Tag Archives: RobotApocalypse

50 quadrocopters take to Austria’s skies for synchronized swarm (video)

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50 quadrocopters take to Austria's skies for synchronized swarm

If AscTec's Hummingbird quadrocopters continue to fly around in your nightmares, you might not want to watch their latest video -- even if they resemble hypnotic robot fireworks. Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies teamed up for this latest show, programming 50 LED-equipped quadrocopters to frolic over the Danube last week. Watch them dance after the break.

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50 quadrocopters take to Austria's skies for synchronized swarm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmag  |  sourceArs Electronica (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Robot made from paper spells doom for the trees in the Robopocalypse (video)

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Robot made from paper spells doom for the trees in the Robopocalypse video

A paper tiger might have a bark that's worse than its bite, but that proverb might not be valid once you've seen the Mechanical Paper Robot. The brainchild of artist / genius Kikousya, it's entirely constructed from dead trees, a few rubber bands and some dowel. We suggest you watch the amazing video after the break and, if you're looking to build your own, head down to the source link for the instructions. After all, given the cost of those robotic bulls, scary babies and giant mecha, Skynet's gonna need some wallet-friendly foot-soldiers for the Robopocalypse.

Continue reading Robot made from paper spells doom for the trees in the Robopocalypse (video)

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Robot made from paper spells doom for the trees in the Robopocalypse (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Verge, Robots Dreams  |  sourceMPM  | Email this | Comments

The mighty Kuratas gets assembled on video

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DNP Kuratas

It'll cost you $1.35 million to own one, but putting together a Kuratas isn't any easier. The latest video of the monstrous mech shows it being transported and assembled. That means flatbeds, cranes and a whole lot of socket wrenches. Of course, at the end of the day, you've got a 13-foot tall robot you can climb inside. Certainly puts that Ikea bookshelf project into perspective, huh?

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The mighty Kuratas gets assembled on video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSuidobashi (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Kuratas, the 13-foot mech: unleashes your inner Ripley, costs $1.35 million (video)

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Kuratas, the 13foot mech unleashes your inner Ripley, costs $135 million video

Suidobashi Heavy Industries has put the finishing touches to its latest project, the 4.4-ton Kuratas. Mobile suit obsessives around the world can thank artist Kogoro Kurata and robotics expert Wataru Yoshizaki for the robot frame, which has space to house a pilot inside. The mech's touchscreen UI even includes a Kinect-based movement interface and the shudder-inducing "smile-activated" twin BB gatling guns. You can customize your own diesel-powered beast in the dystopian gang colors of your choosing, but be advised: the $1.35 million price tag doesn't include further customization options like a faux leather interior, cup holder or phone cubby. The Kuratas does, however, come with the ability to make phone calls direct from the cockpit, so you can tell your enemies that you're coming for them.

Continue reading Kuratas, the 13-foot mech: unleashes your inner Ripley, costs $1.35 million (video)

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Kuratas, the 13-foot mech: unleashes your inner Ripley, costs $1.35 million (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Plastic Pals, The Verge  |  sourceSuidobashi Heavy Industries  | Email this | Comments

Baby robot Affetto gets a torso, still gives us the creeps (video)

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Baby robot Affetto gets a torso, still gives us the creeps

It's taken a year to get the sinister ticks and motions of Osaka University's Affetto baby head out of our nightmares -- and now it's grown a torso. Walking that still-precarious line between robots and humans, the animated robot baby now has a pair of arms to call its own. The prototype upper body has a babyish looseness to it -- accidentally hitting itself in the face during the demo video -- with around 20 pneumatic actuators providing the movement. The face remains curiously paused, although we'd assume that the body prototype hasn't been paired with facial motions just yet, which just about puts it the right side of adorable. However, the demonstration does include some sinister faceless dance motions. It's right after the break -- you've been warned.

