It’s weird how children (especially babies) are the hardest things to replicate… Every single one I’ve seen ends up near the bottom of the uncanny valley. The iCub robot may not be an exception to this, but at least it’s accomplishing something relevant besides exuding creepiness. iCub is the centerpiece of the RobotCub project, which has been funded by the EU to study cognitive manipulation skills (things like gesture communication).

The robot itself is designed to replicate a two and a half year old child. It has 53 degrees of freedom and will ultimately be able to crawl and sit and transition between the two. The best part about the iCub is that it’s designed to be completely open source, both hardware and software, which should help researchers collaborate worldwide.

[ RobotCub ]

If you’re reading this blog, odds are that at least once you’ve imagined yourself as a robot. If you haven’t, you really should, because robots are awesome. And if you have trouble visualizing that sort of thing, artist Ben Rollman may be able to help… He’ll take any picture you’d like to send him and robotize it into an original piece of artwork, and put together a YouTube video of the entire process:

Ben doesn’t necessarily need a picture; you can just send him an idea (or even just a single word) and he’ll run with it. Turnaround is about 10 days. A 5×7 piece of art costs $15, or you can get an 8×10 for $30.

[ Robot Portraits ]

People can create robots designed to rescue the injured and train doctors and sort muffins and stuff, but robots that serve ice cream is technological progress that I can stuff my face full of. These Kuka industrial robots were programmed by 26 students over 5 weeks to serve ice cream (with toppings!) to attendees at Ohio Northern University’s homecoming festivities:

VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]

This is what it looks like when some crazy people at Burning Man stuff an OrbSwarm autonomous robotic orb full of fireworks and let it loose in the desert.

The image is via SF Gate; I spotted it at a Dorkbot presentation last week.

[ OrbSwarm ]

The Yokohama fire department in Japan has a brand new toy to help rescue people. This crawler robot is able to transport people out of a disaster zone, snug in its metal belly. Once it engulfs a hapless victim, the robot has internal sensors that measure vital signs. It’s not autonomous, but has infrared cameras to enable remote control at night or in harsh conditions.

Sadly, rescue workers have to manually load people into the maw of the robot; it won’t ingest the injured on its own. I’m thinking, though, that it might be efficient to combine the crawler with a bioreactor like EATR has. That way, if the patient takes a turn for the worse, at least they’ll be able to help keep the robot alive.

VIA [ NewLaunches ]

LEGO Mindstorms have been around since 1998. That’s 10 years, and it makes me feel old. To celebrate, LEGO is releasing a limited edition black NXT block:

Why a Black NXT? Because it is cool! And looking around in the MINDSTORMS community we noticed that a Black NXT was high on the wish list among users. Also, talking to the MINDSTORMS Community Partners, the closed web forum of adult fans collaborating with the LEGO MINDSTORMS development team, it was very well received and suggested as a must-have!

Once you have bought and received your new Black NXT you will get access to additional materials like a special-made program for the Black NXT, a personal certificate of ownership, wallpapers, building instructions for special models.

The black NXT brick costs $170, which is a significant chunk of the $250 cost of the entire kit. But it magically gives you the ability to make totally awesome robots, like this tank:

Only 1998 black NXT bricks will be produced, so now’s the time to get one if you want one. They’re available on Amazon.

[ Mindstorms ] VIA [ Brothers Brick ] and [ Nowhereelse ]

It takes a lot of skill to hybridize a hexapod robot with a remote controlled helicopter. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take quite as much skill as it does to fly the aforementioned radio controlled helicopter, and I’m sorry to say that this totally awesome project was destroyed in a crash the day after this video was taken. The designer has plans to set the helicopter up for autonomous operation, which would solve the problem… We’ll bring you updates if he manages to pull it off.

Or if he learns how to fly.

VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]

According to webcomic XKCD, all you have to do to get your own sandwich, apparently, is ask with some authority:

The Sudo Make Me A Sandwich Robot consists of a toaster oven plus a bunch of hardware intertwined with a couple servo motors, a couple stepper motors, and an Arduino board. It was conceptualized, designed, and constructed by Bre Pettis and Adam Cecchetti, and you can find some instructions on how they pulled it together here.

[ Bre Pettis ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]

Chris Grine, an artist over at Shoebox (they make greeting cards, I think), has decided that he’s going to draw three robots a week, with stuff, for the next year. I for one hope he makes it, and more. One extra especially cute bot from last week’s series, after the jump… And don’t forget to hit up the link for the rest of them so far. (Read more…)

Somehow, and I don’t know exactly how, R2-D2 almost makes sense. You can pretty much understand what he’s trying to get across with all of those cute little beeps and boops. But what is he really saying, exactly? Luckily, somebody has taken the time to translate all of R2-D2′s noises and lights and subtle servo motions into actual text. The following video is possibly NSFW, due to foul language in the subtitles… R2-D2 is a dirty little bugger:

Episode 2, after the jump. (Read more…)