News

• Coming soon: A 12-foot-tall robot you can ride and steer

  By Kevin Lee | 15 May, 2012 07:17

  Here at GeekTech, we cover a lot of advanced robots, but what we really want to see is progress in the exoskeleton front (think Iron Man suit). Meet Vaudeville (sometimes called Kuratasu), a 12-foot-tall, five-ton mech that you can get inside of and control like a real Mobile Suit.

• Researchers build a robot you can’t knock down; Robot apocalypse begins

  By Kevin Lee | 09 May, 2012 03:09

  After all of our advancements in walking robots, we still have yet to see one that can pick itself back up. Current automatons either need to be helped back up or specifically designed to do so.

• Flying robots play James Bond theme

  By AAP | 06 March, 2012 08:27

  A video shows flying robots darting through hoops, working together in swarms and even forming a band to play James Bond film theme music.

• 11 cool robots you may not have heard of - check 'em out

  By Michael Cooney | 18 November, 2011 08:57

  What do Mars, the Terminator, an ostrich and hair-washing have to do with each other? Ask the robots

• Cyborg plants render humans even more obsolete

  By Rachel Martin | 21 September, 2011 04:25

  The cyborg plant is not a new concept. The robot plant replacement is even less new: You can buy one for a price of $4.19 from ThinkGeek, after all. But a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich isn't interested in solar-powered plastic toys or surgically-altered self-lighting plants that hang on a wall (creepy!) -- they're giving plants the ability to feed, water, and sun themselves, by augmenting them with iRobot technology and wheels.

• Google Blames a Human for its Robo-Car Crash

  By Paul Suarez | 07 August, 2011 10:45

  One of Google's self-driving cars got into an accident earlier this week. But Google is claiming the auto-pilot-equipped Prius was actually flipped into manual mode when the accident happened, making this a case of user error.

• Caterpillar robot rolls up, freaks out, goes fast

  By Kevin Lee | 28 April, 2011 06:43

  We’ve all seen the robots slowly trotting on legs or snaking along. But thankfully the GoQBot, designed by Tufts University, is looking to change that with break-neck speed. Inspired by the reactions of a caterpillar under attack, the GoQBot pops into a roll with an angular velocity of 300 rpm--which looks pretty quick based on the video published by Bioinspiration & Biomimetics—to cover a distance of 25cm.

• Robotic Herds Could Be the Next Step in Farming

  By Blair Hanley Frank | 01 March, 2011 12:39

  Fully autonomous herds of robots could be the future of farming, or at least that's what one roboticist thinks. Trossen Robotics forum member Vanmunch has developed an "Autonomous Micro Planter," which he's named Prospero.

• Robotic privacy curtain fails, but amuses the masses

  By Elizabeth Fish | 12 January, 2011 04:39

  More than ever, people are taking their online and real-life privacy more seriously. Swedish inventor Niklas Roy also felt that his privacy was being invaded on a more basic level--by passers-by looking in through his large workshop window. Most might have just opted for a normal curtain, but Niklas got inventive and created the robotic curtain.

• Get Snooping With a Nosy Japanese Robot

  By Elizabeth Fish | 26 October, 2010 09:49

  If you're a homeowner and have done any sort of do-it-yourself home projects, chances are you've had to get into the crawlspace beneath your home on some occasion. It's a dirty job, sure, but somebody's got to do it. However, a robot out of Japan can save the hassle.

• Behold the robotic future of cake decoration

  By David Daw | 20 October, 2010 11:55

  Developments are still continuing apace in the field of delicious-food-making robots. This time we have an automated cake decorator that extrudes designs onto your cake in a process that's one part frosting, one part spirograph, and 100% awesome.

• iRobot demos 'shape shifting' next-gen robots

  By Robert S. Anthony | 16 October, 2010 05:21

  Meet the next generation of robots that shape-shift, are squish-able, and can troll the world's oceans for months on a single battery charge. iRobot, best known for its Roomba disc-shaped robotic floor sweeper, is going way beyond scooping potato chips from under couches with its latest robot offspring.

• Google's Self-Driving Car: Will Hollywood's Dream Become Reality?

  By Ian Paul | 13 October, 2010 05:58

  Google self-driving cars may someday let us nap at the wheel, but in Hollywood driverless cars such as K.I.T.T. are old news. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently announced the search engine giant was actively testing autonomous cars and had already logged 140,000 miles with its fleet. The technology isn't quite ready, but don't tell that to Hollywood.

• MIT builds swimming, oil-eating robots

  By Sharon Gaudin | 27 August, 2010 07:00

  MIT researchers have used nanotechnology to develop a robot that can autonomously navigate across the surface of the ocean to clean up an oil spill.

• New Zealand's Rex the robot helps wheelchair-bound to walk

  By AAP | 16 July, 2010 07:57

  Hayden Allen makes a couple of moves, whirring noises are heard, and the young New Zealander undergoes an astonishing transformation.