Joe wrote in to share the debut of this new robot arcade game (that he designed!) at the international arcade expo in Orlando. It looks pretty fun: two sumo robots with lifters compete to flip each other over and score points. From the look of things, the robots are cleverly constructed so that when they flip, they can reliably self-right without any trouble at all. I’m guessing that there’s a computer vision system watching everything from above, and that’s how the bots are able to dock themselves to recharge.

It might be kinda neat to see something like this outside of an arcade too… As sort of a really simple robot combat game, maybe with accessories to give your bot different capabilities or something. Robotics in general has such a steep learning curve (or that’s the perception, anyway) that anything designed to make the field easily accessible to beginners and kids would be great for the industry in general. And ideally, it would be fun at the same time, which is obviously the most important thing, since non-fun things just plain suck.

Look for Robo Restle sometime in 2011.

[ Robotic Amusements ] VIA [ Arcade Heroes ]

We were sort of wondering what WowWee’s new Roboscooper was really capable of, and this video of it in action sort of shows some stuff. Kind of. I’m still vaguely wondering if there’s any sort of localization system besides simple obstacle avoidance, although I’m guessing not at this point. And while golf might be cool, does it actually aim? I guess for $70 you can’t really be too picky, but WowWee set the bar pretty high with Rovio and it would be nice to see something from them that was both fun and had the potential for more.

Incidentally, that poor little kid could impale people with his hair… But, maybe that’s normal. In, um, Australia, or something.

[ WowWee Roboscooper ]

We knew that Innvo Labs was working on some upgrades to Pleo, but all has now been revealed over at Bob The Pleo forums, where Innvo Lab CEO Derek Dotson discussed the new “Pleo Reborn.” If you’re a fan of Pleo, you pretty much have to read the entire interview, but I’ve condensed most of the new features if you’d rather just skim:

-Pleos are now male or female (blue or pink), and will react to each other accordingly: females make gentle noises at each other, males step back and shout at each other, and a male and female will make noises and lean against each other

-Pleo skin coloring will be randomized slightly, so that two Pleos produced at the same time will look distinctive. There will also be 10 different eye colors.

-Pleo skin durability improved, should now last 5x longer

-New lithium polymer battery more than doubles lifetime to 120 – 150 minutes, LED battery indicator added underneath Pleo

-Pleo will have a ‘seed’ personality from the factory. Some will learn faster than others, and some will tend to be happier (or more mopey).

-Pleo now knows what time it is and will alter its behaviors accordingly; for example, it will want to be fed in the afternoon and act sleepy in the evening

-Pleo can ‘smell’ RFID tags

-Pleo now has voice recognition, and you can name it, and it will respond to that name… As long as it’s you saying it, not anyone else

-By combining RFID tags that instruct Pleo to perform specific behaviors with voice recognition, it’s now possible to train Pleo to respond to different commands, such as “bow” or “come to me”

-Many more touch sensors have been added, along with corresponding behaviors. For example, if you pet Pleo’s side, it will lean into you.

-Pleo now has a G sensor that lets it detect acceleration and impacts as well as touch

-Pleo’s nose cam now allows for target tracking

-Motor speed and response have been improved, especially in the tail, head, and neck

More awesome stuff, plus video, after the jump.

There are a few more things that I thought were so interesting that I had to quote part of the interview:

Pleo needs to be fed now. If you don’t kind of take care of your Pleo, eventually it will get sick. It will cough, get lethargic, and all that. It needs it’s food to keep it healthy. And if it falls, here’s a big thing, Pleo actually feels pain now. So, if you abuse your Pleo or drop it, remember he knows if he’s been dropped or violated, he feels pain. It takes him a while to recover. He’ll limp. If you touch the area, it’ll be sore and he’ll cry. There are medicines that come with Pleo. You give him these medicines and it helps with the healing process. So, love and affection, a little healing foods, will get Pleo back up. In the labs, we’re striving to make this a pet. Along with a pet, there are certain obligations. So, if you’ve got children who want to pet, this is a good training device. If you can keep Pleo healthy, you can more likely keep a real pet healthy.

Now, here’s one of the quirkiest things we’ve done. Pleo can sense temperature. This is kind of a cool feature. So, let’s say you’re traveling, and you’ve got Pleo in the car and it drops below a certain temperature, and I’m not gonna give the temperature now because it’s adjustable, Pleo starts to shiver and shake like he’s cold. And if you leave him too cold too long, he’ll catch a cold. he also senses heat. If it’s too hot for Pleo, he’ll start panting. Along with what you get right off the get-go is a little chunk of ice. You put it under his chin. If he’s hot, he’ll open his mouth. You put it in, he’ll chew on this ice. It cools him down. Like I said, in our strive to make Pleo a more realistic pet, he has to interact better with his environment.

One more video here.

As far as availability goes, it sounds like there’s a bit of a supply problem, but the first few units should be available to members of the PleoWorld email list later this month. Price? Well, the unit in the pics was purchased at a trade show for about $500, so that’s likely to be the ballpark. Innvo has promised a giant, Jurassic-y booth at CES next year, and we’ll be bringing that to you in early January.

