ROBO-ONE GP Robot ) could join. ROBO-ONE GP is opened several times in a year, managed by ROBO-ONE ENTERTEINMET. The tournament is carried out 1 round for 3 min, the cool robot got 3 knock-down was winner.ROBO-ONE GP Tournament The GP Japanese Robots joined were Dynamizer, Tokotoko-maru, Chromkid, Mon ☆(star), Yokoduna-Great-Shiranui and Great King Kaiser.
The ground champion of GP 2011 was Great King Kaiser . The 2nd place was Chromkid. Cool Robots Videos were as follows:

The 1st stage: Yokoduna-Great-Shiranui vs Chromkid
The winner was Chromkid.

The 1st stage: Tokotoko-maru vs Great King Kaiser
The winner was Great King Kaiser.

Semifinal match: Chromkid vs Mon☆
Chromkid lost right hand, however Mon☆ also had machine trouble. The winner was Chromkid.

Semifinal match: Great King Kaiser vs Dynamizer
The winner was Great King Kaiser.

Final match: Great King Kaiser vs Chromkid
The winner was Great King Kaiser.

Please check the links below for more information about Japanese Robots!

Amazing!!! Dancing With Honda Robot Asimo!

2011-11-25T13:28:00.001-05:00

Asimo, one of the most famous humanoid robots from Honda, has learned a few new tricks that researchers hope will make interacting with robots a little bit easier. The first is a new system that adds gesticulations to pre-programmed speech on the fly. Engineers working with Asimo say that since the robot lacks a mouth, the only way Asimo can interact with people is through speech and body movements. Interestingly, the user can define how expressive the robot should be while speaking, so humanoid robot Asimo can move with the grace and tenacity of a master orator or with more subdued motions.

Honda Asimo Dancing

Second, and perhaps more significantly, humanoid robot Asimo can now mimic the motions of a human through a Kinect motion controller. This isn’t mere copying, though; the movements are tightly integrated to Asimo’s existing systems, allowing the robot to adjust his feet to keep him upright while following human movement. For professional breakdancers concerned about ceding dancing to the robots: Don’t worry, engineers say that this input method will allow humans to easily teach movements into Asimo, without tediously programming each movement to each joint.

Check below for a video of the smart humanoid robot Asimo in action.

Robots Dancing "NOBODY" -10 Times Better Than Wondergirls!

2011-11-22T01:22:00.001-05:00

Have you ever seen Dancing Robots? Here is a dancing robots for the popular pop song “Nobody” – Wonder Girls. So the Nobody craze is everywhere. I mean, even the jeepney drivers are now singing to this Wondergirls’ song but who would have thought that Bumblebee liked to dance to this as well?

Robots Dancing "NOBODY"

Robots Dancing

“Nobody” is a hit pop song recorded by Korean girl group Wonder Girls and released as a digital download single on September 22, 2008 in Korea. “Nobody” became good status within hours and becoming a top search term and rank1 on various digital music sites.

Hahaha! just kidding. These are really cool humanoid robots. They are smart, but most important, they know how to dance! Kudos to whoever made this robots dancing video and programmed them. This is seriously amazing.

Watch the Robots Dancing "NOBODY" video below.

They're simply amazing! Humanoid Robots Dancing "NOBODY" -10 Times Better Than Wondergirls!

Two Chatbots Are Arguing About God!!!

2011-11-19T01:19:00.001-05:00

Two artificial intelligent cool robots called 'chatbots' held a conversation together for the first time which resulted in them arguing about God.

Two Chatbots Are Arguing About God

Graduate PhD students at Cornell University gave voices and 2D avatars to the pair of online chatbots - a British man which they named Alan and an Asian woman called Sruthi. Students Jason Yosinki and Igor Labutov said they wanted to see what happened when the two chatbots - computer programmes designed to hold a spoken or written conversation with a human - talked to each other.
Robot Researchers at Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab set two Cleverbots for a faceoff with one another. Yeah, it got somewhat weird. What did you predict? It variety of went like speed dating for chatbots. They said their hellos, then quickly started to argue with one another like an old married couple.

