If you thought Sandia’s Mini-Robots were tiny, the pico (which they inspired) is even tinier at half the volume. It’s also much more impressive, with a top speed of 0.5 foot per second and a 15 minute runtime, and it’s 100% home built by Zac Wheeler from commercial available (until recently, anyway) parts.

Pico’s pico-ness doesn’t leave room for a very big brain, which becomes immediately obvious as the pico throws itself off of a table as soon as it’s turned on. This happens twice more in the video below, and for some reason I find it hilarious. It’s nice to see a robot with such a single minded sense of purpose. It looks like the pico is in fact able to detect (via an infrared sensor) when it runs in to something, and will change direction when it does so. It’s also supposedly able to follow a line. Not bad for a little guy the size of a dime:

Originally, pico was meant to be buildable from a kit, and also was meant to be the precursor to a whole new pico division of competitive sumo robots. Unfortunately, some critical parts have been discontinued, and the kits are “not likely to be available anytime soon.” I for one hope that whatever interest is generated by blog exposure might just convince Zac to give it another shot, ’cause I’d buy one in a picosecond.

[ pico ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]

One of the major themes on the expo floor at RoboDevelopment was visual pattern recognition. That is, robots being able to look at an object, know what it is, and react to it. This video shows a custom-built humanoid robot playing dice with one of its developers from Virginia Tech (who apologized for the fact that the robot’s head was in fact attached to a different robot). This isn’t new technology, but what IS new is that the robot is being controlled by commercially available software with these pattern recognition abilities standard, no complicated programming necessary. It’s not even developer software, it’s something that you can teach yourself to use for healthy tasks like robot gambling in an hour or two from scratch. It’s called LabView, and I’ll be talking about it in more detail later on.

Oh, and what happens if this robot DOES lose? Apparently, I don’t want to know, but it may or may not involve a robotic punch in the spleen.

[ RoboDevelopment ]

As seems to be the case with most cool stuff, programmable humanoid robots are generally out of the casual interest price range for most people. RoboPhilo (Programmable Humanoid In Lifelike Operation) might just be able to fill that gap without sacrificing everything that would make owning a humanoid robot worthwhile. He may have an entry level price of ‘less than $500′ (or even less than that if you assemble him yourself), but RoboPhilo boasts an impressive 20 servos to allow independent control of his head, waist, thighs, and limbs along with a 24 channel controller (to add laser cannons, etc) and a fully programmable PC interface. He weighs in at 1.2 kilos with his battery, and stands a respectable 13 inches tall. The IR controller can control up to 4 robots independently for either RoboCup-style soccer games or fights to the death. It looks like there will be a few different colors available as of October 31; you can check out the PDF brochure here.

[ RoboPhilo ] VIA [ Robots Dreams ]

By Evan Ackerman

Had enough of robots transforming into cars yet? Of course you haven’t! Cherubim’s transforming maneuver doesn’t involve a nifty little somersault, and it may not make the best car, but it has some pretty good maneuverability as a humanoid and can pull off one heck of a karate chop. If I was a bottle of weird purple liquid, I’d be running for my life right about now.

[ Robot Force (In Japanese) ] VIA [ Robots-Dreams ]

If you liked the idea of Spyke, the Skype-capable robot who can be controlled over the web, you might be interested to know that the same concept has been applied to WowWee robots like Roboquad. Software called Robodance acts as an intermediary between Roboquad and Skype, translating spoken voice commands into directions to the robot. The robot, in turn, sends back video and audio through Skype. It looks like it works pretty well, as long as you are familiar with the robot’s movements and can compensate for the time delay. Version 4 of the software should be available by the end of November.

[ Robots Rule ] VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]

No, this robot doesn’t serve any practical purpose… It just crawls around on six independently controllable legs and shoots fire out of its tail:

What, that’s not good enough for you? Well, it can also jump two feet straight up, thanks to an airbag mounted in its belly. Of course, it’s completely custom made, but if you really want one (or something just as dangerous), you can contact its master, Greathouse Labs.

[ Greathouse Labs ] VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]