One Randy Robot and One Explanation.

I’m still catching up on everything. Here’s a picture of a randy robot and here’s an explanation.

Have a Very Robot Christmas

I’m going to bed now – all the presents are safely under the tree for the kids, and I’m going to bed with visions of Spykees and Roveos dancing in my head.

Special thanks to all my readers, new and old – it’s been a great year filled with incredible highs and lows. Here’s to hoping that next year is as interesting as this one!

I’ll just leave you with this robotic note I found on FriendFeed from the Queen of Spain:

Merry Christmas, and may all your trees have robotic whirrs and mews emanating from them in the morning.

Play Robot Soccer Online!

Yet another short and sweet post while I am packing my belongings for the move to Dallas.

Remember the i-SOBOT I was raving about the other day?

Here’s one you can play soccer with, online, right now..

[Robot Services Group via BotJunkie]

Open Source Robots

Just a quick re-blog from AI&R while I finish packing for the move to Dallas.

South Korea's Roboware is close to completing development of their entertainment humanoid robot E3. The robot's name derives from its function as an Emotional, Entertainment and Educational device. Clearly, Roboware has big plans for this open source robot equipped with sonar, sound, camera, and touch sensors including a touch screen on its chest. The robot moves around using a 3-wheel mechanism.

Engineering TV recently interviewed Roboware's CEO (see the video below) who said that his company will start selling the E3 in the second quarter of 2009 for less than $3000. A bit expensive for an entertainment robot but another step forward towards commercially viable consumer robots that are a bit more capable than an iRobot Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. The past year has been an exciting one as far as advances in robotics are concerned and it definitely looks like 2009 is going to be another great year.

Open Source robots.  Fun!

Robots are Better than Humans

No – not yet another post from someone in love with that android girl from Japan.

I’m busy preparing for my move to Dallas on the 27th, so the posts for a week or so are going to be short and sweet.  Like this one.

Picked this up from Evan Ackerman at BotJunkie:

This sign, posted over at Trossen Robotics, is in a nutshell why I lock myself in my room with a bunch of robots and computers for 23 out of 24 hours every day. Not necessarily ’cause of the abuse bit, but man, humans are just so infuriatingly human sometimes…

[Trossen]

You Can Buy This Award Winning Robot

We’re really entering an age of robotics now where the idea of having affordable, interesting and useful robotics in our everyday lives is a reality. Case in point? The Omnibot 17μ i-SOBOT.

This thing won the Japanese Robot Award, a prize from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on Thursday.

The i-SOBOT is, according to Crunchgear, “the world’s smallest humanoid that’s aimed at a mass market.”

You can get it just about everywhere here in America (Toys’R Us lists it for $299 right now), and as you can see from the video below, it performs an amazing array of maneuvers (including shooting a bow and arrow).

This goes on my want list right next to the Spykee and the Roveo. All of these bots are capable of amazing tasks, and all of them can be hacked to do some pretty useful things.  Whenever this blog gets a budget (or failing that, some demo units), I’ll be absent for at least a week or two while I orchestrate some sort of proof of concept on the robot army I intend to use to take over the world with.

This SUNDAY (sunday, sunday): Spykee vs. Roveo!

There are two absolutely awesome consumer-available robots this year that both operate remotely on WiFi, have advanced capabilities that barely make them qualified to be toys, and are available at your local toy store: the Spykee and the Roveo.

Doing a simple Google search for either one will turn up thousands of results, so I won’t rehash the obvious (other than the fact that if you have about $800 in expendable cash, you need to buy both)…

… what I will show you is a clever little fight between the two, BatttleBots style.

The results will probably surprise you, given what you know from watching religiously your BattleBots fights, but should impress you none-the less.

By the way, the fightcam is something that comes standard on every Spykee.  Yeah, it’s that cool.

Am I Bot or Not?

Have you seen the Boston Dynamic’s BigDog robot?  It’s the sorta creepy robot mule designed to be kicked without falling over, carrying injured soldiers or other payload over rough terrain.  It’s an impressive bit of kit, but looks surprisingly bizarre and has a trademark annoyingly loud whirr to it.

