Segways Used For Sniper Practice

Marathon Robotics and the Australian Defense Force teamed up to bring realism and a little fun to snipers in training. They outfitted Segways with foam bodies in hoodies for live-fire sniper training.

With the Rover system, there is no joystick -- the Segways are pre-programmed to follow a planned scenario. When a target is shot, it provides instant visual feedback by stopping and dropping its mannequin, and sends a message to other Segways to scatter.


Now, if only someone could program them to dance to "Thriller"!

Mini Surveillance Airplane Mimics Bird Movements

RoboSwift is a micro airplane that is modeled after a common bird. It carries a mini-camera for discreet surveillance and sends footage wirelessly to a remote monitor. The airplane’s “feathers” fold backwards and its tail planes are transparent, creating a surprisingly lifelike effect.


RoboSwift was designed by a student team from the Netherlands as part of a competition to create innovative unmanned micro-aerial and ground vehicles.

Female Androids Come to Life

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, who is famous for creating a robotic duplicate of himself a few years ago, is back to creeping out the entire world, this time with a female android. Geminoid F, as she’s called, can smile, laugh and even display “emotions.” As you’ll see in the video, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between the robot and the woman she was modeled after.






From IEEE Spectrum:

Geminoid HI-1 [is] designed to be remote controlled by an operator. In a press conference in Osaka, Ishiguro demonstrated how the android could mimic the facial expressions of the woman as she sat in front of a computer with cameras and face-tracking software.

[The team] wanted to create an android that could exhibit a wide range of natural expressions. … In particular, they wanted the robot to sport a convincing smile.

Facial recognition software used to make more humanlike robots? Fantastic. But the end result still looks like an invader from from the uncanny valley.