

A Beer Can That Turns Into a Robot  - evac
http://singularityhub.com/2011/06/08/a-beer-can-that-turns-into-a-robot-you-know-you-want-one-video/

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wickedchicken
A friend in the robotics industry once joked that there were key differences
between American and Japanese robots: American robots were often built to be
behind the scenes in factories, while Japanese robots were merely advertising.
Take a look at ASIMO to see what he meant.

I personally chose to stay out of a robotics career because I saw so much
potential wasted on (what I thought) were nonsensical things. I felt the onus
was on designers to "humanize" them as much as possible when that lead to
expensive, fragile solutions. iRobot is a perfect example of the opposite of
this -- the Roomba navigation system is incredibly simple, stupid, and robust.
It's as cheap and simple as you can make it while still getting the job done.
Yet, people demanded a robot that would scan the room and clean 'like a person
does.' Robots aren't people, stop designing like them. These are the kinds of
things that will actually help us: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFW7VQpY-
Ik&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFW7VQpY-
Ik&feature=related)

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Pieces
For some reason, I find that completely fascinating. Such a great, elegant
solution to the problem.

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wickedchicken
It's made with a balloon, a vacuum pump and ground coffee:
[http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct10/UniversalGripper.h...](http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct10/UniversalGripper.html)

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Tyrant505
I can't wait for when startups are making amazing robots for people. The
imagination runs wild.

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observer1
<http://www.irobot.com/>

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mrspandex
But can I drink beer out of it?

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koski
I hope A full beer can will roll to my hand from the fridge one day like that.

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skeletonjelly
And then expand and wet itself :P

