Imagination Factory

Riken Institute Not content to simply blame millennials for  killing practically everything , baby boomers are now expecting the younger generations to care for them in their agedness. The nerve. Indeed, some 13 percent of the American population is now 65 or older, though a recent report from  the Pew Research Center  suggests that figure will nearly double by midcentury. Given that the current annual median price of a nursing-home room is around $92,000 (and rising), and because we can't just up and dump a quarter of America at the Springfield Retirement Castle, robots will have to start lending elderly folks a hand. Because if there's anybody who inherently trusts new and confusing technologies, it's the olds. The problem of caring for a rapidly aging population is especially pronounced in Japan, where a full 20 percent of current residents are eligible for discounts at Golden Corral. The situation is dire; a recent  Mer...

University of California San Diego Soft robots typically have  squishy bodies  and limbs so that they can  squeeze  into the tightest spaces. If they're to be used for search and reconnaissance missions, though, they'll need to be able to navigate rough terrains. A team of engineers from the University of California San Diego have  created  a soft robot that can do just that. They made a four-legged machine that can not only wriggle into confined spaces, but also climb over obstacles and walk on sand, pebbles, rocks and even inclined surfaces. The team's secret? A high-end 3D printer that can print soft and rigid materials together. The robot moves by pumping air into its legs, which are inflatable chambers that are hollow on the inside. When one leg is inflated and the others aren't, for instance, the inflated leg bends. The machine can also easily transition from a crawling to a walking position, and vice versa. At this point in time...

IHMC This tiny ostrich bot, unlike rival robots, doesn't use computers and sensors to balance. It manages to keep running (at up to 10 mph) thanks to dynamic stability inherent in its design. Jerry Pratt, the senior research scientist at IHMC who leads the team developing the Planar Elliptical Runner (PER) told  Technology Review  that lessons learned from designing it could be applied to more practical running robots "to make them more efficient and natural looking. Running will be eventually useful for any application that you want to do quickly and where wheels can't work well." Typically, bipedal robots like Agile Technologies'  Cassie  require plenty of processing power to run the balancing algorithms, gyroscopes and sensors needed to keep it on its feet. However, the PER's elegant design, with a single motor that drives the legs in an elliptical motion, means all that weight and tech simply isn't needed. The body's shape...

Dylan Taylor Imagine a Martian rover that can send small robotic minions to crawl into crevices or climb steep slopes -- everywhere a full-sized vehicle can't go to. That's the scenario a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory hopes to achieve by  developing  small  origami-inspired  robots called Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robots or PUFFERs. They're made of printed circuit boards and can be flattened and stacked on top of each other on the way to their mission. Once they get to the location, they can pop back up and drive away. PUFFER's project manager Jaakko Karras conjured up its design back when he was experimenting with origami while working on robots at UC Berkeley's Biomimetic Millisystem Lab. The team replaced the paper he used in his design with printed circuit boards and then 3D printed wheels for the machine. PUFFER's latest set of wheels have treads and can inch forward one wheel at a time, so it can climb slopes. They...

Boston Dynamics We got a preview of Boston Dynamics' latest "helper"  thanks to offscreen video leaked from a presentation , but now the company is ready to  let us meet Handle . Unlike its previous robots that  ran ,  jumped  or  walked , this two-legged monstrosity gets around on small wheels. Even with the adjustment, the video shows clearly how it can still get down stairs, navigate down a snowy hill, and pull off impressive leaps even while moving. The company says it's designed to carry things, hence the name, but with that kind of go-anywhere ability it seems equipped for any kind of task up to and including Judgement Day. Handle is 6.5 feet tall, can jump 4 feet and travels at speeds of up to 9mph. According to the description on the video, it combines hydraulic and electric actuators, and can travel up to 15 miles between charges and it's apparently less complex than the quadruped and bipedal robots.

Carnegie Mellon University Robots don't have to be overly complex to perform more than  basic tasks . Carnegie Mellon University researchers have  created  SIMbot, a human-sized cylindrical robot that gets around with only one moving part besides the robot itself: the ball at its base. It's a spherical induction motor that uses a combination of magnetic fields and clever math to move in any direction, including turning around in a complete circle. That not only allows for a much simpler (and thus more reliable) robot, but also permits very tall robots that won't easily tip over. You can even push SIMbot and watch it roll back into place. Ball robots like this would only be useful in limited situations -- just ask  Sphero  how well its robots climb up stairs. However, it's easy to envision refined versions of SIMbot's technology proving useful in  security robots . They'd both spend less time in the repair shop and have a better time na...

Humanoid robots still have  problems staying upright , especially in tricky situations, but it's evident that they're making  some  progress.  IHMC  has  posted  a video showing Boston Dynamics'  Atlas robot  balancing on one foot on the edge of a plywood board about 0.8 inches thick. The feat is a "lucky run," IHMC admits (it's rare that the robot stays poised for so long), but it's relatively effortless. The worst you see before the fall is shaking as IHMC's algorithm sometimes makes poor estimates of the robot's state. As brief as the balancing act is, it's telling. After all, many humans wouldn't last that long on their first try... at least, not with the same level of grace. It may just be a matter of refining the technique to get robots that are surefooted in situations that would trip up their organic counterparts.

