Check out this clip of a laying Japanese robot attempting to jump to its feet to stand up. Amazingly, it ‘almost’ can. It doesn’t appear to be able to stand up straight though. Can’t wait for the Ninja robots!
A group of Japanese developers have engineered the Lady Bird, a lady-bug shaped robot that stands 1 meter (39 inches) tall and 1.35 meter (53 inches) long. The Lady Bird is designed to clean public highway restrooms in Japan. The cleaning robot is equipped with brushes, water tanks, and other cleaning equipment. It is capable of scrubbing floors while avoiding obstacles in its path. It features detection sensors to avoid bumping into walls and restroom patrons. The Lady Bird can also engage in simple conversation with restroom users using its voice synthesizer and speech recognition software. It can even give people the latest road and traffic conditions.
I just have one question. Will it be able to wipe my behind too when I’m done?
The Breast Message Robot, from Beijing BUBBY Robot Technologies Company, is exactly that. A robot that messages a female’s breast. It appears the Chinese are attempting to reduce breast cancer rate, which apparently is “11% in developed countries and doubling every year in China.” The cure? A breast message.
Thanks to the robot’s intelligent control system, the Breast Messager can automatically adjust its “hands” to fit all sizes and various shapes. According to the company, the robot is portable and features several “message programs.”
Unfortunately, I’m too young to remember the good ‘ole days where full-service gasoline stations were aplenty in the U.S. Now, it seems the Dutch are planning a full-service gas station comeback with the invention of a robot that will pump gas for customers. At $111,100 a piece, the robot is capable of determining where your car’s gas tank is located. It is also capable of unscrewing the cap and carefully inserting the gas nozzle into the gas tank without damaging your car. So, how does it know what type of car you have and what type of fuel your car needs? Simple. It has a database with all of the relevant information. It simply detects what car you have and does a quick lookup. Its sensors and robotic arm does the rest.
This way, you can stay in your car and and continue to talk on your cellphone. Awesome, right?
Ah, the crazy Japanese. Who better to teach the little Japanese children? Why, a robot of course!
Using a 35 cm tall robot dressed in a Kimono, the robot teaches children how to dance as part of an educational program. I guess the Japanese dance standing still? It looks like Yoga to me.
I don’t know if they’re smart or just plain lazy. You decide.
Imagine the omni directional wheels demonstrated by this robot on your car. You’d be able to parallel park like a champ. Who needs Lexus’ self-parking car, anyways?
With eight steel legs the robotic walking chair can slowly get you to your desired destination…as long as you’re not in a hurry. The chair is assumed to have a moving capacity of a person of non-obese weight.
The chair will set you back about $23,000 USD (15,000 Euros), with a shipping time of 6 weeks. You’ve got to be extremely lazy to fork over that amount of dough.
Watching it actually move is pretty cool. Videos and pictures of the chair can be found here.
You can think of the LawnBott just like a Roomba, except it mows your lawn. From Kyodo America Home Robotics, the LawnBott sports Bluetooth to allow you to control and program the robot via your cellphone or laptop. All you have to do is set the perimeter wire (to set the lawn’s boundary) and the LawnBott will leave its charging station to begin mowing the lawn. Power is provided by two lithium-ion batteries.
It can cut lawns with slopes up to 30 degrees and can mow up to 38,000 square feet of grass.
Pricing starts at $3,699 for the LB3500 model (street release is unknown). You can get the current model, LB3200 for around $2,500.
