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iRobot Terra mower cuts your lawn with Roomba-like smarts
If you took a look at newer Roombas and wondered why that clever mapping couldn't be used to cut your lawn... well, you're not alone. iRobot has unveiled the Terra, a robotic lawn mower that uses the company's mapping tech to trim your grass with minimal fuss. Instead of marking your lawn area with boundary wires as you do with many existing robomowers, you place wireless beacons (shown below) and drive the bot once around the perimeter. After that, it's largely hands-off. Like a Roomba, the Terra will automatically make the rounds and return to a charging base whenever it's low on power.
Starship robots will deliver pizza and coffee to George Mason students
It just became that much easier for students to grab food without interrupting a study break. Starship and Sodexo have launched a robot food delivery service at Virginia's George Mason University, giving students and staff access to food within an average of 15 minutes or less. Pay $2 through Starship's mobile app and one of the more than 25 automatons will deliver pizza, coffee and other grub to a convenient pickup point on campus. It even ties into the school's student meal plans (the first such tie-in anywhere, according to Starship) and debit program.
Researchers train robot dog to pick itself back up after a fall
Researchers have taught a robot dog to overcome one of the toughest challenges for a four-legged droid: how to get back up after a fall. In a paper published in the Science Robotics journal, its Swiss creators describe how they trained a neural network in a computer simulation to make the ultimate guard bot. Then they went and kicked the canine around in real life (because that's what researchers do) to see if their technique worked. It did: the robot's digital training regimen made it 25 times faster, more resilient, and able to adapt to any given environment, according to the team.
Police ended a gas station standoff by using a robot to deliver a vape pen
A six-hour stand-off between police and a 40-year-old man threatening to set alight a convenience store was brought to a peaceful end by a robot carrying a vape pen. Local media reports described a tense situation on Saturday morning in Novato, California that led to the closure of a Safeway store and McDonald's amid fears that the suspect may have been armed. The incident was caught on tape, including the moment the robot handed the man (identified by police as Juan Roman) a smartphone for communications.
I just had my ass handed to me by a boxing robot
BotBoxer is the creation of SkyTech Sport, a company that makes gym equipment, most famous for the simulators used to train the US olympic ski team. Five years ago, the Los Angeles-based company turned its attention to creating a robotic boxing trainer, which it showed off in Las Vegas. I was excited to try the machine out for myself, despite being a total novice in the world of boxing.
My robot butler dreams are getting closer to reality
The last time I fully interacted with a robot was when ASUS launched the Zenbo back in 2016. As cute as it was, the fact that it lacked arms meant it couldn't exactly help out with everyday tasks. Ironically, two years later Honda discontinued its iconic humanoid robot, Asimo, which painted a grim future for home robots. But not all is lost. Chinese robot maker Ubtech has been developing its own machine with all four limbs, which ended up being the Walker. Here at CES, I got to spend some quality time with this charming robot, and despite the controlled nature of the demo, I got a taste of what life might be like in the near-future.
Ubtech's Walker robot now lends a helping hand at home
Ubtech is best known for its toy-sized robots and STEM kits, but in recent years, it's been building bigger machines as well. At CES 2019, the Chinese manufacturer is once again bringing out its Walker bipedal robot, except this time it's gained a pair of arms, and it's able to grab and pass objects to you thanks to its hand-eye coordination. Standing at 4.75 feet tall, Walker is more huggable for adult humans -- and you might as well start hugging one since it does face recognition, so when the robots turn against humans, you'll have a slightly better chance of surviving.
Groove X's Lovot is a fuzzy and utterly adorable robot
Some robots are designed to build cars. Others are meant to perform surgery or help astronauts in space. The Lovot, however, has a far simpler and adorable mission in life: to make you smile. The pint-sized cutie, developed by a Japanese robotics startup called Groove X, rolls around and bumps into furniture with the grace and curiosity of a five-year old toddler. The robot will stare up at you with its big, beady eyes and flap two small, pudgy hands when it wants to be picked up and coddled like a baby. At CES, I quickly fell in love with the thing. I want, no need one in my home.
NVIDIA's $1,100 AI brain for robots goes on sale
NVIDIA's plan to power autonomous robots has kicked off in earnest. The company has released a Jetson AGX Xavier Module that gives robots and other intelligent machines the processing oomph they need for their AI 'brains.' You're not about to buy one yourself -- it costs $1,099 each in batches of 1,000 units. However, it could be important for delivery robots and other automatons that need a lot of specialized performance with relatively little power use.
Casio's Transformers G-Shock is Optimus Prime's ticking heart
As leader of the Autobots, you'd think that Optimus Prime would always know what time it is. However, Casio, in collaboration with Transformer toymaker Takara Tomy, Casio has unveiled a special edition Transformer with a G-Shock watch installed right in his heart. The promotion celebrates the 35th anniversary of G-Shock, and the 35th anniversary of the Transformers in 2019, Casio said.
Starship launches robot package delivery service in the UK
The dream of having a robot deliver packages to your home is now real, provided you live in the right part of the UK. Starship Technologies has launched a ground-based robot package service (the first in the world, according to the company) in Milton Keynes. You have to tell companies to ship to a Starship facility instead of your usual destination, but after that it's just a matter of using a mobile app to schedule a robotic delivery at a convenient time. You can track the bot in the app if you're anxiously awaiting an order.
