Monthly Archives: March 2011

Interview with Colin Angle from iRobot

At InnoRobo, I got a chance to speak with Colin from iRobot – in a very candid interview about his view on the robotics industry, his vision for the AVA and how he sees the robotics industry shaping up in the coming years. Continue reading

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InnoRobo 2011 and some notes on the new Jazz

As I have been reporting from here, the InnoRobo conference was quite an eclectic group of companies – coming from France, South Korea and Japan. Yes, iRobot was there as a exhibit presenter, but most of the US robotics companies were definitely in absence.

I spent a great deal of time roaming the booths in the exhibit hall at the largess of Jean-Christophe from GOSTAI (he got me a complimentary pass to the event). I was looking forward to seeing JC and the updated Jazz, after my first experience with it two months ago. And, while GOSTAI has not released their new user interface, the redesigned Jazz has a lot of physical and component improvements. Continue reading

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OMG! Is this the Anybots QB at one-tenth the price?!?

Every so often, I find myself smiling when I see positional and motor control loops being diagrammed out for clarity sake. The Telepresence Interface by Pendulum Inversion, or TIPI for short is a project from the Mechatronics Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo. Continue reading

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A brief couple of snippets through InnoRobo 2011

So, as you saw on the earlier post, we spent some time at InnoRobo in Lyon. France. To say it was an engaging conference is an understatement. Bruno, the organizer, was a personal dynamo putting together a wonderful program which included a large number of French companies (e.g, GOSTAI, Aldeberan, etc) and had their partner in robotic development, the South Korean government bring a number of their best and brightest to the event (e.g., Yujin Robot Labs). Continue reading

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Not an Apple Robot and Notes from InnoRobo

Okay – so it looks like the video is not from Apple – if Aaron is to be believed – so we are going to get into deep investigation start investigating who this provider is. When we find out more, we will endeavor to post the news as soon as possible. Continue reading

Posted in GOSTAI, Jazz Connect, Remote Presence News, Remote Presence Systems, ROBOSEM, RPS Companies, Yujin Robot | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Is Apple Building Robots Now?

We got sent this snippet of video of an unidentified robot moving in a room. The picture is grainy and pixelated which could just be a way of hiding features of it. Now, we must admit, it has lines that remind us of Apple products, but we are surprised that someone from Apple would seed the video to us first. Continue reading

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@SXSW – been away from the computer…

Dear readers – been getting emails about where we have disappeared to. We are enjoying the circus that is SXSW Interactive and will have some amazing content for you in the coming week from InTouch Health and VGo with some hands-on content. Continue reading

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Social Robotic Telepresence and HRI 2011

The second paper is from Min Kyung Lee from Carnegie Mellon University and Leila Takayama from Willow Garage entitled “‘Now, I have a body’: Uses and social norms for mobile remote presence in the workplace” is a personal favorite. In this paper, the Willow Garage Texai is used as the Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) or RPS in our lingo. To say this paper is meaty is an understatement. This paper is a rich treasure-trove of insights into the issues and futures of remote presence. Continue reading

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Remote Presence Links for March 10, 2011

Teaching Robots To Interact Better With Humans – Telepresence Robots Roam the Halls of My Office Building – Latest Geminoid Robot Looks More Human than Creepy Continue reading

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Interview w/ Jeremy Parsons from Mantaro

Earlier this week, I spent an hour speaking with Jeremy Parsons, co-founder of Mantaro Engineering Product Development Services and the visionary behind the MantaroBot. Jeremy spent a good deal of time with me discussing his history, his first attempt at telepresence robots and how the MantaroBot came to being this year. Continue reading

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