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 ]

We tend not to cover robotics toys that much around here, but if you know someone who’s interested in robotics, something fun and simple (and cheap) is a good way to get them introduced to the field. Trossen Robotics, which generally sells serious hobby robots, today opened a new online store for robot toys aimed at the younger and less experienced roboticist. There are over 40 items priced under 20 bucks (including walking robots and line followers), plus a “girl friendly” section, whatever that means. The first 50 orders today get a free Hexbug robot, which is a good reason to start your Valentine’s Day shopping… Trust me, this is pretty much the most romantic gift there is.

[ Robotics Toys ]

YouTube user Paxshikai is the proud owner of what is potentially the most dangerous i-SOBOT ever, thanks to its arsenal of custom made weapons that includes crossbows, sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, and even a light saber. In celebration of his 100th (!) YouTube video of an i-SOBOT blowing things up with a variety of weaponry (or doing other weird stuff), Paxshikai put together this compilation video. I don’t know how he keeps coming up with inspiration for these vids, but I have no doubt that we’re going to see another hundred (or so). I mean, i-SOBOT has to work his way up to firing a little miniature custom made tactical nuclear warhead, and for obvious reasons, that video will most likely be the last.

[ Paxshikai ] VIA [ Robots-Dreams ]

I’ve been hoping for a video of Motoman playing with LEGOs ever since I saw this picture from IREX 2009, and I’m definitely not disappointed. Motoman’s high resolution color cameras and object recognition make picking out and connecting LEGO pieces easy, and I especially like how he’s able to get the pieces with one hand while assembling the building (or whatever it is) with the other. Next time, though, they should give Motoman one of these and see how he does… That would impress me. And the rest of the world.

VIA [ Robots Dreams ]

If these weren’t already sold out, I’d be all over them. At $45 each (there’s a set of 6), these 6.5″ tall ‘Bertie Mk2′ figurines are beautifully battle scarred in that way that made Wall-E so endearing. More pics:

As I said, the pre-order is entirely sold out, but hopefully these robot toys will become available again in January.

[ Tenacious Toys ] VIA [ Boing Boing ]

Robots Rule interviewed Derek Dotson, one of the original founders of Ugobe who’s now the CEO of Innvo Labs, the subsidiary of Jetta that’s now producing the Pleo. We reported on Monday that the new Pleos now for sale from Innovo are identical to the Pleos sold by Ugobe, but it turns out that the new Pleos actually have a number of minor upgrades:

-The problem with neck wires breaking which affected some Pleos has been fixed
-The problem of the skin separating has been fixed
-The premature wearing of the paint from Pleo’s skin and teeth has been fixed. The new paint should last 3 times longer than the old one.
-The packaging Pleo comes in no longer uses Styrofoam and is biodegradable making it friendly to the environment
-The battery chargers have a new switch with two positions, one for regular charging and another that uses a special charging mode created specifically for those batteries that don’t charge properly. It drains the battery completely and then “force” charges it for 16 hours. This should bring many of the problem batteries back to life, although some batteries aren’t salvageable because they’re just plain dead. Also, the charger can use the old A/C adapter and it can charge the old Ugobe batteries too.
-Due to a change in the hearing system Pleo responds better to your voice when it comes to figuring out where you are (left or right of him).

If you’ve got a Ugobe Pleo and you want an Innovo Pleo, you can upgrade through the “Reincarnation Program” for $245, which will not (repeat: not) preserve your Pleo’s personality traits or learned behaviors.

Derek also talked a little bit about Pleo’s future (i.e. the next model, due out in 2010). Some tidbits on that, after the jump. (Read more…)

If you wanted a Pleo but were wary of purchasing one since Ugobe went under last April, the good news is that new ones are (finally) back on the market again thanks to the acquisition of Ugobe by manufacturer Jetta. The bad news is that they’re exactly the same as the old ones, which means that all of the original Pleos that were available on Amazon for below wholesale cost have shot up in price. Still, this is good news in general for the Pleo community, assuming that Jetta manages to avoid the same issues that Ugobe had and actually make some money… If Pleo does well, we can hope for some accessories and software upgrades and maybe even some new models. Like maybe a carnivorous one, you know, to keep Pleo in shape. Wouldn’t that be fun.

[ Pleo Store ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

Thanks Andrew!

Time to start writing up your non-denominational holiday wish list, ’cause WowWee is releasing a couple new robots this month. The humanoid, called Joebot, uses the same type of hand controls as other WowWee humanoids, but his new feature is voice command. It’s unclear just how many commands Joebot responds to, but it could be kinda cool I guess, and it’s a welcome addition to more ho-hum stuff like dancing and beatboxing (for whatever that’s worth).

Roborover is a little less sophisticated, but sports some functional looking treads and a reasonably powerful working headlight. He can wander around autonomously, avoiding obstacles, and has a guard mode that detects movement. He uses a remote instead of voice command and is smart enough (or dumb enough) to follow you around on his own.

Both of these bots have the same dubiously wacky personalities that we’ve come to expect from WowWee, meaning that they’re probably more suited for kids than for hardcore roboticists. But, once some poor kid listens to one of these bots make a quip for the nth time, he or she will start trying to figure out how to mod it if for no other reason than to get it to shut up. Brilliant!

Joebot retails for $100, while Roborover goes for $70. Available soon.

Product vids, after the jump. (Read more…)

You might be wondering just why, exactly, one would want to wear an arm-mounted robotic eyeball named Miruko. That looks to be wearing a sweater. Well, it’s obvious: to spot all the invisible monsters that are around you right now. You can’t see the monsters, by the robot eyeball can, and by following its gaze, you can figure out which of your friends are, in fact, monsters. And then you take a picture of them with a special iPhone app that’s connected to the robot. After that, the video doesn’t specify how the game works, but I assume since they’re monsters, you need to do something violent to them in order to score any points.

The game is mostly a proof of concept (but don’t let that fool you, most of your friends really are monsters), showing how robots can help humans interact with a virtual environment or augmented reality. Physically, Miruko is loosely based on another eyeball robot that’s, if possible, even more creepy… Called the Opto-Isolator, we wrote about it on OhGizmo last year.

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

Obviously, they’re making some progress on this whole robot pet thing, and the lifelong battery is great… But it doesn’t seem to do much, and obviously the audio module and the command interface aren’t really working yet. Meh, I think I’ll probably wait for version 2.0.

This is, of course, a joke. Some of what they’re joking about, however, isn’t. ToyBots is working on a hardware and software platform for socially networked robot toys, and they made their first presentation at the TechCrunch50 conference (we had it on Twitter a few days ago). We’ve got a video of that, which describes the system and demonstrates a fuzzy prototype toy called Woozee (an actual prototype, I promise), after the jump. (Read more…)