Transforming robots might feature heavily in fantasy movies and sci-fi daydreams, but a team of engineers at MIT has created a real-life version. The little metal device looks kind of like a mechanical worm, and when it’s in motion it moves a bit like one, too. But it is actually an important step on the path toward the invention of programmable matter.
The device is called a milli-motein, a name derived from its tiny size (millimeters) and the inspiration for the project: proteins. Protein chains bend and contort themselves into complex shapes, which is just what the MIT team envisioned their littletransforming robots doing. The device they created is the world’s smallest chain robot, and it can move into nearly any 3D shape thanks to a new type of motor created just for this project.
Engineers at MIT built the milli-moteins as a follow-up to a recent paper which asserted that any 3D shape can be created by folding a string of identical sub-units – provided the string is sufficiently long. In theory, the milli-moteins are paving the way for future robotic systems that can be configured and reconfigured at will, depending on the job they are needed for.
A group of German scientists is making great strides to improve robot mobility. Their project is called iStruct, and their flagship invention is a robot ape, because they’re apparently trying really hard to get some kind of Planet of the Apes/robot enslavement thing going.
Working at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the team constructed a four-legged mobile robot that can walk on two or four legs. It not only walks like an ape; it looks like one as well. Its actuated spine and smart sensors let it stay upright even in situations that would knock other quadrupedal robots over
Like an actual ape, the robotic ape usually walks on all fours but is able to stand on two legs to give it a little more height for performing important tasks. One of the demonstration videos for the robot shows its smooth transitions from forward walking to reverse. It also illustrates its balancing abilities by putting it on a shifting platform. Sure, it looks interesting now, but just wait until it learns how to love

Picture yourself just a few years in the future. It’s evening and you’ve just finished dinner. When you finish washing the dishes in the kitchen and walk into your den to relax, a horde of small robots scoots in front of you and assembles itself into a comfortable sofa and footrest. You settle into the newly-assembled furniture and turn on the TV. After your favorite show is over, you grab your laptop and walk to the other side of the room, where your group of autonomously-moving robots has disassembled itself from the couch configuration and is swiftly rearranging into a small desk. You set your laptop down, spend an hour or so surfing and updating your statuses, then hit the bedroom for some rest, knowing that when you get up your legion of rolling minions will be waiting for you – this time shaped as a little breakfast table and chair.
Self-assembling robot furniture has been proposed in the sci-fi universes before, but there hasn't been an abundance of real-world development…until now. Swiss group Bio-robotics Laboratory is developing a line of bots that self-assemble in different configurations depending on your needs and their location. Rather than traditional furniture that, for the most part, stays in one place and has to be picked up if you need it to do something else, the Room-bots roam around the house assembling into whatever you need them to be at that moment.
Each Room bot moves independently and communicates with the other ‘bots to figure out where each of them should be. The components all connect to each other and can move, bend, flex and rotate in every direction. There are even passive non-moving modules and special universal hinges to make sure that every type of furniture need can be accommodated. Now if Bio-robotics Lab can figure out how to make the Room bots bring snacks along with them when they enter the room, we’ll be all set for a future full of loafing.


Are you prepared to meet your robot overlords?

The idea of superintelligent machines may sound like the plot of "The Terminator" or "The Matrix," but many experts say the idea isn't far-fetched. Some even think the singularity — the point at which artificial intelligence can match, and then overtake, human smarts — might happen in just 16 years.

