If you have more than a passing interest in robotics, specifically humanoid robotics, you should take a look at this episode of Revision3’s Systm. The guest is David Calkins, purveyor of robot violence, robot drunkenness, and occasionally robot wisdom. He talks about the basic design and features of android hobby bots, and if you can get the video to work (I had to use ::gag:: IE), it’s worth watching. All 40 minutes of it. Seriously, I promise.

[ Direct link to video, may require a lame browser ]

The great thing about getting a humanoid robotic kit (as opposed to trying to build one yourself) is that all of the hardest and most tedious work is done for you. You get a robust and reliable platform upon which to add, tweak, mod, hack, whatever… All without having to deal with misshapen servo brackets and toxic combinations of duct tape and super glue.

As far as the software goes, as long as you don’t let it intimidate you, writing code is actually pretty easy. People have a tendency to look at computer code and just freak out and run away, but once you get used to the appearance and general structure of it, it’s far easier to understand (IMO) than a second (non-English) language. ‘Course, that’s just my opinion as a 100% self-taught code geek, but I’ve taught some bona-fide technological luddites how to program simple things in Excel VBA. Once they agreed to look at what was going on, they found it readily comprehensible. Trust me, just give it a try, it’s not so bad.

If you’ve got the stamina to make it to the end of the video (not the very end, where things dissolve into manly giggling), David comments that “next year’s RoboGames, we’re doing full-on Mechwarrior.” Robots. Shooting each other with airsoft. And using flamethrowers. FLAMETHROWERS. Is it next year yet?

If you like the RoboNova RN1 (the one in the video), you can buy it directly from RoboGames fully assembled and ready to walk for $950, which is over $200 (!) cheaper than other online retailers. With 16 digital servos and motion-capture software, it’s pretty much ready for RoboGames competition right out of the box. Click here to pick one up, and we’ll see you next year at RoboGames.

[ Systm ]

Crab Fu’s YouTube channel just keeps on serving up silicone nuggets of homebuilt roboty goodness. Seriously, does this guy ever sleep?

Cute, no? All it needs to do to replace a real golfer is to wear plaid pants (just picture that) and take 5 bazillion little tiny steps with its tracks before it putts the ball. Of course, I was way more impressed when I thought (at first) that the bot was golfing on its own… I should have known better, though, based on Crab Fu’s previous creations. And hey, if you like his stuff, you should totally give him a job.

[ Crab Fu ]

If there’s one complaint I have about humanoid robots, it’s how unapologetically servo-y they are. A slick black bodyshell goes a long way, as the Black Ox by Vstone robotics sexily demonstrates. He’s only 44 centimeters (under a foot and a half) tall, but he has a respectable 22 joints, gyro sensors, and an accelerometer, as well as glowy LED eyes and pointy horns. All in all, he’s pretty wicked looking, and as such, he’ll set you back a not entirely unexpected (but still fairly ludicrous) $7450 for one of the 15 remaining of the set of 30. He won’t be available until September, giving you plenty of time to win the lottery.

Full body pic and a video, after the jump. (Read more…)

CrabFu has a talent for making cute little robots out of spare servos from R/C aircraft. He also has a talent for making them really, really creepy when they move. His most recent creations are a tortoise and a fish called Flapper (watch the video and you’ll see why):

There’s no coordination on the servos; the movement of the robots comes from direct control of each servo via a remote. Oh, and the plastic bits? They’re made of some neat stuff called Shapelock, which becomes moldable if you heat it up to 150 degrees (with hot water, a heat gun, or a microwave). It hardens as soon as it cools down, and you can repeat the process. Seems like something everyone could find a use for, and you can get a free sample for, um, only $5!

Video of the turtle molesting a cat, after the jump. (Read more…)

What’s round, travels in straight lines until it runs into walls, and likes to eat stuff? That’s right, Roomba. And Pac-Man. And especially Pacmba, A Roomba covered in LEDs by Ron Tajima to make a Pac-man shape. Nom nom nom.

VIA [ GetRobo ]

These little laser-equipped robots may not scare you that much, but this is how it all starts: right now, they’re a foot tall, but give them a couple generations and they’ll be crushing us under their giant metal feet. In the meantime, though, we get to watch these KHR-1HV humaniod remote controlled robots take part in a 4 v 4 game of laser tag:

Gameplay seems to be a lot like a conventional game of retail laser tag: run around and shoot anything that moves on the way to the enemy base, where you mindlessly pound away at the sensor ’cause it’s worth the most points. In this case, hitting another robot causes it to fall over and become incapacitated for five seconds and the team loses a point. Games last five minutes, and the winners (I assume) get to strip the losers for spare parts.

[ Impress (Translated) ] VIA [ Engadget ]

You can find tons of humanoid robot kits scattered around Japan, but ever since the demise of the Aibo, our mechanical four legged friends have been sadly underrepresented. This G-Dog robot is part of the G-Robot family, which sell as kits from HPI Racing. It’s 14cm tall and 40cm long, has 9 servos, a built in battery, dedicated motion processing software, and a data cable. It knows some tricks, too:

It’s no Little Dog, but it will be for sale… it should be released in Japan this July for something like $1000.

[ G-Robots ] VIA [ Impress (In Japanese) ]

On Monday I wrote about a quad rotor Microdrone mounting a squirt gun, currently in use by the British Transport Police. Today I ran across this video of a quad rotor helicopter with an independently aimable, camera equipped airsoft gun mounted on the top. It doesn’t appear to be a UAV in this configuration, and I’m kinda wondering why they didn’t mount the gun on the bottom of the aircraft. Still, it’s pretty effective looking, and not something I’d particularly want to be in the sights of.

From what I’ve dug up, the quad rotor platform is called the Pegasus (no relation). It can lift a 7 pound payload for 8 minutes, and once version includes a “garage” mounted underneath that can deploy an R/C scout car. More information about that can apparently be found on the RcGroups.com forums, which has been down (for me, at least) for the last few hours. I’ll check back tomorrow, or if you notice anything, feel free to post about it in the comments.

[ UAV Airsoft ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]

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 ]

Okay, so technically this an R/C vehicle and not really a robot… But then, the PackBot isn’t really a robot either, by that definition. Defining what a robot is can be a tricky business. You know what, though, this thing is damn cool and it’s robot-y enough that I’m posting about it anyway:

Not a bad amount of traction for a 3.5kg vehicle powered by a steam engine… If iRobot were to adopt this tech for their PackBots, they could run forever on little more than wood and water, but I doubt they’d react as well to being tossed through windows. The treads and chassis are from a 1/35 scale Leopard battle tank model, and the powerplant is a 45psi Regner model marine steam engine. Aside from that stuff and the R/C equipment, it was all hand built, a process which you can read about (a little bit, at least) on the Questioneering blog. Lots more pics here.

[ Questioneering ] VIA [ Uberreview ]