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       -Sinclair Donald
        Senior Robotics Engineer

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i-SOBOT's New Steam Tank (Video)

Prallplatte in Singapore combined several different hobbies to give i-SOBOT a Steam-Punk mobile attack platform.

Wireless Video Camera i-SOBOT Robot (Video)

Isobot

Long term i-SOBOT robot fans, like us, will remember that Takara/TOMY originally had plans to release a second model equipped with a mobile camera. Although the concept was great, and would have been welcomed by robot fans worldwide, unfortunately circumstances worked against bringing the video camera robot to market.

But one resourceful i-SOBOT devotee, Paxshikai, has been clever enough to hack a video camera i-SOBOT together himself.

Continue reading "Wireless Video Camera i-SOBOT Robot (Video)" »

Takara/Tomy Set to Release New Pet Robot Series

IMG_3651

We can’t share the details with you, at least not yet, but we can tell you that Takara/Tomy is about to release some of the cutest, and most interesting, pet robots we’ve ever seen. We had the chance to play with them and could hardly resist sneaking a couple into our pocket.

Continue reading "Takara/Tomy Set to Release New Pet Robot Series" »

i-SOBOT Named Mizuno Golf Celebrity Spokesperson

Isobot

Mizuno Golf selected the Takara Tomy i-SOBOT robot as the perfect spokesperson for their new Cyborg Head line of golf clubs. The Cyborg Head promotional campaign will last six months, and features special gifts, magazine promotions, and even a professional golf tournament sponsorship with the details to be announced soon.

Under 1kg Humanoid Robot Competition (Video)

Isobot-competition

While the ROBO-ONE humanoids have set the standard for 2 kg, and much larger, bipedal robots, some fans just don’t have the space, resources, or budget to get actively into building robots that large.

To expand the playing field, RT Corp staged an under 1 kg. humanoid robot competition last weekend including some really interesting i-SOBOT battles. Many thanks to Iketomu for posting videos of the action.

Last summer at RoboGames 2008 one brave soul put his i-SOBOT in the rink going head to head against much larger bots, including Robonova-1’s. And, surprisingly, he managed to do well enough to win a metal. This coming summer, we’d love to see an under 1kg humanoid classification at RoboGames 2009, with lots of i-SOBOTs entered.

Continue reading "Under 1kg Humanoid Robot Competition (Video)" »

Brave Enough to Hack the i-SOBOT?

Isobot-internals

It’s kind of embarassing to admit that we actually have three i-SOBOT robots that have never been hacked. Even more embarassing ? two of them have never been out of the box. Two are the original Japanese versions, and were early enough in the production build that they probably have the ROMs that can be reburned. The other one is a US (Black) version.

There is a lot of i-SOBOT hacking information available online, including a fairly detailed English language hacking report, and a fantastic reverse engineering analysis by Ishii-san (in Japanese). The only question is whether or not we have the guts to attempt hacking one of our little buddies…

TOMY Scheduled to Roll Out the Tiny Robo-Q Robot

Robo-q

According to an article posted on the Nikkei BP website, Takara Tomy will start shipping the tiny Robo-Q robot on February 28th at an MSRP of 3,675 yen. Only 3.7 cm tall, the robot is reported to be “AI” equipped ? though we’re definitely going to withhold judgement on that until we get a chance to test one ourselves.

No information on overseas marketing schedules was available at the time of posting.

Robot Sightings: Willis Tackles Robots, Humongous Humanoid List, Free Online Robot Soccer, and more...

What's going on today in my crazy robot world?

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Robot Sightings: Dishwashing robots, great Mech art, RoboTrace. and more...

What's going on today in my crazy robot world?

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Robot Sightings: iSOBOT Jedi Wars, Canadian Robot Sumo, Battlebot Photos, and more....

What's going on today in my crazy robot world?

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