According to a report by a Japanese news agency, a radiation monitoring robot, aptly named Monirobo, is the first non-human responder to go on-site following the partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The machine, which was developed by Japan’s Nuclear Safety Technology Centre to operate at lethal radiation levels, reportedly began work Friday, enlisting a 3D camera, radiation detector, and heat and humidity sensors to monitor the extent of the damage. A second Monirobo, used to collect samples and detect flammable gases, is expected to join its red counterpart soon — both robots are operated by remote control from distances up to one kilometer away. They join the US Air Force’s Global Hawk drone in unmanned surveillance of the crisis.

Remember Cody? The robot was developed at Georgia Tech to spit baths give elderly and disabled? Well, Cody was an attractive younger cousin is called an M-1, and $ 340,000 for this beautiful piece of machinery can be all yours. Created in San Francisco, Meka Robotics, M-1 mobile crane (based on Cody) is working on a combination of ROS and proprietary software and sports Kinect-compatible head with a five megapixel camera, Ethernet, arms with six-axis force torque sensors on the wrist, controlled enough power and an omni-directional mobile base. If the standard functions do not fit your needs, Meka offers several upgrades, including the four humanoid heads hands and fingers, complete with expressive eyes (a la Dreamer Meka’s), ears, and additional compatibility sensor. These additions will cost you, of course, but we think it is a large translucent eyes staring at you. and touching the demo after the jump.

Heather Knight introduces a robotic stand-up comedian — it gathers audience feedback (using software co-developed with Scott Satkin and Varun Ramakrishna at CMU) and tunes its act as the crowd responds.

When we first saw Fujisoft PALRO robot does its job, we were fascinated, but if he does not speak in English, we had to worship from afar. No more. Animals clearly have mastered our language very quickly, and can be seen below, contact with a humanoid robot stationary on such things as weather conditions, career aspirations and how great PALRO. How big is PALRO? PALRO really great – but modest. Inside that barrel chest full PC with Atom Z530, 4 GB of flash memory, and the core Ubuntu for everything under control. It is available as ever on education and research for about $ 3600, but we try to get one myself. If we can get the type prepared for many more reports of software based on real Japanese advanced technology. 

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We are confident that there will come a time when we are less surprised Kinect hacks, but now we see yet another spectacular than the last – and we’re definitely OK with that.

This latest comes to us from a group of students at the University of Washington, who was the bright idea to a Microsoft with a number of projects, robot surgery is currently developing a pair of University Lab BioRobotics. This combination is not quite feeling reinforced Kinect robo-surgeon, you have concerns, however. students actually used to Kinect force feedback from the current human surgeons to control robotics – that would be $ 50.000 free offers Kinect. As might be expected, but Kinect-system is not quite ready to be used for the actual surgery as it is – but it gets the job done as a proof of concept, the students noted that the sensors should be adjusted lower, and the improved resolution would be considered suitable for surgical use.

 

 

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You could build a nice and simple robot, or you could do what Jose Julio did, and build something like Arduino-based robot ArduSpider (so-called Sara), now he brags on everyone’s mind. As you can see the video after the break, the bone can either operate autonomously or remotely controlled, and packs a surprising number of tricks, including the ability to tired or bored, and even a bit of gymnastic and acrobatic skills to get. Interested in creating your own? Find all the details and code that is needed on the source link below.

 

 

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During last week’s ROBO-ONE Humanoid Helper Robot Project in Yokohama, Japan one robot and its master celebrated the holidays by showing us that automated massages and beer service are closer than we think.

Developed using store bought components, the THKR-4 robot may move slowly and stiffly, but it nevertheless completes a number of tasks successfully that demonstrate how such helper robots may become an affordable and ubiquitous part of our everyday lives in the near future. You can see the robot ringing in the New Year a bit early with a celebratory party popper in the video below in the link.

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