But nearly every computer scientist will have a different prediction for when and how the singularity will happen.
When natural disasters, terrorist attacks or overloaded systems knock out mobile communications, the most important thing is to get an emergency communications system up and running. That is infinitely easier said than done, however, and to date no one has figured out a great way to get it done quickly. Now, a team of scientists at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne has devised a concept to get rudimentary communications functions in place swiftly after disaster strikes – and it involves flying swarms of little robots.
According to the team, “swarming micro air vehicles” could establish wireless networks powerful enough to allow rescue workers and survivors to make essential contacts. Each of the tiny vehicles would carry a transmitter in its wing to emit a wireless signal; together, a fleet of flying robots would be able to establish a network strong enough to transmit voice, images, videos and data
The little ‘bots are lightweight and battery controlled, and they would be able to fly for around 30 minutes before needing a recharge. The main goal of the researchers over the next few years will be making the robots more robust and durable so that they won’t be swept away by strong winds or ruined by rain. Not surprisingly, the team is taking some design cues from nature, using swarming insects as inspiration
In general, swarms of things tend to freak us humans out – but swarming robots are another story. Working together and harnessing the power of plenty, swarming bots can complete big jobs that would be impractical for a single robot to do on its own. Researchers at the University of Colorado – Boulder have developed these adorable-looking swarming bots that they call Droplets.
Each Droplet is the size of a ping pong ball and equipped with a vibrating motor that allows it to bumble around. The bots communicate with one another using analog/digital infrared sensors, and each contains a microprocessor that can execute code.
As for the applications for these tiny swarming robots, the research team envisions them setting up space colonies in the future. The bots could assemble living quarters and gardens for space colonists, allowing a habitable colony to be ready and waiting for crews when they arrive. They may even be helpful in cleaning up future oil spills or performing all types of tasks in space where it’s too dangerous for humans and single bots would be too expensive to launch.

Scientists often study nature to solve complex engineering problems. Such is the case with these tiny robot prototypes; scientists from several countries are cooperating to develop microbots that can act as a swarm, just like insects. The tiny robots will measure less than 4mm in each direction and be powered by a small solar panel on their backs.
Individually, they are small and simple. But together, an entire swarm of these microbots could establish hive intelligence, communicate with each other via infrared sensors, perform complex tasks and relay important information back to their home base. They move on three vibrating legs while a fourth acts as a touch sensor.
The team overcame the trickiest manufacturing problem that has plagued previous attempts to build tiny swarming robots: the use of solder to hold components together. By using conductive adhesive instead of solder, the circuit board is able to be folded, resulting in a much smaller bot than was previously possible. By mass-producing the robots, the cost of each individual unit would quite small, meaning that mission-related losses of a few wouldn’t spell financial disaster for the entire mission.

The project, called I-SWARM (intelligent small-world autonomous robots for micro-manipulations) was based on the behavior of biological insects. The team conducting the project is made up of researchers from Spain, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. Though the robots are n’t quite ready for mass production, the team is looking for funding to start building commercial prototypes.


Robots are doing pretty great things these days, but it’s been a while since anyone has really reinvented anything about robot movement. Attendees at the 2009 IEEE, though, got to see some truly incredible new robots. They move at high speeds, are scarily dexterous, and feature crazy-sensitive sensors that let them “know” a great deal about their surroundings.
Researchers at the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory (University of Tokyo) have developed several high-speed bots under the project called Sensor Fusion. The goal of the project is to integrate multiple sophisticated sensors to create higher-functioning robots. Combined with their ability to move at incredibly fast speeds, the sensors let the robots interact with objects in never-before-seen ways.
The team has developed dynamic systems that allow the bots to throw and catch objects, tie knots, manipulate tools, dribble balls, and perform feats like twirling pens through their “fingers.” The development of these remarkably accurate high-speed systems basically opens up countless new worlds in robotics, though we have to admit that this high-speed multi-sensory technology coupled with the agile mobility of Big Dog could potentially (read: probably does) spell the end of mankind…and soon.

In previous decades, we had fantasies that, by this time, robots would be doing our jobs and all of our household chores so that we could live lives of luxury. We’re still not quite there yet, but robots have started doing things we never even considered they’d be able to do. We use them in law enforcement and military settings to disarm bombs and check out unsafe situations. We use them to learn more about the environments of our own planet and others. And some people even use them to beat their friends at video games. But some of the most amazing work in robotics is being carried out by Boston Dynamics. They’re building bots to tackle real-life situations in brand new ways.






RiSE may be small, but it’s packed with some pretty amazing technology. Its feet with micro-claws allow it to climb straight up buildings, fences and trees, while its tail helps it stay balanced. Its “body” can change posture when needed to help it conform to the surface it’s climbing on, which gives it the somewhat-creepy look of a squirrel crossed with a scorpion when it’s ascending.
bigdog