Some Japanese thought it mike a decent parody. If there were ever a case for a site named “Am I Bot or Not,” this would be it:

[JapanProbe via Gizmodo]

Ancient Robots of the 18th Century

There was a robotics study that went around the blogosphere a week or two ago talking about robot adoption rates on a country by country basis.  I can’t seem to find it at the moment, but not surprisingly, per capita, Japan kicked the world’s butt in terms of robot-to-human ratio.

I think the USA was somewhere behind Switzerland.

Regardless, it shouldn’t also be that surprising that the Japanese were amongst the first to have detailed and working robots.

Robot-blogger Tim Hornyak recently took a tour of the Matsumoto Timepiece Museum in Nagano, where he happened to see some rare manuscripts with detailed plans for building karakuri ningyo, or clockwork dolls:

The manuscript is called Karakuri Zui(sometimes read as Kikou Zui) or "Illustrated Machinery." It was written by Hanzo Hosokawa, a mechanical engineer, astronomer and inventor from the domain of Tosa on Shikoku Island. The three-volume treatise details how to make four kinds of wadokei clocks and nine types of karakuri dolls including the famous tea-serving doll. Known as Japan's oldest mechanical engineering manuscript, the book has meticulously written notes on how to dress the dolls in kimono.

In Japan, proper engineering has always looked good - even in 1796.

Very interesting stuff.

This Holiday Season, Will You Help this Homeless Robot?

It’s usually around this time every year we start hearing the sob stories from folks of all walks of life looking for our charity… Christmas time is the season for giving, after all. 

I’m certainly no stranger to unemployment, as you know, but did you know that even robots are suffering this holiday season? According to ADH Imaging, there are even homeless robots looking for charity amidst this economic downturn:

AHD168 is a computer generated robot who was written out of a TV advert due to credit crunched budgetary constraints. AHD168 now spends his days wandering the streets looking for a meaningful role in an animated TV project.

After you watch this heartwrenching and short documentary profiling the trevails of ADH168, you might even be moved to the point of wanting to give this robot a home, or even a job.

DIY Offensive UAV

Forgive me if you’ve seen this one before, but it seems to be making the rounds again on all the robot blogs…

This thing is just great. We’ve all known it’s theoretically possible to hook up a gun to an R/C helicopter.

This guy did it.

You’re not going to sneak up on anyone with this thing, and it’s not much for accuracy, but hey, it gets the job done.

Via Neatorama

Six-Legged Robot of Dooooom [Layoff Prevention]

I gotta be honest.  This is the least impressive robot I’ve seen come across the wires in a long time, but the picture of the creator riding it like a Clydesdale warhorse completely makes up for that fact.

It’s a simple six legged robot that seems to be capable of walking and carrying moderately heavy loads in one direction – not particularly impressive in terms of what’s possible with today’s robotics.

Gizmodo’s Adam Frucci had a great idea for folks who might be in danger of losing their jobs, though:

These days, you've gotta do everything you can to stand out at the office so you don't get laid off. Like tromp around in a terrifying, six-legged robo-chair.

If I had one of these back in the 90’s, I bet I would’ve fared much better during the great layoff sprees. 

Just sayin’.

[Instructables via Gizmodo]

More Service Dog Replacement Candidates

Robot dogs, of the non Aibo variety, have been surfacing quite a bit in the news as of late. Picked up a bit of news forwarded to me by a reader today out of Georgia Tech. It’s a bit old at this point, but still interesting:

Service dogs, invaluable companions providing assistance to physically impaired individuals, are an elite and desired breed. Their presence in a home can make everyday tasks that are difficult - if not impossible - achievable, enhancing the quality of life for the disabled.

Yet with a cost averaging $16,000 per dog – not to mention the two years of training required to hone these skills – the demand for these canines’ exceeds their availability.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have engineered a biologically inspired robot that mirrors the actions of sought-after service dogs. Users verbally command the robot to complete a task and the robot responds once a basic laser pointer illuminates the location of the desired action.

