Mabel & colour telly

Tomorrow's World in 1966 looks at Mabel, the wonder robot of 1976 and the latest advance in colour television–sort of.

Sarah Connor reported unconcerned about cut-rate Dalek

Our heartless friends

The Age of the Robot circa 1963.

ODEX-1

I remember this one from my days studying robotics at university. I always felt that what it really needed was one of these:

Today, it would even be able to spot door knobs, which is not as fun as blowing the door open, but can be used to heighten suspense.

RoboThespian

We'll let you know.

Does Mamet by night, hunts for...Line!

Robodrum-circle

Progress marches on and "Makes hippies obsolete."

Even Sarah Connor is pleased with this one.

Wearable robot

Researchers at Tsumaki Telerobotics Laboratory at Yamagata University have come up with a robot that you wear on your shoulder.

Sorry, I've seen this thing before and I'm getting ready to run like hell.

Robomilker

Automatically milks cows and mucks out after them.

Highly unlikely to find Sarah Connor.

Update: More here. I particularly like this bit (emphasis added):

Today, they manage their operation using both a traditional 40-unit rotary dairy, which is milking 239 cows twice a day on their home farm, while 171 cows are milked through their robotic dairy on the recently-purchased country.

A traditional rotary dairy? I'll have you know that back in 1939 the rotary dairy was known as the Rotolactor; and as for traditional, it was the centrepiece for Borden's Dairy World of Tomorrow at the New York World's Fair.

Have people no respect for the dreams of Future Past?

Predbots

Scientists at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, Switzerland develop predatory robots.

Sarah Connor says nothing; just rolls her eyes heavenward.

Robot homicide anniversary

On this day in 1979, the first incident occurred where a robot killed a human being.

In order to prevent this sort of thing, Isaac Asimov posed his First Law of Robotics:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Or as Terry Pratchett more sensibly completed it:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm–unless ordered to do so by duly constituted authority.

As Lord Vetinari put it,

A hammer can hardly refuse to hit the nail on the head, nor a saw to make moral judgments about the nature of the timber.

Far more sensible.

XV-11

Neato Robotics releases an advanced leaser-guided robot vacuum cleaner,

Here it is in action.

Okay, it still has a few bugs.

Cyber Tortoise

Cybernetizoo explores Russia's Cyber Tortoise of 1962.

Hunts for Sarah Connor very, very slowly.

Roboshopper

Helps old people buy groceries; hunts for Sarah Connor in the produce aisle.

Paintball 'bot

Sarah Connor uses one of these to keep in training.

Robopathologist

Because Skynet is going to want to make sure Sarah Connor isn't playing 'possum.

Wallace & Gromit, call your service

This Panasonic kitchen robot may look like a good idea,

but I'm going for this one from Bojan Nemec of the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia.

Sarah Connor in a carving knife fight or being chased down the slopes by skiing kilbots; that's what I call an embarrassment of riches.

Chembot

Oh, great. Irobot, no longer satisfied with building Roombas, is branching out by developing shoggoths. That's it. I'm leaving.

Meanwhile, Sarah Connor starts brushing up on her Necronomicon.

RIBA

If this thing ever takes time off from hunting Sarah Conner to come near me, I'm giving it both barrels in its warm and reassuring conk.

Robo fish farm

The latest twist in piscatorial matters is a robot fish farm designed to carry their finny charges along their natural migration routes.

Question is, why? Is it to increase yields or just to mess with their little heads?

It'll all end in tears, I know it

One Operating System to rule them all, One Operating System to find them, One Operating System to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Roboramen

Great. Now Sarah Connor can't even go out for lunch.

Brother, can you spare a diode?

Robots in Japan facing record unemployment; the hunt for Sarah Connor moves to the dole queue.

Robobat

Flies through the night; gets stuck in Sarah Connor's hair.

Robotable

Great. Now when I go down the pub I have to worry about my table running off to hunt for Sarah Connor.

Roboferret

The University of Sheffield, for reasons known only to themselves, have developed a robot ferret.

Yes, it is a technological marvel, but how many can you stuff down your trousers?

Kobian

The trick of doing GPP is to keep the range of emotions simple.

Keep It Simple

I see they're trying to write up a code of ethics for robot warriors. That's all very laudable, I'm sure, but I always thought that this summed the solution up quite nicely:

ACE

German roboticists have come up with a a robot, christened the Autonomous City Explorer or ACE, that is capable of going up to people and asking them for directions. Ever on the cutting edge of journalism, Ephemeral Isle has an exclusive audio clip of ACE in action.

Memo

It even plays chess–if you don't mind a 15X15 board.

If you are suffering from senility or everyone keeps telling you that you are, then the Memo might be just the trick. This concept robot can not only keep grandpa company, but it can also dispense his pills, show him movies, play music, tell him where his glasses are, and follow him about everywhere; looking out for his welfare and being helpful wherever it can.

I'd take my cane to it within two days.

Share and enjoy!

Ripsaw MS1

Why Johnny Taleban will be rooming with Sarah Connor.

