As you already know, the Nissan Pivo has an adorable, talking robot head mounted on the dashboard that’s very useful.
The Nissan Pivo 2 electric concept car runs entirely on advanced compact lithium-ion batteries and boasts a rotating cabin - doing away with the need for a reverse gear. The Pivo 2 comes with a highly innovative Robotic Agent that enables you to carry out conversations in either Japanese or English should you be traveling alone. A unique interface makes it easy to communicate with the Pivo 2 including basic vehicle functions and the nearest available parking. Those who hate parallel parking can get off scot-free this time with the Pivo 2 since each wheel can turn through 90 degrees, letting you drive sideways like a crab.
Aldebaran Robotics is the French company that develops this impressive humanoid bot, Nao. Nao replaced the AIBO as the standard platform in the Robocup challenge, an annual soccer game played by humanoid robots. This has helped cement the bot’s popularity among robot researchers and enthusiasts.
Nao is fully programmable, and boasts fancy tech: “With its humanoid appearance [Nao] can be made to do any number of tasks and comes with x86 AMD Geocode 500 Mhz CPU, 1 GB flash memory, 256 MB SDRAM, two speakers, vision processing capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity and Ethernet port.”
The robot is desirable to researchers and roboticists, because it gives them the ability to take a blank, versatile robot and program it to do whatever they want, including world-domination. Aldebaran is also working on a behavior exchange site where users can swap code they’ve written for little Nao.
Only about 100 Naos have been shipped since the bot’s inception in April — it’s distribution has so far been limited to only the robo-elite (labs and universities), but plans are in order to extend the user base next year to include some early adopters. The company is still working to create a version of Nao that will appeal to the general public, which probably won’t be until 2010. Until then you can start saving up the $12,600 it will cost to buy one.
[Wired]
It’s a Tuesday night, late November. Snow has been falling for hours now, it’s two feet deep at least, and flakes continue to tumble madly from the black sky. Wind screams through the leafless trees, but you can’t hear the frozen wails. You’re inside, warm and care-free at the local flat-roofed establishment. A fire crackles in a corner, painting the room in burnt sienna. Old friends and new acquaintances clink crystal, bubbles rise through tawny drinks, cheers to good health and long life…
This scene could end in one of two ways. The first involves the tons of snow and ice that have accumulated on the roof of the building. The old structure can’t support the weight, and the roof collapses from the pressure, leaving all beneath it in a sad, snowy grave. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The second outcome involves Roofus.
Roofus is a robotic snow-clearing concept imagined by designer Michal Glogowski. Roofus, as its name suggests, was designed to be deployed on the roofs of buildings to do the dull, dirty, dangerous job of clearing snow. The bot uses rotating teeth to break up snow and ice, collecting it in a hopper. The snow is repeatedly dumped at the side of the building until the roof is cleared. Weighing 220 pounds, it probably wouldn’t kill many people even if the roof still did collapse. The bot can also sport lawn mower blades and street sweeping accessories for use during the non-snow months. For the sake of human roof-clearers, I hope this concept gets off paper.
I’m talking about robot pets. Autonomous pets have always had a fair share of allure — probably mainly because they never eat/poop/destroyyourhome. Here at Botropolis we’ve shown you robot animals as they’ve trotted into the spotlight, but the sci-fi folks over at io9 have composed a list of 10 notable robotic pets (and billing these ten as “Robotic pets That Deserve to Live in the White House”. But who’s io9 kidding? Malia and Sasha are definitely getting a flesh-and-bone pooch.)
They’ve got the basics like DARPA’s BigDog and Pleo, of course, but there are some on the list you might not have heard of. The Mio Pup is an interactive robot dog that has sensors allowing it respond to your hours of petting. The Mio Pup is only $50, making it the least expensive bot on the list.
A couple therapy-ish petbots made it to the list: the $5,531 robotic baby harp seal Paro, and the $150 Dacky (pictured), which can do some interesting things like sing karaoke and learn 650 words in Japanese.
¥600,000 will buy you the fully-programmable BJ, a la AIBO (RIP). Others on the list can do tricks, play soccer, and take photos. As we progressively ruin the environment, it’s inevitable that one day we’ll have only robotic pets — now imagine the even more horrible effects on the leash industry.
Hopefully this has whetted your appetite for robotic pets; get your fill with the whole list and let us know if there are any robopets you’d like to see added to the list.
Do you need more proof that we are all screwed? Some programmers actually programmed this bot to say this stuff. I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse. Time to arm yourself against Jules, the psycho british robot.
ALCNON…Sounds like a substance abuse meeting. It is in fact, what else? An awesome humanoid robot that’s obviously styled after Japanese Anime. He has the height of a small child and a creepy cyclops eye, two pincers for hands. That stuff already means he has attitude. In fact, ALCNON made a big splash at the recent ROBO-ONE robot battle in Japan.
He showed off his ability to dance and stand up from a laying position. One thing is for sure, he isn’t a wuss, he’s got all the attributes that warrior bots need. Check out a video of ALCNON defeating a bot less then half his size below. Read the rest of this entry »
In Japan, wireless RFID is the way to pay. And this NEC robot will gladly take your money. You push the touchscreen on its chest to select what you want to buy, like say tickets for a concert. Then you wave your phone over the robot’s hand to pay for your tickets while the retire counts it’s money and plans for retirement.
Robots and video games are closely tied — they both have computers as brains and they both have the potential to enrich our lives (or destroy them, depending on who you ask). And, perhaps because of their ‘puter-based nature, a love of both robots and video games marks the quintessential geek.
In a presumed plot to topple society via a collective nerdgasm, Joshua Erwin over at GotGame has tiptoed from his own realm of gaming into our robotic backyard, compiling a list of his favorite video game robots.
Though he doesn’t rank the robots, he does concede that Mega Man stands above the rest. You’ll see other familiar metallic faces on the list as well: Bomberman, Dog from Half-Life 2, Mortal Kombat robots, Robo from Chrono Trigger for SNES, and HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic.
An older list that msnbc posted about a year ago documents the “Top 5 video game robots”. This latter game robot rundown has a few the first list neglects. Namely, Chibi-Robo from its namesake Gamecube title, robots from the arcade game Berserk, and robotic turrets from Portal. Neither list mentions the Mechanicals from WOW, of which there are several sub-categories (Fel Reavers are the scariest).
When viewed with respect to the many thousands of video games in existence, it’s a shame that so few have robots in them. Even fewer sport a robotic main character. If there are any aspiring game developers amongst the readership, hark: do not hesitate to impart your fear/love of robots into your future games. A couple droids, some humanoids, and robot spiders galore will definitely aid in the betterment of your game and culture as a whole.
[GotGame]
It’s a Tuesday night, late November. Snow has been falling for hours now, it’s two feet deep at least, and flakes continue to tumble madly from the black sky. Wind screams through the leafless trees, but you can’t hear the frozen wails. You’re inside, warm and care-free at the local flat-roofed establishment. A fire crackles in a corner, painting the room in burnt sienna. Old friends and new acquaintances clink crystal, bubbles rise through tawny drinks, cheers to good health and long life…
I’m talking about robot pets. Autonomous pets have always had a fair share of allure — probably mainly because they never eat/poop/destroyyourhome. Here at Botropolis we’ve shown you robot animals as they’ve trotted into the spotlight, but the sci-fi folks over at 
Robots and video games are closely tied — they both have computers as brains and they both have the potential to enrich our lives (or destroy them, depending on who you ask). And, perhaps because of their ‘puter-based nature, a love of both robots and video games marks the quintessential geek.