[ PleoWorld ]
[ Bob The Pleo interview with Derek Dotson ]
VIA [ Engadget ]

The original Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robots game has a certain charm about it, but nothing that can’t be improved with a bunch of servos and some fancy movement detecting watches from Texas Instruments. Fancy yes, but remarkably cheap (especially considering the fact that a Ti-83 graphing calculator with 32kb of RAM and a 6 (six!) MHz CPU still costs a blasphemous $130) as you get a three axis accelerometer, pressure sensor, and RF wireless communications (plus a watch) for only 50 bucks. Anyway, with one of these watches on each wrist, the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots game can be completely controlled by the users’ motion, albeit with a bit less ferocity than what tends to be traditional. Quick, somebody call Hugh Jackman…

[ TI Wiki ] VIA [ Hackaday ]

WowWee is continuing to release inexpensive robot toys, and unlike many of their previous offerings (with the obvious and excellent exception of the Rovio), the new Roboscooper actually might have some sort of practical application. Sort of. If you want things that weigh about an ounce lifted up and carted around. Here’s what Roboscooper can do:

* Scoops objects up automatically when in autonomous mode, or when controlled by the included remote
* Nimble. Has six wheels allowing it easy traversal over most terrain
* Multi-directional mobility
* Funny phrases and sound effects
* Sensors in his hands allow it to detect objects in front of it on the floor and pick them up, or knock them around
* Obstacle avoidance

This is the robot that picks up objects at your command and loads them onto its cargo bed, emptying contents at your preferred location. The remote drives the robot left, right, forward, and backward–with skidding sounds for stops and beeps when in reverse–allowing you to nudge it into place for picking up small, 1 oz. items such as balls, toys, or socks with its two articulated arms and hands. It can also operate autonomously using its four infrared “eyes” that seek and detect objects within its 8 – 12″ sight range while it announces “Let’s get to work!” Once an object is secured, the robot’s torso pivots to deposit an object into its cargo bay; it dumps contents by vibrating to dislodge objects from the bay, adding “one step closer to a cleaner world.” Completely aware of its environment, it informs you when an object is either too large or fixed with “too heavy for me” and “uh… a little help, please” if it gets stuck. It can also issue beefy, two-handed slaps to objects when set into “whack” mode, urging you to “let ‘er rip!” when ready.

I really like the idea of a robot that drives around, picking up random stuff… Especially since the robot is apparently smart enough to take all the stuff it picks up back to one place. I’m not sure how it does this, since the descriptions don’t refer specifically to WowWee’s NorthStar indoor positioning system… I think we’ll have to wait for a video demo to find out how Roboscooper works, how well it works, and whether it’s worth the asking price.

Roboscooper is currently on pre-order for $70, and is expected to ship by the end of this month.

[ WowWee Roboscooper ] VIA [ RobotsRule ]

About this time last year, we covered the 6 in 1 solar robot kit from RED5. Well, it turns out that RED5 is back again with a brand new solar robot kit. This one will sell for £13 (About $16), and can build 3 awesome robots! It may be a step down from the 6 in 1 kit in terms of versatility, but the models this time around are a lot more intricate and therefore a lot cooler.

The kit comes with enough parts to build 3 models: a walking robot, a scorpion, and a tank. Each one is motorized, but only one can be built at once.

The other big plus is that this kit requires no gluing- which makes everything easier. The T3 Solar Robots kit from RED5 can be purchased here, and is for ages 10 and up.

[ RED5 ]

Thanks Scott!

Thanks to the magic of the internet, you (yes YOU!) can control NIKO N900, a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot via a hacked Nokia N900 phone.

How does it work?

1. Make or login to a Twitter account
2. Tweet one of the following commands, preceded by “@N900Niko”: move forward, move backward, turn right, turn left, turn around, photo
3. In other words, to make the bot move forward, tweet “@N900Niko move forward”
4. The Nokia N900 cellphone associated with NIKO The N900 will receive your tweet within a few seconds, and translate it into a message, which is then sent to the NXT
5. The NXT interprets the message sent by the N900, and translates it into motor movement
6. Success! Your tweet has made a robot move.

I, for one, am very impressed at the success of the NIKO The N900 project- in just a few short weeks, the team has gone from a cool idea to a working robot with an idea that to my knowledge has never been done before (controlling a LEGO robot via Twitter). Kudos to the guys- keep up the good work!

[ NIKO ] VIA [ MAKE ]

Nick Donaldson and his little robotic shoulder monkey were frequently seen around RoboGames, but somehow MechRC has gotten their hands on the design and has turned it into a full-on production toy. Called Cheeky Monkey, the robot is controlled by a remote that’s hidden in your pocket. He has a velcro butt that sticks to your shoulder to keep him from escaping, and infrared sensing eyes to help him fix on the people he’s being cheeky at. When you’re not commanding him to perform one of 16 different actions, he’ll amuse himself, and there are apparently also a few easter eggs in his programming for you to discover.

Cheeky Monkey should be available in September for a mere $25.

[ MechRC ] VIA [ I4U ]

Zibits, the cute new line of robot toys from Senario, promise to “take the world by storm,” presuming that you think of the assemblage of robots as droplets of rain. In any case, these bots certainly have some merit. Senario says they’ll be able to move forward, and rotate 360 degrees (presumably, the bots can’t back up), and are controlled via IR remote.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about these bots is their price tag- they’ll be retailing for $9.99 a pop, which to me is quite impressive. With the advent of infrared control in consumer robots, prices have been slowly, surely going down. Instead of having to use expensive radio receivers and transmitters, companies like Senario are using cheaper IR control systems, which are almost as effective in robots like these… until you take them out into bright sunlight, and the IR receiver gets confused.

Does the lower price justify the quality?

[ Senario ] VIA [ Robot Snob ]

We’ve seen a bunch of different spherical robots within the past year, so it makes sense that somebody decided to turn one into a toy. Unfortunately, rather that doing something interesting or especially clever, MechRC has just stuck a RC car with big wheels inside a bubble. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, seeing as the robot is supposed to cost all of $40. I’d say that it would be cheaper and easier to do as a DIY project, but it probably wouldn’t be, even if you’d likely get better results (or at least more creative ones). Look for Spheroidz in time for Christmas 2010.

[ MechRC ] VIA [ I4U ]