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From the library to the golf course, the idea of personal robots that follow its masters around seems to be ready for prime time. And nowhere would they be more convenient than for luggage.

Alas, that day has yet to come, but a company called Live Luggage is taking a step in the right direction. Calling its showcase product "the world's first power-assisted suitcase," the luggage has built-in motors in the wheels and an "Anti-Gravity handle" that supposedly distributes weight in all the right places, according to CrunchGear.

The motors power up only when the … Read more

Not even a month has passed since the "Tri-Bot" has succeeded the Robosapien, and already another wheeled animatron is mounting a challenge. The "A.M.P." (Automated Musical Personality) Bot from Tiger Electronics differs from the Tri-Bot by navigating on two wheels instead of three, a feat made possible by its gyroscopic system.

It's also not meant as a kindergarten toy, according to Gearlog, measuring 2.5 feet tall and weighing in at a hefty 15 pounds. The target consumer's age is between 16 and 25, in fact, and for good reason: The A.… Read more

iRobot has secured a multimillion-dollar R&D contract for a new type of soft, flexible robot for the military, the company announced Tuesday.

The "ChemBot" project was awarded to iRobot from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Office.

iRobot did not release any preliminary diagrams or details on what the ChemBot might look like. But some ideas on what a ChemBot might be like can be gleaned from a request for proposals DARPA put out in March 2007. The robot DARPA wants to see must be a soft, flexible, mobile … Read more

Natali Del Conte will be the guest hostess next week and we want your best nicknames for her now! Please submit them to drivingmecravy@cnet.com because she won't see this coming!

It's everything from the Crave blog, with Brian Tong and guest host Bonnie Cha. This week, they talk about a new robot toy and a cell phone that you can use underwater. Then they take to the streets to see what people think about Built NY's laptop backpack. Plus, Bonnie takes your submissions and finds a nickname for Brian.

So long, Robosapien. It's been a good run, but face it: When McDonald's starts giving you away with Happy Meals, it's probably a sign that your 15 minute of fame are over.

Enter the "Tri-Bot." WowWee's successor to the groundbreaking Robosapien follows closely in its footsteps with exceptional mobility for a toy robot, except that it has no feet. Instead, it has a three-wheeled base that allows it to turn in any direction at the sharpest angles. The bot made an appearance earlier this year at CES, but RobotsRule has just posted the first … Read more

Yahoo has begun indexing the World Wide Web with its third-generation software, Slurp 3.0, the company said Monday.

"With everything now in place, the rollout has officially begun," Sharad Verma and Yoram Arnon said in a posting to Yahoo's search blog on Monday.

Unlike top search rival Google, which on Friday revealed its indexing software now is trying to uncover previously hidden pages by filling in Web pages' forms, Yahoo didn't detail what's new with its indexing software.

The company did advise those who watch for indexing software (sometimes called bots, crawlers, and spiders) … Read more

It may not be long before solar-powered bots are taking care of all our household chores. Already we've seen robotic lawnmowers get powered by the sun, and now pool cleaners are going solar too.

The "Solar Breeze" is apparently the first pool-skimming robot of its kind, capturing ultraviolet rays with two panels and storing the energy in its rechargeable batteries. It requires no electrical connections and "never stops working," according to its Web site. The bot is also capable of dispensing chlorine as it cleans, though it should be noted that another solar product, the &… Read more

Bar owner Rufus Terrill has enlisted a rather odd-looking security guard to chase away prostitutes and drug dealers milling about his Atlanta tavern: an R2-D2-like robot called "Bum Bot 2000."

The patchwork device is controlled via remote control and targets law-breakers, reports The Los Angeles Times. But homeless advocates aren't too fond of Terrill's water-squirting Bum Bot.

Read the full Los Angeles Times story: "Robot reports for security duty in Atlanta"

How do you come up with a vacuuming bot that can compete with the Roomba, which has become a household word? (A least in Michael Kanellos' house anyway.) Answer: Make it smarter.

That, at least is apparently the strategy of Samsung, which has created its own OCD bot called the "Hauzen VC-RE70V" for the Korean market, according to I4U News. This self-motivated sanitation engineer surveys its premises with a built-in camera, then automatically draws a map that shows where it needs to clean and, just as important, where it's already been so it doesn't waste energy. … Read more