[ In the US, a new robot is in the spotlight. It’s called the Thermonator, and it’s an amazing robot dog capable of shooting jets of flames over distances of almost 10 meters. Surprising as it may seem, this robot could come in extremely handy in certain situations. Ohio-based Throwflame is the oldest manufacturer of … Read more
[ For attendees at payment processing company Stripe Inc’s annual conference this week, it was impossible to miss: A six-foot Renaissance-style Carrara marble statue of a nude man clutching an expired Stripe test credit card, displayed in an expo hall at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Naturally, people snapped photos of it during lunch. Memes proliferated. … Read more
[ If you’ve been wondering when you’ll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame bills as “the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog” is now available for purchase. The price? $9,420. Thermonator is a quadruped robot with an ARC flamethrower mounted … Read more
[ Harvard researchers have developed an “intelligent” liquid whose properties vary according to the pressure exerted on it. This discovery could revolutionise many technological sectors, starting with robotics. Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) in the US have succeeded in developing a programmable metafluid whose elasticity and ability to change … Read more
[ You don’t need to have been petrified by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Skynet-commissioned cyborg assassin in 1984’s The Terminator to fret that super-strong, all-terrain, bipedal humanoid robots sprinting up steps, pulling backflips, and righting themselves could be programmed to break our necks on sight. (And laser guns, never give them laser guns.) With the Old Atlas, … Read more
[ As debate rages over the ability of artificial intelligence, or AI, to replace human jobs, a hotpot restaurant owner in China has taken things to a new level. The eatery entrepreneur in Chongqing municipality in the southwest of the country has become an online sensation with her innovative impersonation of a robot waitress. Her … Read more
[ An archway of blue and white balloons adorned the entrance of an otherwise unremarkable office building in San Jose this week, marking the grand opening of a new high-tech laboratory for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, which serves 4.5 million people in the region. The new lab is an effort to expand and streamline some … Read more
[ Apple Inc has teams investigating a push into personal robotics, a field with the potential to become one of the company’s ever-shifting “next big things”, according to people familiar with the situation. Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not … Read more
[ SINGAPORE: A group of cockroaches were crawling in and out of tiny gaps in an exhibit with simulated rubble at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. But unlike their pesky ordinary counterparts, these are insect-hybrid robots, each fitted with an infrared camera and series of sensors, under development for use in search and rescue … Read more
[ ANCHORAGE, Alaska: A headless robot about the size of a labrador retriever will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska’s second largest airport, a state agency said. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has named the new robot Aurora and said it … Read more
