Among the news we highlight this week there is InMoov, a robotic hand with 5 fingers. It’s not stronger nor more sensitive than Hubo’s hand we reported last week. The originality the InMoov hand is that it was printed. Yes, by a 3D printer. And what’s coolest is that instructions are available online for both the right hand and the left one. Another cool story is about a robotic companion for joggers: the joggobot. A quadcopter is used to support someone exercising. It’s able to track the jogger position with an embedded camera and either follow her like a dog or remain in front and move at the same pace. Our last favorite news is about a cute robot: Wall-E. The fictional character from Disney-Pixar has been turned into a real robot by Mike Senna who already made a replica of R2D2. All parts were made from scratch since no hobbyist components were available. Kudos!

Videos of the Week

News of the Week

• Robots and Components
• Business, Funding & Initiatives
• Projects and Experiments
• Misc

Robots and Components

• ･HyQ – Plastic Pals – 8 June 2012
• 3D Printed Robotic Hand You Can Make – RobotShop – 7 June 2012
• DASH Roachbot Learns Acrobatic Flips from Real Cockroach – IEEE Spectrum : Robotics – 7 June 2012
• Boeing’s Chubby Hydrogen-Powered UAV Makes Its First Flight – IEEE Spectrum : Robotics – 5 June 2012

Business, Funding & Initiatives

• First Kiva Systems and now Intelligrated! Who’s Next? – The Robot Report – 9 June 2012
• Four approaches by industrial robot makers to transition to service robotics – The Robot Report – 7 June 2012
• Robotsurgery Cost – Robotland – 7 June 2012
• Flexible, Intelligent Robotics Debuted In Materials Handling Marketplace – The Robot Report – 7 June 2012
• Hansen Medical Receives FDA Clearance for it’s Magellan Robotic System – The Robot Report – 6 June 2012
• RobotShop “The Amazon of Robotics” is the 63rd Fastest Growing Company in Canada! – RobotShop – 4 June 2012

Projects and Experiments

• Engineered robot interacts with live fish – Phys.org – 7 June 2012
• Dancing With The Robot Stars (Video) – Robots Dreams – 6 June 2012
• Quadrotor Learns How Not To Swing Stuff – IEEE Spectrum : Robotics – 6 June 2012
• Maker Faire 2012: The Wall-E Builders Club (Video) – Robots Dreams – 5 June 2012
• NXT Printer – The NXT Step – 5 June 2012
• The ART Project’s Nuclear Inspection Centaur Robot – Plastic Pals – 5 June 2012
• Get Off the Couch and Exercise With Joggobot – IEEE Spectrum : Robotics – 4 June 2012
• Video: Robonaut 2 Put To Work Aboard The ISS – Plastic Pals – 4 June 2012

Misc

• Video Friday: Humanoid Goes Swimming, a Last Moment Robot, and R2D2 Sells You a Prius – IEEE Spectrum : Robotics – 8 June 2012
• Random Robot Roundup – Robots.net – 7 June 2012
• ･CENTAUR – Plastic Pals – 7 June 2012
• Battling Robots Come Out Fighting! – New Robot Toys from Takara Tomy – Robots Dreams – 6 June 2012
• Robots and Ethical Choices – The Robot Report – 5 June 2012
• Guided Projects with ROBOTC for Arduino – RobotC – 4 June 2012