Smell that? It’s the scent of oil, fried speed controllers, and battery acid. And it means that RoboGames is now only a month away. The world’s largest open robot competition will be taking place at the Ft. Mason Center in San Francisco from June 13-15 (Friday through Sunday). Did I mention it’s the world’s LARGEST open robot competition? There will be 70 (!) events, including combat robots from 150 grams up to 340 pounds, autonomous combat, soccer, hockey, sumo, navigation, fire fighting… The list goes on.

Tickets are only $20 for adults and $15 for kids, per day, with discounts for all three days (and for the military). If there is any way you can possibly get there, get there. Trust me, it’s gonna be awesome.

[ RoboGames 2008 ]

This weekend, I’ll be checking out Maker Faire, where there are guaranteed to be hordes (hordes, I tell you, HORDES!) of robots, both benign and excessively dangerous. In the latter category, I’m especially excited about the Combots Cup, “the top prize in combat robots.” I have no idea if that’s true or not, but I don’t care, because there are things that I do know: There will be robot death. There will be robot destruction. And there will be pictures and video. So stay tuned… Non-robot coverage can be found over on OhGizmo.

[ Maker Faire ]

[Update: It’s now up on YouTube]

I’d like to think I’m pretty restrained when it comes to most of the stuff I write about. If it’s cool, I say it’s cool, but I don’t gush. Except for Wall-E. Wall-E makes me gush. Yes, you can quote me on that. I am happy, nay, ecstatic to report that there is a new trailer up on Apple/Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E site, and it’s packed (packed, I tell you!) with new footage, including bits and pieces from all of the super secret stuff I saw at WonderCon and actual honest-to-goodness people. It’s not on their YouTube site yet (and if I upload it myself it’ll just get pulled), so you’ll have to click through to watch. But it’s totally, completely, horrifically worth it. Watch it. Now. NOW!

Also available for download in HD here.

[ Wall-E Trailer ] VIA [ io9 ]

It’s not happening until June 13, but RoboGames is still something to get excited about. Taking place in San Francisco, there are 70 (!) events at the 3 day competition including racing, navigation, fire fighting (cool!), sumo, hockey, soccer, and of course combat, from 150 grams all the way up to 340 pounds. I’ll be there for a day or two covering some of the events, but if you’re in the Bay area yourself, you can buy tickets or (even better) enter your own bots and be part of the fun.

[ RoboGames ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]

I’m spending most of the week in Las Vegas at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of bots, I’ve already spotted some new stuff from Wowwee, and iRobot will be there too, among many others. So stay tuned as I hit the exhibit floor (make that floors) tomorrow, and be sure to check out my gadget coverage over at OhGizmo.

[ CES ]

For the next two days I’ll be covering the RoboDevelopment Conference and Expo, taking place in semi-exotic San Jose, California. According to the PR, RoboDevelopment is “the first robotics industry event focused on the design and development of commercially viable personal, service and intelligent mobile robotics products - products that are to be used outside of laboratory environments and sold at a profit.” What I hope that means is that the technologies that are going to be discussed and demoed here are all going to be available for you (yes, you) to buy in the not so distant future.

I’m actually sorta liveblogging (oh, how I’ve yearned to use that word), in that as we speak I’m sitting in one of the conference halls enjoying a tasty and more or less nutritious breakfast courtesy of CoroWare and Evolution Robotics before the first keynote begins at 8am. I’ll do my level best to post a tidbit or two throughout the day, so check back for updates.

[ RoboDevelopment ]

We’ve just launched. Today. And we’re excited as hell. Sure, we only have 11 articles right now, but that’s going to change. Robots are cool, and we’re going to be covering that field inside and out. So check us out every day of the week. Bookmark us. Subscribe to our feed. Tattoo our logo on whatever body part you want. Spread the love.

Who is “we”? The team at OhGizmo, a little gadget blog you might have heard about.