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Engineer makes cat companion out of robot using Kinect and Wiimotes
Until the robots rise up and destroy us all, software engineer Taylor Veltrop is fine with using our future usurpers as feline babysitters. Veltrop has hacked together a Kinect, two Wiimotes, head-mounted display, treadmill and a Nao robot to remotely pet a cat. It may have taken him about a year to get this far, but in the end it's worth it: we get a video showing an amount of human-robot relations not seen since Sarah and her son befriended a T-800 ... and Veltrop gets to pet a cat. Win-win situation, if you ask us.
Developer pairs robot with gaming controllers for remote cat grooming, affection expression
You could take the time to make your cat feel loved. Or you could augment a robot to do it for you. Software engineer Taylor Veltrop has accomplished this by combining a 21-inch-tall Nao robot, a few Wiimotes, a Kinect sensor bar, a treadmill and a head-mounted display. The configuration, which represents about a year's work and several thousand dollars in parts, uses the Kinect and Wii remotes to control the robot's arms, the sensor bar and treadmill to provide movement and the head-mounted display to move the Nao's head and adjust its camera angle. This is still a work in progress, and doesn't include things like two-way audio, which Veltrop plans to implement using an integrated microphone and speakers. Click past the break for a video of robotic feline grooming action.
DIY telepresence robot uses PrimeSense Kinect drivers for extremely awkward push-ups (video)
From enhancing your WoW game to putting you in Tom Hanks's shoes, DIYers the world o'er really do seem to love Kinect. And what do we have here? Taylor Veltrop's Veltrobot remote telepresence 'bot uses the PrimeSense open source Kinect drivers for tracking the user's skeleton, with a modified Kondo KHR-1HV mirroring the operator's movements (which are received via 802.11n WiFi). Right now he is only controlling the arms, but with any luck we should be seeing complete control over all the robot's movements soon enough. Once the thing is finalized, Veltrop plans on releasing an open source development kit. And then? That's right: robot avatars for everyone!
Kinect Hacks: A less terrifying robot
Ever since the (recently departed) Milo reared his adorable head, we've envisioned at bleak future of Kinect-powered robots ruling over mankind with an iron, articulated fist. We've even seen the beginnings of this inevitable transition. Thankfully, one Taylor Veltrop was smart enough to embed an all-important feature into his Kinect robot: human control. Remember, kids, if you want to keep control over your robots, they have to know who's boss.
