Evolta is a small robot created by Panasonic to market their Evolta batteries. The little green robot is extremely energy-efficient and has accomplished many feats so far such as climbing the Grand Canyon using a rope and driving the Le Mans race track.
Now, the little robot is getting ready to accomplish another feat: it will run, swim and bike in order to complete the Ironman Triathlon, one of the most demanding athletic competitions. See the video below for more information about the event.
RobotShop is putting together a list of the most noteworthy and outright coolest robots for 2010 and we need your help. You can participate by voting in a poll on the RobotShop Forum that will decide which are The Ten Coolest Robots of 2010.
We have selected twenty of the coolest robots from a cross section of the robotic market. Robots are presented in alphabetical order to remove bias. Keep reading for a brief description of each of the robotic contestants for the 2010 RobotShop Top Ten Coolest Robots.
Aldebaran Nao
Aldebaran Nao
The Nao form Aldebaran Robotics has been very present this year performing all sort of dances and rather cute actions. It is the only fully autonomous humanoid in the market today with such great capabilities at a (sort of) reasonable price.
Anybots QB
Anybots QB
The QB form Anybots is a new and upcoming telepresence robot that is intended to be user friendly and allow you to be present at a remote location in an instant.
AR Drone Parrot
AR Drone Parrot
The Parrot form AR Drone is the first affordable UAV that can be intuitively and easily controlled though a web enabled device such as an iPhone or laptop.
BAE Systems Taranis
BAE Taranis UCAV
The Taranis by BAE Systems is an Unmanned Combat Aircraft System (UCAS) developed for the UK military. This stealth “swept delta” aircraft is intended to be fully autonomous.
Boston Dynamics Little Dog
Boston Dynamics Little Dog
As a derivative of Big Dog, Boston dynamics‘ Little Dog is a smaller version of the popular quadruped robot. This robot is intended to navigate very challenging terrain and cross large obstacles. The dog can learn and quickly adapt to a wide variety of terrain and recover form unexpected situations such as slipping or sudden terrain modifications.
Dr Robot created a very nice tracked professional robotic platform intended for extreme terrains. The Jaguar can climb stairs, and navigate autonomously indoors and outdoors. Lately, the Jaguar got redesigned ad received a significant price cut thanks to improved manufacturing techniques.
Evolution Robotics Mint
Evolution Robotics Mint
The Mint from Evolution Robotic is a new floor cleaning robot that can operate very quietly. It can systematically and thoroughly mop and wipe hard floors thanks to it indoors navigation technology and proven wiping pads such as Swiffers.
Google Autonomous car
Google Autonomous car
The desire of having self-driving cars is very present in science fiction. Now, thank to Google and and the engineering behind the DARPA Challenges, the autonomous car is a reality. This type of technology can truly revolutionize humans’ everyday lives.
Humboldt University Myon
Humboldt University Myon
The Myon (or Muon) from Humboldt University is a child sized a modular humanoid. It is made of interchangeable parts that can operate independently of the rest of the body. This means that if a critical leg part breaks, it could be replaced by a less critical arm par for instance.
Kawada HRP-4
Kawada HRP-4
The HRP-4 by Kawada ifs the latest of a long series of very impressive humanoid robots. This last iteration is particularly thin, fast and gracious.
Neato Robotics XV-11
Neato Robotics XV-11
The XV-11 by Neato Robotics is cleverer than its predecessors and is becoming very popular quite rapidly. Thanks to its mapping capabilities, the robot vacuum is capable of systematically and efficiently cleaning a room very rapidly.
Raytheon XOS 2
Raytheon XOS 2
The XOS 2, a military Exoskeleton by Raytheon is able to greatly augment the force and thus the endurance of a human soldier. The XOS 2 is basically the closest technology to the Iron Man suite (form Marvel comics) currently in existence.
RobotCub iCub
RoboCub iCub
The iCub from RobotCub is a humanoid robot intended to emulate a toddler in size, motor skills and learning capabilities. The video below demonstrates its motor and learning skills.
RobotShop DFRobotShop Rover
DFRobotShop Rover
The DFRobotshop Rover is the result of the collaboration of RobotShop and DFRobot. It is the cheapest Arduino-based programmable robotic platform currently available on the market. The clever use of the PCB as a structural part is partly what makes it so affordable.
Smartpool Nitro
Smartpool Nitro Wall Scrubber
The new Nitro pool cleaner robot family form Smartpool is faster and more accurate than its predecessors. It is very technologically advanced and cleans pools thoroughly.
University of Penn Aggressive Quadrotors
University of Pennsylvania Aggressive Quad-rotor UAVs
The BEAR by Vecna Robotics is a military rescue robot with a friendly Teddy-Bear face. Despite its friendly face, it is extremely strong and can easy carry a soldier on its extended arms.
Wild Planet Trakr
Wild Planet Trakr
The Trakr form Wild Planet is a interesting spy robot toy. It has a camera and microphone and can record video. Another noteworthy aspect of the robot is that it is easily hackable and can become a very interesting robotic development platform.
Willow Garage PR2
Willow Garage PR2
The PR2 from Willow Garage is a service robot that runs the Open Source Robotic Operating System ROS. Since its creation, the PR2 has been making significant progress at tackling everyday tasks. This rapid advancement is mainly due to its simple programming interface that provides useful abstractions for its components.
Now that you had a quick look at all the robotic candidates, feel free to chose your favourite in the following poll: 2010 RobotShop Top Ten Coolest Robots.
Engineers and researchers form the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Tübingen, Germany and making some interesting ”scientific research” about the way humans perceive motion by riding a giant industrial robot arm from Kuka while playing video games. As depicted in the video below, the system uses a Robocoaster, a modified six-axis Kuka KR 500 that can lift up to 500 kg usually found in amusement parks.
TheCorpora is a project of personal robots and artificial intelligence in the home. The project is still in development and the homepage of the site contains only a form to be notified of the official launch.
If you wonder whether sporty robots will one day be able to compete with our best athletes, well we believe we already have a good start for a response on that.
It’s no longer a question of robots that play soccer by moving about slowly.
The soccer players at the Robocup German Open 2010 have gone on to the next stage: they’re evolving with pretty surprising speed; they pass and shoot in the goal with good accuracy.
Eindhoven’s Techunited team which won the German soccer tournament provides us with this superb video worthy of a World Cup and which speaks volumes about the progress made by these robots:
This is what the designers at Ziggy wanted to find out during the Robogames.
The American football player Joe Nedney pitted his strength against Ziggy to hit the ball as far as possible and accurately.
Even if the sportsman emerged from this friendly match as the winner, it’s worth noting that the robot’s pneumatic arm was able to propel the egg-shaped ball more than 60 yards (55 meters).
The fascinating thing about robots is that we can get them to do anything… or almost.
After the gymnast robot Hinamitetu with the fixed bar, now comes the acrobat robot on a ball.
This prototype has 3 wheels to stabilize the yellow ball and works with two Gyroscopes.
It’s incredible what you can achieve with a bit of imagination. You’ll notice that even if you push it a little, the robot doesn’t want to fall off the ball!
Along these lines of unusual feats, here’s the robotic caterpillar which has also decided to play at acrobats:
