Most hobby robot programming is done off-board, where code is written and compiled on a computer and then uploaded to a controller board on the robot. The Roboard RB-100 streamlines this process, and provides tons of additional expandability, by putting the computer on the board itself. The Roboboard boasts a full fledged 1ghz x86 PC with 256 megs of ram that’s capable of running Linux or even Windows XP.

The board also features 24 PWM servo connections, 3 USB ports, serial comm ports, ethernet, mic in and sound out, and more. The processor uses less than 1 watt, and accepts input anywhere from 6 to 24 volts. You can also get a PCI WiFi card for about $65, although there are USB connectors on the board so you can just add WiFi that way. If you want to run a GUI like Windows XP directly off the board, however, you’ll need to fill up that PCI slot with an optional VGA display card.

Now, I’m the first to admit that I don’t have nearly as much experience as I’d like with robot hardware, but from reading through the Robosavvy forum posts, this seems to be the nutshell on the Roboard hardware: “The board is indeed a HUGE leap in terms of processing power available on a Robot backpack. The other major leap comes in terms of the way it natively supports the Windows and the Linux kernel, meaning broad hardware support and seamless transition from your IDE/compiled executable from your PC to the board.”

The Roboard costs about $250 plus shipping from the UK, and the PCI VGA graphics card is an extra $90.

Update- You can also get the Roboard in the US in a few different kit configurations, here and here.

[ Roboard ] VIA [ Engadget ]

Many teleoperated robots strive for gripping systems that emulate the human hand as closely as possible, the logic being that the closer a robot’s hand is to a human hand, the easier it will be to control. Willow Garage’s PR2 robot instead uses simple, two prong grippers that nonetheless exhibit an enviable amount of precision dexterity:

The PR2 is designed to be a development platform, so that researchers can work on robotic problems without having to go through all the trouble of building a robot. It’s sort of like an iRobot Create… It’s a basic system with wheels and motors and sensors and batteries and stuff, but you can get as creative as you want with it. The PR2 isn’t quite ready for release yet, but it should soon be made available to academic and industrial research institutions.

[ Willow Garage PR2 ]

Robots aren’t exactly the most eco-friendly form of non-life on Earth, but this little guy is about as green as you can expect from anything even vaguely robot-shaped. More of a chia pet than an actual robot, you just fill its head with the peat and grass seeds provided, and in however long grass takes to grow, grass will grow out of its head. So, yeah. You get a robot that helps un-pollute for once. It’s $12 on Amazon.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ Robot Snob ]

Creating an artificial intelligence system as complex as the human brain sounds like it might be a fun thing to do, but Anders Sandberg is wondering just how much juice you’d need to keep such a system running. Based on some rough estimates, it turns out to be kind of a lot:

The current IBM roadrunner does 376 million calculations per watts. If we take my mid-range estimates of computing needs [to emulate a human brain], 10^22 to 10^25 FLOPS, then a single emulation would need 10^13 to 10^16 watts. The total insolation of Earth is about 10^17 watts, so this won’t do – there would be space for just a few minds on the entire planet. But current research on zettaflops computing suggest we can do much better. A DARPA exascale study suggests we can do 10^12 flops per watt, which means “just” a dozen Hoover dams per mind.

Well, damn. But further down the line, as computer technology evolves and quantum computing becomes a reality (instead of just vaporware), things might get slightly more efficient:

Using reversible [quantum dot] computation there could in principle be calculations done at no energy dissipation. Unfortunately it would still be needed for error correction and interacting with the real world. A conservative bound would be assuming one irreversible operation every millisecond at every synapse, which leads to 10^17 operations and an energy dissipation of 3*10^-6 watts per degree – colder computers are more efficient. Using just liquid nitrogen (77 Kelvin) the energy requirements of a mind would be on the order of 0.0002 watts, 20% of an optical disc player laser. Even adding in the costs of cooling and manufacturing the hardware, it seems likely that this kind of postbiological human would be extremely resource efficient.

Anders isn’t just talking about a general AI, he’s actually advocating that at some point in the future, humans conserve resources by abandoning our wasteful biological meatsacks and downloading our consciousnesses into hardware. Sounds like a good idea to me, I’m starting to get tired of having to get my hair cut over and over.

[ Andart ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

This is Probo, a robot therapist of sorts who was designed to help explain medical procedures to children. Probo has a touchscreen in his tummy that displays information, a fully animated face that can dynamically display emotions, and an epic nozz (Probo is apparently an ancestor of the modern elephant) which is fully articulated:

Children are able to recognize Probo’s facial expressions nearly 90% of the time, which is pretty good for a strange monster-elephant thing. Unlike elephants (as far as I know), Probo purrs when hugged, but if you hug him too hard, he’ll start to complain. Although Probo isn’t for sale, the developers are considering some kind of commercial spin-off, but in the mean time, they’ve been working on the Probo video game: ProboGotchi.

[ Probo ] VIA [ io9 ]

The only thing you’ll have to watch out for is your girlfriend building a bigger, more badass robot to take her revenge. Oh, and if you’re not familiar with the weapon on the robot, it’s a Nerf Vulcan… A fully automatic, belt fed, battery powered dart machine gun that can be hacked to fire 500+ darts per minute. It’s only about $40, and you can find it in places like Wal-Mart.

[ Instructables ] VIA [ Fark ]

The TapeScape robot was created entirely out of a stereo boombox, because seriously, what else are you going to do with a stereo boombox nowadays? The bot can go forwards, backwards, and turn (autonomy is in the works), and contains the reader head out of the boombox… Whenever it happens across a strip of magnetic tape, it broadcasts the contents via an FM transmitter:

If you have a boombox you’d like to sacrifice, there’s a complete instructable at the link below.

[ Instructables ] VIA [ Make ]

Okay, fine, this isn’t really a robot at all, no matter what Sega Toys says. But if you poke his tummy, he wiggles! And he’s fuzzy! Squee!!!

The Yume Usagi Dream Rabbit Robotic Pet is $31 from Japan Trend Shop.

[ Japan Trend Shop ] VIA [ 7 Gadgets ]

These little robot earrings are called “Blockheads.” One is named Oscar, the other is named Max, and each one has 4 faces. They’re made of soft plastic, and at about $8, it’s hard to go wrong with ‘em.

[ Temporary:Secretary ] VIA [ Shiny Shiny ]

It’s a sad, sad day for robot dinosaur lovers everywhere as Ugobe has filed for bankruptcy. And not the happy kind of bankruptcy where you get a bunch of government bailout cash… The sad kind of bankruptcy where all of the employees get fired and everything gets sold off. This is especially disappointing considering that just a few months ago, Ugobe was talking about releasing a new product this year.

I won’t speculate on why Ugobe went under, besides that they had a pretty awesome but relatively expensive luxury product at a time when the economy really couldn’t support it… And there may have been other internal factors related to management and product development as well. Okay, fine, I speculated. But I think the best that we can hope for at this point is that someone buys Ugobe’s intellectual property and does something with it, that the current Pleo firmware is stable, that somehow the Pleo forums get back up and running, and that whoever liquidates Ugobe’s property will somehow sell me a a Pleo for cheap.

Pleo is currently $245 with free shipping from Amazon. While supplies last, obviously.

VIA [ Engadget ]