It’s official: Wall-E is the best robot movie ever.

Frequent readers of BotJunkie have probably noticed that I’ve gotten a little bit excited about Pixar’s latest animated feature. I was at the first non-internal screening of Wall-E this Saturday, and let me tell you, despite the near sub-orbital altitude of my expectations, the movie exceeded them. By a lot. I’m not going to spoil any of it for you (the Pixar people asked us nicely not to), but as you would expect from Pixar, pretty much the entire movie is spectacular in both visuals and plot. As you might expect, there are tons of delicious little robot in-jokes, as well as homages to sci-fi movies from the past. And although Wall-E and Eve both look, and act, like robots, they manage to seem more human than any of the humans in the movie. I’d love to just keep on gushing, but honestly, I feel like I need to see Wall-E at least twice more before I’ll be able to appreciate it full.

So, get yourself some tickets for opening night (June 27). If you have to stand in line, in the rain, and the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways, do it. You’ll love this movie, I promise.

Oh, and BTW… The customary Pixar short that precedes Wall-E is just about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I nearly died laughing. It involves a bunny and a magic hat and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

[ Wall-E ]

We wrote about this little guy a few months ago, but this new (ish) vid of him is worth watching, ’cause it’s Friday and I feel like ROCKING OUT!!!

And this, people, is what the Little Yellow Drum Machine does… He wanders around until he bumps into something, and then he drums on it. He’s got a recorder and a speaker built in, which lets him loop himself, or you too, if you feel like singing some accompaniment. Does it GET any more awesome?! NO!

More vids on the YouTube Channel.

VIA [ Fark ]

Okay, maybe not for you, not quite yet. But for ME! Because I sold my soul, and the souls of most of my relatives+pets+electronics+girlfriend, to wrangle myself a ticket to a WALL-E party and screening at Pixar this Saturday. I had to submit my name for a background check and swear up, down, and sideways that I wouldn’t bring along any recording equipment, but I will be coming back on Monday with a spoiler free and completely unbiased review of what I’ve already decided is the best movie ever made. Meantime, here’s a new little promo thingy to whet your appetite:

[ WALL-E ]

RoboFish are old news (and so are RoboTurtles, for that matter), but the Nonlinear Dynamics and Control Lab at the University of Washington has taken it upon themselves to give their robotic fish some schooling in schooling. Their fish are able to communicate with each other underwater using low power, low frequency sonar. It’s not a very high bandwidth way of exchanging information, topping out at about 80 bytes (32 or so numbers) per second. And even at that, half the information doesn’t make it most of the time. But that’s the great thing about schooling behavior: you don’t really have to know what’s going on.

Researchers found that in schools of real fish, most of them are just following whichever fish around them happen to act decisively. If only a third of a group of fish know where they’re going, it’s effectively the same as if the whole group knows. It’s this sort of really simple yet robust behavior that groups of the UW fishbots are trying to emulate, since it makes reliable communication far less necessary. Their first task (coming up this summer) is going to be to autonomously track a remote control shark, since that’s exactly what real fish like to do. If they can get that figured out, schools of autonomous robotic fish could be used to track real sharks, or maybe slightly less dangerous things, like whales. Or nudibranchs. Or humuhumunukunukuapua’a, because a fish with a name like that just has to be worth following. Probably gets into all kinds of shenanigans.

[ UW ]

If you thought these bots were small, Duke University’s microbots are smaller. Much smaller. Measured in microns (that’s millionths of a meter), they’re 100 times smaller than any similar design at 250 microns long, 60 microns wide, and 10 microns high. The floor that the robots are dancing around in the above video is a mere millimeter across.

The tricky part (one of the tricky parts) about robots this small is getting them to do what you want them to do. These microbots move forward in tiny (10 billionths of a meter) but quick (20,000 per second) little steps in response to electrical impulses applied to the surface they’re located on. To turn, a different signal pulls one end of the bot to the surface, creating a pivot point. By slightly altering the way each bot responds to the “turn” signal, a bunch of them can be controlled at the same time, and fancy math can get the group to respond in specific ways.

Look for these bots microbots to be showing up probably a long time from now in a brain cell near you.

[ Duke University ] VIA [ Engadget ]

This adorable little teddy bear is nothing less than a fully equipped GPS guidance system for your car. In fact, he is more than fully equipped. He’s borderline over equipped. In addition to providing verbal directions, the one foot tall robot has six motorized joints in his head and neck which allow him to gesture which direction to turn while he’s talking to you. If you stroke his head, he’ll tell you about any interesting things nearby, like landmarks. Now, here’s where the over equipped part comes in: if you stop (or accelerate) suddenly, he’ll start complaining (”watch out!”). And if he smells alcohol on your breath (yes, he’ll be sniffing you), he’ll say, “you haven’t been drinking, have you?” If you don’t admit to it, he’ll punch you in the face and then issue you a DUI.

Just kidding about that last part, but he could conceivably prevent you from starting your car until you pass his Breathalyzer test. Teddy’s designers, iXs Research Corporation, would like to have a smaller version on the market next year, and he won’t be just a teddy bear. You’ll be able to choose from a variety of characters, or a purely robotic version that hopefully you’ll be able to clothe in whatever friendly costume you can tolerate taking directions from.

VIA [ Pink Tentacle ]

University of South Florida professor Robin Murphy has received a $500,000 grant from Microsoft to develop a robotic companion to be friends with people who find themselves stuck in uncomfortable situations. I’m not talking about airplane seats or blind dates; these robots would be designed for people stuck in disaster areas or pinned down by snipers. The “Survivor Buddy” would be able to maneuver into hard to reach or dangerous places, and could do all kinds of things to help you feel better. Like, play soothing music. Or let you video chat with loved ones. As far as actual, physical help… Well, the robot will be able to monitor your vital signs, and it can bring you some water, but don’t expect it to do much digging or drag you anywhere.

[ St. Petersburg Times ] VIA [ Smart-Machines ]

Okay, so even by my definition of robot (i.e. if I think it’s a robot, it’s a robot), this thing may not completely qualify. But there’s just something about it. Something sinister. I don’t know whether it’s the legs, the way it moves, or the scorpion tail with a decapitator on the end of it. If it ever figures out how to scuttle, I think it would seriously freak me out.

Yeah, eek.

[ Plustech ] VIA [ Like Cool ]

This Wall-E toy doesn’t appear to be either of the models we’ve seen before, and the Eve toy is definitely new. Called the InterAction Wall-E and Eve, it looks like bringing the toys near each other gets them to start pining for one another. Say it with me now: awwww. The toys also light up and make sounds and stuff; Wall-E moves his arms and head, while Eve has light-up eyes, movable arms, and makes whooshing and laser noises when you pick her up and fly her around. Looks like fun to me; I’ll be picking myself up a pair for an unknown price when they show up sometime this summer.

VIA [ Electric Pig ]

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 ]