Attack of the Robots

A Swedish court fines a company 25,000 kroners after one of their workers was attacked by a robot.

The name of the victim is not given, but is believed to be something like "J. Connor".

Robophrenologist

Studies head bumps; thinks this will locate Sarah Connor.

HRP-4C

The world's first "fashion model" robot.

What she lacks in a figure she makes up for with her devastating killbot moves for her hunt for Sarah Connor.

Tmsuk T-52 Enryu

What I want for my birthday: Two of these.

With flamethrowers.

Freeman Lowell, Call Your Service

MIT invents a robot gardener.

Weeds, waters, cultivates, hunts for Sarah Connor.

Future Protected Vehicle

Britain's high-tech battle wagons of the future.

If the MoD gets a realistic budget, that is.

Both Ends of the Spectrum

In this corner, we have the EyeDrive mini robot that can carry 16 miniature missiles.

And in this corner we have the RipSaw MS1 tracked robot, which can hit 60 mph and sports an M240 machine gun.

Was it something Sarah Connor said?

RoboTuna

Not even sushi bars will be safe for Sarah Connor.

Roofus

A robot designed to clear roofs of snow and ice–and dump it on Sarah Connor.

Robomaid

Hunts for Sarah Connor; doesn't do windows.

Robobarista

Yujin Robot of South Korea has developed a robot that can serve coffee.

We had a similar thing in my day, only it was a bit more practical.

Robosuppository

The FDA has approved a robot small enough to be... inserted.

Skynet is looking for Sarah Connor everywhere.

Roboskip

A 700-ton robot dumpster.

Is anyone else as frightened as I am?

Aside from Sarah Connor, of course.

Scanrobot

Automatically scans up to 2400 pages an hour–mostly telephone directories.

C-O-N-N...

And a Hook was Hanging on the Door!

EE Times headline:

Robot removes kidney

And the patient woke up the next morning in a bathtub full of ice.

Droid on Droid Action

An unmanned USAF aircraft in Iraq destroyed a remote controlled Jiahdist vehicle laden with explosives.

Begun, the Robot Wars Have.

Meatbot

Fanuc Robotics America Inc.has developed a robot suitable for use in a meat-packing plant.

If Sarah Connor goes missing I'm definitely giving the pork pies a miss.

Puttbot

If O J Simpson can hunt for the real killer on the golf links, then Skynet can...

robopouf

Now Skynet isn't even trying.

RoboTrac

Someone should point out that Sarah Connor is a city girl. This robot tractor is billed as a fully programmable "automated farmhand" that can take care of "tilling, plowing, disking, planting, harrowing, spraying, weeding, and other similar tasks."

Fortunately, I live up the top of the hill, so when it inevitably runs amuck I'll have enough time to get the anti-tank missile set up.

Be prepared, I say.

Gordon Ramsey, Call Your Service

From the University of Munich comes the B21 kitchen robot.

It identifies utensils, helps out with the cooking and says **** a lot.













Update: And here it is in action:

Robojellyfish

Even Skynet had to admit that this wasn't that great an idea for hunting Sarah Connor.

Problem Solving

The Care-o-bot is a sophisticated piece of robotic equipment that you can programme to fetch drinks from the kitchen.

Or you can save yourself a bucket of money and just bring the bottle with you to the living room.

Robolifeguard

Rescues swimmers in distress; hands Sarah Connor an anvil.

Elektro On Tour–Sort Of

If you can't make it to Mansfield, Ohio to see the historic robot Elektro, then don't despair; a duplicate is going on display at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, you still have to go to Pittsburgh, so it's a bit of a trade off.

Robowarehouse

A warehouse in Kentucky employs an army of robots to hunt for Sarah Connor.

And shoes.

AMP

A robot boom box that follows you around.

Sledgehammer to smash it into tiny bits not included.

Readybot

Few people realise that the reason Skynet is trying to destroy humanity is because it just wants to keep the house tidy

Marvin

Meet Marvin–an unfortunately named soul who makes up for it with a natty red steel waistcoat. He's an experimental robot at Victoria University in New Zealand who doubles as a security guard, though his singular lack of arms would seem to make him about as formidable as the black knight.

Especially as, according to his maker, he is something of a coward.

Share and Enjoy

Dutch designer Jelte van Geest has created a robot chair that follows you around the library on the off chance that you want to sit down. According to the report,

He wanted to make robots friendly and soft rather than mean and cold.

More like obsequious and annoying. Stand by for some major upholstery kicking.

Robopong

Because the hunt for Sarah Connor leaves no stone unturned.

Cyborg Cows

This is just getting bleedin' weird.

I'm Not Touching You

Intel develops a robotic hand that uses electrolocation to give it a sense of "pre-touch".

This allows it to a) grasp objects with more certainty and b) to bug the hell out of people on long road trips.

Robo Street Artist

A robot that carves people's likenesses out of Styrofoam.

Why do I have the terrible feeling that I'm going to be seeing this down the market flogging portraits to tourists?