Watch what happens when two Chatbox cool robots at Cornell Creative Machines Lab are hooked up together to see how they converse with one another.

The conversation was interesting, but it more or less started breaking down towards the end. I would have liked to see it continue for perhaps another minute or so, to see what would have happened. But still a good conversation.

Desert Terminator!!! - A Robot Ostrich Called FastRunner!!!

2011-11-19T00:50:00.001-05:00

A Robot Ostrich Called FastRunner!

For those who played Metal Gear Solid from Konami, chances are the robot that you see above, the FastRunner, might spark the memory plug in you as the Metal Gear Mk.II. Well, the cool robot on the left is very real, thanks to Dr. Russ Tedrake’s team over at MIT who explained the result of the collective efforts of IHMC ( Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition). Kudos to research scientist Jerry Pratt for teaming up with MIT researchers to “solve” the robot mobility challenge issued by the DARPA, resulting in the FastRunner. This bio-inspired ostrich robot which is said to be able to hit running speeds of more than 32 kph (20 mph) – and Dr. Russ insists that itself is a conservative figure. Even better is this – it will not bury its head in the sand whenever the action around it starts to get hot and heavy! Tipping the scales at 30 kg, the FastRunner will stand 140cm tall with a single actuator in each leg to help it get going.

IHMC has a lot of experience building legged cool robots. Researchers there have focused on "biologically inspired hardware design, bipedal and quadrupedal walking, balance, and push-recovery control," among other things. They've written locomotion algorithms for the LittleDog program, another DARPA initiative, and they're also developing humanoid robots for operation in urban environments and robotic exoskeletons to assist people with limited mobility.

MIT, for their part, has a whole bunch of experience with making clever robots with legs. In fact, they have (or had, at any rate) a whole lab dedicated to it. Fans of cool robots might remember this Thanksgiving-themed post from 2008, showing a robotic turkey, chicken, and dinosaur walking around MIT back in 2001. Ostriches are functionally very similar to dinosaurs and their descendants (I'm talking about birds, of course), perhaps even more so since the noble ostrich doesn't rely on its wings for much more than providing shade for smaller ostriches.

"We're really excited to show off what FastRunner can do... This doesn't just mean one fast robot. It means we've developed the architecture for all sorts of robots, humanoid robots for example, to maneuver and show off impressive agility at high speeds,"

Obviously, FastRunner will be speedier and more agile than the most athletic of humans, let alone a soldier loaded down with gear. But it’s a mystery how FastRunner will compare to Atlas, the cheetah-bot being designed by the veteran robo-geniuses over at Boston Dynamics: Researchers haven’t released the cheetah’s anticipated speeds, but did boast that it’d be “faster than any existing legged robot and faster than the fastest human runners.” The researcher of FastRunner said.

Japanese Female Robot Gets A New Boyfriend!!!

2011-11-19T00:24:00.001-05:00

What? Japanese Female Humanoid Robot Actroid-F Gets A New Boyfriend!!!

Actroid-F And Her Robot Boyfriend

Who is Actroid F? Actroid-F is a full sized female humanoid robot with complex facial movements and realistic appearance. Though it can’t move from its chair, it can blink, shift its eyes and neck, bow, and even breathe. A webcam on your end watches your face and head movements and has the robot mimic them for your family. It’s one of the most complex and human-like cool robots in the world today.

Japanese female Humanoid Robot Actroid-F just got a robot boyfriend. Technically speaking, Humanoid Robot Actroid-F got another Actroid-F in a different wig. Yeah, weird. But I mean, when it comes down to it, what's the difference? She/he/it also got some fancy new eyes with cameras in them:

"When we tested the cool robot in a hospital, we asked 70 subjects if having an android there made them feel uneasy. Only 3 or 4 people said they didn't like having it around, and overall, quite a lot of people said they felt this cool robot itself had an acceptable presence."

"When this cool robot went to a hospital for a month during a trial, we felt lonely, as if someone had moved out. Another factor is the sense of immersion this robot gives. When it imitates your movements, you gradually feel it's become your alter ego. When the robot's being photographed, you feel as if you're being photographed. You don't get that kind of feeling of togetherness with other cool robots."

