When Boston Dynamics updated their website a few weeks ago, we noticed a little blurb about some kind of hopping robot that they were working on. There were no more details from Boston Dynamics, but I ran across a press release from Sandia National Labs that provides more information and this picture.

The robot’s primary method of movement is a set of four wheels (although I imagine that it could easily be fitted with tracks). If it encounters an obstacle, the robot deploys a piston that can launch it up to 25 feet in the air, 30 times over. The hop height is controllable even if the robot is launching itself from different types of surfaces, and Boston Dynamics is working on ways to keep the robot stabilized in, uh, flight (I guess?) to limit tumbling when it hits the ground.

Funded by DARPA, the delivery date for the hopper is sometime in 2010… It will be used primarily for surveillance, but DARPA wants the option to mount weapons on it, too. Kinda makes you wonder about the possibilities, doesn’t it?

[ Sandia National Labs ]

It’s a cool t-shirt, but more importantly, it’s a brilliant idea.

[ Karl Long ] VIA [ Laughing Squid ]

Thanks Melissa!

Signaltheorist’s vaccuum cleaner ‘bit the dust’ ::snork:: so he went out and got himself a Roomba. Instead of oohing and aahing over it’s adorable little beeping noises like the rest of us, he decided to do a little bit of visual experimentation:

Now here’s something interesting, I set up a photo camera in my room, turned out all the lights and took a long-exposure shot of my roomba doing it’s thing for about 30 minutes. The result is a picture that shows the path of the roomba through it’s cleaning cycle, it looks like a flight map or something. It really hits every spot!

While it’s true that the Roomba does seem to cover every spot on the carpet (as advertised), it’s pretty inefficient at doing so. The coverage is random, which iRobot sort of promotes as a feature in that on average the robot will vacuum every part of the floor about three times. But as you can see, what “about” means in actuality (or at least, in this specific case) is that some areas get lots of coverage, and some barely get any. Is it better than doing it yourself? Well, yeah, but this picture illustrates why you still have to heave a big sigh and drag out the other vacuum every once in a while.

[ Signaltheorist ] VIA [ Doobybrain ]

For better or worse, Japan is where it’s at when it comes to humanoid combat robotics (although we’re working on it over here, too). These are Kondo robots, who take each other on 1v1 trying to knock their opponent over or out of the ring. They’re remote controlled, and what’s interesting (to me, anyway) is how many different designs and fighting styles there are. You can see for yourself with a bunch more videos, after the jump. (Read more…)

Hungry? Cold? Greg Intermaggio’s marshmallow toasting robot will solve both of your problems by toasting a marshmallow with a gigantic flamethrower that is definitely dangerous and therefore way cool. Greg spent 15 hours building (and programming) the robot from scratch out of LEGO NXT bits, and if you like your marshmallows burned to a crisp, this is the robot for you:

However cool the industrial strength flamethrower may be, the robot functions much better with a slightly more reasonably sized flame… The near catastrophe happy accident was caused by somebody screwing up on the fuel. Greg’s ultimate goal is to construct a robot that will not only toast the perfect marshmallow, but also place it in the center of the perfect s’more.

You’ll be able to see this robot in action (among many, many others) at RoboGames this year… Buy your tickets here.

[ RoboGames ]

An irrational fear of robots? Has he seen this?

You can catch the other two Bots With Stuff from this week over on The Shoebox Blog, including a robot with a mankini and a robot with one ring to rule them all.

[ Bots With Stuff ]

The nice thing about printing on a floor, in powder, with a hacked vacuum robot, is that when you’re done you just set it back to vacuum mode and it cleans everything up for you. If only all robot projects were so well behaved.

[ iRobot ]

You may have noticed that I’ve been a little slow on the posting for the past couple days, the reason being that my girlfriend has been in the hospital getting turned into a cyborg. Technically, she is a restorative cyborg, as opposed to an enhanced cyborg, since the implant she just got (it’s called Enterra) is designed to help make her stomach work like it’s supposed to (rather than give her stomach the ability to digest nuclear waste). Her implant is invisible from the outside (it comes with its own wireless remote control), but the X-Ray above shows it pretty well.

It’s probably not something you think about much, but cyborgs are everywhere nowadays. Everyone with a pacemaker is, strictly speaking, part robot. Medical science is just getting its feet wet when it comes to the potential offered by electromechanical devices, and pretty soon cyborg enhancements will likely become medically (and socially) acceptable. I can’t wait.

If you feel like you’ve outgrown smaller hobby-class robots, it might be time to step up to Dr. Robot’s ‘Hawk’ mobile telepresence humanoid. Featuring an impressive suite of sensors including some kind of indoor GPS navigation (maybe this one, also used on the Rovio), Hawk’s most notable features are probably the 6 DoF arms with grippers. These can be controlled remotely, of course, but unlike most robots of this size and complexity, Hawk is trainable directly from a model: just move the model the way you want Hawk to move, and Hawk will duplicate the behavior and remember it. Video of that, after the jump. (Read more…)

This crazy ballistic missile interception robot has, sadly, been cut from the Defense Department’s 2010 budget. It’s understandable, I suppose: how much money do we really need to spend on new and innovative ballistic missile defense programs nowadays? Still, the technology embodied in this thing is just too cool to vanish due to budget cuts… Like, how about we forget about autonomous and unmanned helicopters and just start using hovering robotic rockets? You won’t even NEED missiles, just fly something like this around and you’ll get people surrendering left and right, whether they’re guilty or not.

VIA [ Danger Room ]