All in all, it’s a great advancement for all involved.  Often times, the waiting list for a service animal can be upwards of eight years. There’s no word on when these robots will be available for public consumption, but one would assume it’ll be quicker than that.

Bakarobo: Proof that Robots Don’t Evolve

At some point, when our society has been dominated for thousands of years by robot and mechanized AI, they’ll debate in schools as to whether robots evolved from single geared organisms or they were created by a loving and occasionally vengeful Inventor.

Hopefully, we’ll all be able to quell this debate when they wake up one of us from our thousand year slumber in cryogenic suspended animation by recalling this particular event: Bakarobo 2008.

Apparently, it’s a robot design contest that according to Trends in Japan, rewards stupidity and uselessness in robot design.  That’s right – one of the rules is that the robot must be “useless to society.”

You gotta watch this.

Automating the Kitchen

One of my earliest ideas was to automate the one part of my daily life that I really suck at – the kitchen. As my wife can attest, any time I get into the kitchen, the results are pretty disastrous.

I have some pretty detailed drawings that had to do with tracks, RFID’d food items, and some crazy lookin’ Radio Shack robotic arms.

This thing looks like a lot more elegant solution.

Now to convince my wife we need to throw this guy into the kitchen and take it easy around dinner time.

[via BotJunkie]

Update: Wife says no.  Cooks too slow for her. :-/

I, For One, Welcome Our Robot Dog Overlords

It seems that pretty much everyone is welcoming our new robot overlords. I randomly happened on a blog post over at SmartDogs, a site devoted to breeders, owners and enthusiasts for working dogs.

Unsurprisingly, robotics has progressed to the point where a lot of the ‘dangerous’ jobs typically reserved for animals (bomb sniffing and such) can now be handled by advanced robotics:

Release the fleas! SWAT and other urban assault teams could soon be deploying packs of all-seeing, hopping robots armed with mini missiles to ferret out the bad guys.

The EyeDrive unmanned ground vehicle (UGV)uses remote-controlled 360-degree panoramic video technology and a patented Point & Go sensor guidance mode to run down and “instinctively eliminate” human targets at ranges of up to 90 feet, according to ODF Optronics

The reaction was surprisingly sane (in a day and age where everyone, it seems, is protective of their turf the way a bureaucrat is protective of their budget):

While we love working dogs, we’re glad to see that robots are taking this dangerous work away from dogs — and men. It sounds like (if the government doesn’t go dead broke) we’ll be seeing more of them.

Quite honestly, I’m surprised. I’ve been touting predictions from Kurzweil’s books since the 90’s, and only recently has such a progressive attitude been adopted by the general public. Most people seemed to, at least in the past, instinctively react with fear and trepidation about the infiltration of robots and hyper-advanced technology to our daily lives.

Have we finally reached a point where people have been numbed by endless Will Smith and Keanu Reeves movies to where they just accept it?

Perhaps the guys over at Working Dog just haven’t seen this fire breathing monstrosity yet.

Robotic Fire-Breathing Dogs Roam London

This is crazy looking and a great steampunk (?) robot from the Mutoid Waste Company in Britain. They make artwork from discarded parts found at junkyards that looks like it would best be at home at BurningMan. Their gallery of artwork is interesting stuff, but their latest creation, created in weeks, not years, was featured on Don’t PanicTV.

GizmoWatch has the details, for those who can’t glean it from the video itself:

These steampunkish dudes at Mutoid Waste Company have been in the lap of everything we call scrap, making stuff that is beyond even the best sitting in the helm in factories. Larry is their latest induction to crawl through the gates of the workshop and onto the busy streets of London, breathing fire out of its metal hood with each step forward. The walking robot dog Larry surely stunned each passerby with its massive build and the fire spitting. Made entirely from scrap, the robo-dog has a Citroen 2CV engine fitted inside the metal frames. Constructed to ably walk on its front two legs, Larry has two tires stitched in place of the hind legs. Built to perfection in about four weeks, the robot also uses an old Feat car gear box to dress up the legs, while for the head a Citroen 2CV engine is used. For the eyes, Larry has a radar detecting device from an airplane scrapyard and some industrial machines parts for the other body components. Catch the robot in action after the jump.