The BigDog robot gained worldwide attention for Boston Dynamics. The incredibly sturdy quadriped moves like a living animal, having been modeled after a large dog. Its articulated legs are able to regain balance on rough or slippery terrain, or even after being pushed or kicked. The DARPA-funded project aims to create a robot that can go anywhere people or animals can go. So far, Big Dog can carry loads of up to 340 pounds across all types of terrain, and it broke the world record for legged vehicle travel after going 12.8 miles without stopping or refueling.
petman walking robot
The new project from Boston Dynamics that’s getting lots of buzz these days is Petman, which the company describes as BigDog’s big brother. It’s a biped that will be used to test chemical protection clothing for the U.S. Army. With its dynamic movements and ability to simulate sweat and a realistic human body temperature, it is by far the most advanced suit tester ever developed. Petman will take the chemical protection suits through all sorts of stressing tests, like performing calisthenics and moving in ways remarkably similar to human soldiers. The video above only shows a prototype, but already the movements are incredibly human-like.
Imagine a fleet of robotic construction workers that can autonomously build structures and work together harmoniously without needing supervision or specific, pre-determined roles.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, both in Cambridge, Mass., are designing just this sort of robotic construction crew.
The engineers were inspired by the way millions of termites cooperate to build complex mounds of soil hundreds of times their size without needing detailed blueprints for the structures. Instead, the colony members use cues from each other and their environment to guide the construction process, the researchers said.



ERWIN (Emotional Robot with Intelligent Network) has been developed at the University of Lincoln as part of a study attempting to understand how long-term relationships may be forged between humans and androids. These durable relationships could be important in cases where a robot operates as a personal aid or companion, for example when providing care for the elderly or support for people with autism.  
Dr John Murray, from the School of Computer Science at Lincoln, is behind the ‘friendly robot’, which is now being used in a new study carried out by PhD student Mriganka Biswas.
Biswas said: "When two people interact for the first time, if the two different personalities attract each other, a relationship forms. But, in the case of conventional human-robot interaction, after gathering information about the robot, the robot's lack of identifiable characteristics and personality prevents any relationship bond developing."

 The key obstacle in forming a bond with a robot may lie in our flawed human thought processes. As humans, we have the tendency to use certain illogical patterns of thought, or cognitive biases, when making judgements about the world and other people around us. We do this because these shortcuts allow us to make quicker decisions and free up our limited mental space for dealing with unfamiliar input. Our biases shape our personality, and according to Biswas, are what make us human.  
Computers and robots, on the other hand, generally operate according to rational rules, which make them seem very far removed from us. Introducing cognitive bias to a robot and giving it personality traits will render it more human-like. As demonstrated in the video, ERWIN can express five basic emotions whilst interacting with us.
Alongside ERWIN, the researchers will be looking at the responses people have to another robot, named Keepon. It is non-emotive, but is humanoid in appearance. By comparing how people react to ERWIN and Keepon, the researchers hope to discover which type of robot is more effective in engaging with humans, and which is more conducive to creating a long-term relationship.
“A companion robot needs to be friendly and have the ability to recognise users’ emotions and needs, and to act accordingly. The robot needs to form a ‘long-term’ relationship with its users, which is possible by continuous interactions and the robot having its own personality and characteristics”, according to Biswas.
In addition to advancing the technology behind companion robots, it is hoped that the study could also help inform how relationships are formed by children with autism, Asperger syndrome or attachment disorder.  
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A lot of the time, robots seem pretty dumb to us humans. It's not entirely a surprise, then, that a lot of the time, humans apparently seem pretty dumb to robots. If you're a robot, it turns out to be surprisingly difficult to get a human to assist you with tasks, so researchers at MIT are teaching robots to politely ask for very specific kinds of help.
You'll recognize these KUKA youBots from our ICRA coverage earlier this year: they can autonomously assemble (at least one specific piece) of IKEA furniture. But being youBots, they're relatively limited in what they can reach, so unless the furniture bits and pieces are set up just the way they need them to be, they're going to need help from a human. It's not always obvious to the human what kind of help the robots needs, however, which is why these robots are using an inverse semantic algorithm to generate human-friendly requests for help:
The robots are able to detect failures by themselves, determine exactly what sort of help they need, and then translate those requests into something understandable and actionable by a human. Since it's algorithmic and not pre-programmed, the 'bots should be able to ask for help under conditions that they haven't already experienced.
This is obviously of tremendous importance to robotic IKEA furniture assembly, but if we can look beyond that (just for a second), there's a huge amount of potential here. Robots are great at completing most parts of most tasks, but inevitably there are one or two steps in whatever you want a robot to do where it's significantly more likely to fail. Giving robots the ability to recognize these failures and then intelligently ask for assistance could open up many more tasks to at least partial automation, and it's likely to have the most impact in variable, unstructured environments. You know, like your house.
A paper accompanying this video (which we don't have a copy of yet, unfortunately) has been authored by Stefanie Tellex, Ross A. Knepper, Adrian Li, Thomas M. Howard, Daniela Rus, and Nicholas Roy.

