When I first encountered a self-checkout system in IKEA a few years ago, I sort of panicked because I didn’t know what to do. But after experiencing it and eventually figuring things out, I thought this was such a convenient way to do your shopping, especially if you want to keep social interactions at a minimum. Now if only there was a also a self-packing system since the packing up groceries stuff is the most difficult.

Designer: MIT CSAIL

Eventually, this can of course come true and one step towards a system like this is the RoboGrocery. This was developed by MIT’s CSAIL department and uses a soft robotic gripper together with computer vision to help you bag groceries and other small items. It’s still in its early stages of course but seeing how it’s working at this time seems pretty promising.

They tested it out by placing 10 objects on a grocery conveyer belt, ranging from soft items like grapes, crackers, muffins, bread to the more solid ones like cans, meal boxes, and ice cream containers. The vision detects the size of the item to determine the order of placing it in a box. The grasper, with the pressure sensors in its fingers, then determines whether the item is delicate and should not be placed at the bottom of the bag.

While we’re still a few steps away from actually having a robot to bag your groceries, it’s an interesting first step towards that. Eventually, after it becomes available for commercial use, they might also be able to develop this for industrial spaces like recycling plants and factories.

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Robots are slowly but surely invading our homes, but most of them come in the form of cleaners or toys for our amusement. We might not be the only intelligent lifeforms in the house, however, and the small members of our family also deserve their due, especially when we have to leave them alone for the day. Smart home security cameras are fine if you just want to watch or talk to your pets while you’re away, but that still leaves your furry friends to their own devices. And you still have to figure out ways to get them fed on time and with the right amount without having to call in favors. Unlike others of its kind, this rolling robot is made specifically for your cats or dogs (or both) to keep them entertained, healthy, fed, and even comforted when you’re not at home.

Designer: Enabot

Parents warn their kids that raising pets isn’t an easy job, but even grownups have a difficult time considering their own busy schedules. It isn’t enough to just keep them well-fed either, as pets need to be interacted with, talked to, and entertained for both their physical as well as mental health. The Enabot ROLA PetPal robot tries to take a load off your shoulders, especially when you’re not around to give what your pets need, and you can change what it does simply by switching out the load it carries on its back.

Unlike Enabot’s ball-like smart home robots for humans, the ROLA PetPal looks a bit more like the popular disc-shaped robot vacuum cleaners in the market, except it has two large wheels on its side and a discernible “face” on its front. The rolling robot alone can already be a source of curiosity for pets, but its real value comes from its modular design. It can switch from providing entertainment and even exercise to providing nourishment just by switching between the Interactive Toys module or the Treat Dispenser module.

As the name suggests, Interactive Toys keep your furry friends preoccupied with a playful stick, laser games, or rolling balls. The more interesting module, however, is the Treat Dispenser which uses AI to identify your pet’s face and drop the small treats in its wake when it’s time for food. It can also capture all these moments while your pets play or eat and send you photos or video clips for posterity’s sake.

More than just standing in for you when you’re away, the Enabot ROLA PetPal also tries to deepen your relationship with your pets in absentia. Not only can you talk to your pets remotely, you can also train them to put their paw on a specific part of the robot to send a “Hello” message to your phone. And, of course, the robot’s 5MP 2.5K camera “eye” not only keeps an eye on your pet but also makes sure you’ll never miss a precious moment when you’re not around. It’s not easy being a furry parent, but the cute robot helps lighten up the load and care for your pets in a unique and advanced way.

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More than just the population problem, we are also facing a crisis in terms of care for the aging segments of that population. Traditional geriatric care centers are sometimes filled beyond capacity, and caring for elderly people living alone can be expensive and at times even risky. Futurists and visionaries would have us dream of a future where robots, whether humanoid or not, would take the place of household help, and we’re starting to see some of those rolling boxes in homes, often for less critical conveniences like bringing things from one place to another. Human care, however, is a very different matter entirely, so this concept design for a service robot and an advanced wheelchair duo tries to paint a different picture by making the experience look and feel a little bit more human and, therefore, more humane.

