ROBOTS DREAMS

Makerbot gives birth to other little bots.

It's so cute!
Originally uploaded by langfordw.

Makerbot 3D printed sumo robot equipped with an Arduino controller. Geek heaven!

Mythbusters bots!

The Mythbusters
Originally uploaded by ittybittiesforyou.

Lending a helping hand...

Helping Hand
Originally uploaded by Steven スティーブン Pham.

OTL makes the TOMY i-SOBOT hackable! (Video)

The team motto for the gang at OTL Technology Laboratory is “We are producing interesting robots!”, and they couldn’t have picked a better motto. It fits perfectly.

The first robot designed they unveiled back in July was a humanoid with an iPhone 3GS head (see below). Then they added additional functionality by making the robot bilingual.

Now they have developed a small interface board that mates an Arduino board with the i-SOBOT! The board allows individual control over each of the i-SOBOT’s 17 servos, and eliminates the stock IR remote control device.

Watch the VEX Robotics All-Star Challenge Live online

The VEX Robotics All-Star Challenge (Nov. 12?14, 2009) is being live-streamed over the internet from Disney World in Florida. For readers that aren’t already familar with the exciting VEX robotics competitions, we’ve included the event press release below.

Giant robots attack Montevideo (Video)

What would happen if giant robots attacked and started destroying major landmarks, and sections of the population without notice? The short video below, was created by Fede Alvarez in Uruguay.

Walky: Using natural finger gestures to control humanoid robots (Video)

Human/robot interfaces have always been clumsy, non-intuitive, and frustrating to say the least. Many robot designers have fallen back on R/C remote control, or game contoller models that almost do the job, but still fall short of the mark.

The Igarashi Design UI Project, ERATO, has been doing some really innovative work utilizing natural finger gestures on an iPod or iPhone to control complex devices, including bipedal walking robots similar in size and design to those seen in ROBO-ONE competitions. “Walky”, one result that has already been successfully demonstrated by the project members, is striking in it’s simpilicity, yet extremely effective.

DIY, maker, hacker movement recognized by the WSJ (Video)

You know that there is a major Maker cultural revolution underway when the movement gets featured by the Wall Street Journal.

Checkout the awesome WSJ video below for a look inside the High Tech DIY Renaissance, including segments with Bre Pettis, LadyAda, and folks at the NYCresistor hackerspace.

One mind-blowing factoid from the video, AdaFruit Industries gives their basic designs away for free, but is on track to do over USD$1 million this year.

Regional VEX Robot competition gets off to a fantastic start

ASIJ VEX-0028
Originally uploaded by Tempusmaster.

We spent the day at one of the most interesting and exciting robot contests we've seen in a long time, the American School in Japan VEX Robot competition. Our raw ASIJ VEX photo gallery has already been uploaded while we're working on the video footage.

Ghost in the Machine...?

DSC_2550
Originally uploaded by chris.d.adams.

It would seem pretty spooky if I didn't already know that it's the folks at London Hackerspace. :)

Omni-Zero Evolution

Just finished an extremely interesting photo session with more than 10 generations of Maeda-san's ROBO-ONE champion Omni-Zero series of humanoid robots.

Photos, along with some of our observations, will be posted soon. :)

Attack of the Robot Cupcakes!

WE ARE ROBOT CUPCAKES. WE CAME TO DESTORY YOUR APPETITE.
Originally uploaded by Lara604.

Robot aides romance

We don't usually associate robots and hackers with romance, but some creative folks have already put the Makerbot 3D printer to good use with lots of love.

Tying the knot with MakerBot

[From the Robots Dreams iPhone]

AdaFruit Wave Shield equipped Halloween costume

Makers. hackers, and Lady Ada fans will definitely appreciate this costume.

AdaFruit Wave Shield costume

[From the Robots Dreams iPhone]

OLLO: Robot system designed for young learners

This time of year we always get lots of requests for gift recommendations, especially from parents or grandparents who want to encourage the younger robot fans in their lives to pursue their passion in a positive, educational direction.

One of the robot products that is specifically designed to fill that need is the OLLO robot system developed by Robotis in Korea. From the very beginning the system was developed with kids in mind, and the company has even developed sample curriculum for teachers, coaches, and parents, laying out week by week lessons with well thought out goals and learnings.

We'll be posted a detailed review of the OLLO system within the next two weeks.

Steampunk Squeek

Steampunk Squeek ~ Assemblage Sculpture
Originally uploaded by Tinkerbots.

Kind of a steampunk Segway 3PO...

Lurking inside everyone's favorite droid...

We’ve always wondered how all that great technology and AI capability was stuffed into R2D2’s compact little body. While the details are still a closely guarded secret, we did manage to catch a glimpse of what’s actually controlling our little robot buddy by examining this cover image of the R2 Unit Owners Workshop Manual.

Thanks to Trevor.

Robot Pro Wrestling event opens with music (Video)

It was a beautiful, clear, crisp day here. Absolutely perfect weather for the 5^th Dekinnoka Robot Professional Wrestling exhibition in Saitama, including opening ceremonies featuring an excellent robot musical trio.

The evolution of pick & place factory automation 1952-2009 (Video)

My, how times have changed. Contrast the two ‘factory automation’ videos below to see the huge strides that have been made since the original video was filmed in 1952.

US humanoid robots are getting are bigger, and badder. (Video)

It’s really too bad that we can’t be in two (or three or four) places at once. We really wanted to see Giger, the 9 pound, 2 foot tall humanoid robot with 24 degrees of freedom in action at iHobby. Giger uses 16 of the Dynamixel RX-64 servos plus another 8 RX-28 servos, and it takes two 1900 mAh LiPo batteries to keep this humongous biped moving, and move he does.

With a little fine tuning, and battle experience, Giger could be ready to enter the fray over here for one of the ROBO-ONE competitions next year.