Video Friday: Disaster HUBOs, Robot Massages, and Too Much Gangnam Style

Phew, what a week! I don't know about you, but I'm near robotted out. HA, just kidding, that'll never happen. There's no such thing as too much robot news, and I hope you're with me, 'cause it's Video Friday and there's lots to see.

We only just found out that Drexel University will be competing in the DRC with HUBO robots, and already they've posted a video showing HUBOwinning the entire competition:

Yes, okay, so that's not exactly real, but HUBO is an actual robot that's in the process of learning how to punch through walls (!):

[ DRC-HUBO Team ]

This little track n' paddle robot, called Sakura, is being developed by the Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo) at the Chiba Institute of Technology to perform nuclear power plant inspections:

Via [ Diginfo ]

We posted an update on Harvard's RoboBees from IROS, but here's a nice overview from the NSF.

[ RoboBees ]

I don't know what this commercial is selling, exactly, but at least it uses real robots:

Here's my question: why do people who make TV commercials featuring robots, but not about robots, always add those whiny motor sound effects?

[ Yaskawa Motoman ]

UAVForge was another DARPA challenge that wrapped up back in April; TU Delft's Team ATMOS took second place with their ATMOV UAV, which they're still working on. It can take off vertically and then transition into efficient horizontal flight, and as we've mentioned before, it looks almost exactly like a B-wing starfighter:

[ Team ATMOS ]

Panasonic has followed up their hair washing robot with this head massaging robot:

Yeah, I'll take one of those.

Via [ DigInfo ]

We'll finish up this week with what is becoming inevitable: more robots dancing Gangnam style, featuring CHARLI, some Bioloids, and a questionable performance from Tosy's MRobo.