Internal bleeding is one of the most serious injuries caused by blunt trauma, as in the case of a car accident. If severe causes are left undetected it could lead to death. Luckily modern medicine has methods of detecting and treating such injuries. For example FAST: the use of an ultrasound to detect ruptures in blood passages. However this procedure can usually only be performed at an hospital. Enter FASTele, an ultrasound robot that can be strapped on the chest of a victim and controlled by a doctor from a …

What’s the best way to sell a state of the art 12.5 million yen robot suit? Get a school girl to model it of course. Sagawa Electronics has released a video with their spokesperson “Scar-face Santaro”  of what they call the world’s first commercially available powered suit: The Powered Jacket MK3.  Video below.

Assuming that you’ve just watched that hilarious video; you must be wondering if it’s a joke or not.  Though  it’s obviously not what you’d consider a power-suit, apparently 5 units of the MK3 is actually available for purchase.  There is …

Meet RAPIRO, as its creator describes it: “Looks small, acts large, its limitless possibilities all depends on how you program it.”. This new humanoid robot kit was designed for the popular Raspberry Pi micro-computer and aims to give users a number of ways to control their own humanoid robot.

The RAPIRO, is quite easily assembled, no soldering or advanced knowledge of circuitry needed, just a screw driver. This makes it acceptable to those new to robotics and mirco-computing. It comes with 12 servos, 1 for the neck, 1 for the waist, …

Raincoats, plastic bottles, styrofoam, windshield wiper motors and a love for the sea; that’s what marine biologist and self-taught roboticist Masamichi Hayashi used to make these realistic aquatic robots. Among Hayashi’s creations are a porpoise, great white shark, green turtle, manta ray, killer whale and hammerhead shark. Back in 2009 they were featured on Japanese TV, Hayashi explained how they are used to teach kids about marine animal behavior and locomotion.

The 5 ft long coelacanth robot below weighs 105 lbs and cost 2 million yen ($22,000) to make.

via: Pink Tentacle

There are many different types of humanoid robots out there but this is the first one created solely for swimming. SWUMANIOD (SWimming + hUMANOID) was created by researchers Motomu Nakashima and Chung Changhyun of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The robot was made to reproduce the motion of human swimmers while measuring water resistance.
SWUMANIOD was made by first doing a 3D scan of a real person’s body, then using 3D printed parts to make a 1/2 model. Next they added 20 water-proof motors and programmed the bot to imitate human …

The robot community in Japan is never short of ingenuity, take this robot maid for example. This custom bot was built by Dr. GIY, a well respected member of the Robo-one scene. The first of the Doctor’s creations I saw live was an anthropomorphic robot cat that wowed the audience in a dance competition. It’s quite obvious he’s a wiz at making his creations dance. Watch her go.

According to Dr. GIY the choreography is not as smooth as he’d like it to be so he’ll be working on refining it. …

Japanese performance artist Momoyo Torimitsu takes her robot for a crawl in downtown Sydney, Australia. Crowds watch the bizarre sight of the life-like Japanese businessman in suit and tie slowly crawling on all fours along the pavement. The robot is a symbol of the Japan’s rigid Salaryman culture.
by itnsource on youtube 2006

Summer is cockroach season in Japan and these remote controlled robot cockroaches are the perfect way to freak out your loved ones who are terrified of them. There’s called Gokiraji from GOKIburi (cockroach) and RAJIkon (RC), and they’re 1,680 yen each. I wish they were a lot cheaper so I could buy a swarm of them.
via: JTT

This 4.9 ton, 12.5 foot (3.8 meter) metal monstrosity is Vaudeville, a project in progress by a small group of mecha enthusiasts called “Suidobashi Heavy Industry”. The single-pilot giant robot is controlled using a smartphone, master-slave control and also a Kinect sensor in the cockpit. Check out this video showing their work in progress.

It is truly amazing that a backyard project such as this could be of such high quality. The best thing about this project is that when it is finished you have a chance to own it. The …

Nobuhiro Takahashi is a researcher known for making high-tech devices for lonely people. He previous inventions include; Sense-Roid, a vest that allows you to know how it feels to hug yourself and robotic tongue for kissing over the internet (videos below). Now he’s at it again, he’s created the world’s most realistic robot buttocks. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, “Shiri”. (Japanese for butt)

So according to Takahashi and The University of Electrocommunication, this humanoid robot butt was made to explore innovative ways to use robotics in communication. They are …