The biannual International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence has this year shed light on a new effort to standardize robot instructions around a common platform, so that designers won’t have to “reinvent the wheel over and over” with every project. Presently, robot design is undertaken in an ad hoc fashion, with both hardware and software being built from scratch, but teams at Stanford, MIT and the Technical University of Munich are hoping to change that with the Robot Operating System, or ROS. This new OS would have to compete with Microsoft’s robotics offering, but the general enthusiasm for it at the conference suggests a bright future, with some brave souls even envisioning a robot app store somewhere down the line. Video after the break

Honda may have bestowed plenty of improvements on ASIMO over the years, but it looks like an alumni of rival robot maker Waseda University has taken it upon himself to deliver some improvements of his own that make it even more lifelike, though no doubt just as prone to tumbles. The key, it seems, is to ditch the robotics and high-tech materials altogether and instead use something called “wood,” which can be fashioned into a shell (or “costume,” if you will) that’s able to accommodate one slightly uncomfortable human. Either that, or ASIMO has been robot-napped from Honda and is now being held at an undisclosed location. Check out the video after the break to decide for yourself.

Anthropomimetic robots. It’s not something that rolls off the tongue, but the ECCEROBOT is just such a robot, and it’s really a sight to behold. Developed by a consortium of European robotics labs, the motivation behind the creation is to more accurately copy human internal structure, using thermoplastic polymer for bones, screwdriver motors and shock cord for muscle, and kiteline for tendons. The results are impressive, if not a bit creepy. According to IEEE Spectrum, scientists hope in the future to use ECCEROBOT’s human-like form to “explore human-like cognitive features,” which may or may not include starring opposite Christian Bale in science fiction films. See for yourself in the video after the break.

If ALSOK’s latest security / guidance robot looks a bit familiar — well, we’ve seen his kind before. The company’s latest offering – the An9-PR is an update of its previous bot — the better-named Reborg Q. The An9-PR is a multi-tasker, meant for showroom floors and malls, where it can display advertisements, directions to the restroom, and missing children alerts on any of its three touchscreen LCDS, and it’s got WiFi and face recognition capabilities, making him a decent security guard, too! The robot weigh about 440 pounds, and is on four wheels to make it easier to move. The An9-PR will apparently go on sale in Japan starting in March of 2010, for about $150,000. There’s another shot of this cutie after the break.

By : Laura June

Wall-E is always cute, but there’s something extra adorable about this handmade USB Drive.

It comes with 8GB of storage, and also functions as a keychain. Get it for $65 from Etsy. Then shove it in your laptop

and say, “awwww, so cute!”.

Google has been saying for a while now that its Android operating system — currently limited to mobile phones, including T-Mobile’s myTouch launching today — isn’t just for mobile phones. The bigger vision is to see Android on netbooks and even other devices around the home. Now we’re starting to see that vision become a reality, and it’s becoming clear that this will provide huge new opportunities for developers, too.

The New York Times reported in April that T-Mobile plans to sell a home phone and a tablet computer early next year, both running Android. Now, microprocessor company MIPS says it is moving forward with plans to help design Android-based set-top boxes, digital TVs, mobile internet devices, and home media players. In an interview with the Times, MIPS vice president of marketing Art Swift described Android as a “great platform” for connecting home electronics to the internet. The first non-phone Android devices could ship as early as this year, he said, starting with digital picture frames.

While device announcements from minor players started to gain traction at this year’s computer expo Computex in Taiwan, VentureBeat has learned that both Google and T-Mobile support the migration of Android applications to this type of devices.

At a T-Mobile and Google press event a few weeks ago we asked Android head Andy Rubin whether the Android Marketplace, like Android itself, would be making the leap from mobile phones. He responded:

The way we have built Android, with the Android Marketplace we are agnostic to the physical infrastructure of the products running the apps. When we talk about cell phones, set-top boxes, netbooks, refrigerators, car navigation systems, laptops, desktops and all the products out there, each of these products is a a little bit different in some aspects. Fundamentally what we are doing here is that we are trying to connect them all. And make them all eligible to run the same applications. And we think that we provide the technology that enables that.

There’s still a lot hard work to do. We need that Marketplace to recognize that an app on a refrigerator is different to the one on a cell phone. That’s why the app on the refrigerator needs to have different aspects which differentiate from the cell phone one. That’s why the different devices need to have different profiles. And I think we have done a good job at defining the profile for a cell phone. Going forward we will enable profiles for other meaningful products which will touch people’s lives.

A Japanese company has unveiled a robotic suit that is designed to help people with weak limbs or limited physical range to walk and move like an able-bodied person.

The suit, called HAL – or Hybrid Assistive Limb – is the work of Cyberdyne Corporation in Japan, and has been created to “upgrade the existing physical capabilities of the human body”.

HAL, which weighs 23kg, is comprised of robotic ‘limbs’, and a backpack containing the suit’s battery and computer system. It is strapped to the body and controlled by thought. When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles, and very weak traces of these signals can be detected on the surface of the skin. The HAL suit identifies these signals using a sensor attached the skin of the wearer, and a signal is sent to the suit’s power unit telling the suit to move in unison with the wearer’s own limbs.

We essentially can’t get enough of advanced robots doing things that look human — probably in the same way we can’t get enough of pretending our dog understands English. Anthropomorphism aside, Toyota’s humanoid running robot is really impressive. It’s got a super impressive sense of balance, and he’s quite fast on his feet — running at an average of 7 km an hour (yes, that’s faster than ASIMO can run), too. We can say with 100 percent certainty that we’d like to hang out with this guy

Robots can travel in time, ride (stationary) motorcycles, and teach your children to disrespect you — but rarely do they have any sense of ceremony. That’s not the case with Iowa State University’s still-nameless creation, who recently served as MC to open the school’s new Electrical and Computer Engineering building. Said robot is comprised of two Barrett Whole Arm Manipulators stuck on either side of a torso, with a dual-Quickcam-equipped head that can be made to emote thanks to some simple eyebrows and lips. When not cutting ceremonial ribbons he can be found in the lab, twisting and dropping objects to learn about them, as shown in the video after the break. Next step: twisting and dropping lab technicians. By : Tim Stevens

The best and worst part about robots is the fact that they can be purpose-built to perform any task at hand. Oh sure, they can be built to kill, or they can built to test motorcycles without risk to our feeble (yet tasty) meat-sacks. Introducing Flossie, the Castrol-developed test rider that’s threading a Fireblade between its “legs” in the shot above. The robot features a self-learning mode that enables it to get a feel (throttle response, clutch drag, gear shifting patterns, etc.) for any stationary bike upon which it’s perched — right, stationary… he’s no Murata Boy. Still, as the ultimate precision rider that never tires, Flossie allows Castrol to evaluate its lubricants as effectively as possible. See it in action after the break.