Nobody wants mess around inside sewer pipes, which is why robots have been doing it since one tried to kill James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever back in the seventies. This pipe inspection robot, developed by Osaka Gas and Koichi Osuka, a professor at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Engineering, has an innovative spiral springy shape that gives it all kinds of useful characteristics. The body of the robot can adapt to different sized pipes by expanding outwards, and wheels mounted parallel to the body drive it forward in a spiraling motion. The bot has no trouble making turns and getting past joints, and can carry a camera or other sensor packages.

This isn’t exactly a shape shifting robot, but it is a robot with a non-rigid body that can adapt its shape as required by its environment without relying on sensors or motors: you stick it in a pipe, and it fits the pipe. It’s that simple.

[ Mainichi ] VIA [ Gizmowatch ]

Wondering what to do with all of that left over chocolate from Valentine’s Day? I’m not, because I ate all mine, and they aren’t in Japan either, where they held a big contest for robots with chocolate box exteriors. The 4th annual TIROL-CHOCO Robot Competition featured bipedal robots with bodies built using TIROL-CHOCO boxes racing each other and competing in chocolate target practice as well as chocolate carrying.

VIA [ Biped Robot News ]

Here’s some good news for the medical robotics industry: while in 2001 only 5,000 men had robot assisted prostate cancer surgery, in 2009 that number was up to 73,000 people- or about 86% of the total number of surgeries. Why the jump? People are actually requesting surgery via robot now. Or maybe I should say demanding:

But now, patient after patient was walking away. They did not want [conventional] surgery. They wanted surgery by a robot, controlled by a physician not necessarily even in the operating room, face buried in a console, working the robot’s arms with remote controls.

“Patients interview you,” said Dr. Cadeddu, a urologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. “They say: ‘Do you use the robot? O.K., well, thank you.’ ” And they leave.

The strange thing about this sudden interest in robots is that there’s no real evidence that the robots do a better job than the humans do. There’s one Medicare study that suggests that the robot surgeries turn out slightly better in some ways and slightly worse in others, as well as some amazing anecdotes. As you might expect, the surgery itself comes with trade-offs… While the robots can reach into much smaller spaces using smaller incisions, the doctors don’t get the same degree of tactile feedback, and the surgery can take up to twice as long. Also, patients pay a substantial premium for robot assisted surgery- anywhere from $1500 to $2000 extra.

So what’s the deal? One thing to consider is that the robots themselves (da Vinci surgical robots from Intuitive Systems) cost $1.39 million a pop (plus $140k a year for service), and the hospitals need to pay them off somehow, which gives them an incentive to advertise the robotic option. But without any convincing statistics, it seems like “it’s a robot” has to be the primary argument, and it appears to be working.

It’s interesting that people show so much faith in robots operating on them, and often such dubious faith in robots elsewhere. Or maybe when I say “faith” I really mean “trust.” And even that is a funny thing to consider, because the da Vinci system is teleoperated, just like Predator drones. The real question is going to come up when both medical and military robots (and I guess you can throw consumer robots into the mix too) start incorporating some degree of autonomy and decision making more sophisticated than a Roomba. It’s a tricky thing, though, especially when it comes to surgical robots, and military robots as well, since the stakes are so high. And I think that surgical robots illustrate the point even more vividly than military robots do: would you be more or less comfortable having a robot operate on you without a human in the loop?

[ NYT ] VIA [ Robots.net ]

Rubick’s Cube solving robots have gotten commonplace enough that I don’t generally post about them unless they’re especially cool, like CubeStormer. It’s not just that CubeStormer is built out of LEGO bricks, or that it’s incredibly fast at solving cubes, or that it has its own logo, but just look at it. It belongs in a sci-fi movie. It should be eating spaceships or something. But until it figures out how to do that, it’ll keep challenging the best human Rubik’s Cube solvers (and their robots).

VIA [ Gizmodo ]

This is Crowbot (not this). Crowbot was designed by Hiromi Ozaki (with help from a couple of experts in crow intelligence), and can reproduce a variety of crow calls. By choosing the right calls, Crowbot can attract crows, repel crows, and from the looks of it, seriously confuse crows:

Oh, and there’s more… (Read more…)

Like the look of Evolution Robotics’ little Mint sweeperbot? If you don’t, you should probably watch the demo a few more times. It’s so cute! And effective! Thanks to an “overwhelming” response at CES and beyond, Mint is now available for pre-order. The promised “under $250″ price is unsurprisingly $249.99, and a $20 down payment will reserve yours for delivery this summer.

[ Mint Pre-Order ]

If you’re going to build a dedicated cat-poking robot, you should probably give it the ability to withstand a vicious kitty right hook. Pow!

VIA [ DVICE ]

Last time we heard about robots versus pirates, it involved the US military and MQ-9 Reaper drones and was not a movie. It’s still not a movie, but a Russian company has developed a system of ship mounted robots designed to both fight fires and blow pirates out of the water. With, uh, water. The robotic water cannons (six on each side of the ship) are controlled by a central computer, using TV cameras to target pirates approaching the ship. The robots shoot streams of water at 40 liters per second out to a range of 70 meters, and can wash away potential boarders and even sink small boats. This is a defensive technique that is already used against pirates, but having robots do the shooting helps keep the people who would otherwise be wielding the fire hoses safe.

And c’mon, it’s robots versus pirates. Robots versus pirates!

[ Firebots ] VIA [ Robotland ]

There’s a point at which it’s better to have a totally dumb sexbot that knows it’s dumb, rather than a totally dumb sexbot that thinks it can talk to humans. Observe this conversation, which is a phishing attempt by a chat program sexbot (ernestineholom553@hotmail.com):

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
hey, hows it going?

Mary says:
good thanks
sorry who r u?

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
i’m 21/f your a male right?

Mary says:
um no!
32/f
how did u get my msn??

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
nice, I just got off work and finally got some time to relax which site did i msg you from again?

Mary says:
i have no idea, you added me….

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
I know a way we can chat and have a better time.. do you cam?

Mary says:
ummm but you are a girl?

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
Well i don’t do yahoo cam or any other cam because i have been recorded before… But i do know one site you can watch me on cam, that assures me no one records…

Mary says:
sorry but i am not into girls
i dont know how you got my msn

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
I mean… Do you want to see me on my cam?

Mary says:
sorry but i am not into girls
how did u get my msn?

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
Ok go to [EVIL REDACTED URL] accept the invite on the page baby

Mary says:
what is the capital of saudi aurabia?

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
sweet, fill out the info ur info.. i can not wait for you to see me baby let me find something nice to wear

Mary says:
wow this is a botnet, crazy!!
ha ha

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
whats a bot?

Mary says:
u r not a real person

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
its the sites policy to ensure no minors get access to the site, so they might ask for CC to verify your age babe.

Mary says:
what is the capital of saudi arabia…..

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
What color Panties do you think i should wear? i might have you favorite color here somewhere…

Mary says:
hmmm pink

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
ok, great I got the perfect pink panties for ya …ur gunna love these!!

Mary says:
no black

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
Your such a good boy, i’m gonna show you what good boys deserve.. you can tell me to do anything you want me to do!

Mary says:
i am a girl!!

ernestineholom553@hotmail.com says:
Ok let me know when you get in so I can invite you directly to my cam.

Sexbots, take note: the capital of Saudi Arabia is Riyadh, and we always want the black panties.

VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Just a brief note to let you know that our contact form has (hopefully) been fixed, and some issues with old posts have also (hopefully) been fixed. Let me know in the comments if you notice anything wonky, and you can always email me personally (evan (at) botjunkie (dot) com) with tips and stuff.

Thanks!