Designer: Sungmin Hwang

Geriatric patients living at home need more than just having things brought to them, which is what many home service robots are designed to do. They will also want to move around, on their own or with assistance, and motorized wheelchairs try to make that activity more convenient. These two mobility activities might be related, but they’re provided by two very different kinds of products. But rather than having disparate and disconnected machines, this design concept presents an integrated system that acts like a whole, even if they function separately.

The actual “companion” is a service robot that looks like a tall board with arms and wheels, unlike the common design that’s practically a self-driving cabinet. It has a simplified face, basically just eyes that can express emotions and a dot matrix display that can spell out words, but it’s enough to give it a more personable character. Rather than having shelves to put items on, the robot has harms and hands that can grab and hold objects to hand them over to the patient, making the action feel more personal rather than clinical.

The other half of the duo is a motorized wheelchair that’s designed as much for comfort as it is for mobility. In addition to the cushioned surfaces and curved parts, the chair features plenty of storage space not just for things but also for medicine. The patient can exercise their own agency by driving the wheelchair on their own, but it can also be pushed by the companion robot when it connects to the chair. This recreates the experience of having someone push their wheelchair, hopefully making them feel less lonely and less detached.

The “Companion” robot and wheelchair concept is designed with many of the existing technologies already available today, from self-navigating home robots to intelligent charging docks to precision robot hands for carefully grabbing objects. Of course, such a machine would still need to undergo rigorous testing, not to mention regulatory scrutiny given its medical applications, but it’s definitely an interesting take on what a home service robot can do, especially when it’s designed to take care of elderly people or people with mobility disabilities.

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One of my family’s favorite things to see at places like malls and airports are the drug sniffing dogs. We always joke about wanting to pet them, although of course we’re not supposed to. But there are times when I pity them since they have to work hard and it can even be dangerous for them. There are of course other technologies and devices that can be developed so the load of detecting contraband does not fall solely on them or on the staff that are monitoring the security check machines in the terminals.

Designer: Junwoo Lim

This concept for a robot that can serve as a contraband detection tool can serve both cargo terminals and passenger terminals. Narc will be able to help machines, dogs, and humans detect contraband like explosives, drugs, and other dangerous materials that are not supposed to be in public places like airports and terminals. You probably didn’t like being called a narc (if ever you were called one) during your school days but this device, which looks like a robot with four legs, gets the job done.

For the cargo terminals, Narc can serve as the detector for small packages in the conveyer belt so the first pass will not need human intervention. It has a small x-ray button at the bottom and 90 degree rotatable legs and a movable body that can go up to 500m up and down. It can scan the small cargo by moving around the cargo rails so humans can just focus on monitoring larger cargo. For passenger terminals, the Narc can move around, like those robots going around malls asking if you need help. But this time, they really act as a “narc”, scanning random people and if they detect contraband, they will alert security staff.

Once they spot someone “suspicious”, the staff can use the portable ion scanner to detect if the person really is carrying contraband. A sample can even be placed in the middle of the suction port if it needs further checking. There may be some privacy issues involved here but that’s probably a problem that can be resolved or fixed by the airport or terminal if ever this concept gets made into an actual product.

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It isn’t Iron Man’s suit, but it’s still a pretty big augmentation to humans and their capabilities.

The promise of great technology is to make life easy for everyone… the only problem is that a lot of times, it takes YEARS before great technology can become accessible to everyone. EVs were very niche before they weren’t, DARPA (the defense research wing of the US government) played a pivotal role in developing the internet for communication on the front lines in the 1960s before the internet finally became household technology. Cameras were incredibly specialist equipment before they became small enough to fit into a smartphone, and exoskeletons were originally developed for military personnel to give them superhuman strength, before ending up in warehouses to allow workers to lift heavy objects without using all their energy. If you went online, chances are you wouldn’t be able to simply buy an exoskeleton for yourself (or you’d probably end up paying thousands of dollars for it), but the folks at Dnsys are hoping to make the technology accessible to all humans.

