Part remote control car, part transformer, V_Bot from a company called RC2 has really upped the ante in terms of transformable toys. The V-Bot doesn’t require user intervention when transforming from its vehicle form to its robot form and even allows you to drive it around with a full function digital remote control.

In vehicular form, the lightning wheels give off a light show, dazzling the crowd, while in robot form, V_Bot can perform over 720 dance moves…including the robot of course. When you’re not driving V_bot around or freaking out the cat transforming it on the fly, he also doubles as a portable docking station for your MP3 player. V_Bot will groove along with the music showing off a parallel light show. Wasn’t that Autobot Jazz’s thing in the original Transformer series?

V-Bot retails for around £129.99 and hopefully we’ll see it on North American shores before the holidays.

First Law:
A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law:
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law:
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These three laws of robotics, formulated back in 1940 by Isaac Asimov, have applied in many science-fiction movies whenever a robot appeared – and were sometimes blatantly breached for the purpose of more gruesome scripts! Yet, it is likely that such androids will become a reality some fifty years from now. So what ethics will these artificial creatures apply?

This is the topic that was debated by both experts and lay people at the Rights for Robots public conference held in London, UK, on April 24. With the rapid technological advance in this field – remember Domo? – it seems essential to set up guidelines that will regulate the behavior of robots in the future. Or we’ll end up having to create special Blade Runner police forces!

“Robot technology is accelerating with applications in the home, in the workplace and in the military. It is hard to keep up and we are at a point where the public need to make some informed decisions about our future.”

Source: EurekAlert

After inventing a two-legged robot that can substitute for impaired legs, Japanese robotics now give us the opportunity to replace our whole body thanks to this new exoskeleton from Tsukuba University. In association with existing software in development in the USA and Austria, as well as with the international effort to link mind and machine, people who have lost their motricity – either through poliomyelitis or due to a spinal cord accident – will be able to move freely again.

Of course, this contraption could also be used by unimpaired, “normal” people to increase their strength and carry heavy objects more easily than with a cumbersome forklift truck. …Or how about a world domination endeavor? Anyone interested?

Source: The Japan Times

“Something wonderful has happened… Number Five is alive!”

This tagline from the 1986 movie Short Circuit could very well fit what most people will think of MIT’s new robot, Domo. This machine is able to recognize its environment – a household, for instance – and focus on specific tasks while avoiding what it identifies as obstacles. Likewise, the robot is able to assess the size and shape of objects that it’s never seen before. But more importantly, Domo is capable of very life-like interactions with humans, from a simple greeting to the handling of items he’s given.

Originally funded by NASA, the project is now subsidized by Toyota. The Japanese firm is interested in the development of home robots able to perform various tasks for the elderly or for those with impaired movements, such as wheelchair-bound people. They are also planning to develop robots that could “intelligently” assist workers on assembly lines, thus increasing productivity.

Although MIT scientists doubt that the future will see one single domestic robot doing all the house chores – but rather a team of droids performing different tasks – this could be the first step towards intelligent machines like the gentle C-3PO in Star Wars or – perish the thought! –even Alien’s evil bio-android Ash.

Source: MIT

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) generates strong magnetic fields in order to give accurate internal pictures of the human body. The presence of these fields prevents all metallic equipment from being used during the imaging procedure. As a result, surgeons have to rely on pictures taken previously to locate a tumor or any mass of cells that needs removing in the operating theater.

Engineers at the Johns Hopkins Urology Robotics Lab have devised a motor, called PneuStep, entirely made of plastic, ceramics and rubber. Since electric fields can distort MRI pictures, this motor operates only with air and light, and is computer-controlled to achieve even better accuracy than a skilled human hand.

This motor is still currently undergoing pre-clinical trials, but offers new hopes of direct surgery under MRI for prostate cancers which are easy to miss with the naked eye and can only be detected accurately through the use of this new technology.

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine