By Evan Ackerman
We’ve had a HUGE week this week over on BotJunkie. We kicked things off at CES, getting a first look at the new iRobot Looj 2. While chatting with iRobot, we asked them about how their ConnectR beta testing was going, and were the first to break the news that the iRobot ConnectR robot has been canceled. Meanwhile, we were introduced to iRobot’s new YouTube channel, where they answer all kinds of questions about their robots including one from us: why is Roomba round? As we explored the show floor, we were SO EXCITED to run into Keepon, the little yellow BeatBot, and got some video of his new Wiimote-controlled dancing skills. The cuteness didn’t end there, either, as we got some quality grope time with Paro the robotic therapy seal pup. Anybots was also at CES, demoing their new QA telepresence robot.
We tried not to fall behind the non-CES news either, following up on the latest version of Sega’s “Dream Cat Venus.” Looks like MIT has begun selling a version of their highly expressive Nexi robot, and speaking of MIT, the Media Lab has created TOFU, a sort of squashy stretchy Keepon gone wild. We finished out the week with a heartbreaking story about a homesick Irish UAV lost in Africa, some CGI video of a duel between a robot Mac and PC, a video list of the top 10 combat robots, and a freaky demonic push-up robot.
[ BotJunkie ]