The $599 X1 is an exoskeleton that aids with mobility by giving your legs an extra set of mechanical muscles. Powerful enough to reduce the energy you spend walking/running/trekking by a staggering 50% and reduce your load by nearly 83 lbs, the Dnsys X1 runs on a set of 900W motors that output 1.2 horsepower with a top speed of 27km/h (16.7mph), allowing you to walk, climb, and run with more agility and less exertion. The entire device, which straps to your waist and thighs, weighs a paltry 1.6 kilograms (3.5 lbs) and has a battery that offers a range of 25 kilometers, allowing you to push your boundaries further without being restrained by your human limitations.

Designer: Dnsys

Click Here to Buy Now: $599 $1198 (50% off) Hurry! Only 10 left of 890. Raised over $1,000,000.

The X1 hopes to shatter the misconception that exoskeletons just belong in warehouses. Quite like Apple’s Vision Pro became one of the first VR headsets to actually be seen in real society, with people wearing them in cafes and subways, the Dnsys X1 aims at being the exoskeleton for all kinds of outdoor use. You could be an explorer or trekker looking to cover lots of ground, a backpacker trying to walk large distances with a heavy backpack, a photographer looking to navigate an outdoor location with a lot of gear, or just a fitness enthusiast looking to get in your movement while protecting your knees and legs from strain or injuries. The X1 gives your legs a set of helping hands (or helping legs, if you want to switch the idiom), allowing you to move faster, farther, and with much less energy.

The hallmark of the Dnsys X1 is its ultra-lightweight construction, weighing a mere 1.6kg, thanks to the utilization of aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and carbon fiber. This not only ensures durability but significantly reduces weight, making it an unobtrusive companion for any journey. The exoskeleton’s sophisticated motor, the DNA-1, embodies sheer power, delivering 1.2 horsepower and a torque of 50 Nm/kg, which, in simpler terms, is similar to the power performance of a Formula One race car.

Making an exoskeleton isn’t as easy as simply slapping motors onto a body brace. The X1 employs advanced AI algorithms to adapt to the user’s walking pattern, offering instantaneous walking assistance that makes every step feel lighter. This AI innovation, combined with state-of-the-art motion sensors, enables the device to conserve up to 50% of the user’s energy, essentially halving the strain of carrying heavy loads during challenging treks or climbs. Imagine exploring the wild with the ability to walk or run with less fatigue, climb higher, and embark on longer adventures, all while protecting your knees and reducing the risk of physical exertion-related injuries. The X1’s clever design also enables all kinds of movements, aiding you with walking forwards and backwards, sideways, upwards, or even any odd movement that would result from you walking on an uneven path or terrain.

Different modes let you achieve different tasks. A regular mode gives you a maximum range of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles), aiding with load reduction and energy conservation, while a Boost mode, activated simply by pressing a button on the sides, gives you the full effect of the X1’s 1.2 horsepower output. The regular mode is perfect for walking and climbing, while the boost mode is the equivalent of going full throttle, allowing for more machine power that gives you maximum speeds of 27km/h or 16.7mph. Conversely, instead of having the X1 boost your performance, you can even flip to a Workout mode which restrains your walking ability, making you put more effort in. Designed to be the equivalent of training with weights or resistance bands, this mode is for maximizing your exercise, making it perfect for strength training and isokinetic exercise. The resistance mode also helps reduce impact on your knees during downhill walks, helping prevent injuries.

The X1 starts at $599, a massive 50% reduction over its original $1198 retail price. It includes an app that also works to monitor device status in real-time, and track medical-grade health data such as hip joint mobility and step frequency. Each X1 ships with a smart battery capable of kinetic energy recovery (KERS) for high efficiency, a charging dock, and a charging cable. The Dnsys X1 ships globally starting July 2024.

Click Here to Buy Now: $599 $1198 (50% off) Hurry! Only 10 left of 890. Raised over $1,000,000.

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Spot has been a pretty busy dog, previously appearing with super group BTS a few years and just last week, getting its own costume and dancing its heart out to celebrate International Dance Day. Lest you think that it’s an actual dog though, it’s actually a robotic dog that can do more than just jump and roll over. Now it’s branching out to the art world with a new exhibit featuring the power of AI.

