What could possibly be cooler than a robot? How about a robot that dances to all your favorite songs? Well, those at CEATEC 2012 may have been lucky enough to have spotted an appearance by none other than mRobo, the self-transforming beatbox/dancer, capable of grooving to your tunes from your iPod or MP3 player.

The robot, which is mainly white in color, starts off looking like an average inanimate speaker until it catches you off guard and begins transforming into a fully-fledged humanoid. The Michael Jackson wannabe then starts grooving its body parts to the music as it plays sound through its rumbling stomach.

It’s far short of the skills of a professional dancer, but it is quite amusing to watch. The robot itself doesn’t have any price tag, but is around the same size of a Robosapien, and if released to the public it would hopefully cost something similar to the original Robosapien when it first released, and hopefully do something purposeful too.

Please don’t get too attached to this robot though; mRobo looks like he could be the first prototype for a line of real-life Transformers, preparing to enslave the Earth population.  While us humans are looking at him and laughing at his dancing, he’s probably scanning everyones face for when he returns.

[Source]

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Your older brother’s arm wrestling grip is killing you?  The Human Grasp Assist device might be able to give you a helping hand (or a helping glove actually). The device, which is also known as Robo-Glove or K-Glove, is the result of the collaboration between GM and NASA and has been developed to help astronauts and autoworkers stay away from stress injuries.

The technology powering the Robo-Glove is based on the grasping technology which was developed for the hands of Robonaut 2, the humanoid robot presently helping out at the International Space Station. The robot features actuators in its fingers, and pressure sensors for sensing touch.

By using the same technology, the engineers from GM and NASA have created the power-assisted glove which is equipped with actuators in the upper sections of each finger, and pressure sensors. When a user who has the gloves on tries to grasp an object, the sensors detect it and the actuators work to pull the fingers into a gripping position. The fingers will be held in the position until further notice.

Since the glove is doing the work to maintain the grip, there won’t be any strain for a user. According to estimations, a person using the Robo-Glove will only have to assert five to ten pounds of gripping force for a task which requires a human worker without the glove to assert 15 to 20 pounds.

They developed a prototype glove back in March 2011 and another version three months later. Both versions weigh in at around two pounds and come with a display. They are powered by lithium-ion battery pack. A third model is being developed and that should come with improved features.

And from the video you will understand that the device will be safe for humans, so there won’t be any problem when you scratch yourself.

The post Robo-Glove Developed By NASA And GM (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

If you thought that robots are nothing more than humanoid thoughtless piles of iron that are controlled by real humans, well, you’re wrong. Future robots could be even smarter than some of us. And who else could create such a robot if its not Skynet? The Japanese! The Hasegawa Group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology to be precise, they are developing a robot that can think, learn and act, all by itself, thanks to the all mighty power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). By using a technology called SOINN (Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network) the robot can think as humans do, even when taking on a task it has never done before, based on its past experience and knowledge.

The robot was subjected to a series of experiments involving problem solving and making movements in the correct order. It was told to pour a glass of water, make it cold and give it to someone. Being aware of the surroundings and the situation, it performed the action step by step: it poured water into a glass, and then it realized that in order to make it cold it should put ice in it. Since its hands were full, it put the bottle down and then took the ice and put it in the glass.

It is also well educated. If it doesn’t know how to do something, it stops and says “I can’t do this because I don’t know how.” So there you have it, our future is doomed by ice fetching robots.

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Well, at least its developers are. Aldebaran Robotics (which I coincidentally read initially as Alderaan Robotics) wants to push the Nao Robot to be able to “traverse rocky roads.” Nao has already shown that he can kick around a soccer ball, but going through uneven terrain in a bipedal fashion might be pretty tough.

Naturally, it’s easy to think that the motivation for the Japan-based firm to take on this project comes by way of the recent Sendai earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. Instead of sending human beings into more dangerous situations, even if it is to rescue other human beings, they can send in robots like Nao instead.

Nao might not be strong enough to lift up heavy rocks, but if the $16,000 USD robot can get through the uneven terrain, deliver food and water, and report back with whether he has found more survivors, that’s a huge step forward (no pun intended) for rescue missions in disaster situations.

[UberGizmo via Neuro Informatik]

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