DRU - Dolphin Robotic Unit

That is the DRU (Dolphin Robotic Unit) and I mentioned in my preview earlier this week that I would talk about the implications it has for research. Unfortunately, I'm drawing a bit of a blank right now, but my the first question that popped into my head was, "How would wild dolphins react to something like this?" It's movements are incredibly accurate, though not quite as fast as a real dolphin. I think there needs to be more tests to see how dolphins react to it without a barrier... I mean... I know they must be afraid that the dolphins might try tearing it apart if they find it too threatening, but from what I've seen in the video, they seem more curious than afraid. Though, that's with captive dolphins, wild dolphins may have a completely different outcome.

Keepon!

This is a bit off-topic, but not really, since I did mention that I would talk about robotics in this blog. I just got so excited about this, that I had to mention it!

The Keepon robot, that a lot of robot fanatics were anxious to see when it would finally be able to purchase, is finally going to release in retail form! And for just $40! Though, it is just a toy version of it, but it will still hopefully have some of the functionality of the research model (priced at whopping $30,000).

To explain a bit about what the Keepon does exactly, here's is the page explaining it. (I know, I went the lazy route of linking you to another page.) But, for your entertainment, here's a music video featuring the Keepon robot: