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DARPA has demonstrated the results of its research into creating low-cost robotic hands. A clip released by the agency shows a robotic torso using an ordinary electric screwdriver to remove the screws mounting a wheel to a frame, before removing the wheel and attempting to re-mount a second wheel in its place.
iRobot's floor washing got a significant rethink on Thursday through the Scooba 390. It drops the canister-like design of earlier models for a larger but lower-profile design that's easier to use and potentially more effective. Battery life is the biggest upgrade: new power management can let it run for 30 percent longer, or up to 850 square feet on one charge.
iRobot has announced that it will reorganize its business operation reforming into three business units, Home Robots, Military Robots and Emerging Technologies. Featured at CES, the Ava mobile robotics platform slots into third of the new business units. iRobot believes that the platform will help it enter new markets including healthcare, retail and security.
Canadian startup EZ-Robot currently offers a range of modular components that enable hobbyists to build or upgrade robots. The "personal robotics" products include hardware and software geared for programmers, non-programmers, Arduino users, iRobot Roomba owners, prototype builders and educational users.
At the Google I/O Developer Conference, iRobot on Wednesday said it has partnered with Google to have Android apps run on its iRobot Ava mobile robotics platform. The idea is to change how people communicate and deliver information through remote presence, according to iRobot CEO and chairman Colin Angle. He went on to call Ava the first app-ready robot.
Samsung has unveiled a new robotic vacuum cleaner that aims to move beyond iRobot's popular Roomba series and others with optics. The VC-RL87W gets an integrated camera and doubles as a controllable home monitor. Samsung's robot can send a video feed using a feature called Tango View. The device can't clean and act as a home monitor at the same time, however.
iRobot kicked off its presence at CES by unveiling two long due updates for its home cleaning robots. The Roomba 700 provides better cleaning of finer dirt and hair; it accordingly has twin HEPA filters to cut back on allergic reactions. The robot is also now smart enough to move back and forth in a particularly dirty area to clean where a single pass wouldn't have worked.
iRobot, a company specializing in developing and manufacturing house-cleaning devices, has recently teamed up with Disney to release a limited-edition version of its Roomba 530 robot with special WALL-E paint and graphics. Unlike the special editions of the cleaning devices introduced this summer, the WALL-E edition does not have features that distinguish it from the standard Roomba 530 model. The battery will last long enough to clean three rooms, and two wall transmitters help guide the robot in its cleaning mission.
iRobot today rolled out two extra Roomba vacuum robots targeted at specific subsets of its normal audience. The Pet Series adjusts the components inside the robot to focus more on catching pet hair as well as the dander that often triggers allergies. Each now has an extra set of brushes and holds much more in the sweeping bin than usual to catch the material that might quickly fill up a normal robot; the counter-rotating brushes are claimed to be good for picking up material either from carpet or hard floors.
The iRobot Corporation on Wednesday announced the release of its most affordable tactical robot, the Negotiator 200. The 34lb, remote controlled robot can climb and descend stairs and lets emergency response personnel stay clear of any potential dangers thanks to its built-in high-resolution color video camera and available chemical detection system. The video is sent via a 2.4GHz band while data, or control of the robot, is sent via the 900MHz frequency band, with either travelling as far as 800 feet in the line of sight.
