Now this is robotics put to good use – preventing greedy people from chomping on your sweets all day. This was built using the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit. It can crawl on its six legs and can see/hear you through ultrasonic and sound sensors before it nips at you with its pinchers or ‘stings’ you with its non-lethal tail. Instructions for the scorpion and other possibilities can be found here.
I was completely unaware that the Mindstorms stuff was so awesome until I found out what possibilities there are and I am now going to have to save up so I can build a laser firing sweet guardian. This one is all laughs and jokes but mine will deal out its own harsh justice. Keep off my smarties.
I just wanted to show yous all this video someone thrust my way. It depicts the never ending battle between canine quadruped and quadrupedal robot in, apparently, their nonstop war over territories. Mostly in the darkest corners of utilities rooms hidden in the depths of human conurbations. Or something.
The robot in the video is a RoboQuad, which you can buy for around £60, made by WowWee. It has a load of magical sensors which allows it to detect objects and puppies – such as infrared, sound and the ability to detect fast approaching objects in order to give a flinch response – and gives appropriate reactions depending on what behaviour style you set it. Such as maximum kill aggressiveness (or thereabouts). It can be remote controlled or can run autonomously to guard your dirty washing.
Also, for some unknown reason, it can play techno sound effects. There are a bunch of different robot animals you can buy, but this one is the only one I found having a fight with a puppy. Not that I actually checked or anything. Anyway, amass the armies and conquer (your own home).
Honda released this short film, Living with Robots, at the Sundance Film Festival. It is pretty cool, mainly about ASIMO and its history but also throws in some footage of the weird bodyweight support thing. Basically, its like a pair of electronic pants for lazy people that makes it appear as though a large robotic spider is trying to escape from your crotch. Anyway, pretty good watch so press play now.
After you’ve digested that, let me thrill you with more ASIMO visual pleasure by showing you the old advert/film attempting to bring warm joyous feelings towards ASIMO and such. Well, it works. Enjoy.
I love retro robots, they are the best kind of robot in their naive, clanky way. And it seems the future might well be full of them, for the win. This little dude was spotted at the Detroit Auto Show by someone’s brother or something. Anyway, the video is here for all to enjoy. Could this be the return of the retro robot? Do they have the capacity of thought? Are they the first wave of the imminent robot takeover? Will I ever stop asking questions?
Keep your eyes open and report any sightings here!
Welcome to the shiny, spinny, flappy, dancey world of the Rolly, a robotic MP3 player. Cute, fun but perhaps a little pointless.
Unveiled this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, this fit-in-your-pocket device is first looks like an egg-shaped MP3 player. However, it is not your standard egg-shaped MP3 player, if there even is one, since it is a robot and it can dance. Whut?! Yes, dance. Using the two wheels around its body it can roll about to your music. The glee doesn’t stop there though, it also has little flappy arms connected to tiny shoulders on each end that it flaps, folds and body-pops for your enjoyment. The Rolly also has the capability to keep you mesmerised by firing waves and particles of approximately 700 different colours warmly onto your retina. All whilst it spews out your rubbish music through potentially tinny speakers as you sit in your kitchen stuffing crisps into your face and clapping manically.
Rather than it having an LCD screen to control your music, or whatever it is you describe it as, you can “simply” spin the Rolly either way to make it play or skip a tune. Hold it vertically and you can adjust the volume with “simple” pirouettes. I can’t figure out how you make the thing stop, but I think you might have to “simply” hold it at a 47 degree angle to the trajectory of Venus in comparison to Mars whilst whistling the theme tune from Neighbours. Backwards.
The Rolly is a 2GB beast, so you can hold around 520 songs on it, but Sony decided it didn’t need to have a headphone jack. And this is why I think it is pointless. When the going price is $229 (only due to be released in spring in the US), I can think of plenty of other MP3 players to spend my hard-earned pennies on that I can actually use in the traditional sense of an MP3 player in that they would have headphones. Saying this, I would still enjoy owning one – after all, you can program it with your very own dance routines using included software and it will even accept music wirelessly through Bluetooth – and cry with joy as I watch it do its thing whilst sitting in my kitchen stuffing crisps into my face and clapping manically.
