Latest contender for the Uncanniest Robot of the Year Award (speaking of, I think we should have an Uncanniest Robot of the Year Award) is Doka Harumi, an entrant in the Robo-One dance competition during IREX on Saturday in Japan. Shockingly, shockingly, she didn’t win. I honestly can’t figure out why. It’s a robot/schoolgirl dancing to J-pop. In Japan. What, were there not enough tentacles or something? If you want to see the winner, you can click through at the end… It’s not nearly as impressive as some of the losers and the special guests. More vids, including an appearance by Manoi, after the jump. (Read more…)

Alright, so this is not the type of thing that we normally write about around here, and I wouldn’t have, if these were just salt and pepper shakers shaped like robots. But, there’s more! You wind ‘em up, and they walk! No more knocking over glasses trying to pass the seasonings; just point these little guys in the right direction and send them on their way.

Here is what needs to happen in version 2:

-Voice recognition
-Obstacle and edge avoidance
-Some kind of gun (or if you want to be lame and boring, dispenser) to automatically add salt and pepper to a dish that you indicat.

Am I asking too much? Yes, I am, and if my version ever comes to fruition, it’s gonna cost way more than the $33 that these guys will run you. Available soon from SuckUK.

[ SuckUK ] VIA [ OhGizmo ]

The International Robot Exhibition (IREX) is going on in Tokyo right now, and the Tokyo office of BotJunkie would be all over it, if only we had a Tokyo office. Or, you know, an actual office anywhere. In the mean time, here’s a bunch of pics from Pink Tentacle and Times Online:

“Data Glove,” a waldo from Shadow Robot Company

Motoman plays with LEGOs LEGO bricks

More, after the jump. (Read more…)

You know what? I bet these Motoman robots would be pretty awesome at carving up a turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving, I’m off to stuff my face. Yeah, we start early around here.

VIA [ Gizmodo ]

This is all kinds of awesome, but it’s the sound that really makes it. Plus I love watching how excited the robot (named X-BRAT) gets when he spots his target. And then, kaBLAM! The target acquisition and firing system is fully autonomous, and X-BRAT is being built to compete in the Mech Warfare event at RoboGames 2010. When he’s done, his designer (xdream on the Trossen Robotics forums) will just stick him in the arena and autonomous carnage will ensue. More details are available in a discussion thread here.

VIA [ Trossen Robotics ]

Little solar robots are a great way to start learning about electronics and robotics and soldering and stuff, and Jerome Demers (an intern over at Solarbotics) came up with with this solar powered bot that drives itself inside a ball. Like most photovores, the solar panel doesn’t provide enough power for the robot to run continuously, and a capacitor is used to drive the bot in bursts. The ball helps with this, however, and it looks like you get a lot of continuous motion out of it… Not bad for a $23 kit, I’d say.

[ Miniball Parts Kit ]
[ Instructables ] VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]

Finally, a US President who shares my concerns… At a Washington DC school Barak Obama joined Sally Ride and the Mythbusters to check out a robot named the “Cougar Cannon,” designed by students from Oakton High School to gather and toss moon rocks… Or, until it gets to the moon, foam balls. Something about the robot seems to have alarmed him slightly:

“As president, I believe that robotics can inspire young people to pursue science and engineering. And I also want to keep an eye on those robots in case they try anything.”

I hereby nominate myself for anti-robot takeover czar.

[ Transcript ] VIA [ GoRobotics ]

SensorFly is a prototype for what will eventually be an entire swarm of autonomous mini helicopters that can navigate, talk to each other, and carry sensors (including a miniature camera and microphone) to perform tasks like locating survivors after a disaster. Each robot weighs only 29 grams, but they’re remarkably resilient, able to handle collisions with walls as well as swats from vicious racket-swinging grad students.

[ SensorFly ]

This FANUC robot has an immensely satisfying job: it sorts candy (they say pills, but it looks like candy to me) into little jars by color, and then pours them all out again and starts over. It will happily keep doing this until you shut it off, kinda like me with M&Ms at Halloween… Because if I don’t sort them by color and then eat the colors I have more of to make sure that everything is even, the world ends.

[ FANUC ]

Spirit, one of the two rovers currently on Mars, has been stuck in the sand for about six months now, and the prognosis is not great. After months of testing here on Earth, engineers have started sending commends to the poor little rover, and it actually looks like Spirit is starting to dig its way out. The picture above shows the tiny bit of progress, which is about 100x less far than the rover would have moved had it followed the move command it was sent without being stuck. But progress is still progress, and another similar move has been planned. JPL is trying not to be too optimistic, though: “Extrication drives are expected to make slow, if any, progress in coming weeks, and the probability of success in escaping from Troy is uncertain.” We’ll keep you updated.

[ Free Spirit ]
[ Press Release ]