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Meet the robots

RoboSimian Beats Out Surrogate for JPL’s DRC Finals Spot

We were very impressed with the creative design and solid performance that JPL’s RoboSimian demonstrated last year at the DRC Trials. But although RoboSimian was able to swing from trees and topple human

Your own robot

Jibo Wants to Be the World’s First Family Robot

Social robots. That’s pretty much all Dr. Cynthia Breazeal has thought about for the past 20 years. Not so much how to build a better robot, but how to build

Meet the robots

SociBot Mini

SociBot mini demonstrates rear projected face technology and speech interaction. This summer’s Intern, Lucy Shenton extended SociBot’s interactive features, integrating speech recognition and intelligent responses.

Meet the robots

Fluffy Little Rovers Are an Effective, Adorable Way of Monitoring Penguins

Generally speaking, wild animals don’t like humans all that much. Even animals that aren’t directly threatened by humans (and won’t immediately attempt to flee) get all kinds of stressed out

Meet the robots

Real Robots to Help Fight Ebola

A few Fridays ago, we took a little bit of a dig at all of the media coverage of an “ebola-fighting robot” that turned out to be essentially just a UV light on

Meet the robots

Sidewinding Snakebots Sinuously Summit Steep Sandy Slopes

As a snake owner, I can personally attest to the fact that lack of limbs is no impediment to mobility. In fact, snakes are masters of moving over all kinds

Meet the robots

What Robot Behavior Makes People Feel Uncomfortable?

A few years ago, I met one of the previous versions of the REEM robot. REEM was taller and broader than me, and its big, black eyes tracked me as I

Meet the robots

Robot Responds to Natural Language Instructions

It’s possible, even probable, that if you’re reading this article, you either know how to program a robot or could figure it out if you really put your mind to

Meet the robots

Festo’s Newest Robot Is a Hopping Bionic Kangaroo

Every year, Festo comes up with innovative and fantastical new robot designsas part of its “Bionic Learning Network,” which seeks to use “principles from nature to provide inspiration for technical applications.”

Meet the robots

BigDog

BigDog is a rough-terrain robot that walks, runs, climbs and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by an engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog has four legs that

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