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Nao (the robot) Performs a Scene from Star Wars

Nao has become a strong contender in the small biped robot world. And now, he has even performed scenes from the Star Wars saga:

Stay tuned… Lord of the Rings is next!

Charlie, a product of Yujin Robotics of Korea, is launching Charlie, a robot that will help staff monitor patients in an Elderly Care fascility in Australia.

via CNet – http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10403944-1.html

Twitter Lists are an easy way to follow people (and other entities) on Twitter about a specific topic. If you’re interested in a Twitter List on robots and general robotics information (Tweets), we recommend the Robotics list from @viewlist. You can get the Robotics Twitter List here:

http://twitter.com/viewlist/robotics

Last week’s BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco had one new (cool) addition: a robot competition. Developers were asked to create applications on their RIM BlackBerry that controlled one of four Lego Mindstorm robots through an obstacle course.

The winner – James White of the TDC Group – got a shiny new BlackBerry Storm 2 and a Lego Mindstorm kit.

Watch the video after the jump:

Remember Pacman the video game from the 80’s?

Well, it turns out that we now have a real world version, using the Roomba and Create platforms to recreate the game in real world.

AIDA – Affective Intelligent Driving Agent

Will an expressive robot who winks and smiles make it easier for drivers to navigate? This is exactly the question that researchers at MIT are trying to answer.

AIDA’s expressive behaviors are designed to endear the device to you as it helps in your daily navigation. The robot learns your daily commute and which areas you frequent for which purposes.

For example, if you always head to a particular district in your city around dinner time, it will assume you like to eat dinner there. After it memorizes your commute, it will automatically plug in your route to work when you get into the car on a weekday morning. If you go to a hotel for a dalliance every Thursday at noon, it will probably give you a wink and a knowing grin as it maps the route for you.

More crucially, it takes in data about local events and traffic conditions, and will route around those potential obstructions. It looks at the condition of your car, and might include a stop at a gas station if your tank is low.
Current navigation systems include many of these functions. Traffic data and detouring is included in cars such as the Ford Taurus. And traffic data aggregators such as Inrix and Navteq include event data to let you know when there’s a game at the local stadium, for example.

Car companies such as Nissan are also experimenting with robots in the car.

In a presentation on Thursday, October 14 2009, Panasonic unveiled a number of prototype robots at its research lab in Osaka, Japan. A wide range of robots were introduced, including a robust robotic arm for home use, robotic wheel chairs and hospital robots, as well as a number of industrial robots.

The video below is a summary of what was introduced.

This is not exactly a robot – but its close enough and very interesting.

Intelligent Information Lab at Northwestern University has designed a chatbot that can create a story line (report) out of existing stats available for any sporting game. By analyzing the data, StatsMonkey is capable of reporting on the game without the need for human intervention.

Story via Courant Report.

The Firefighters Assistant Robot, by South Korea’s Hoya Robots, can operate up to 320 ft, survive a fall of more than 6 ft, and is water resistant.

Hoya Robot - South Korea - Firefighter Assistant Robot

The robot’s main use is to go into burning buildings to assist firefighters in reconnaissance mission – and hopefully protecting their lives.

Check out the video after the jump:

The robot, more than two years in development, will be shown for the first time at the International Robot Exhibition 2009 (iRex) in Tokyo in November.

Nissan has developed an autonomous car (robots really) that are designed to mimic the behavior of fish – in the hopes of using the technology one day to use in (real) cars – which would autonomously drive and avoid collisions.

Named Eporo, the robot/car is designed to avoid collisions by sharing information with nearby cars, thus figuring out its own position within the group.

Nissan has designed Eporo to power future cars which can autonomously navigate and avoid collisions.