Sometimes, you have to take things you find on the internet with an entire Dead Sea worth of salt. This is one of those things. Filmmaker Michael Sullivan got tired of making animated movies about robot wars, so he decided to make one about robot sex instead. “Non-stop robot sex,” according to Wired. “”It’s supposed to be like a silent robot porno movie from another planet,” says Sullivan. One seriously messed up other planet that involves an “alligator-horse” and “an Eisenstein like revolution of robot babies, who are kept in robot baby gulags where they walk around in circles and bash into things.” I’m just gonna go ahead and stop quoting Michael Sullivan here before I get into trouble.

The models themselves are mostly made out of plastic dolls like Barbie and G.I. Joe, which are sculpted with a belt sander, augmented in, uh, certain places with plumbing epoxy, and then painted. Click here to view a NSFW trailer for the movie on YouTube. Did I mention it’s NSFW? ‘Cause it’s NSFW. You can also find robot sex dioramas by Sullivan at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan; click through to the Wired article for more priceless quotes and lots of NSFW imagery.

VIA [ Wired (NSFW) ]

This new robot control interface may not be quite as exciting as the title makes it sound, but it’s certainly not a joke. Developed by Think-A-Move, the technology uses a earpiece to pick up on soundwaves generated by speech or tongue movements directly through the ear canal (as opposed to through the mouth). Then, you can control robots (like the PackBot) with voice commands. You might be wondering how exactly this is any better than traditional voice control, and it’s a straightforward answer: the robot can be controlled regardless of ambient noise (like, during active combat), and other people can’t steal your robot by yelling really loud. The movie below illustrates the concept:

When it comes to tongue, the interface is just as functional. Moving and clicking your tongue in different patterns creates patterns of sound waves which the earpiece and software can translate directly into commands, no speaking necessary… Good idea for combat situations where verbal commands could potentially get confusing.

[ Think-A-Move ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

I’m honestly not sure whether to call this robot cute or creepy. I mean, it’s a fully functional hexapod with spiky legs, which I can easily imagine jumping onto the skull of guy in the video and stabbing him repeatedly. On the other hand, the face tracking and interactive movement (sorta like Keepon) go a long way towards giving it a personality. Decide for yourself:

According to the website, the hexapod was developed for Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban to play a blast-ended skrewt, but it only ended up in about 5 seconds worth of the film. It also looks like there might eventually be a kit version of this robot in the works for anywhere from $1200 to $2400. Included in the kit would be all the hardware and software necessary to get the hexapod walking around on its own, which leaves it up to you to add sensors and accessories and weapons to taste.

[ Micromagic Systems ]

By Evan Ackerman

The thing about robots is, even if they’re designed to do practical stuff, they’re just so cool that you can’t help playing with them whenever the opportunity arises. CMU’s robotics manipulation class fell victim to this temptation by staging a head-to-head bowloff between two robot arms. The premise was simple: try and get the most pegs into the opponent’s goal, while protecting your own goal. The exact methods were up to each team (note how each arm throws slightly differently, for example), and some of the tactics got pretty involved:

Robot bowling. Doesn’t get much better than that.

[ Society of Robots ]

By Evan Ackerman

On our vigilant lookout for everything robot-y, we’ve spotted this nifty little transforming robot watch. It’s both a wristwatch and a clock, as the robot snaps off the watch bezel and stands up on its own. He’s got little movable arms and a keyring that looks like a pair of headphones. He comes in two colors and can be yours for about $35; one more pic after the jump. (Read more…)

By Evan Ackerman

If you’re looking for a spectacularly expensive and versatile desk clock, check out this video of what the Robotics Education Lab at Carnegie Mellon managed to put together with a Denso 6DOF (6 degrees of freedom) programmable robotic arm:

Every set of pegs or blocks tells the current time, and the robot arm manipulates the objects to continuously update the clock. Sometimes it’s tricky to tell how each clock actually functions (sounds familiar), but the last one is probably the clearest (and probably my favorite in terms of operation, too).

[ Society of Robots ] VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]

In yet another instance of bots imitating human life, scientists at the University of British Columbia have constructed surgical robots that they hope will perform the medical feats of the future. Since the future is not here yet, today they will be playing a large version of the “Operation” game.

Second-year students will work in teams and create prototype “surgeons”. The goal will be to see which robot can remove the most metal parts in two minutes. Of course, they have to be careful not to remove the wrong part and just like the classic game, try not to bump the sides of the “incisions”. They fail to mention whether a wrong move is accompanied by the familiar angry buzzer or not. The robots are being built completely from scratch and will be operated autonomously with no remote controls whatsoever.

Check out the video after the jump. It starts with a cartoon, has robots AND Operation. Need I say more?

(Read more…)

A team of engineers at Virginia Tech have created a fairly creepy three-legged robot named STriDER (Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot). It walks by balancing itself on two legs, while flipping its body 180-degrees, bringing its third leg forward. Project leader Dennis Hong believes that although the tripod shape is very un-conventional, the robot’s gait more closely matches humans, compared to most bipedal humanoid robots today. He’s probably right. Watching the video, it’s hard to not feel at least a tad creeped out by this walking tripod, because the gracefulness of some of movements makes it seem more real.

Check out the video after the jump to see it in action. Then imagine it larger…And coming for you!

[NewScientistTech] VIA [Engadget]

By Evan Ackerman

This video illustrates exactly why robots are such a priority for the military, and why they’re so valuable in Iraq. From a certain point of view, the more robots get blown up by IEDs, the better they’re doing at their job of keeping troops safe from roadside bombs. I have to wonder, though, how attached the bomb disposal units get to the bots that are occasionally destroyed on their behalf… The guys in the video think it’s pretty funny, and you can’t really blame them since they’re the ones who may have gotten injured or killed otherwise, but I can’t help shedding a tear for the little robot that got killed in the line of duty.

VIA [ Danger Room ]

And he just may be. Apparently the folks at www.greathouselabs.org take him and some other heavy duty bots on tour. He has toured and had gigs at Burning Man as well as other venues. He operates with twelve separate movements that can be programmed or operated manually. Plus, his mouth moves to any soundtrack placed in his MP3 player. You just know he has sung his share of Heavy Metal.

The kids love him. Especially when he sings anything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Adults like the fact that Robobust recites classic movie lines from such movies as MommyDearest. “NO MORE WIRE HANGERS”. The best part? He is capable of shooting fire.

Video of Robobust in action and Links after the jump.

(Read more…)