Strong coverage and a long run time make this pool-cleaning robot a compelling alternative to pricier models. Great performance for the price (assuming you can grab it on sale). Floats when cleaning is complete. Basket can be harder to clean than expected. Minimal intelligence (though it doesn't seem to need it).

Artistic creation is often seen as a uniquely human endeavor, yet robots bring distinct advantages to music-making, such as precise tempo control, unpredictable rhythmic complexities, and the ability to coordinate intricate human and robot performances. While many robotic music systems aim to mimic human musicianship, our work emphasizes the unique strengths of robots, resulting in a novel multi-robot performance instrument called the Beatbots, capable of producing music that is challenging for humans to replicate using current methods. The Beatbots were designed using an ``informed prototyping'' process, incorporating feedback from three musicians throughout development. We evaluated the Beatbots through a live public performance, surveying participants (N=28) to understand how they perceived and interacted with the robotic performance. Results show that participants valued the playfulness of the experience, the aesthetics of the robot system, and the unconventional robot-generated music. Expert musicians and non-expert roboticists demonstrated especially positive mindset shifts during the performance, although participants across all demographics had favorable responses. We propose design principles to guide the development of future robotic music systems and identify key robotic music affordances that our musician consultants considered particularly important for robotic music performance.

If you're an athlete sponsored by Puma, you're about to get a new toy. The shoe company partnered with ad agency J. Walter Thompson New York to create the Puma BeatBot, a self-driving robot built to help runners train. The BeatBot, which looks like a rolling shoebox with LED lights, can trace a perfect line around a track at world record speeds to help give professional runners a physical target to chase down. "We found a lot of anecdotal evidence that head to head competition raised performance levels, even a few studies that showed an uptick performance," Florent Imbert, JWT New York's executive creative director told Fast Company. "But, to us, it felt like a human truth. Running against an invisible clock will never be as motivating as running against someone -- or something."

The robot works by scanning lines on the track with an array of nine IR sensors, while wheel rotations are monitored via Arduino to keep track of speed and distance. If you figured this would be expensive, you're right. Even though there isn't an exact price, for now, BeatBot will only be offered to Puma-sponsored teams and athletes. Until that changes, you'll just have to make due the old fashioned way: finding a faster running buddy.