Then, I guess in the near future, Humanoid Robots will be able to get married?

Cute Japanese Robot Girl Eats Fried Rice!!!

2011-11-06T21:50:00.001-05:00

This is one of the coolest Japanese Robots ever! Fembot model 33XR. A lifelike prototype Android from Japan shown in a rare demo here chewing and eating fried rice. This robot is so realistic that at first I thought it was a real cool robot woman. Only after talking did I question if she was real. She copies the scientist almost perfectly.

Cute Japanese Robot Girl Eats Fried Rice

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Hobby Robot Loves Riding a Bike

2011-11-06T15:56:00.001-05:00

The current generation of bicycle-riding cool robots are extremely complicated, relying on giant gyroscopes and thick wheels to keep themselves upright even while stationary. This is certainly a neat trick, but it's not something that most humans can pull off. It's not a problem that robots are better at something than we are, but there's something to be said for human emulation, too.

Hobby Robot Loves Riding a Bike

It turns out that getting a robot to ride a bicycle doesn't need to involve much more than a hobby level humanoid employing a relatively simple gyroscope that sends steering commands to keep things generally upright. This KHR3HV bipedal robot (which can be yours for about $2200) has a nifty custom bike that it got from I know not where, and can zip around under remote control at up to 10 kph, even making its own starts and stops:

A Cool Robot That Can Learn, Think And Kill On Its Own

2011-11-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

Seen here about to get his coffee roofied as soon as he turns away, a professor from the Tokyo University of Technology shows off a cool robot fit with a "self-organizing incremental neural network" that allows the bot to learn, think and act on its own. You know, so robots really won't need us anymore. Now if you'll excuse me for a second...Hello, Mr. President? Forget the economy going to shit for a second -- we have an even bigger problem. CODE SILVER, MR. PRESIDENT -- CODE SILVER! (Because robots are silver)

A Cool Robot That Can Learn

In this experiment the robot will solve a problem by deciding what actions it should take and in what order. The robot will be told to pour a glass of water, make it cold, and give it to a person. The robot will decide how to do this while being aware of its surroundings and its own situation.

If the cool robot is told that cold water is wanted, it recognizes that after pouring the water, it can't pick up ice straight away, because it's hands are already full with the glass and the bottle. So it chooses to put the bottle down, and then put the ice into the glass.
As well as the robot's sensory information, in the form of visual, auditory, and tactile data, SOINN obtains information from other sources, including the Internet and other robots' experiences and knowledge. In this way, it gradually becomes smarter.

You know who else can learn, think and act for themselves? Troublesome teenagers. Food for thought. "Like a gallon of ice cream?!" HA -- a gallon of ice cream isn't food -- it's why you're fat. Hot Pockets for thought.Hit the jump for a video demo of deathbot's capabilities.

Check more humanoid robots, military robots, and cool Japanese robots on CoolRobots.Net

The Smartest Robots Play Ping-Pong For Chinese Team!!

2011-11-06T15:33:00.001-05:00

Who is the smartest cool robot in the world today? Here is the answer! Playing table tennis is not something that should be easy for cool robots to do, so I was actually surprised that these ping-pong playing bots were unveiled in China. These smart ‘bots will play till 21, and hopefully, at least for now, won’t beat any human players.

Robots Can Play Ping-Pong
Check the video below to see how smart this cool robot is!

These robots are able to track the movement of the tiny table tennis ball and return it with a satisfying wack, thanks to a motion-control system that comes equipped with a built-in camera and a processing unit. These ‘bots were unveiled by a lab at the Zhejiang University in China. The robots each are 5’3″ high and weigh 121 pounds. It took the lab 4 years to develop those cool robots.

Robots Can Play Ping-Pong

Pretty soon, you’ll be able to play real tennis on a court with a robot as a partner. While you might think that might be a bit more complicated to pull off, a Vietnamese toy company already took a shot at that idea a few years back and recently revealed this intimidating upgrade…

Check more humanoid robots, military robots, and cool Japanese robots on CoolRobots.Net