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Curtis Boirum's robotic car makes omnidirectional dreams come true (video)
Let's face it: you've probably never met a hemispherical omnidirectional gimbaled wheel that you didn't like. Neither has Curtis Boirum, a grad student at Bradley University. The aforesaid whiz kid has put together one of the most visually stunning robots we've seen in some time, and while the frame itself is nothing to get hot and bothered about, the motion capabilities most definitely are. The secret lies in the black rubber hemisphere, which rotates like a top and is outfitted with servos that are able to tilt the entire mechanism left / right / forwards / backwards. What's wild is just how fast those changes happen -- something tells us that whole "on a dime" thing was born to be used right here. Head on past the break for video proof.
HP's Bradley: HP isn't trying to be Apple, will sell 15 million webOS printers next year
It's no secret that HP's Todd Bradley is one of the leading candidates to succeed ousted CEO Mark Hurd, and it doesn't look like he was doing much to dissuade that notion at the now happening TechCrunch Disrupt conference. In addition to addressing a question about whether it's ethically wrong to charge so much for ink by responding "ask me next year, if I take the [CEO] position," Bradley also sounded more than a little like a CEO throughout, and made a fair bit of news in the process. That includes a confirmation that HP won't be licensing webOS to other companies, and the attention-grabber of a statement that "emulating Apple is not part of our strategy." As if that wasn't enough, Bradley also made the rather bold promise that HP will sell 15 million webOS-based printers next year alone, and he predicted that tablets will become a $40 billion market within the next few years -- a market that HP plans to enter in a "big way." Head on past the break for a video of the interview.
Bell's latest Pre ad insults Americans, old people, and bloody roller derby girls in one pass
With the latest installment of Bell's "Meet my Palm Pre" series, paid spokesman Bradley here has basically guaranteed himself that he'll be visited by elderly American roller girls with bad attitudes and a taste for justice. Some of the gruesome highlights: "Unlike our neighbors to the south, Canadians are an active people." "Coupe de Kill is kinda scary. I should probably get out of here before she goes on Twitter." "According to Wikipedia, this game was first played in 1299. And, uh, I think some of these people were maybe there." Follow the break for the video. [Via MobileSyrup]
ESA's six-wheeled Mars bot prototypes ready to kick some martian ass
ESA is showing off its new "ExoMars" bots, Bruno and Bradley, who are being prepped for a 2015 mission to the red planet. The six-wheeled bots are being designed to carry a significant scientific payload, oriented around the search for life, but won't slouch in the maneuverability department, with six independently rotating wheels. In addition to independent movement, the wheels can also be locked into "wheel walking mode," where treacherous terrain can be traversed by crawling instead of rolling over it. On the AI front, Bruno and Bradley have significantly better AI than their progenitors, being able to plot their own courses and therefore cover more ground. The mission will involve traversing the planet and drilling six feet into the ground for soil samples, which the rover will be able to examine in its on-board laboratory. The only problem now is funding: ExoMars is looking to cost about double the 650 million Euros initially approved for the project in 2005, and there's no guarantee (yet) that the extra cash will be there when they need it.