Exclusive: Super Duper Ultra Mega Secret Willow Garage PR2 Research



So what's been going on at Willow Garage for the past few months? We'd tell you that it involved cake, but that would be a lie. Instead, we have these exclusive secret pictures from deep inside the gigantic underground labyrinth that we're pretty sure is hidden beneath 68 Willow Road. 
A PR2 with a Portal device? This is going to be trouble.

This TurtleBot also has an ASHPD. More trouble.

Even the PR1 is armed and dangerous. Or armed, at least.

And now the robots are getting bad ideas:

Very, very bad ideas:

Special thanks to Chad Rockey and Mihai Pomarlan for risking their lives to get us these images.
And in other breaking but totally fictitious news, a rumor that I just made up has it that Willow has been acquired by Cave Johnson and Aperture Science to make robots that are just as trustworthy as humans:









We’ve seen robots that move about using wheels, two legs, four legs and even ones that slither like snakes. The Cubli can move despite being just a cube. Actually it does have wheels, but they’re inside its body.
cubli robot cube by Gajamohan Mohanarajah and Raffaello DAndrea 620x372magnify
The Cubli was developed by researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, led by Gajamohan Mohanarajah and Dr. Raffaello D’Andrea. It has three wheels powered by a small electric motor, a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, a servo for braking and a STM3210E microcontroller.
By taking advantage of angular momentum and torque reaction, the 5.9 cu.in. cube can jump from a stable position, then stop and balance itself on one of its edges or even one of its corners. It can keep balancing even if you push or disturb the surface that it’s on. It can also be commanded to fall in a particular direction. By performing all three actions successively – jumping up, balancing and falling – the Cubli can be made to move around. It cannot speak though. At least not yet.

iRobot Roomba


Robotic sucking machines — what's not to like? Not only does the Roomba easily access hard to reach places you'd otherwise never venture, but it also does it all automatically without you needing to lift a finger. 

Spykee Wifi Spy Robot



Worried about people creeping in on your man cave while away on vacation? Leave Spykee the WiFi Spy Robot at home and you'll be able to actively record video, take pictures and control this little tank-treaded android from anywhere in the world. The smart little bugger even knows to go back to his home when his battery's low.

              The most amazing robots in the world!!


Soccer Bots
For decades, pop culture has been trying to forecast what the future's robots might look like. There were dystopian ideas of 'bots overtaking humans, like HAL 9000 did in 1968's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Then, by extreme contrast, there were welcoming ideas of servant 'bots that just wanted to be friends, like SICO  in 1985's 'Rocky IV.'
Whatever the take, movies have proven not to be the source on robot realism. But that's not to say they're far off, either. Click through to check out some of today's real-life robots and the amazing things they can do



Where humans cannot go, some robots can, and what that means is a new age of discovery for the world's archaeologists. This robot, seen at a dig site about 60 km north of Mexico City, was lowered into a 2,000-year-old tunnel underneath an ancient temple to check if it was safe for human entry. What the 'bot found, though, was remarkable: three chambers near the famed Pyramid of the Sun that have gone completely unexplored for thousands of years.

Not all robots are just for flash. Rescue robots like this one serve a very real function: using their massive joints and arms for good. This robot was seen working earlier this year in China, where a massive earthquake devastated the Sichuan province. The 6.6 magnitude 'quake left many victims in remote areas, where only robots with giant claws could reach to pull away debris.

No joystick or keypad is behind the HRP-2 robot, snapped above near Tokyo earlier this year. Instead, the humanoid robot is controlled, unbelievably, by brain activity. Researchers in a joint Japanese-French project have developed the 'bot, which hopes to be able to move based on the thought process of its master. The technology is positively sci-fi, but the goal is to use it to assist disabled or elderly people in day-to-day tasks.


Think a Lamborghini will get you noticed? Try piloting one of these.
This is Mantis, a menacing robot that claims to be the largest all-terrained hexapod robot in the world. Built by an English designer, Mantis took four years to develop, stands nearly three metres high and weighs some 1,900 kilograms. Mantis won't win any street races, but its six-axis 'body attitude control,' as its designer calls it, offers impressive maneuverability for its size.

