Playing with regular bat bots is fun. Mekamon takes the idea to the next level by providing you with a mixed reality gaming experience. Real Robotics is building robots with an augmented reality app, allowing players to launch attacks on others and have more fun in the process. These robots can be controlled using an app.
Remember the Sphero BB-8 Droid? It is a cute, app-enabled robot for Star Wars fans. Thanks to the Force Band, you can control the robot like a Jedi. It attaches to your wrist and lets you use simple gestures to pull, push, and drive your robot. Your BB-8 will follow you based on the motion of your arm and the direction your body moves.
Meet the Disco Drone from Parrot: a fixed-wing drone with removable wings and 45-minute flight time. It has a 8″ propeller and a high speed engine. The 14MP front nose camera lets you capture all the action. You can pilot this drone with Parrot’s Skycontroller and FPV glasses.
Meet Tipron: a home robot that transforms to project an 80″ screen from a distance of 3 meters. It can project at different heights and angles. The robot adjusts its height depending on its mode. For instance, it extends 80 cm when projecting but stays compact while moving.
Controlling drones using an Apple Watch is not a groundbreaking idea anymore. PVD+ is the latest group to come up with a smart solution for controlling drones using hand gestures. They have come up with an algorithm to understand and interpret hand gestures using an Apple Watch. As you can see in the below video, you can move the drone using simple hand movements.
Such as solution can also be used to interact with smart home products. Reuters has the full story.
Meet the Hovis Eco Plus: an educational robot with 20 HerkuleX DRS-0101 smart servo motors and head LEDs. It is powered by an Atmega 128 micro-controller and has a 3000 mAh battery. The robot comes with various sensors and offers ZigBee support.
Robots are going to do many things for us in the future. That includes performing gymnastic tricks. This video shows a Pommel Horse Gymnast Robot in action. It has 8 motors and a reflective photo sensor to get the job done:
More information is available here.
Meet VertiGo: a wall-climbing robot that can transition from the ground to the wall with its two tilting propellers. It also has 4 wheels, with a pair that is steerable. The robot is designed to travel through indoor environments with agility. As it is explained on Disney Research’s page:
The use of propellers to provide thrust onto the wall ensures that the robot is able to traverse over indentations such as masonry. The choice of two propellers rather than one enables a floor-to-wall transition – thrust is applied both towards the wall using the rear propeller, and in an upward direction using the front propeller, resulting in a flip onto the wall.
You can find the complete paper on the robot here.
Not many of us enjoy getting stopped and frisked. Would you be comfortable if a robot performed a task? No necessarily but the FRSK04 aims to do the job. The robot has mechanical hands that are activated when the suspect is in the proper position. The audio playing during the process stops when the process ends.
So you don’t have anyone to drink with this holiday season? You could always rely on a cute robot like the Robot Drinky to keep you company. This robot asks for a drink, drinks with you, and deposit the liquid into an alcohol jar. This way no alcohol is wasted, and you will feel better drinking alone.
