It is not just the winners of the competition that will be off to Dortmund in Germany in June for the official Robot World Cup.
Like the first edition of "Rossum's Universal Robots, " a 1920 play by Czech writer Karel Capek that is credited with bringing the word "robot" to the world.
Pulling an all-nighter and then some, the Cornell robot Ranger set a new world record May 2 by walking 40.5 miles on a single battery charge without stopping or being touched.
But instead of an ominous sci-fi vision of a planet run by robot overlords, they envision a world that will be shaped, for better or worse, by us.
On the topic of robot makers, this week also saw robot builder Simon Burfield put together the world's first working wheelchair made of Lego bricks.
There's an interactive orchestra, live videos from around the world, and a real robot that will draw your portrait in sand at the Science Museum in London.
Lund, 38, oversees Lego Mindstorms, the world's most popular line of robot tool kits.
By contrast, RoboEarth hopes to start showing how the information that robots discover about the world can be defined so any other robot can find it and use it.
The working model of the sensory systems will then be used in a robot to see if it can move around the world with the sophistication of a honey bee.
For starters, Luan and Zhu are tackling the world of biotech labs, building a benchtop robot that will help coordinate and automate lab tasks.
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The goal of this work is to allow people with locked in syndrome to be able to interact with the world via surrogate, but it also foretells a world where each of us might have a robot avatar to do our bidding.
Interestingly, the 2005 Guinness World Records listed the QRIO as the first bipedal robot capable of running (which it defines as moving while both legs are off the ground at the same time).
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Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot says a robot is something that uses sensors to perceive information to understand the world and then uses artificial intelligence to process what it saw, then applies some kind of physical actuation in its environment.
The Cornell Ranger, a walking robot developed by the Biorobotics and Locomotion Lab at Cornell, has set a world record by walking 40.5 miles without a recharge.
Ava, an app ready robot, uses tablet-based control and autonomous navigation to maneuver in complex real world environments.
The announcement of a follow-up robot was made here at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the world's largest annual gathering for Earth and planetary scientists, and a major showcase for Nasa-led research.
Through expanded distribution in the US and international partnerships with Blonde Robot, Qool Labs and Future Shop, Lytro is taking the first step toward creating a world of living pictures.
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