Domestic and Personal Robots

iRobot Roomba vs. Samsung Navibot

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

The iRobot Roomba has reigned supreme in the robot vacuum market for a long time. But recently, many new vaccum robots have been released by very prominent manufacturers such as Phillips, Samsung, Asus and MSI.

The new generations of robots features, in general, smart maping capabilities that allow for a methodical cleaning of a room. So far, the comparison between this upcoming robots and the well established Roomba was only theoretical and only the Neato XV-11 had a chance of  defiying the titan.

It is Samsung’s SR8855 (ak.a.  Navibot) turn to try its best and defeat the iRobots cleaning queen, the Roomba 570 series. As shown in the video below, although the Navibot have advanced navigation features, it might be more prone to get entangled in wires lying around and to attempt at eating larger objects such as socks or shirts.


Via cnet UK

Neato Robotics Launches The New Robot Vacuum XV-11 on July 15

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

After some trepidations and delays, Neato Robotics has announced they are launching their new XV-11 spatially smart robot  vacuum on July 15th.  On this date, the robot will be available for preorder at various retail locations and will ship out in August 2010.

Neato Robotics XV-11

Neato Robotics XV-11

For those who do not remember this robot, it competes with its famous iRobot counterpart and features advanced mapping capabilities for systematically cleaning a room.

Nesbot, the robot by Nestlé

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Nesbot

Nestlé already designed a robot called Nesbot some time ago in order to promote its Nespresso brand.

It prepares coffee (espresso, 6 different flavors), serves it and moves among the guests!

The start-up behind the design of this robot is Bluebotics.

More information in the complete PDF file on Nesbot.

Nestle robot

The project is not recent but we like the idea of this prototype. Pending new developments.

Video

via pp

Karotz, Nabaztag’s new name

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Nabaztag

Karotz is the new name for Nabaztag.

Mindscape acquired French company Violet but the development of the Wi-Fi rabbit has continued and a new version should be released in 2010.

We assure you: the design will stay the same. In addition, 2 USB ports will be added as well as a webcam.

There will be an improvement of the radio frequency identification reader, Wi-Fi, a microphone on its belly and better speakers.

While waiting for Karotz to be launched (which we won’t forget to tell you about on this blog), see the Nabaztag page on RobotShop.com.

Robot kit on promotion for cat and dog lovers

Friday, June 4th, 2010

RobotShop has only just created a nice promotion (package) on domestic robots, this time for pet lovers: cats and dogs.

Starting with cats:

-Domestic Robot Package for cat lovers: save 50 dollars.

This includes an iRobot Roomba 562 vacuum, a Litter-Robot Litter Box, an automatic food dispenser and a filtered water dispenser.

cat promo

-RobotShop package for dog lovers: save 35 dollars by buying this promotional kit.

It includes an iRobot Roomba 562 vacuum robot, a food dispenser, a filtered water dispenser, a Smart Chime sound gadget and a No-Bark bark deterrent device.

Hurry up, there’s not enough for everyone!

MSI Vacuum Robot at Computex 2010

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

MSI robot

MSI vacuum robot

Here’s a demo of the MSI vacuum robot at Computex 2010 which is currently being held in Taipei (Taiwan) from June 1 to 5, 2010.

The Taiwanese computer and component manufacturer, Micro-Star International (MSI), is coming with a new line of vacuum robots which will compete with Roomba, Samsung Navibot and Neato Robotics.

Only very few details have leaked out so far but this new vacuum should come in 3 models:

- standard M800 Smart: it can work for 110 minutes and recharges in 4 hours – R500 Slim – R1300 Security: comes with a movement sensor and wireless video camera connected to the internet.

The 3 models recharge themselves autonomously.

According to Engadget, MSI’s cleaning robots should come out in early 2011 at prices ranging from 150 to 600 dollars.

($150 for the R500 model, $450 for the M800 and $600 for the R1300.)

RobotShop domestic robot packages on promotion

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

robotshop sale

RobotShop has a promotional offer for its readers on domestic robots.

This is not an everyday sale, there’s so much to benefit from:

-Save 120 dollars by buying the RobotShop standard domestic package. It includes an iRobot Roomba 530 vacuum, a Lawnbott Spyder Robot lawn mower, and an Aquaproducts Pool Rover pool cleaner.

standard package

-Save 200 dollars by buying the Deluxe Package. It contains an iRobot Roomba 560 robotic vacuum, a Lawnbott Professional Deluxe lawn mower and a Smartpool Nitro Wall Climber pool cleaner.

deluxe package

-Save 250 dollars with the Premium domestic robot package. It consists of an iRobot Roomba 470, an Evolution Lawnbott and a Smartpool Nitro Wall Scrubber.

premium package

-Lastly, save 300 dollars with the crazy domestic robot offer (4 robots!!). This last offer includes a Roomba Deluxe Package vacuum, an iRobot Scooba 5800 (floor cleaner), a Lawnbott Evolution lawn mower and an Aquabot Turbo T2 for the pool.

crazy offer

iRobot will develop robots to assist the elderly

Monday, May 10th, 2010

iRobot

Colin Angle, the current CEO and co-founder of iRobot has revealed a bit more about the future strategy of the company.

iRobot is going to develop robotic solutions for the elderly and increasingly dependent.

These domestic robots will act as personal assistants for picking up the telephone, helping them to get out of bed and to go to the bathroom, etc.

Better yet, you’ll be able to monitor people remotely (your grandmother or mother, for example) using the robot which will allow you to make sure everything’s okay.

In the future, American society will need many such assistants, given that the population is aging rapidly.

The ratio of people needing this type of care compared to healthy people will increase in the coming years and there won’t be enough human orderlies.

iRobot therefore wants to call on the interest of the Amercan government which could provide the financial aid to develop these domestic robots.

And, at the end of the day, the government will save on healthcare by reducing its hospital and paramedical personnel.

For its part, iRobot has also mentioned that it wants to make strategic acquisitions soon. Remember that the company is in good shape financially with excellent results in the first quarter of 2010 and 62 million dollars available in cash.

Projet Romeo

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Romeo

What is projet Romeo?

It’s a 10 million euro project led by the French company, Aldebaran Robotics, which aims to create an assistant robot for the elderly, people with reduced mobility and the visually impaired.

It has received 4.9 million euros of funding from the DGCIS (General Directorate for Competitiveness, Industry and Services), the Ile-de-France region and Paris city. More than 13 partners are involved in the project’s development (companies and organizations).

Projet Romeo

photo lesechos

Romeo is about 1.40 m tall and its design should be completed in 2011.

It will be able to interact with humans (speech, gestures) and detect their emotions. Romeo will be able to help them walk and avoid objects, support them, close or open doors, etc.

Site: www.projetromeo.com

Willow Garage reveals the 11 recipients of the PR2

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Willow Garage, whose progress we cover on this blog, just announced the eleven recipients of its PR2 robot.

The PR2 robot is an open source robot which is characterized by a hardware platform (Personal Robot 2) with an ROS (Robot Operating System) open source software application.

Willow Garage received 78 applications but only 11 were chosen. These 11 will each receive a PR2 for free.

The total value of the endowment is around 4.4 millions de dollars (or a value of about 400 000 dollars per robotic platform).

The majority of the recipients are research departments in universities in the United States and around the world. See the full list here with information about the projects.

This club of 11 will now work together with the aim of improving the PR2 overall.

The purpose of this whole project is commendable because it will allow for faster progress in robotics.

Pages: Prev 1 2 3 4 5 ...6 7 8 ...11 Next