Have a cool idea? You could win a free robot

Willow Garage is giving away up to ten of its new PR2 mobile-manipulation robots to research institutions that send in proposals "describing the open source and scientific contributions that they can make with a PR2."

For the past couple of years, our researchers, developers and interns have used prototypes of the PR2 to build exciting new capabilities for robotics. The PR2 program kickstarted development of ROS, an open source robotics platform. It also helped drive new capabilities in the OpenCV computer vision library. One year ago, we accomplished our first Milestone: autonomous navigation with the PR2 robot for 2Ï€ kilometers. Six months ago, we accomplished our second Milestone: opening doors, plugging in, and 26.2 miles of autonomous navigation. We are now completing our third Milestone, which solidifies the ROS and OpenCV software platforms that form the basis of the PR2 software system.

It looks like a friendly fellow, but stay clear of that beak.

PR2 Beta Program: The Call for Proposals is Out!

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

i realy like this robot i can see the heat snsers and the eyes realy cool.if i made this robot i would remenber that it works befor i gave it away
Anonymous

“You could win a free robot”

well if the robot is free, then what’s the incentive to play? :P
Freddie Freelance

It’s Tom Servo’s buff cousin!
- demidan
  
  Or it’s Servo’s great grandbotson in MST4K.
Anonymous

Hi

i would love to have that robot and make it work as an art sculptor, by teaching him to manipulate diferent materials as clay, porcelain, cement, ceramic.
i would also try to program random and AI so he make his own desicions and devolop his own style. I can register his progress in a blog, present him to art galleries, museums, and make his work big.

Sorry for the english, im from argentina, ican take charge of the shipping to buenos aires.
here is my website: http://gabrielrud.com.ar/
Harold Hankins

It’s not free, it’s a free 2 year lease. You have to return it at the end of 2 years.
jtegnell

Nice to see I’m not the only one who saw Tom Servo in that face!
semiotix

I like that this robot already knows how to make the classic “defeated supervillain cursing his fate with clenched, upturned fists” pose. That’s a must for my various plans involving robots.