BigDog is not your standard woof woof (minus head). It is a rough-terrain robot, capable of walking, running, bounding, climbing, carrying heavy loads and is fully house-trained. Okay, I made the last one up but I fully assume it is. Built and tamed by Boston Dynamics, it is about three feet long, two and a half feet tall and controlled by lots of computer gizmos and sensors and stuff – for those of you lacking imagination, that’s like a German Shephard with four Xbox and a Wii stuck to it.
BigDog gets about the place using a Leopard go-kart engine, various hydraulics, valves, actuators, servos, joints and springs, which all combine to get it to a speed of 4mph (to date). They also allow it to climb up 35 degree slopes, navigate over rubble, go on muddy hikes, bound around in snow and splash about it water. Amazingly, BigDog has managed to walk 12.8 miles without stopping or refueling, which is pretty sweet. BigDog can also carry a 150kg load – that’s two people, fifteen machine guns or about 1300 hamsters.
Check it out for yourself in the following videos and prepare to laugh as BigDog meets some ice. Oh and when that guy boots BigDog in the side, incredible robot.
And finally, even robots have to take some time out. I love you BigDog!
Nerdbots is brought to you by Nicholas and Angela from Kansas city. These people are my kind of people. The kind of people who one day decide they need to build a robot, dreams that I too share deeply with them. Using items they pick up at antique and thirft stores, they painstakingly create robot sculptures that are literally the greatest creations I have ever seen. I have no more words, just go to their site and take a long, long look. Then buy me one.
Don’t know what to do with those spare pennies you have lying around? Why not invest in a 3 million square foot automotive fabrication, assembly plant and distribution center in Delaware! I realise you won’t need any more convincing and you are already putting on your hat to pop down the bank, but also consider this: the deal includes around 200 six-axis robotic arms.
Imagine the possibilities! Actually, there is no need to use your imagination – why not create your own idiotic robot arm ride so you can win that coveted Darwin award with your name on it? Or perhaps you just want to play tennis and/or sword fight all controlled with a wiimote? Maybe you will just be content with launching bowling balls and other junk at things? Check out the videos below.
I sleep a lot. This is fact. Another fact is I don’t get up too well and resort to a plethora of alarm clocks. Ideally I would have one more alarm clock, and this is the one I want. And you want it too, even if you didn’t know yet, because it is so grown-up and masculine and will make you look cool. Just take a look at the red robot dude, he is in freaking space! The coolest.
if Batman had a lawn mowing robot (he probably does)
Okay, so you’ve vacuumed your floors and then mopped them. I say you, but really all you had to do was push a couple of buttons and play some computer games whilst making sure the dog’s tongue doesn’t get caught up in your Roomba’s whirring bits again. What menial tasks are left to delegate to some unfortunate yet loving robot before they enslave humanity? Well, the garden looks pretty unkempt. Robo-mow time.
Let me introduce you to the Automower Solar Hybrid from Husqvarna. I wasn’t sure it was possible to think a lawnmower looked stylish, but this one does. In fact, it looks like Bruce Wayne designed it to keep the lawns impeccable at Wayne Manor, giving him the perfect alibi if anyone accused him of being a vigilante – “I was mowing the lawns again, look how nice they are”. The mower itself can handle rough terrain, be set to a timer so you never have to think about mowing again and will head back to a charging station to top up on power if, predictably, the sun isn’t out in England and it can’t make use of the big solar panel hat it wears. It also has a PIN lock and an anti-theft alarm so the kid you used to pay to cut your lawn has a hard time trying to steal it – incidentally, the mower also won’t make your lawn look like a meth addict was let loose on it with crimping shears.
Unfortunately, it looks like you would actually have to be Bruce Wayne to be able to buy one at the present price, which is around £2000. Yipes. Look’s like the kid will still get his crack money for the time being. There are cheaper mowers out there, but this is the one I like. All the others either look like giant bicycle helmets, a pointless and melted children’s toy or one of those robots you used to have back in school in which you stuck a pencil and used the LOGO programming language to try and draw penises. Remember?
One last thing to mention: is it really wise to give an autonomous robot sharp blades to zoom around with? How many toes does a human actually need anyway?
Blimey, it’s 2010 already, the most futuristic year to have ever happened. And what else exists in the future? Robots of course. So, in homage to our new masters (pending imminent takeover) here you will find a new robot each and every day of 2010, whether they be in pictures, art, videos or other forms.
and don’t forget to send one to me too.
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