As more and more of the technology that we paid for turns becomes a subscription, there’s slowly been a momentum shift in the open source world of building replacements for these intrusive rent-seekers. We see this all of the time for self-hosted media and communications servers, but now we’re starting to see it in hardware as well. The OOMWOO robotic vacuum cleaner is completely open source, from hardware to software, and requires no cloud services whatsoever.

Although it’s open source, not every component is something one could buy off the shelf. It does require a 3D printer for most of the parts, but assuming that requirement is met most of the rest of the build comes together easily enough. For compute it relies on a Raspberry Pi running ROS 2 software and is set up to integrate easily with other existing open tools and projects such as Home Assistant. Like its proprietary cousins it can sense and map the rooms its placed in, but this platform uses an inexpensive 2D lidar system to keep costs down.

Right now the project is not quite complete, so we’ll all have to keep our eyes on this one as the team building it progresses. But they do have most of the software development done and the bill-of-materials is in progress. As an open project it’s being developed by many volunteers and there are a lot of areas available to contribute to as well, all currently set up on the project’s GitHub page. Right now many of those areas of effort are adapting the 3D printer files to off-the-shelf parts.

With the rocky status of the Roomba ecosystem, projects like this are more important than ever.

"A humanoid robot lost its head," reports Newsweek, "during the world's first free-combat tournament for full-sized humanoid robots." The Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend competition began Thursday in Shenzhen, China, according to the article, with local robotics company EngineAI providing $40,000 of their "T800" robots (yes, named after The Terminator) to 32 participating teams from around the world: A video shared of the combat on YouTube by local news outlet Shenzhen Story, showed that even after one of the robots had its head practically knocked off its shoulders, it continued to fight, throwing punches at its opponent and kicking into the air... [White humanoid robot "White Eagle"] landed a high kick to the head of its black opponent, "Matador," which made the robot's head rock precariously in its socket before rolling completely out of place. The two continued to spar as Matador's head was swinging from its socket until eventually the robot fell, crushing its head underneath its body. Matador tried to scramble back to its feet, but its head flew off and the robot then collapsed back down. The White Eagle did a celebratory dance for the crowd as the fight concluded, and did a move that mimicked that of someone flexing their biceps. The White Eagle waited in the ring, fists still up, as Matador was carried away, occasionally doing a few more dance moves... Per a report by Global Times, the winning team will be awarded a gold championship belt worth $1.44 million (10 million yuan) by the event organizer. It's a strange fight. The robots sometimes seem unaware of where their opponent is, facing the wrong direction or throwing kicks and punches in the air. In the first round White Eagle just knocks over Matador, who then isn't able to stand back up. (And White Eagle again appears to do a victorious dance.) EngineAI's site says they aim to "promote the development of robot combat events toward greater professionalism, scale, and industrialization," while fostering innovation and global collaboration. Thanks to Slashdot reader pbahra for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's Woz Ed foundation is partnering with Realbotix, best known for their RealDoll-branded artificial companions, to deploy AI-powered robotic tutors in classrooms," writes Slashdot reader Hentes. "The doll will serve as a sort of artificial teaching assistant, helping students who get stuck or generating lessons. Students will be assigned an ID code, allowing the robot to provide personalized mentoring." NYS Focus reports: "This deployment in a working school district represents a landmark moment for both AI and humanoid robotics," said Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Realbotix, which is currently building the robot. "[Salamanca City Central School District in Western New York] marks the beginning of a new era where humanoid robots and intelligent AI assistants become standard tools in STEM education." The female robot, named Sally, will have a "lifelike appearance" with silicone skin and long brown hair, Kiguel said in an interview with New York Focus. It will be stationary in a seated position but have a wide range of upper-body movements and facial expressions. [...] Salamanca plans to introduce the robot and avatar in its high school AI and robotics courses, which use curriculum developed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to prepare students for high-demand tech jobs. The district plans to expand it to high school students in other classes if the pilot is successful. Realbotix's classroom robot has drawn scrutiny because the company is connected to RealDoll, the longtime maker of hyperrealistic sex dolls and sex robots. Realbotix acquired RealDoll's parent company in 2024 but says the education-focused operation has separate employees, payroll, facilities, and technology, with plans to formally separate the businesses at the ownership level. The "companion robots" are different from sex robots and intended to address what it's described as a "loneliness epidemic." Kiguel has previously said the company's goal is to produce robots and AI that are "indistinguishable from humans."

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Researchers have unveiled a floating AI robot inspired by Studio Ghibli that glides silently through the air, offering a safer and more approachable vision for future AI companions.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Humanoid robots have surgically removed the gallbladders from living animals in an unprecedented medical experiment -- but not as autonomous machines capable of replacing human doctors. Instead, skilled human surgeons remotely controlled the robots' movements in a new example of human-robot teamups. The teleoperated humanoid robots completed two minimally invasive surgeries by removing gallbladders from live pigs during a preclinical trial that was published in the journal Nature. If this approach eventually proves clinically ready for human patients, surgeons could use such humanoid robots to remotely perform robotic-assisted surgical care in smaller hospitals and clinics that lack the resources to install specialized but expensive surgical robots. The experiment used a Unitree G1 humanoid robot made by leading Chinese robotics company Unitree. The cheapest baseline G1 model with effectively non-functional hands has a starting price of $13,500 and shipping costs ranging between $300 and $1,200, whereas adding crucial upgrades such as dexterous robotic hands can easily push the cost beyond $67,000. But such humanoid robots made in China are still significantly cheaper than specialized surgical robots like Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, which can cost anywhere between half a million dollars and several million dollars. The specialized surgical robots can also weigh about 1,800 pounds and take up considerably more space in operating rooms. By comparison, the Unitree humanoid robots, standing at 5 feet tall and weighing just 60 pounds, may be more suitable for smaller clinical settings in remote areas.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA is preparing a robotic rescue mission to boost the falling Swift telescope, test satellite servicing, and avoid a costly observatory replacement.

The post NASA Launches Daring Robotic Rescue Mission to Save Falling Swift Telescope appeared first on TechRepublic.

One of the simplest robots to make is a bristlebot — a motor with an offset weight is attached to the head of a toothbrush, and the resulting vibrations will move the contraption across a flat surface. [Very Lazy Pixels] recently took this idea a bit further by turning the Steam Controller into a steerable, bristlebot-like robot.

To drive one’s Steam Controller across a desk, all that is needed is for a computer with a paired controller and a Chromium-based browser. From there, using the WASD buttons, the web interface converts traditional video game inputs into controller motion by spinning the controller’s rumble motors at a specific frequency. With precise control of these motors, the controller can move forwards and backwards and even turn, which is a great deal more advanced than the traditional bristlebots generally manage.

Part of what makes this possible is Valve’s willingness to release information about many of their products to the general public, enabling anyone to modify or upgrade those products to their liking. While not completely open source, it’s a step in the right direction and enables fun projects like these. We’ve seen other Valve products turned into surprisingly barebones single-board computers as well as custom portable workstations thanks to this philosophy.