BotJunkie is merging with Automaton to form the best robotics blog on the Net! Please continue following our stories at our new home and update your RSS reader with our new feed. See you there!
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 18 of March , 2009 at 2:18 am
I don’t generally get too worked up about transforming robot toys, if for no other reason than there are tons of mediocre ones that just go from looking like a messed up vehicle to looking like a messed up robot. But this one caught my eye. It takes a full four minutes to transform it from an impressive model airplane to an equally impressive bot, and there are little details everywhere. It’s not even so much the fact that it looks as good as it does, but what really boggles my mind is how complicated it must be to design something like this.
The Macross VF-25F comes as a snap-together kit with decals, and you can find it for around $60 from Toystop, among other places.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 18 of March , 2009 at 2:07 am
According to Hong Kong artist and designer Kacey Wong, homeless people need better looking shelters. So, he designed this mobile tin robot that transforms into a little live/work space, complete with a bed, a desk, and a chair. And I mean, what more do you really need? You’ve got somewhere to sleep and somewhere to put your laptop while you read robot news. And this way, when robots take over, you’ll be able to prove that at heart, you’re one of them. And they’ll spare you.
It’s not like robots really need any excuses to serve alcohol, but St. Patrick’s Day is a good enough reason to have them do it to a Celtic soundtrack. You remember Bar2D2 from earlier this year… He was built by Jamie Price, and if you’re so inclined, you can build one for yourself by following the directions over on Instructables.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 17 of March , 2009 at 2:07 am
While it’s not nearly as awesome as this masterpiece from Chop Shop, it does have a robot on it. And it only costs $1 (plus shipping). Go nuts, and have a happy recession.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 17 of March , 2009 at 12:46 am
When it comes to aerial surveillance, a blimp is probably not the most stealthy of platforms. But if you’re not worried about being covert, blimps offer a lot of great advantages over other things that you might find buzzing around above your head and spying on you, as DARPA and the Air Force know. Once you fill them up with helium, you don’t have to spend a lot of time and energy (relatively) keeping them aloft. Blimps can spend a long time on station very high up while carrying a large sensor package, and they have enough surface area that you can wallpaper them with solar panels to keep everything running.
Most of these advantages don’t really apply to the YARB Robotic Blimp (since at 66″ it’s about the size of an overinflated beach ball), but the good news is that you can buy a ready-to-spy model for under $1k. It has two vectorable rotors to push it around, a color video camera that downlinks via WiFi, plus support for a variety of sensors. And as you can see from the picture, the entire package can be controlled with an Android phone. The kinda sucky part is that the YARB is only really equipped to operate indoors, but it might be useful to monitor, say, your pets. As long as you don’t have free range pet birds with sharp beaks and a distrust of big pudgy robots.
The YARB comes ready to fly, just add 19 cubic feet of helium, for $875.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 17 of March , 2009 at 12:28 am
This prototype housekeeping robot called ApriAttenda is made by Toshiba. It says so in the press release, but I could have guessed anyway based on some of their other robot designs, all of which are white and fat with big eyes. If anything, though, ApriAttenda has gotten a little more mature (and taller) since it was initially displayed back in 2005:
Anyhoo, ApriAttenda is able to open refrigerators and things with the aid of cameras in its palms, and although it’s only a meter tall, it can somehow grow another 0.3 meter if it needs to reach something. Otherwise, there aren’t that many details on this iteration of ApriAttenda, besides that having its picture taken seems to surprise the heck out of it.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 16 of March , 2009 at 3:37 am
One way that robots might be able to more effectively interact with humans is by analyzing how we’re feeling, and acting accordingly. Researchers at the University of Calgary modified a Roomba to receive signals from a biolelectric sensor headband that can measure stress. If the Roomba sensed a certain amount of stress, it was programmed to clean further away from the user. If it senses more stress, it might stop cleaning completely, or start “cowering under the bed if a user is feeling angry and looking for something to kick.” This sort of technology works the other way, too… For example, a robot like Paro might get more snuggly if it senses you’re upset.
Wearing a headband studded with sensors probably isn’t the most convenient way to communicate your stress levels, even if it is nice and quantitative. Pretty soon, though, robots are going to end up doing it like we do: searching for cues in our vocal patterns and facial expressions.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 16 of March , 2009 at 3:04 am
Warning: video contains loud music and lyrics that include the word “b*tch.”
This video shows a Lego NXT robot, named Lara, dancing to “Smack My B*tch Up” from “Fat Of The Land” by Prodigy, one of the four CDs that I paid retail price for in high school. But I digress.
Lara is running open source music analysis software called Marsyas that she uses to analyze the tempo and patterns in whatever you have playing, and she’ll bust out some moves and dance along. Like human dancers, Lara does her best to avoid crashing into walls, and she’s also able to vary her style based on what color is under her feet wheels. She’s sort of like a Sony Rolly, except open source and not as weird. And she totally has this thing beat, for better or worse.
