Global Hawk Flies First Mission Over US Skies

Tags: , , ,
Global Hawk
Iraq
UAV

Nomura Creates a Robotic Walking Assistant

Nomura Creates a Robotic Walking Assistant

This is for all of you out there that read the ballroom dancer-bot story and decided you needed to master walking before dancing. Nomura UnisonCo. along with Tohoku Universities' Kazuhiro Kosuge and Yasuhisa Hiratahave created a robotic walking assistantthat not only senses its user's behavior, but also detects obstacles inits way and the slope of the floor. The robot is unmotorized but isable to apply the brakes in order to help its user maintain theirbalance. They plan on marketing the robot for rehabilitation,the elderly and physically disabled. The unit should be available foraround $4,000 USD.

 

Evolution Robotics Prepares to Take on iRobot's

It looks like everyone's favorite, under appreciated, robotics company, Evolution Robotics, has teamed up with a, "large appliance manufacturer" to create a competitor to iRobot's smash-hit Roomba.The main claim-to-fame of the new soon-to-be sucker'bot is that it willbe 'smarter' than the Roomba and incorporate more sophisticatednavigation technology, namely Evolution's NorthStar technology. The technology is already implemented in a vacuum robot from Sharper Image and a household robot from Yujin.


Unfortunately,Evolution and every other vacuum 'bot manufacturer out there seem tothink that adding more features and smarts is going to get customers topurchase, but more importantly LOVE, their products. Anyone heard ofthe iPod? It's simple, clean, and efficient, and they're still thehands-down winner in the vicious fight between MP3 players.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no vacuum robot will ever overturn the Roomba until they are easier, simpler, better looking, and more efficientthan the Roomba. Customers don't want features, they want a productthat they can love, and the longer the user manual, they less they loveit.