Robotics researchers: I totally get it that you’re working on a humanoid robot and you’re in a big hurry to make it all, you know, humanoidy, but why why why do you have to persist with the horribly creepy heads? Can you seriously tell me that putting a head like this on a robot strikes you as a good idea? Do you think it somehow makes your robot more relatable? Because it doesn’t, it scares people. It gives small children nightmares. Why do you hate small children?

This monstrosity is called Archie. It was designed by the Vienna University of Technology along with the University of Manitoba, and it’s eventually supposed to be able to assist in everyday household tasks like cooking and cleaning, because this is totally something you’d want to have loose in your house at night. When it’s finished it’s supposed to cost only $20k, but you couldn’t pay me to let this in my door.

Alright, you could, but still… Wow. I found a video on YouTube, after the jump… It’s in German, but it manages to seriously up the creepiness factor from the pic. (Read more…)

The little plastic robot who climbed the Grand Canyon on a pair of Panasonic Evolta AA batteries has set its sights on a new world record: the longest distance traveled by a radio controlled car on (I assume) one set of AA batteries. The Evolta robot has been totally redesigned for this, complete with a little tricycle thing that homes in on an infrared remote. While the record is more or less entirely pointless, the robot is cute enough, and it does make me want my next set of disposable AA batteries to be Evoltas… Too bad I only use rechargeables.

If you want some Evoltas to test out on your robot, you can find them on Amazon.

VIA [ Plastic Pals ]

When we showed you the Rotundus GroundBot back in May, we mentioned that it’s capable of rolling around over all sorts of terrain, including snow and sand. We also mentioned that it floats, and from the video above, it doesn’t seem to be entirely impractical in water, as I would have expected.

It’s not easy to build a robot that’s completely sealed against the elements, and it may not surprise you to learn that Rotundus was originally conceptualized as a Mars exploring robot. At the moment, a design like this might be having better luck than poor Spirit is, stuck in deep sand on Mars.

[ Rotundus ]

I guess skiing is a more complicated sport than it seems (you just point yourself downhill and go, right?) because researchers in Japan have created a robot to explore the kinematic motions involved. The delicate interplay between balance, posture, limbs, joints, and skis during a turn is extremely difficult to model on a computer, but the robot is able to test a bunch of different combinations dynamically and provide results that are more or less reproducible. The robot has yet to graduate to actual snow, but was able to make it down an 11 meter long, 20 degree grass slope.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to dig up any video of this bot doing its thing, but I did find a couple random videos of skiing robots on YouTube. Check ‘em out, after the jump. (Read more…)

When Castrol needed to test how well their lubricants performed on various motorcycles under different conditions, they needed a rider that knew a thing or two about precision reproducibility. And industrial lubricants. Meet Flossie, Castrol’s testing robot, who is able to sit on a bike and do everything that a human rider would do, except way better and forever. Just like a human, Flossie is able to learn and adapt to different clutches on different bikes, but unlike a human, Flossie isn’t set up to actually go anywhere. That’s okay, though… If you want a robot who knows how to go somewhere on a bike, just look up Murata Boy. Or for that matter, ditch the boy and get yourself a robot bike that drives itself. Video of Ghost Rider, from the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005, after the jump. (Read more…)

As we’ve seen, insect brains are way more complicated and capable than even the most complex artificial robot. With this in mind (so to speak) researchers in Japan are attempting to experimentally determine how insect brains are wired, in the hope of (soon) altering insect brains to do other things and (eventually) creating electronic brains that mimic the functionality of insect brains. Already, they’ve been able to genetically modify a male silkmoth so that it reacts to changing lights instead of changing scents, in effect remapping one stimulus-response to an entirely different type of sensory input.

The robot in the picture above is controlled by a severed moth head. The still functional antennae receive scent information and relay it to the moth’s brain, which does the data processing and sends signals to muscles, which are picked up by sensors and used to steer the robot. In this particular case, the robot can’t do much more than chase down sexy girl moths, but with the remapping technique, all kinds of customized moth brain sensor robots are possible. And more.

Experiments have shown that moth brains, like human brains, have the ability to adapt to situations which might seem impossibly complex, from an evolutionary standpoint:

“Humans walk only at some five kilometres per hour but can drive a car that travels at 100 kilometres per hour. It’s amazing that we can accelerate, brake and avoid obstacles in what originally seem like impossible conditions,” [researcher Ryohei Kanzaki] said.

“Our brain turns the car into an extension of our body,” he said, adding that “an insect brain may be able to drive a car like we can. I think they have the potential.

“It isn’t interesting to make a robo-worm that crawls as slowly as the real one. We want to design a machine which is far more powerful than the living body.”

I agree with the sentiment, but it is interesting to make biorobots that exhibit the same abilities as the animals they emulate… Or try to, rather. We’re nowhere close yet. A robo-worm that crawls as slowly as the real one through soil would absolutely knock my socks off. This may be a different philsophy, however: these researchers are focused more on harnessing the natural abilities of insects to enhance robots designed for other tasks, as opposed to creating robots that emulate the abilities of insects. Other people are working on that one.

[ AFP ] VIA [ Engadget ]

If you liked the video of the Carnegie Mellon snake robots we posted last week, here’s a follow-up showing a bunch of different movement tests, complete with a headache-inducing techno soundtrack. And if you still want more, seek help, and then watch the original video on these robots that we posted in March of last year.

[ ModSnake ]

We had a bit of an argument last November about which was stupider: Cam-Babies or Techno Dinkies. Commenter Zool sent us a link to the above video, which I think conclusively proves that Cam-Babies are not only stupider than Techno Dinkies, but waaayyy more annoying. If you’re insane, you can buy them from Strapya for about $27.

[ Strapya ]

From the “somebody has too much time on their hands” file comes this set (there’s a whole series at the link below) of photos detailing how Russian soldiers constructed a Terminator robot during World War II, gave it some booze and a fuzzy hat and a Schwarzenegger outfit, and then set it loose upon the world with some oversize weaponry and a poor understanding of modern fiscal management techniques. I wouldn’t have believed it if the pics hadn’t been picked up by some Russian newspaper… If anyone can translate those speech bubbles, please please share.

[ Toyster.ru ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

That full size Gundam we wrote about last month has been activated to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gundam. It’s Gundamania!

Yeah, okay, sorry, no more of that. Mainichi has pictures of the event, which includes all the smoke and green lasers and lighting effects that you could possibly ask for… You can see them all at the link, or just click more for a few of my favorites. (Read more…)