Interesting stuff. Runs a little slow, but it’s impressive none-the-less.

Technorati Tags: steampunk,robots,fire-breathing dogs

Breakdancing Bots Body Movin’

Who doesn’t love dancing robots? For $600, you can have a robot dance to Beck (or just about any other tune you like) without paying the multi-thousand dollar Sony premium.

Check out the video below – the MechRC apparently comes with around 100 pre-programmed moves, and is infinitely configurable with a programming language that allows you to create even more.

More deets from Thoughts from the Sidelines:

Trossen Robotics MechRC Humanoid Robot, which, incidentally, has been ‘designed by the Transformer artist’ – hence its particularly mean looks - comes with IR remote as well as a USB/Serial communications cable which allows to you program the MechRC robot via an easy to use interface utilising filmstrip style sequencing command software which will also allow you to add sound effects or a soundtrack (to which the MechRC can strut its stuff) which will be played through a speaker mounted in MechRC’s chest.

Cool stuff. Consider it officially on this year’s wishlist.

The Fastest Robot, Evar

I found this over at Science Daily, it’s the fastest bi-pedal robot so far:

From the article:

Computational neuroscientists designed a robot that teaches itself how to walk on differing terrain. The RunBot uses an infrared eye to detect slopes, and adjusts its gait for the smoothest walk. From repeated attempts it matches the degree of slope to the appropriate length of step and movement of joints. Essentially, the robot learns to walk on uneven ground in the same way as a child.

“After two or three times, like a baby, it just learns from mistake and it changes gait and walks up the slope,” Poramate Mannonpong, Ph.D., Computational Neuroscientist at the University of Goettingen in Goettingen, Germany said.

Dr. Manoonpong is the computational neuroscientist behind the Runbot. By using sensors and an infrared eye, this robot can detect a slope on its path and adjust on the spot! It’s created with the same critical joints as a human.

“It has two hip joints, two knee joints, here … and it has a foot contact sensor for each leg.” Dr. Mannonpong said.

Just like in people, sensors make sure the joints are not over-stretched and that the next step is initiated as soon as the foot touches the ground. This technology may someday be used to help humans.

“We hope that in one day, human can walk with artificial leg,” Dr. Mannonpong said.

Speed walking robots started out slowly, at 0.7 leg lengths per second. Now, the Runbot can speed walk at 3.5 leg lengths per second. Compared to its size, that’s almost as fast as a speed walking Olympian. Proving robots are moving us fast towards the future.

The next phase is to make the Runbot freestanding and then work with companies to produce the technology for humans.

A More Advanced Industrial Vacuum Bot

According to CrunchGear:

Japanese mega companies Fuji Heavy Industries and Sumitomo today presented their jointly developed floor cleaning robot [JP, PDF] in action in an office building in Osaka , Japan.

The autonomous cleaning robot can clean corridors and other similar spaces and also is able to move between the floors of the building by using the elevators.

It can detect obstacles of any kind via a built-in laser sensor (a camera is optional). The (nameless) robot communicates with elevators with a light transmission system.

The thing looks cool – bears a similarity to the drawings I saw of the Zappos robots.

I know that the Roomba is a great robot – generally does the job – but even in my house sometimes had to be emptied multiple times before it was able to completely vacuum one room.

This looks like it has sufficient storage space for my dirt.

Who Called Over the Poledancing Robots?

Whoever it was, they’re fired from bachelor party duty.

This thing is part of an art exhibit in the UK.  I think it’s just plain disturbing.

It made the second episode of TENtech. Look for it at about minute five or so.

[BBC] via [DVICE]