Well, RoboGames is over. What a spectacular weekend. After three days of non-stop coverage, I’m knackered, I’m bushed, I’m plumb tuckered out. Even so, that’s not stopping me from staying up until 4 am 4:30 am 5am putting together a highlight video from day 3. Later this week, I’ll have a nice fat picture gallery up, plus more Mech Warrior footage. And hey, guess what, now we can start looking forward to RoboGames 2010! Woohoo!

Oh yeah, and of course I’ll be catching up with all of the other goings-on in the robot world over the past few days. As soon as I get myself some sleep, that is. I’m going to go pass out now, enjoy the vid:

[ RoboGames ]

Here you go, down at the bottom of this post is another treasure trove of video highlights from RoboGames on Saturday. There’s a bunch of awesome combat footage, plus some sumo, hockey, and even autonomous fire fighting thrown in for good measure. Keep an eye out for some clips of a Mech Warrior match… It’s just a little taste, we’ll have more details on that event next week. But, there’s still plenty more left to go: RoboGames runs all day Sunday, too, and I’ll be there trying to catch every minute of it for ya. Yes, I know it’s impossible, but I’m doing my darnedest. If you feel like you’re missing some of the matches, don’t worry, full length video will (eventually) be available of every single fight, including some badass slow-mo of some of the best smash-ups. We’ll keep you posted.

[ RoboGames ]

I spent a long day at RoboGames today, and I’m beat, mostly because I stayed up late cutting together this video of highlights from the first day of competition. It’s all combat ’cause that’s all that went on today; the rest of the 70-odd events kick off tomorrow, and I’ll have video of as much of that stuff as I can run around and catch tomorrow night, providing I don’t die of exhaustion. That sexy robot juice keeps me going, though… That and a pallet of Brawndo, one of the sponsors of RoboGames this year. Brawndo: the Thirst Mutilator, with more caffeine and taurine than you can shake a stick at. And believe me, after a can or two, that stick isn’t going to be the only thing that’s shaking. Anyway, here’s the vid, enjoy:

[ RoboGames ]

We posted some pics and vids of food robots from FOOMA on Thursday, and I mentioned at the end that it was worth clicking through to a Reuters video to watch a cucumber slicing robot in action. If you’re as lazy as I am, you hate having to click through to watch videos, so here it is, direct from YouTube:

There, wasn’t that worth it?

VIA [ GetRobo ]

Aw, that’s such a shame… The little guy totally deserves some play.

The back story for this Sesame Street episode from 1980, btw, is that C-3PO and R2-D2 are delivering a holographic message to Oscar the Grouch from his cousin Lothar the Grouch, who lives billions of miles away on seventh moon of the planet Zurkon. I kid you not. The message? “Oscar the Grouch, get lost!”

There’s also a scene in the episode described thusly: “Big Bird asks C-3P0 and R2-D2 if robots have feelings. C-3P0 says that they do.” If anyone knows where we can get a vid of this, please let me know!

[ Sesame Street #1364 ]

It’s a good thing robots aren’t afraid of heights, because it looks like they’re going to spend a lot of time climbing up things in all kinds of different ways. This snail robot uses a rotating set of vacuum discs to stick to and climb vertical surfaces, much like this design. The back half of the bot is modular, and can be swapped out for window washing, painting, carrying stuff, taking pictures, or (in an emergency) rescuing people.

The robot doesn’t have any onboard power systems; instead, a computer and air compressor sit on the roof of the building and send commands and vacuum down pressure to the bot via an umbilical. The idea is that buildings will each get outfitted with their own personal robosnail that lives on the roof and keeps things looking pretty. While it’s mostly a concept, the relevant parts of the robot (the climbing mechanism and the painting/washing tail) have both been successfully demonstrated, so who knows, maybe a robot snail will be coming to a building near you sometime soon.

[ JDF ] VIA [ Robot Snob ]

This little guy was constructed by LMR user ZigBotting out of a cut-up cardboard box, some leftover servos, spare parts taken from junked computers and other electronics, and $18 worth of other hardware. As ZigBotting says, the 5 servos that this bot uses to walk cost way more than $18 by themselves, so the low pricetag is a little misleading… But, one of the nice things about building your own robots is that if you get tired of them, you can always rip them apart and make something more interesting.

[ LMR ] VIA [ Make ]

The International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition (FOOMA) opened this week in Tokyo, and robots were serving food every which way. Motoman was there, preparing okonomiyaki, but there were plenty of bots we haven’t seen before, including Baba Tekkosho’s sushi-picking robot which uses an arm from FANUC with an android hand from Scuse.

Also on display was a humanoid robot called Aero Blue that was being used to feed a hungry but presumably somehow disabled person chunks of unidentifiable brown stuff. We’ve got video of all these goings-on after the break, but you should also check out some additional video from Scientific American / Reuters, which includes a crazy little bot going to town with a cucumber slicer at about the minute mark. (Read more…)

We’ve seen our share of robot snakes, but as far as I can remember, this is the first one that can blow itself up. Oh, it’s designed to do plenty of other things too… The Israelis have developed it primarily for surveillance. The two meter long, camo covered bot sends back audio and video, and can lift itself up to get a better look around. It looks quite mobile, if a little spazzy, but I bet you’d be spazzy too if you were packed with explosives in case you end up crawling underneath a target that’s more valuable than you are. Yeah, I’d rather take a bath with one of these than find an exploding robosnake under my bed.

[ Jerusalem Post ] VIA [ Engadget ]

The other problem (as I can personally attest is that to), when you have a cyborg girlfriend, the next line is usually “then I will remove them for you.”

[ xkcd ]