Rob Beschizza

Flotsam Robots

Prices start at $250. [Etsy via Dinosaurs and Robots]

Lisa Katayama

$600 robot hands for hard core hobbyists

These intricately designed toy robot hands created by Craft House go on sale tomorrow in Japan. They have five jointed fingers that can grab small objects like fruits and ping pong balls. This version is called the Melissa Hands, and they're the successor to a popular previous version called God's Hands. If you're in Japan, you can buy them online for about $600.

[via Impress Watch (Japanese)]

Steven Leckart

Swarm Bots: Now W/Solar Power, Complex Behaviors!

I-SWARM robots are three-legged solar-powered droids which are less than 4 mm long, wide, tall. Two things to note:

1) I-SWARM stands for "intelligent small-world autonomous robots for micro-manipulation."

Physorg explains:

...a single microrobot by itself is a physically simple individual. But many robots communicating with each other using infrared sensors and interacting with their environment can form a group that is capable of establishing swarm intelligence to generate more complex behavior.

Like foraging...

2) it's now possible for them to be mass-manufactured.

Physorg explains:

The researchers, from institutes in Sweden, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, explain that their building approach marks a new paradigm of robot development in microrobotics. The technique involves integrating an entire robot — with communication, locomotion, energy storage, and electronics — in different modules on a single circuit board. In the past, the single-chip robot concept has presented significant limitations in design and manufacturing. However, instead of using solder to mount electrical components on a printed circuit board as in the conventional method, the researchers use conductive adhesive to attach the components to a double-sided flexible printed circuit board using surface mount technology. The circuit board is then folded to create a three-dimensional robot...

As this was the first test of this fabrication technique, the researchers noted that they encountered some fabrication problems. The single largest problem was to connect the naked integrated circuit to the flexible printed circuit board by the conductive adhesive. Also, some solar cells did not stick due to weak adhesion...

Many of these complications could likely be corrected, with the important result being that the microrobots can be assembled using a surface mounting machine, whereas prior robots have usually been manually assembled with a soldering iron...

In the future, the researchers hope to move from building academic prototypes to manufacturing the robot on a commercial basis, which is necessary for overcoming some of the technical issues. By mass-producing swarms of robots, the loss of some robotic units will be negligible in terms of cost, functionality, and time, yet still achieve a high level of performance. Currently, the researchers hope to find funding to reach these goals.

"Right now the robots need a new ASIC [application-specific integrated circuit] and some other redesigns to be able to work properly," Edqvist said. "We have, however, (in a not yet published article) shown that the robot would have been able to walk at 3.0 V (the solar cell delivers 3.6 V), so with new funding, they could be up and running and be produced in large numbers."

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[via BotJunkie]

Rob Beschizza

Steven Leckart

Contest Winner!: Fighting Space Chicken

Well, I really had no idea so many BBG readers would want to get their hands on my fighting cock bot.

In the end, the winner was a reader by the name of Paul (aka Misterfricative), who won us over with a beautiful, succinct jingle.

Interesting side note: Paul lives in Taiwan, where the fighting cock bot was constructed some 20 years ago. Apart from the fact his tune is fantastic, the notion of returning the bot to its homeland certainly influenced our decision.

And without further adieu, here's the bot-winning song:

Enjoy the cock bot, Paul. And remember, "Never let a child swallow the bullet."

Of course, other BBG readers submitted some wonderful entries. Below are a few of the highlights. Thanks to everyone who entered!

READ THE REST

Steven Leckart

ECCEROBOT: Not Via SKYNET, But Might As Well Be

ECCE is an anthropomimetic robot, meaning it is designed not only to look human, but to mimic the inner architecture and mechanisms of the human body like bones, ligaments, and joints.

Behold, the three goals behind ECCE:

(1) to design and build a robot using anthropomimetic principles
(2) to characterise its dynamics and control it
(3) to exploit its human-like characteristics to produce some human-like cognitive features

Says ECCE:

Nice try with #2. KNEEL BEFORE, ECCE!!!!!!!

I suggest we add a #4 to the list. How about programming ECCE to abide by the Three Laws?

[via IEEE Spectrum via BotJunkie]

Lisa Katayama

Robot alerts you of happy and sad Tweets

This is an adorable robot, created by one Ken Lim, that alerts you of important Twitter messages and encourages you to respond in his own cute cuddly way:

...when it finds a "happy" post, the Guardian Robot raises its head and arm in triumph. It holds the pose until you give it a "high five" by pushing the switch in its raised hand. Once you do that, the robot pass the high five on to your buddy via a reply Tweet.

Rob Beschizza

Ma'am, we have some questions about your baby

Oh, my Freddie Fruitcake!

Ingenious's flickr via Gizmodo

Steven Leckart

Contest: Last Chance To Win The Fighting Space Chicken

The fighting space cock-bot contest ends today, August 7 at 11:59pm PST.

So far, my fave was submitted by Alli.

For more info, check here.

Good luck!

Lisa Katayama

Dancing robot has an iPhone 3GS for a face

Meet Robochan, a desktop-sized dancing humanoid robot with an iPhone 3GS for a face. She can entertain you, interact with you, wake you up via the alarm function with a cute little robot dance, and twirl scallions like a pro.

