'Arm' can reach into cupboards

Robotics
A new, wriggly "snake-arm" developed by British engineers to help the military may soon find an application in the home.

The snake-arm, from OC Robotics (www.ocrobotics.com ), based in Bristol, United Kingdom, actually works more like an elephant's trunk than a snake's body.

The arm can be fitted with cameras and tools, and uses its wires and actuators to reach objects in confined spaces, making it ideal for building and inspecting airplane parts, says OC Robotics' chief executive, Rob Buckingham.

Right now, OC Robotics is working with the US and British military to add the snake-arm to bomb-disposal robots. (An iRobot PackBot equipped with a snake-arm would be able to go under a vehicle to reach for explosive devices, for example.)

But Buckingham expects to meet with other researchers and investors in Cambridge, Mass., this week to explore ways the snake-arm might be used in the home. A snake-arm robot might be able to reach into the cupboards and grab the biscuits, without knocking the tea onto the floor.

But a snake-arm robot might not be able to do everything.

"Getting someone dressed is a major challenge," said Buckingham.

Robotics

Lawn mower disappoints -- it works well as long as the lawn is already mowed

I really want things to work out with my robotics lawn mower, but things are not going well.

After spending a day charging the LawnBott Evolution (lawnbott.com), laying perimeter wires around my yard to protect my wife's flowerbeds, and anchoring the robot's base station, it looks like I will be breaking out the old manual mower after all.

My daughter, Maeve, and her friends were excited to see the robot in action last week. But the kids edged away when the Evolution choked on the long grass and clover in my backyard, and its battery seemed to die. And I started to growl.

Robotic mowers are a bit like Roombas for your lawn. The Evolution ( $2,499) has a single blade that is supposed to chop your bluegrass or rye to a perfectly even height.

Roomba only requires that you pick up the living room a bit, as you would for a regular vacuum. But to use the Evolution, the grass needs to be relatively short already. In effect, you must start with a lawn that is already cut, making it in my mind something of a prima donna among robots.

The battery-operated robot wirelessly communicates with a base-station charger, to which it returns after a scheduled cut. (You can program regular mows into the robot.)

The Evolution could not handle my very tall grass (over 3 inches). The nose of the robot flattened the long grass, which further prevented the mower blade from doing its job.

I'll be looking at other lawn mower robots this summer.

Satellite Radio

New boombox offers improved sat sound

Delphi's Premium Sound System is a new boom box that requires eight C batteries and has a compatibility issue with one of the headsets it's supposed to support. Still the PSS, into which you can dock several Delphi radios, is a major improvement over the low-quality units that have been disappointing XM and Sirius users the services were launched.

The PSS (about $180 at shopdelphi.com) has a sturdy speaker grille, and its speakers deliver decent sound for the money. A retractable handle on the top makes the PSS handy enough to transport to the beach.

As for the incompatibility issue, I noticed an odd message near a switch inside the PSS's battery compartment. It instructs you to flip the switch "if you are having problems using the volume control" with your MyFi headset. I find that kind of message off-putting.

Innovative Last Week

Video projectors designed just for gamers

If you like getting your whole body moving in front of the Wii, or you enjoy being the queen of the DDR dance pad, you may find your current TV setup is a bit confining. Soon many exergamers, however, will be working with life-size versions of their Mii alter egos, projected against a wall anywhere in their homes. Southern Methodist University, Texas Instruments, and the product design firm Ignition (ignition.com) are cosponsoring a $50,000 contest to create video projectors specifically for gamers. These will not be your daddy’s boardroom models. Rather, they look like PC webcams whose lenses you turn to face the wall.