Robotics on TFTS

There are certain things that will always creep me out – carnies and public restrooms among them – but I have to admit that robotic animals of any kind might be near the top of the list. I’m not sure if it’s the lifeless, piercing eyes or the rigid mechanical …

Thanks to the boffins at the Bristol Robotics Lab and the University of Sheffield, who have jointly developed the SCRATCHbot (which, incidentally, stands for Spatial Cognition and Representation through Active TouCh), those trapped in burning buildings could soon see themselves rescued by artificially intelligent robots that use sensory whiskers to …

Whether we like it or not (or chose to admit it) we often find ourselves projecting our own interests on our children in the hope that they’ll develop interests in a similar vain to our own and, if you’re a confirmed geek and you’re looking to install that seed of …

Fashion and catwalk models the world over were (not) said to be (not) quaking in their boots high heels today (think of those frown lines, darlings) following the demonstration of a new humanoid robot, known merely, and somewhat seductively, as the HRP-4C, being paraded in Japan.

WowWee, who are no strangers either to the site or TFTS Towers, have detailed a new model in their ever expanding range of robotic devices in the form of the WowWee Spyball which serves as a robotic webcam (more of a spycam, actually) that connects wirelessly via Wi-Fi to your …

Trossen Robotic’s MechRC Humanoid Robot, which comes pre-assembled – or what Trossen Robotic’s bill as being as being ‘ready-to-walk’ – and which boasts 17 separate servos resulting in the MechRC being capable of enacting over one hundred pre-loaded actions out of the box, has just become available in the US.

The Japanese robotics company HPI have announced their latest robot kit, following on from the G-ROBOTS GR-001, the G-Dog which utilises the same components as the aforementioned robot and which is set to retail for around €550.

As of this Friday, if you happen to live in Japan you’ll be able to rent robotic Hybrid Assistive Limbs (HALs) – in particular, robotic assistive legs – from a Tokyo based company called Cyberdyne which have been designed to help partially paralysed people, the elderly or those with energy …

Whilst Erector’s Spykee robot was scheduled to have been released back last October, only subsequently to put in a no-show, the good news for those looking to get their hands on the Erector Spykee Wi-Fi Spy Robot is that it’s now due to be released this coming October according to …

For those of you into building Mindstorms NXT robots – which is far removed from mere childs play – you may be interested to know that Lego have now released two Mindstorms NXT accessories in the form of a Mindstorms NXT Infrared Link Sensor and a Mindstorms NXT RF ID …

Following on from our post concerning Steve Moore’s AirRemote iPhone application that serves to allow your iPhone to control everything from AV equipment to being the central control unit of a complete home automation setup, UC Berkeley has just announced a new iPhone application that will allow Apple’s device to …