Vstone is presenting the robot world (i.e. us) with a couple new hobby robots, spanning low end (or as low end as hobby robots ever get) to high end (and prohibitively expensive). The more reasonably priced bot, the Robovie-Nano, is 23 centimeters tall, with 15 joints and integrated speakers. It’s about as programmable as you’d expect from a hobby robot of this size, and supports a number of optional accessories like gripper hands. $587 for this little guy seems a little bit steep considering its capabilities, but relative to the cost of other hobby robots in the same class, it’s not too terribly bad.

Meet Robovie-Nano’s bigger brother, who happens not to be named Robovie-Giga, after the jump. (Read more…)

No, it’s not a robot, but this gadget might come in handy for all you people who build robots. It’s a portable soldering iron that’s powered either by USB, or by a 9 volt battery. With a single USB plug, it’ll heat up to 200 ?, or 300 ? with both USB plugs, or a toasty 500 ? if you use the 9 volt. It even includes a light! I’m not sure how long it’ll last, but I am sure that it’ll cost about $28, and it should be available in Thanko’s English store sometime soon. Meanwhile, you’ve always got glue…

[ Thanko (Translated) ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Lonely Robot Dirty Mind, $18 at Threadless

Two more, after the jump. (Read more…)

For those of us who don’t have our own robot soccer team, or for those of us who totally suck at foosball, MaruBot takes the classic game and replaces those stupid little men on their stupid little rods that are impossible to control with ROBOTS that go where you tell them to and aren’t restricted to one dimension of movement. There are versions of the table for two or four players, and although the robots don’t appear to have the ability to pass or shoot, their eyes do emote when you score or get scored on. Currently only available in Korea, it probably won’t find too much success here in the states since everybody is just going to be wondering where the helmets and pads are. Yeah, we’re lame like that.

[ iRRobot ] VIA [ OhGizmo ]

You ever notice how fish never, ever find themselves stuck in traffic jams? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You’re stuck on the highway behind some yahoo in a 1994 Volvo 940 turbo wagon driving 3 miles an hour, and over there are a bunch of fish just crusin’ along at full speed. You might think it’s because fish can take advantage of a highway that’s about 1.347 billion cubic kilometers in volume, but you’d be wrong… It’s because they know how to school.

Nissan (according to their website, they make computers) is exploring how fish avoid traffic jams so successfully with a group of adoooorable little robots that interact with each other based on a few simple rules:

Apparently, that’s all it takes to keep fish from running into each other while avoiding obstacles. And of course, it’s not just a traffic issue, it’s a safety issue also. Each of the Nissan robots is in constant communication with all the rest to make sure that nobody runs into anybody else, which would be a pretty useful thing to have in your car. Getting the system to work depends on some laser rangefinders and short range ultra wideband communications, but that kind of stuff isn’t too terribly far off when it comes to consumer automobiles… The newest cars have front collision sensors, rear collision sensors, lane drift sensors, as well as Bluetooth. So hypothetically, with a few hacks, you could set up a pack of those new Priuses that I just saw an ad on TV for to do everything these robots do. That would be pretty cool, certainly, but I’m still not gonna trade in my Volvo for one.

[ Nissan Press Release ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Trust to a robot to solve the whole evolution debate by just taking things literally. Missing link, you say?

As always, you can catch the other Bots With Stuff from last week over on The Shoebox Blog, including a robot with a wandering eye and a robot with uneven hands.

[ Bots With Stuff ]

So, um, is this Japan’s economic stimulus plan? Lots of giant robot statues? If so, awesome. And since this is giant robot number 2, it must be working! This, of course, is Gigantor. You know, the original Iron Man?

Hells yeah! But anyway, back to the statue. It’s a life size version of the famous robot, which isn’t quite as big as a Gundam, but it’s still not something you’d want to piss off:

Gigantor measures in at 18 meters tall, and 50 ton robot statue will be officially unveiled October 4th.

[ Project Website ] VIA [ Sci Fi Wire ]
[ Mike White ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]

Time to start writing up your non-denominational holiday wish list, ’cause WowWee is releasing a couple new robots this month. The humanoid, called Joebot, uses the same type of hand controls as other WowWee humanoids, but his new feature is voice command. It’s unclear just how many commands Joebot responds to, but it could be kinda cool I guess, and it’s a welcome addition to more ho-hum stuff like dancing and beatboxing (for whatever that’s worth).

Roborover is a little less sophisticated, but sports some functional looking treads and a reasonably powerful working headlight. He can wander around autonomously, avoiding obstacles, and has a guard mode that detects movement. He uses a remote instead of voice command and is smart enough (or dumb enough) to follow you around on his own.

Both of these bots have the same dubiously wacky personalities that we’ve come to expect from WowWee, meaning that they’re probably more suited for kids than for hardcore roboticists. But, once some poor kid listens to one of these bots make a quip for the nth time, he or she will start trying to figure out how to mod it if for no other reason than to get it to shut up. Brilliant!

Joebot retails for $100, while Roborover goes for $70. Available soon.

Product vids, after the jump. (Read more…)

We’ve seen plenty of powered exoskeletons over the last few years, including working prototypes from Tokyo University, Berkeley Bionics, Sarcos, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, and of course Cyberdyne. Where Panasonic’s Power Loader differs, though, is that it endows you with some extra goodies like extended utility arms with giant gripper claws so that you can kick alien ass lift stuff that much more effectively:

The suit itself weighs an appropriately colossal 230 kg (500 lbs), and enables you to easily lift about 100 kg (220 lbs) thanks to eighteen electromagnetic motors. Force feedback helps control the lifting power intuitively, but there’s no power source specified… And as is often the case, sheer awesomeness is often tempered by power requirements. Fuel cells, anyone?

The suit should be ready for consumers in about 5 years for an as yet unspecified, but no doubt rather high, price.

[ Mainichi (Translated) ] VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

“RollBots comes to the CW4Kids, Saturday mornings at 8!”

Yay!

…Yay?

And yes, of course the ball bots play bot ball. With balls. MOAR BALLS! I think I’ve got an entire episode for you, because why not, after the jump. (Read more…)