Automaton

While IEEE Spectrum has not yet seen fit to hire me my own butler (like most bloggers tend to expect), as far as I can tell (and let me just clarify that I have absolutely no idea about this whatsoever) being a butler requires mastery of three things: looking good in a tux, having a butler-y attitude, and not spilling things on trays. PR2 might be able to cover those first two, but we now have video proof that it's nailed the third one: PR2 is officially a traymaster.

Of all the scary and dangerous robot animals, turtles are almost (but not quite) on the very bottom of the list, just above robotic baby harp seals.* But that's fine, because turtles are great at lots of things that aren't scary and dangerous (like swimming around in the vast and heartless ocean), and researchers in a certain landlocked European country that isn't Austria are working to make a new one.

Good news, everyone! The Department of Homeland Security, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that it would be kinda cool to have drones flying around to, you know, "protect the homeland." The Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety program will provide "Federal and  local officials with state-of-the-art technology" to do all kinds of stuff in domestic airspace right above your head. What kinds of stuff? Sorry, that's all classified, but don't worry, citizens: rest assured that the DHS cares about you and would never do anything that you wouldn't want them to do. Or something.

The Suckerbot, one of the winners.

The African Robotics Network (AFRON) announced today at Maker Faire in New York the winners of its 10 Dollar Robot Design Challenge.

This time next week, we'll be on our way to a swanky five star beach resort in Portugal. Is this the vacation that we deserve after months and months of non-stop robotics news? NO. IT'S NOT. NO VACATIONS. This is IROS, the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Last year it was held in San Francisco, and this year, we're heading to the Algarve, on the southern coast of Portugal just west of Spain and north of Africa. Don't worry, though: we'll be lucky if we manage to set even one single foot on the beach with all the robot stuff we'll have to cover. It's gonna be awesome. 

Meanwhile, since we haven't packed up and headed off to Europe just yet, it's time for VIDEOS!

Ah, booze. The only thing it's (generally) missing is the sweet and vaguely servo-y taste of robotics. A little robot named Wall-Ye is trying to get involved in the process from the ground up by helping out in vineyards in France, meaning that we'll get to add "robotolicious" to the official list of wine descriptors.

We've known for quite a while that Suitable Technologies, a spinoff from Willow Garage, has been working on a telepresence robot* of some sort. They've just gone public, and here it is: the Beam Remote Presence System, or RPS.

We're always caught slightly off-guard when major Asian electronics companies introduce a new robot with virtually zero warning, like Toyota just did with their Human Support Robot, or HSR. Designed to assist disabled people, the HSR looks like it might be good for all kinds of household tasks whether you're disabled or not.

In the (hopefully not too distant) future, we'll all be driving down the highway like this guy: reading a newspaper with our eyes being covered up. It'll be possible thanks to Volvo and six other European partners, who just concluded the SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project: it's not autonomous cars, not yet, but it's a lot closer to reality.

This week, the iRobot Roomba celebrated its 10th birthday. Ten years of autonomous vacuuming, and we're confident that there's even more amazingness ahead. Why are we confident? Just look at those cakes, man! That's enough to instill anyone with confidence. And hunger. Okay, mostly hunger. We have video of the cakes in action (yes, there is action), plus lots more, for this week's Video Friday.