Designer: Agnieszka Pilat

There has been a lot of heated discussions about AI and art but not all of them are always negative. While a lot have been critical, there are those that want to explore how autonomous technology and AI-generated art can aid in the democratization of art. One of those people is Polish artist Agnieszka Pilat. She has partnered with Boston Dynamics, or rather, Spot the robot dogs, for the Heterobota exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Two of the robot dogs, nicknamed Basia and Omuzana, will do a live painting demonstration in the museum on a 156 x 160 inch canvas on May 10. Pilat will be “training” the dogs to doodle and paint from 8PM to 12AM, with a little resting in between just like an actual artist would. Visitors in the museum can actually watch them live and the final work will not be displayed afterwards so your only chance to see the robot dogs in action would be during the live painting session.

Pilat says that the expected outcome is more like that of a “little kids finger-painting” since the technology is young and new, even though she has collaborated with Spot before. But it’s an interesting experiment in how humans can use AI and robots to generate art. Of course, there’s still a lot of discussion that rightly needs to be had but things like this can open up various viewpoints and opinions that can hopefully enhance the conversation.

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Aside from actual dancing people, one of the things that we love to see on the Internet is dancing animals. From penguins to monkeys to cats and dogs, we love seeing these cute animals bust a move. Of course some of these are computer-generated but if they’re cute enough, we’d still watch it. So when a furry blue dog started dancing on our screens, we probably stopped scrolling and watched, even though it was obviously not a real dog but a robotic dog.

Designer: Boston Dynamics

We thought that this was a new robot dog from Boston Dynamics but it was actually their trusty ole Spot but with a fluffy, blue skin. Sparkles was unleashed on the internet to celebrate International Dance day last April 29. We got a dancing duet from both Spot and Sparkles but the latter was just the former but in a costume just to make things a little more fun. This custom costume was designed so Spot the original robot dog can “explore the intersections of robotcs, art, and entertainment.”

The reason why these robot dogs danced so well is because of the Choreographer software and API that they launched a few years ago. It was created specifically for the media and entertainment customers who needed a tool that could let them train the robot dog with high-level instructions. It also allows Spot to adapt to its physical limitations and its environment when executing the moves while still prioritizing its balance.

We don’t know if Boston Dynamics plans to create even more costumes for Spot for future special occasions. Can you imagine a Halloween or Christmas themed robot dog outfit or even various pop culture cosplay setups? Of course the main point would still be to showcase Spot and the Choreographer software so it should be something cute but not too elaborate so as to hinder the robot dog’s movements.

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While all Transformers fans are tripping over Optimum Prime, it’s time to give the leader of the Decepticons his due chance. Yes, this self-transforming Megatron will win you over to join the bad side of the Transformers universe, the toy is that good. Created by Robosen Robotics in collaboration with Hasbro, the high-tech interactive collectible will force the inner child out of even the most serious middle-aged men.

Everything about this autobot is impressive, right from its design to the cool moves it is capable of. The Megatron is released as a limited edition collectible to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Transformers. Be informed that this thing comes at a steep price tag of $800 during the initial pre-order phase, and after that period the price is expected to shoot higher at around $1,200.

Designer: Robosen Robotics and Hasbro

With a simple voice command, the 21-inch Megatron transforms from a walking bipedal robot to a rolling tank. The way it changes personality in an instant is the most satisfying thing to watch. The voice commands further extend into triggering actions like firing plastic darts from the cannon or doing other cool tricks. It can also play out famous scenes from the franchise in the voice of actor Frank Welker with visual actions. Voice commands can be used to wake up the robot or even play Happy Birthday tunes. The servo motors and microchips let the user control it remotely from a smartphone with the companion app.

Get too close to the Autobot and it reacts to your touch, thanks to the touch sensors placed on the body. Don’t be surprised if it shouts out loud “You Fool” when touched on the front plate and picked up off the surface. In the tank mode, it can fire plastic cannons on voice commands and do a lot of other cool stuff you’ll love. The robot has a lot of servos and they are well concealed behind the clever spring-loaded flaps. Attention to detail is apparent here with small details like the automatically rotating logo when it converts from a tank to a standing robot.

