I don’t generally get too worked up about transforming robot toys, if for no other reason than there are tons of mediocre ones that just go from looking like a messed up vehicle to looking like a messed up robot. But this one caught my eye. It takes a full four minutes to transform it from an impressive model airplane to an equally impressive bot, and there are little details everywhere. It’s not even so much the fact that it looks as good as it does, but what really boggles my mind is how complicated it must be to design something like this.

The Macross VF-25F comes as a snap-together kit with decals, and you can find it for around $60 from Toystop, among other places.

VIA [ Robot Watch ]

According to Hong Kong artist and designer Kacey Wong, homeless people need better looking shelters. So, he designed this mobile tin robot that transforms into a little live/work space, complete with a bed, a desk, and a chair. And I mean, what more do you really need? You’ve got somewhere to sleep and somewhere to put your laptop while you read robot news. And this way, when robots take over, you’ll be able to prove that at heart, you’re one of them. And they’ll spare you.

Maybe.

[ Dezeen ] VIA [ io9 ]

It’s a battle station! It’s a galactic shuttle! It’s a cosmic tank! It’s a solar creature! It’s a robot!

It’s pure, unapologetic 80s genius, is what it is.

VIA [ Retro Thing ]

Forget cybernetic slavery… It looks like robots are skipping the raping and pillaging and going straight for violence against children. This harmless looking robot toy from Bandai is responsible for 85 complaints and 14 actual injuries to children in Japan. Apparently, as the robot transforms into a tire, it grabs its owner’s fingers and crushes them in its knee joints. Harsh. Plus, you’ve paid about $70 for the privilege. But the scary part? There are 170,000 of these evil toys running around Japan right now, hungry for more appendages to sever.

Excuse me while I go put on my iron underpants.

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

The few humanoid robots able to transform into cars that we’ve seen (with the exception of this one) have generally been home built sorts of things, not intended for commercial distribution. If you’ve been hankering for something that can both walk and drive (and has blinky lights), the RCRC robot car should be able to fulfill your needs:

The RCRC features both sports car and truck modes, as well as a humanoid mode where it can “spin left and right, performing a dance as its LED lights shine.” That’s a feature, folks. You’ll get 30 solid minutes of joy before its battery goes dead, and then have to find some other way of filling 4 hours while it recharges itself. $89.95, from Hammacher-Schlemmawhatever.

[ Hammacher ] VIA [ Technabob ]

This Citroen commercial involving a transforming robot car may not motivate me to buy a Citroen (what’s a Citroen?), but it does make me want to play some Bee Gees really loudly and pretend I know how to dance. Go on, watch this and try and keep your hips from swiveling…

See what the actual car looks like (if you care) after the jump. (Read more…)

Here at BotJunkie, we love modular (and swarm) robotics. One of the big advantages that keeps getting talked about when it comes to modular robots is their resiliency; i.e. their ability to survive (and recover from) damage. This video shows ckBot, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Modular Robotics Lab, demonstrating the principle… Make sure to watch all the way to the end, it’s pretty funny:

This is what the researchers call “the rapid, randomized disassembly of a system from a high-energy event.” All I can say is, if this were my research project, the event that caused the randomized disassembly of a system that I’d put a lot of work into probably would not have been quite so high-energy. Sure, ckBot survived and managed to put itself back together, but it was clearly not quite the same afterwards. A little woozy, perhaps, but how would YOU feel if that had happened to you, hmm?

[ ModLab ] VIA [ Smart-Machines ]

I first wrote about SuperBot(s) over a year ago, and since I did, they’ve learned some new tricks. If you’re not familiar with these things, each SuperBot is itself made up of some number of relatively simple SuperBot modules working together. The modules are robots themselves, as each one has its own brain, motors, power source, and sensors, but the cool thing about SuperBots is their ability to work together. They’re able to autonomously attach to each other in an effectively infinite number of different ways, allowing them to adapt their structure (and consequent behavior) to virtually any situation. Take a look at a couple videos, and you’ll see how awesome these little guys are:

[ SuperBot ] VIA [ Communist Robot ]

The SoftBank 815T cellphone may not be a cool as this robot phone, but it is slightly more functional (albeit less robot-y) than this one. The phone itself is ho-hum, with 3G, a 3.2 mpx camera, and a QVGA screen. You turn it into a little mech figure by gluing (yes, gluing) matching arms and legs to the body of the phone. I guess, um, it might be useful as a speakerphone stand, but it’ll certainly cut down on the portability a little bit. The SoftBank phone is made to accessorize a new Japanese TV drama for teenagers called Ketai Sousakan 7, which apparently is supposed to feature robotic phones in some way.

I love you, Japan… You and your crazy robot phones.

VIA [ Akihabara News ]

This is MTRAN2, a modular robot who’s a few years old. I’m posting this because the video is neat, but also because I wanted to introduce you to MTRAN2 before you meet his younger sibling, MTRAN3. Old or not, MTRAN2 is a pretty clever little guy. Each one of his modules includes a battery pack, two motors, connectors, a tiny computer, a wireless receiver, and some sensors. The above video shows MTRAN2 in a walking configuration, encountering a slope that might make him unstable. MTRAN2 then reconfigures himself into a snake, which is a slower but far more stable way to move. The behavior is entirely autonomous, and MTRAN2 is able to reconfigure into a variety of different forms, including asymmetrical walkers and even a wheel. It’s a completely different take on flexible locomotion from, say, the RHex, and although it trades off speed and simplicity, there’s theoretically nothing the MTRAN2 couldn’t reconfigure itself to do.

[ MTRAN2 ]