anybots

Robot avatar comes with 3G connection

If you're keen on the idea of teleporting yourself into a distant robot body, French software maker Gostai is introducing a line of telepresence robots that run on a 3G connection in addition to Wi-Fi.

That means you can drive your robot avatar down the Champs-Elysees, if you so fancy.

Or anywhere with 3G service and flat surfaces, for that matter. But the Jazz bots are mainly for use in one location. They're Web browser-controlled, wheeled machines designed to project a user into a distant place.

The Jazz contraptions are about 3 feet tall and have two-way video and audio for interaction (the video below lacks sound, however). They can operate continuously for at least five hours, and will automatically dock when piloted to within a few feet of their charging stations.

They come in three varieties: the Jazz Connect, for meetings and general interaction, the Jazz Icon, which can act as a marketing machine at trade shows (and serve refreshments on a tray), and the Jazz Security, which can detect movement and patrol autonomously. … Read more

Test-driving the laser-wielding QB telepresence robot

If you're lazy and dig the idea of a robot fetching you beer, the idea of a robot going to the office for you is even better. Anybots, a California robot start-up, is launching its QB telepresent robots this fall, and I recently got to take one for a remote spin.

The idea behind telepresence robots is to give users the ability to project their presence to a remote location through a robot, essentially driving a video conference around and interacting with colleagues in a richer manner than voice or video alone.

For the test drive, I first "robotted in" to the Anybots office in Silicon Valley (how quaint that this verb is still a nonentity on Google). My surrogate was QB12, one of many robots lined up in a hallway there.

The 25 QBs made so far are basically self-balancing Webcams on wheels. Lacking arms and legs, they look like living room lamps on Segways. They weigh about 35 pounds and can travel up to 3.5 miles per hour, fast enough to keep up with someone walking. Their lithium ion batteries can power them for six to eight hours of use.

When a QB is hosting a user, its eyes glow. The Web browser interface (currently Mac only) is very simple--you can see what the robot sees through its panning camera eyes; a smaller window displays a shot of its wheeled base to help steer. Navigation is through arrow keys.

You can also indicate objects (but unfortunately not atomize them) with a class II laser pointer, controlled by mouse. Three built-in microphones focus on the loudest voice they can pick up. A small screen mounted on QB's head will show a video of the remote user if he or she has a Webcam, or simply a photo.

Telepresence felt like a Webcam chat combined with Street View combined with an FPS game, as well as the sensation of riding a unicycle a million miles away. Driving the QB, though, was a very intuitive experience, and the robot's LIDAR obstacle-sensing system prevented it from crashing into people and walls, even when I wanted it to. … Read more

The telepresence robots are coming

It looks like a cross between a Segway and Wall-E, but a new "telepresence" robot being unveiled Tuesday is designed to help companies save money on travel and expensive teleconferencing technology.

Currently known as the "QB," the $15,000 robot from Mountain View, Calif.-based Anybots, is designed for people in remote offices or locations who want a rich communications experience without having to use a complicated video conference system.

QB, which is slated to go on sale this fall, has both a video camera and a video screen embedded in its "head." It has wheels and can be moved around remotely by computer. It is designed to be able to steer its way clear of obstacles or people. As long as both the robot and the person controlling it both have access to Wi-Fi, QB should work for just about anyone.

According to Anybots COO Bob Christopher, the idea for QB came from new theories about interactions between people and robots. The hope, said Christopher, who previously was CEO of Pleo maker Ugobe, is that QB will engender a "more humanistic approach" to the relationship between humans and machine. … Read more

But does that robot do windows?

In other robot news this week, a dream robot has surfaced.

Don't give me a robotic dishwasher. Give me a robot that loads and unloads the dishwasher.

Unfortunately, this is actually a remote-controlled robot, not an autonomous one. It's made by Anybots, a robotics company in California that has entered "Monty" into an art exhibition.

The Float Center and Gallery in San Francisco, Calif., has openings until December 1 for submissions for its Robots as Art exhibition and show.

An afternoon with Honda's Asimo robot

On Thursday afternoon I was back at the Computer History Museum. The Honda Research Institute was hosting its tenth Technical Horizon Symposium and announcing this year's Honda Initiation Grant awards.

The grants are part of the Institute's efforts to stimulate collaborate research between Honda and the academic community. Since 1997, Honda says it has awarded 75 grants totalling "several million dollars" to universities in the US. This year, Honda received 300 proposals; it chose seven. This year's awards (listed here along with those of past years) cover research in safety, efficiency, emissions control, and user … Read more

Anybots: Building your robot army

You've probably seen or heard of the industrial robots that build cars, and the various humanoid robots like Honda's Asimo. Most of these are made in Japan. But let's face it, there's only so much these can do. An industrial robot is bolted down, and only knows one or two simple tasks. Asimo is small and weak, and famously collapsed once while trying to climb stairs.

As we know from sci-fi movies, real robots are the size of a man and can do things--dangerous things. Real robots are suitable for building robot armies. For that, we … Read more