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The air purifier market saw a huge uptick in the past years as homeowners became more aware and concerned about the quality of the air they breathe indoors. A single machine is enough to satisfy the needs of a room or a small apartment, but bigger domiciles would need more units to cover the wider space or numerous rooms. Of course, people won’t be in all those spaces or rooms at the same time, and managing multiple air purifiers could be a tiresome task, even if they’re all connected to your smartphone. What if the air purifier operated only where it’s needed, like in a place where the air quality is too low for comfort? That’s the idea behind this concept design for this elegant air purifier that can indeed go to those areas, using technologies already in use today.

Designer: Gwan-deok Seo

Air purifiers these days, at least the more sophisticated ones, can already detect air quality, but it’s more for automatically adjusting the level of purifying they do more than pinpointing where the poor air is. Robot vacuum cleaners, on the other hand, have become so advanced that they can effortlessly navigate around your home, mapping the floor layout on their own and avoiding all kinds of obstacles. There’s very little reason why these technologies can’t be combined, at least aside from the space they might take up on a single machine.

Puyager is a concept that does mix these two seemingly different worlds together in a harmonious manner and with a compact design. Of course, it can’t just be a low, disc-shaped machine like most robot vacuum cleaners on the market. It would be too cramped to include the necessary parts for sucking in, filtering, and blowing out air. At the same time, however, a box or cylindrical design similar to typical air purifiers would be too bulky, not to mention unappealing for something that will be moving around your house.

The shape chosen for this robot is an egg or at least the top half of one. This allows the bottom section to still be that round shape that makes robot vacuums efficient in moving around while leaving enough room for electronics and air circulation. Unlike a simple dome, however, Puyager has a gap between the left and right halves of this egg, providing an outlet for clean air to be released. The top edge of this gap houses the touch-sensitive controls that let owners minimally operate the machine without having to reach for their phone.

The end result is a product that looks stylish and elegant, a perfect fit for any home. Even while stationary, Puyager looks like a piece of decoration more than an appliance, adding a bit of visual value whether it’s busy purifying the air or just idling. Admittedly, its performance in actually detecting poor air quality and rolling over there to clean it is something that still needs to be tested, but the design is definitely a good starting point for a more modern and more human-centric solution to air quality at home.

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Boston Dynamics has been building a fleet of robots for decades now, and they are quite serious about it. the MIT spin-off has made a name for itself with cutting-edge innovations in robotics that serve a purpose for the future. After retiring the Atlas hydraulic robot just a day ago, now the company is looking beyond the horizon with an all-electric Atlas version which is better than the retired predecessor, both in form and physical capabilities. Plus its smartness with new AI and machine learning tools opens up new avenues of applications that we could only have imagined a decade ago.

After a resounding success with Spot the robot dog and Strech multi-purpose mobile robot, they are entering a new era with Atlas that’s more humanoid without having the limitations of a bipedal robot. The result is a super agile robot that can tackle “dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks.” According to Boston Dynamics, electric Atlas is stronger and dextrous. Even though it looks more human than ever, the machine is not limited by the inherent limitations when it comes to our range of motion.

Designer: Boston Dynamics

The new version has a more refined design that’s akin to a sci-fi movie character. It looks eerily close to a humanoid. The electric version has a straighter back, longer limbs, and a head that can rotate 360 degrees. It’s heartening to see all the exposed cables vanish and a face with a built-in ring light. In the teaser video, it can be seen how the Atlas swivels 180 degrees to get up and then turn to head towards the camera. According to BD, the robot “will move in ways that exceed human capabilities.” Hyundai is one of the first clients to test out the nimble robot, and its agility with the interchangeable grippers for varied tasks.

I can’t help but avoid mentioning the Pixar lamp-like head with a jittery motion reminding us all that it’s a robot at the end of the day. We can expect more information to come in about Atlas in the coming weeks, and other humanoid robots from Figure and Apptronik will have to keep a close eye on this development by Boston Dynamics.

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