Far be it from me to recommend that you read any blogs besides BotJunkie (although I’m partial to OhGizmo, myself), but a moderately well-known gadget blog called Gizmodo has a special guest robot blogger that you might be interested in: the Mars Phoenix Lander. Phoenix has been writing a series of articles about its birth, landing, research, and eventual probable demise :(. Definitely worth checking out, and if you can’t get enough, you can also find Phoenix on Twitter.

The picture, incidentally, is of Phoenix’s “head,” direct from Mars. It was taken by Phoenix itself thanks to a nice and bendy 4-DOF robot arm with a camera on it. Spotted over on Suicide Bots.

[ Phoenix on Gizmodo ]

It’s Sunday morning, let’s read the comics:

This is Diesel Sweeties, a webcomic by R. Stevens. It’s about robots and humans and toasters and what happens when they all hook up with each other. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting, but I’m still working my way through the 2,100+ comic archive. Diesel Sweeties comes out every weekday, and if you’re lucky, is just a little bit naughty. Also, there are t-shirts, including this one.

Another comic, after the jump. (Read more…)

Besides the hexapod dance-off, the Austrian Hexapod Championships were also host to a hexapod race, where the bots had to negotiate a slalom course of potted plants while balancing what may or may not be (but probably is, it’s in Austria) a beer on their backs:

Parts 2 and 3, after the jump. (Read more…)

Turns out that Hexapodmeisterschaft, the dancing hexapod we wrote about last Friday, is not alone. He was the winner of the 2008 Austrian Hexapod Championships (dancing category), and this video shows a bunch of hexabots who were almost, but not quite, as suave:

I’m totally impressed, and also jealous of their fly moves. People still say “fly,” right?

VIA [ Robots.net ]

In contrast to yesterday’s posting about Macroswiss robots that involved actual prototypes and stuff, there’s nothing much in this video but bots ‘n guns eye-candy. I guess it’s worth mentioning that on some level, Macroswiss means to put some work into these things, but so far they’re little more than good excuses for a CG skirmish.

[ Macroswiss ]

There was a comment on Tuesday’s post about Cam-Babies wondering about little robots called Tekno Dinkies, which I’d never heard of. Being the enterprising (on occasion) young (sort of) professional (not really) robot journalist (says so on my business card) that I am, I decided to energize my Google-Fu and see what I could come up with.

From what I’ve been able to dig up, Tekno Dinkies are an entire family of little robot figures (collect all 6, including dog and baby!). If you set them down next to each other, they will apparently jabber away in “Dinkish.” Tekno Dinkies can move their arms and heads, walk, respond to voice and motion, and tell time. They have LCD screens on their heads that display emotions, and you can play some kind of UFO shooting game on the screens as well. The Tekno Robot website has been taken over by squatters, as far as I can tell, but the company is still making some sort of middling robotic puppy toy that you can see here.

There are a couple Tekno Dinkies on eBay, starting at about 99 cents. I might buy a couple if shipping wasn’t $8, but it seems like you need at least two of them, and I’m questioning whether I’d want to blow $18 on something called “Tekno Dinkies.”

I found most of this information here, where there was also a little blurb about a Tekno robot turtle named Flash:

Flash talks a lot. He talks about stuff he’s thinking. Here he is eating from his feeding bottle. He can be programmed to wake up at any time and wake you up too. He can be programed to sing and dance and to make rude noises!

Flash is cute and I want him, but I have no idea where to get one.

So anyway, commenter Joe, I hate to quibble with you, but I think that Cam-Babies still come out on top.

I mean, on the bottom.

This video from security and surveillance company Macroswiss illustrates some of the robot technology they’re developing. The little Spybot (which is almost exactly like the Recon Scout) with the built-in mini Uzi is neat, but my favorite has to be the Hydrobot, which spies on boats using a fake floating seagull to hide its cameras. Although this vid is CG, most (if not all) of these bots exist in at least demo form, and you can see them (and more Macroswiss robots) in action on YouTube in an episode of FutureWeapons (part 1, part 2).

[ Macroswiss ]

Today is election day, which means that US citizens like myself are feeling a a nauseating combination of excitement and dread as we watch our country hurl itself toward either a bright and sunny future or, if you’re voting for THE OTHER GUY, global thermonuclear war. And if you’re a US citizen, you’d better go vote, if for no other reason than it means you’re then allowed to complain about the result and how it’s all the fault of those batsh*t crazy radicals and it’s probably time to move to Canada already.

All we can really do at this point, though, is slump on the couch with a bottle of Scotch and see how it all plays out…

You know what? Considering the potential alternative, I think I can live with this.

[ The Onion ] VIA [ Laughing Squid ]

These are Cam-Babies. When you clap your hands, they walk forward.

And their eyes light up.

And they move their heads.

And if they fall over, they start crying.

If you know someone who really, really likes robots, you could get them one of these and crush their spirit.

Available from Cube-Works in Japan this month.

VIA [ Akihabara News ]

i-SOBOT, a teeny tiny humaniod robot with 17 servos and a gyro and voice recognition, is now available for only $100 after debuting about this time last year for $350. I’m not sure what’s to credit (blame?) for this drastic price cut, but maybe (hopefully) it means that robot kits are getting really really popular, or something. I suppose it could also mean that nobody is buying them, but how could you not want your very own 6.5″ programmable humanoid?

Get it from Hammacher-Schlemmawhatasillyname.

[ Hammacher ] VIA [ Robot Living ]