‘Ello ello! Welcome to another edition of TIDWRTWHUFOO. Today we’re looking at flying drones, crabby bots that climb your body, and a robot that can roll, spin, and eventually decapitate you and/or your pets. Good times!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ShuAEIfGw&w=640&h=360]
First we see some silly humans who think they are making the robots dance for them. Robots don’t dance. Robots pretend to dance and then attack when your guard is down. Created by KMel Robotics for a Lexus ad, the robots use infrared light to control the position of the drones and the cameras while keeping track of each other in space.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIpqxsVDgVs&w=640&h=360]
Next we have a robot that’s totally OK with crashing. Called the IROS 2013, the robot can fly and float thanks to a big foam ring around its rotors. It can even turn on its end and roll towards you like some evil donut from outer space. Called a Multi-field Universal Wheel for Air-land Vehicle (MUWA), the robot came from the University Of Tokyo.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLktpkd7ojA&w=640&h=360]
Need some good news? How about Baxter? We’ve talked about him before but let’s give him a hand for learning how to stab less and love more.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwpjpKDGxEw&w=640&h=360]
Finally we meet these tiny Rubbot, a cloth-climbing robot created by Guangchen Chen, Yuanyuan Liu, Ruiqing Fu, Jianwei Sun, Xinyu Wu, and Yangsheng Xu. This little robot can go up and down light materials (light clothes) and presumably eventually burn off said clothes so the robotic human slurry making machine doesn’t get all mucked up with nylon fiber. Keep your powder dry, humans!