The most everyday tasks might be mundane for you or I, but it's quite a feat to have a robot perform them for us. This robot, nicknamed PR2, can not only flip pancakes, but is programmed to perform other household tasks, like pouring beer into a glass. PR2, pictured here in Bremen, Germany, was developed as part of a Europe-wide project in robot automation.

Some of the most useful robot technology doesn't involve remote-controlled helicopters or other novelty configurations. Instead, check out this nursing care robot, on display at last year's Robot Week in Japan. The robot uses technology to help elderly and disabled people in and out of wheelchairs.

Ever thought if you could make a robot of your own???
So here I am to help you...
this post has a link of video which would help you a bit...
I'll be regularly posting links and instructions to level up

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Robots

Modern robots can respond to emotion and the smell of fine wines.


robot-1-300
(All images courtesy of Gordon Bennett)
1  “Robot” comes from the Czech wordrobota, meaning“drudgery,” and first appeared in the 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum’sUniversal Robots). The drama ends badly when the machines rise up andkill their creators, leaving a sole lonely survivor.
2  They say it was an accident. The first known case of robothomicide occurred in 1981, when a robotic arm crushed a JapaneseKawasaki factory worker.
3  More than a million industrial robots are now in use, nearly half of them in Japan.
4  Archytas of Tarentum, a pal of Plato’s, built a mechanicalbird driven by a jet of steam or compressed air—arguably history’sfirst robot—in the fifth century B.C.
5  Leonardo da Vinci drew up plans for an armored humanoidmachine in 1495. Engineer Mark Rosheim has created a functionalminiature version for NASA to help colonize Mars.
6  Slow but steady: The real Mars robots, Spirit andOpportunity, have logged 10.5 miles trudging across the Red Planet formore than three years. The unstoppable droids were built to last 90days.
7  The United States’ military corps of 4,000 robots includesreconnaissance Talon bots that scout for roadside bombs in Iraq andPackBots that poked around for Osama bin Laden’s hideout inAfghanistan. Apparently without much success.
8  PackBot’s manufacturer, iRobot, has also sold more than 2million Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, with the sameenvironment-sensing technology.
robot-2-150
robot-3-150.jpg
9  Low tech vs. high tech: Taliban fighters in Afghanistanhave reportedly used ladders to flip over and disable the U.S. militaryrobots sent to scout out their caves.
10  Elektro, the world’s first humanoid robot, debuted in1939. Built by Westinghouse, the seven-foot-tall walking machine“spoke” more than 700 words stored on 78-rpm records to simulateconversation.
11  Life is tough in Tinseltown: Elektro later appeared in the 1960 B movie Sex Kittens Go to College.
12 R2-D2 is the only character that appears unchanged (by aging, say, or a funky black outfit) in all six Star Wars movies.
13  R2’s dark secret: It was played by actor Kenny Baker, who by the end was mostly given the boot and replaced by CGI.
14  Chris Melhuish of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory createdrobots that use bacteria-filled fuel cells to produce electricity fromrotten apples and dead flies. The goal: robots that forage for theirown food.
15  Mini Me: Australian researchers are trying to build amicrorobot that would mimic the swim stroke used by E. coli bacteria.It would be injected into a patient so it could take a biopsy from theinside.
16  Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick calls himself theworld’s first cyborg, with computer chips implanted in his left arm. Hecan remotely operate doors, an artificial hand, and an electronicwheelchair.
17  Winebot, built by Japan’s NEC System Technologies and MieUniversity, can ID scads of different wines, cheeses, and horsd’oeuvres . . . up to a point. It recently mistook a reporter’s handfor prosciutto.
18  MIT’s Media Lab is trying to make robots personal,developing RoCo—a computer with a monitor for a head and neck—andLeonardo, a sort of super-Furby designed to respond to emotional cues.
19  No strings attached! Robotics expert Henrik Christensen predicts humans will be having sex with robots within four years.
20  Hans Moravec, founder of Carnegie Mellon’s RoboticsInstitute, predicts that robots will emerge as their own species by2040. “They could replace us in every essential task and, in principle,operate our society increasingly well without us,” he concludes, oddlycheery.

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