A Review of the Best Robots of 2008 :: Singularity Hub
http://singularityhub.com/2009/01/12/a-review-of-the-best-robots-of-2008/

a lot of these i've seen before, but its pretty awe-inspiring to see them one after another...plus the comments have a bunch more!

Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so.

Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so. This review is heavily slanted to consumer robots and research robots. Perhaps in the future we can do a review of industrial robots. Given the sheer number of robots that are out there we know there will be several excellent robots that we have overlooked in this review. If you know of any really awesome robots or robot videos that we have missed please let us know and we will consider adding them to this post. So without further delay, lets take a look at some of the best robots and robot videos of 2008 (maybe some are from 2007 too), broken down by category: January 12th, 2009 | Published by Keith Kleiner in robotics

Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so. (Singularity Hub)

Next time you order a new pair of skinny jeans from Gap.com, you should know that you are helping welcome in the hive-mind robot overlords of retail. Warehouses run by

Boom. Now we begin. Watch the video.

save

check out pic #16... amazing

Kacie Kinzer set out to discover how big city folk relate to their surroundings by releasing a number of cute, helpless robots onto the streets of New York with nothing but a sign asking passers-by to assist them in getting to their destination. Over the course of the following months the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

heel leuk

Cardboard robots prove that crowdsourcing works and that people are nice.

The Reeves and Nass of the mini-robots. This is such a great result.

In New York City, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots. Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal. Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost

Best. Art. Evar.

The tweenbot, a cardboard-bodied, cheerful little bugger, is equipped with a flag stating its intended destination. Since it can only move forward, it depends on the kindness of strangers to guide it and remove obstacles.

Nothing!

http://is.gd/nuTA 40+ Beautiful Robot Character Illustrations [from http://twitter.com/digital_idiot/statuses/1405912825]

robots

really good stories about the future. unique content

This may be a source (past, present, and future) of good material to challenge the assertions of what it means to be human.

Blog about singularity, nanotech, AI and all that good sf stuff.

sort of a game, more of a kind of interactive animation. very stylish

Videos of the Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. However, the video being passed around is slight on details. Meanwhile, their video presentation at ICRA 2009 (which took place in May in Kobe, Japan) has an informative narration and demonstrates additional capabilities. I have included this video below, which shows the manipulator dribbling a ping-pong ball, spinning a pen, throwing a ball, tying knots, grasping a grain of rice with tweezers, and tossing / re-grasping a cellphone!

High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation

A High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation.

The tweezer grasp is great.

100 Google Wave Robots Google Wave Robots are the best way to explore Wave. Here is the huge list of Google Wave Robots that you can add in your contacts and enjoy waving . . Before getting into the list – You should know How to add Google Wave bots and Google Wave Gadgets. Huge List of 100 Google Wave Robots - 1. [. . . ] Google Wave Robots are the best way to explore Wave. Here is the huge list of Google Wave Robots that you can add in your contacts and enjoy waving . . Before getting int...

Help tips for using Wave

What are Robots in the world of Wave? They are very similar to what you might initially assume: they perform tasks and process data so that you don't have to. Robots are capable of real-time translation, or bringing news and stock tickers into a specific wave. Robots are what make Google's Wave truly powerful and extensible -- they are what allow you to send and receive Twitter tweets and feeds directly into your Wave user interface. In theory, with robots, you could experience most of the Internet from within Google Wave. News, email, games, instant messengers... everything will feed into your Wave inbox.

The Ultimate Lis

Cute!

Robots en webs. (Tinkerbot)

awesome.

22 Creative Uses of Robots in Web Design http://ow.ly/9iGc [from http://twitter.com/10minuteexpert/statuses/1923654282]

Simply put… robots are awesome. Using robots in a web layout adds a touch of unique and futuristic feel to it. In this imaginative showcase, you’ll find creative applications of robotic elements in web design.

A robot rises over Tokyo

Photos of a lifesize Gundam in Tokyo.

You've got to wonder if North Korean Defence woke up one morning, saw this through the spy cameras, and shat themselves.

お台場ガンダムflickr入り

interesting concept website, nice story too!

I'M HERE – A LOVE STORY IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD

Via Claire Buffet.

Spike Jonesのショートムービー

Excelente cortometraje del director Spike Jonze (de "Donde viven los monstruos") presentado en una forma bastante inusual e innovativa.

I haven't read this yet.

SHE is the perfect wife, with the body of a Page 3 pin-up and housekeeping skills that put TV's Kim and Aggie to shame. Her name is Aiko, she can even read a map, and will never, ever, nag. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't she fellas? And she is. Aiko is actually a robot, a fantasy brought to life by inventor Le Trung.

mr universe would understand

SHE is the perfect wife, with the body of a Page 3 pin-up and housekeeping skills that put TV’s Kim and Aggie to shame.

I guess the motivation is questionable. However, it shows that robotic companions are not so far out in the future. And the more human those robotic companions can behave and communicate, the more intuitive the human-robot interaction will be, thus eliminating the need for extensive training or manual reading and giving a broader public access to such anthropomorphic computing interfaces.

speaks 13,000 sentences

josh

Cool long exposure pic of a roomba at work: http://tr.im/kXZR [from http://twitter.com/Underdown/statuses/1754570336]

RT @bfeld: Retweeting @bwyman: Awesome long-exposure shot of a Roomba in action. http://is.gd/xRWe [from http://twitter.com/pkedrosky/statuses/1747586393]

Kenji the robot fixates on human tech and has to be turned off. Repeatedly.

http://gizmodo.com/5164841/robot-programmed-to-love-traps-woman-in-lab-hugs-her-repeatedly

robot asesino

Aug 6, 2008 - Aaron Wall's chart comparing elements

SEO hard to understand

I was just fixing up our Robots.txt tutorial today, and figured that I should blog this as well. From Eric Enge's interview of Matt Cutts I created the following chart. Please note that Matt did not say they are more likely to ban you for using rel=nofollow, but they have on multiple occasions stated that they treat issues differently if they think it was an accident done by an ignorant person or a malicious attempt to spam their search engine by a known SEO (in language that is more rosy than what I just wrote).

RT @catenary: Amazing agile little robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUQsRPJ1dYw

Cool dog like robot that walks on all fours, very cool.

This is awesome, but the problem remains that it reminds me that Skynet is possible. http://bit.ly/bTlRBD