Latest Spot demo puts a Boston Dynamics robot to work
After dropping a stunning "Parkour" video for its humanoid Atlas robot earlier today, Boston Dynamics followed up with this more subdued look at a commercial application for its technology. In a video similar to lab tests we've seen before, this sensor-laden Spot robot (there's even one in its "hand" that you can see it using above, Watcher-style) took a stroll around a couple of construction sites while carrying a pack to survey human compliance work progress. In June, president Marc Raibert said the company had 10 prototypes built already ahead of sales next year and this one looks like it's ready to go. The video's description indicates these will be released in the second half of 2019, so if you'd like to start doing some extra cardio now then that would be good.
Anki’s cute Vector robot will include a mysterious Alexa integration
There are plenty of toy robots out on the market, but few are as endearing as the upcoming Anki Vector. Its big bright eyes are most reminiscent of the Pixar character Wall-E. But as cute as its Wall-E-like personality is, it doesn't mean much if the robot isn't smart. That's where Alexa comes in. In a blog post by CEO and co-founder Boris Sofman, he notes one of the top requests on the Vector Kickstarter was to integrate Alexa. Sofman announced that Anki has been working with Amazon on Alexa integration, but that development is still in its early stages. He admits that having a cute personality alone is not enough and Vector will need to evolve over the years. Through updates, the Anki team will continuously upgrade Vector, meaning the unit you buy on store shelves earlier this year will be rudimentary compared to what it will be out three years down the line. The team is aiming to send the Alexa update out by the end of the year. Beyond Alexa integration, Anki is also working on pet detection, home monitoring, delivering messages, music recognition, and a 360-degree camera. The Anki Vector is set to hit store shelves on October 12th for $250. Hopefully Vector can keep us safe from our future evil AI overlords as well.
Collaborative robot maker Rethink Robotics shuts down
For a while, it looked like Rethink Robotics would shake up the world with its collaborative robots: rather than having to write code, workers could teach bots to perform tasks by guiding them through the process. However, the market doesn't appear to have shared its vision. Rethink has suddenly shut down after a potential buyer backed out of a deal. Sales of Baxter and Sawyer robots weren't meeting expectations, Rethink chief Scott Eckert said, leaving the company low on cash. It really needed this acquisition to go through, in other words.
Humanoid construction robot installs drywall by itself
If Japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Institute has its way, construction workers might be a thing of the past. Researchers have built HRP-5P, a humanoid bot that can handle a variety of construction tasks when there's either a staffing shortage or serious hazards. The prototype uses a mix of environment detection, object recognition and careful movement planning to install drywall by itself -- it can hoist up boards and fasten them with a screwdriver.
Sony's reborn Aibo robot is available for pre-order in the US
Sony's relentlessly adorable Aibo robot is finally ready to return to American shores. After months of waiting, you can pre-order a First Litter Edition of the robo-pup in the US ahead of an expected mid-December ship date. You'll be spending a staggering $2,900 to play with the limited-run mechanical canine. The kit includes everything you'll need to get started, however -- you'll get a bone (sorry, aibone), a pink ball, paw pads and three years of AI cloud service to help Aibo learn.
Dyson's second robot vacuum isn't afraid of the dark
It's been three years since the launch of Dyson's very own robot vacuum, the 360 Eye, and our very own Mat Smith was left impressed when he briefly lived with one in his old Tokyo apartment. That said, the machine wasn't perfect, but Dyson believes that its follow-up model will solve many key problems. The 360 Heurist announced in Beijing earlier today is a familiar-looking robot packed with some notable upgrades. For one, it's powered by a quad-core 1.4GHz processor, which is apparently 20 times faster than what was on its predecessor. According to the company, this helps the machine pick up 60 percent more detail about the environment, thus reducing the chances of bumping into things by 50 percent. Hopefully this also means fewer instances of misaligned docking.
Spear-toting robot can guard coral reefs against invasive lionfish
Lionfish are threats to not only fragile coral reef ecosystems, but the divers who keep them in check. They not only take advantage of unsuspecting fish populations, but carry poisonous spines that make them challenging to catch. Student researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute may have a solution: robotic guardians. They've crafted an autonomous robot (below) that can hunt lionfish without requiring a tethered operator that could harm the reefs.
LG adds an exoskeleton to its line of CLOi robots
Today, LG announced that it will reveal its first robotic exoskeleton at IFA 2018, which takes place in Berlin from August 31st to September 5th. The exoskeleton, called LG CLOi SuitBot, is designed to support a user's legs to allow for more limb strength
Yuneec's Mantis Q drone packs 4K and voice control for $500
DJI's Spark isn't the only game in town if you want a small, relatively powerful drone with a semi-reasonable price tag. Yuneec has launched US pre-orders for the Mantis Q, a robotic flier that blurs the lines between 'budget' drones like the Spark and higher-end counterparts like the Mavic Air. For $500, you're mostly getting technology that would normally require a much costlier outlay, including 4K video recording, infrared- and sonar-based indoor stabilization, and foldable arms that make it easy to shove in a backpack. There are even relatively rare features like voice control, face detection, a 44MPH top speed and a comparatively lengthy 33-minute flight time.
