Coolest Inventions 2004: Hi, Robot

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WALK TALL, PLAY BALL

One of the hardest things to get a robot to do is walk on two legs, but nowadays bipedal is practically banal. The real trick is to give your humanoid a smooth, natural gait. The J4, above, JVC's 8-in. showpiece at a recent Tokyo trade show, proved it could walk a nice walk and kick a soccer ball to boot. It's controlled via Bluetooth. The Chroino, right--if we didn't know any better, we'd think it was Playmobil's tribute to Marvin the Martian--also boasts a more graceful stride, thanks to new SHIN-Walk technology that allows the 14-in. robot to maintain an even center of gravity and avoid the awkward bent-knee technique common to other walking bots.

INVENTORS J4: JVC; Chroino: Tomotaka Takahashi, Robo-Garage, Kyoto University

AVAILABILITY Prototypes only

ROBO-SOLDIER

Insurgents, be afraid. An armed, unmanned ground vehicle that never gets tired, hungry or scared is headed your way. The Sword has night and thermal vision, four cameras and a 7.62-mm machine gun. It can climb stairs and is utterly silent--until it opens fire. A live video feed enables its "driver" to operate the vehicle from up to 1 mile away. The U.S. Army has ordered 18 to deploy in Iraq.

INVENTORS U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center and Massachusetts defense firm Foster-Miller

AVAILABILITY 2005, $230,000 (military only)

TO LEARN MORE pica.army.mil foster-miller.com