Christian Hubicki/Georgia Tech Last time we saw the  DURUS  robot  walking like a human , it was still doing so relatively flat footed. The folks at  Georgia Tech's  AMBER-Lab have improved the robot's movements to incorporate even more human-like heel strikes and push-offs. As you can see in the video below, the new range of motion gives DURUS a more natural stride, and the ability to wear some sweet sneakers. Until about a week ago, the robot shuffled along flat footed before getting a pair of new metal feet with arches soles. After some tweaking of the algorithms and a few falls, DURUS now strides like the rest of us. "Our robot is able to take much longer, faster steps than its flat-footed counterparts because it's replicating human locomotion," said director Georgia Tech's lab and engineering professor Aaron Ames. He explained that the new behavior makes strides towards the eventual goal of having DURUS walk outdoors. DURUS has spr...

ASUS chairman Jonney Shih took to stage to announce something a little different, if completely on trend: a home robot. "Our ambition is to enable robotic computing for every household," he said before revealing ZenBo the home robot. With the goals of "assistance, entertainment and companionship," it's particularly aimed at older people. However, the most interesting feature here is the promise that the robot will connect with traditional and smart home devices: you'll be able to check who's at the door from a connected camera, and then remote-unlock the door from the robot's, er, face. Zenbo will be able to connect to lights, TVs, air conditioners --  if it talks the right languages .  Gallery: ASUS Zenbo home robot announcement | 24 Photos       +20 The robot can roam around independently, and take directions by voice command. ZenBo's face also acts as a touchpad interface: you'll be able to p...

The US isn't just worried about terrorist bombings  above-ground  -- it's concerned about bombs below the waves, too. To that end, it's  working with  Saab on a remotely-controlled underwater robot, the  Sea Wasp , that's designed to deal with improvised explosives. The machine (a smaller take on the existing Seaeye) uses a mix of sonar and a manipulator arm to find, move and sometimes disable explosives. Its party trick is its sheer maneuverability. It can hover in virtually any position, helping it dispose of bombs even when they're attached to a ship's hull. This isn't just a far-off concept. Saab has delivered Sea Wasp prototypes to the FBI, South Carolina's counter-terrorism operations and the US Navy, and all three are conducting tests over the next 10 to 12 months. Underwater bombs aren't exactly a widespread problem at the moment, but this robot could easily justify its existence if it spares divers from swimming into ha...

University of Washington Robots can ( usually ) walk or roll around just fine, but hand control has often proven elusive: it's hard to give them the same kind of finger dexterity as a human. However, University of Washington researchers just got much closer to fulfilling that dream. They've  built a robot hand  that is not only dextrous enough to spin objects (such as the tube of coffee beans you see above), but learns how to do this on its own. Its algorithm gradually discovers what works and what doesn't -- give it enough time and it'll go from clumsy to reasonably skilled. As you'll notice in the clip below, the hand isn't very quick right now. You're not about to see robot band leaders twirling batons. There's also a big difference between a disembodied hand and dealing with a whole body that requires much more coordination. This beats old-school claws and pincers any day, though, and it's an important step toward robots tha...

University of Michigan Robots walking unaided on flat ground is tough enough as it is -- just look at last year's class of   DARPA Challenge failures   -- so when one can handle uneven terrain in any direction (not just a straight line),   we take notice . The latest   example is Marlo , a joint project between University of Michigan's Jessy Grizzle and Oregon State University's Jonathan Hurst. The key difference here is how it achieves this feat: a bank of algorithms containing different instructions for different walking styles. Analyzing data from sensors in the biped's knees, hips and torso, Marlo adjusts walking style on the fly, pulling from a library of 15 pre-programmed gaits and blending them based on ground-cover or inclination angle. Marlo's speed and direction is determined by a user holding an Xbox controller, but anything other than that -- like movement speed -- is handled by the bot itself. What's more, the school says that this...

Don't be shocked if you see a mechanical snake swimming around undersea equipment in the near future... it (probably) isn't there to kill you. Eelume,  Kongsberg Maritime  and  Statoil  are  building  a robotic snake worker that will inspect (and occasionally fix) underwater gear. Robot snakes are  nothing new , but this serpent is both production-ready and almost uncanny in how it moves. By itself, it slithers as if it's stalking prey. Throw in thrusters, however, and it's something else -- it can quickly twist around pipes as if they were only minor obstacles. The snake isn't yet in service, but it could do a lot to help underwater work when it arrives. The plan is to permanently install these robots on the seabed, where they'll ideally cover the majority of tasks. If all goes well, companies with sea-based operations (such as oil rigs and wind farms) won't need to roll out human-operated vehicles unless there's a serious proble...