Continue reading Baby robot Affetto gets a torso, still gives us the creeps (video)

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Baby robot Affetto gets a torso, still gives us the creeps (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Plastic Pals  |  sourceProject Affetto (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Bots edit Wikipedia, clean up your nonsense

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Bots edit Wikipedia, clean up your nonsense

Wikipedia, a triumph of human effort, knowledge and collaboration... or so we thought. Turns out that along with the tens of thousands of brains regularly editing the online encyclopedia, hundreds of bots also patrol the virtual aisles keeping us in check. Some of the bots take care of the boring stuff -- organizing, formatting and other admin. Others correct the wrongdoings of wiki-villains, such as removing off-topic vandalism and naughty language. In the beginning, pages were even created by select bots, pulling data from various sources to create bare bones records for our keystrokes to flesh out. They do a pretty good job, but there are fears that a rogue bot will one day ruin a lot of hard work, although due to the privileges needed it would have to be an inside job. So now you know -- the machines not only have access to the largest single collection of human knowledge, but they edit it for us too. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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Bots edit Wikipedia, clean up your nonsense originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceBBC  | Email this | Comments

Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster

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Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster (video)

So you've survived the robot revolution and you're waiting for either a full-blown apocalypse, or Mr. Anderson. But how are you going to kill time when our new masters are eating controller PCBs for breakfast? With a steampunk joystick, of course. Jason Torchinsky from Jalopnik has done just that, making an Atari 2600 controller by repurposing a power seat control switch panel from a 1980s Oldsmobile. It's no Avenger Controller Elite, but it certainly does the job, and due to a standardized wiring layout it's functional on other hardware of the same era. And for all you MAME heroes, Jason says it would be no more complicated to hook it up to a PC or Mac using a USB keyboard encoder. Follow the source link for a neat walkthrough of the project and jump over the break to see a video of the seat switch in action, shot in the mancave of yesteryear.

Update: We've removed the video at the owner's request, but you can check it out at the source link below.

Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceJalopnik  | Email this | Comments

Eight floppy drives recreate the theme from Game of Thrones, stake claim to the seven Kingdoms

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Eight floppy drives recreate the theme from Game of Thrones, stake claim to the seven Kingdoms

Should the robots ever form an alliance and turn against us, all we need to do is call on people like Anand Jin to save us. Why? Because it's folk of his ilk that are the pied pipers of the machine world. We've seen disk drives coerced into recreating Daft Punk, and Bo-Rhap extorted from an Atari 800XL. Now, we can watch the aforementioned Anand eke the theme from Game of Thrones out of eight floppy drives. There's more info on his YouTube channel if you're curious to know the hows and whys. Much as we enjoy the performance, hearing the theme again just brings up bad memories of last week's ending.

Continue reading Eight floppy drives recreate the theme from Game of Thrones, stake claim to the seven Kingdoms

Eight floppy drives recreate the theme from Game of Thrones, stake claim to the seven Kingdoms originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 19:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceAnand Jin (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Chiba University’s one-armed robot juggles balls, is not a Juggalo (video)

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Two balls, one hand? In this case, that's a definite yes, although the end result is much more appropriate for all ages. Furthering our slow creep towards engineering's Uncanny Valley, comes a cybernetic effort out of Japan's Chiba University that's made to mock our most precious clown-past time: juggling. The one-armed, three-fingered robot, shown off at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, utilizes a high-speed camera to track a ball's flight at 500fps and help coordinate its repetitive movements with eerie precision. The current setup's not without hitches, though, considering the bot's fixed shoulder joint can only carry out successful catches on a 2D plane before, quite literally, dropping the ball. Refinements are apparently on the way to expand the cyborg limb's range of motion which, of course, will only serve to defeat us in the end. Robot apocalypse, we're looking at you.

Continue reading Chiba University's one-armed robot juggles balls, is not a Juggalo (video)

Chiba University's one-armed robot juggles balls, is not a Juggalo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 06:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceIEEE Spectrum  | Email this | Comments

Environmentally friendly robots will feed the flowers they trample

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Environmentally friendly robots will feed the flowers they trample

Dr Jonathan Rossiter, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol's Department of Engineering and Mathematics, has snagged a two-year research grant of over £200,000 to develop robots that decompose once their mission if complete. This means instead of our automaton friends rusting away, devoid of purpose, they could return gracefully (and more importantly non-toxically) back to mother earth. Not only would this be a boon to the environment, but scientists would no longer need to track and retrieve their mechanical progeny once it reached the end of its usable life, further sparing resources and allowing mass deployment. At least we know, when the day comes, the planet won't be harmed.

Environmentally friendly robots will feed the flowers they trample originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhysOrg  |  sourceUniversity of Bristol  | Email this | Comments