A research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has built a small, 3-kilogram biped robot inspired by the velociraptor dinosaur. Although tied to a balance bar, the robot is able to run at 46 km/hr, roughly equal to the (also tethered) Cheetah quadruped from Boston Dynamics, claimed to be the […]
Japanese hobby robotics Dr. Guero (aka “Dr. GIY”) has impressed us before with his robot’s humanlike gait, as well as the some more artistic work. Now he’s posted a new video that takes it to a whole new level, in which his robot is challenged to walk on gravel, sand, and other rough terrain.
This weekend saw the 2013 Trials of the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Sixteen robots gathered at the Homestead Miami Speedway in Florida to compete at eight different tasks, ranging from navigating rubble, to manipulating hoses and valves, to navigating various kinds of doors. The dominant robot turned out to be the entry from SCHAFT Inc., a […]
Google has just acquired its eight robotics company in the last half-year, this time buying Boston Dynamics, the maker of famous walking robots like Big Dog, Cheetah, and most recently Atlas, which will be used by half the teams in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. We’ve long known that when the robot revolution comes, a Boston […]
DARPA has posted a couple of new videos showing two predecessors of its Atlas robot — the basis for the reference platform provided in the DARPA Robotics Challenge — overcoming stairs, pits, and other obstacles.
The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) officially kicked off this week, and what can I say — this is huge. This is a competition funded by DARPA (the same guys who brought us autonomous cars, the Internet, and many other innovations) to develop full-sized autonomous humanoid robots. As they put it: The primary goal of the […]
The Robot Hall of Fame at Carnegie Mellon Science Center in Pittsburgh inducted four new robots into its ranks last night. More than 17,000 people voted to elect this year’s winners.