The face displayed on the 3GS screen is actually that of Hatsune Miku, the anime girl depiction of a vocaloid software created by Yamaha that continues to be a huge hit among Japanese web geeks. The music she's singing is Levan Polkka, a Finnish folk song. Videos of Hatsune Miku singing Levan Polkka became a huge meme on the web video site Nico Nico Douga, which I wrote an article about in Wired Magazine last year. The scallion-twirling, someone explained to me, is a symbol of dumbness &mdash only a really brainless person would stand there and twirl scallions all day.

The creator of this robot calls himself Tamakin &mdash Japanese for Balls.

[via Pink Tentacle]

Xeni Jardin

Modular Snake Robot

If you've ever thought to yourself, gosh, I wish I had a modular snake robot with which to inspect these pipe joints I've just welded, well -- you're gonna love this video. Modular Snake Robot: Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. This robot also has him a website. (Thanks, Katrina Corley)

Rob Beschizza

Electra

Rob Beschizza

Snake

Steven Leckart

Contest: Win My Fighting Cock-Bot

I stumbled on this Fighting Cock-bot at a junk shop in San Francisco that was having an everything-must-go sale. The box is dated 1986 and indicates the robo-chicken was manufactured by the Chi Land Plastic Manufacturing, Co in Taiwan.

Aside from stumbling on a .gov that lists the manufacturer, I haven't had much luck tracking any more of these down online. (Feel free to Google "fighting cock" and let me know if you find one.)

Battery-operated, the 12-inch toy is supposed to fire little plastic discs ("bullets") that you store in little plastic "eggs." To be honest, I don't really care what the thing does.

The packaging is what sold me on it [sic for everything below...]:

• Head with colorful lamp

• Chest with colorful lamp

• Attached with 2 eggs. There are 12 bullets in each egg.

• Walkable feet for advancing

• Wings can wave and shoot the bullet.

• The cock can turn it body for 360°

• Never let a child swallow the bullet

Enter To Win:

Get creative. PhotoShop the art (here's a larger version). Create an original painting, drawing, watercolor of or inspired by the Fighting Chicken. Write a song. Shoot a video of yourself singing said song. Create a claymation music video for said song.

Post a link to your stuff in the comments below or email me: steven AT boingboing DOT net ; The winner will be chosen based on the merit, effort, and originality of his/her creation. Go nuts.

...And remember: never, ever swallow the bullet. Unless, of course, you are an adult.

Lisa Katayama

Guess which one is the robot?

From the cover of the Christian Science Monitor. I'll tweet the answer on Monday.

Rob Beschizza

Legs

Joel Johnson

Video: Animatronic Luxo Jr.

There is now an animatronic Luxo Jr. (Pixar's mascot) at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Awesome!

Joel Johnson

Transformers 2: "Have you ever fallen into a city-sized Cuisinart?"

Choire Sicha reviews Transformers 2:

Have you ever fallen into a city-sized Cuisinart that is grinding its way through a vast Chinese scrap metal field and had your face abraded with shards of aluminum and eyelash-size scraps of rusty torn iron, so all the skin is peeling off your face, your delicate nose-bones being flayed by grinding gear bits and yesterday's shredded microchips and at the same time that song "Citizen Soldier" from the National Guard commercials is blaring at top volume, and somewhere in the distance you can see that "The Hurt Locker" is screening for no good reason and there is sand inside what remains of your teeth and then Megan Fox float-flounces by (like the cow in "Twister"!) with her nipples nearly pouring out of her crop-top camisole and some kid is trying to give her a flower but she is like "I am sooo busy getting highly paid and even though the makeup department set their mirror to 'evening' instead of 'day' and so my beautiful perfect skin is sort of plastered needlessly with foundation, I am still the hottest sex doll on two legs," and so she doesn't take the flower, the poor sad flower, which stands for natural beauty, a flower which is then blenderized like a sad goose sucked into a jet turbine?

Rob Beschizza

Steve DeSpirito's Winged Thingy

Steve DeSpirito:

while ago, I started making these little wire creations with moving parts just for fun. At the time, I had never heard the term "Automata" but have since realized it's a well established art form. It might be hard to tell from the photo above, but when you crank the tail of the sculpture the wings flap

Automata [Art in High Places via DugNorth]

Joel Johnson

Video: A self-balancing "table robot" insinuates itself into your life using booze

With such tiny wheels, this "table robot" from Laksmi-Do looks terribly delicate, but it can still ably hold itself upright and carry up to two kilograms of beverages and snacks. Woe betide the drunkard who forgets to recharge it, though. If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean. [via Engadget]

Rob Beschizza

Gundam Statue Completed

The enormous Gundam statue is complete. [DannyChoo]

Steven Leckart

Retro Robotix Robo-Dog: More Canine Than Canine

Man's best friend just got even better! A dog you don't have to walk or feed, and you control its every move!

Runs on 4 C batteries and 1 9V. Only $200 from the Electronic Eclectic Company.

Or you could go 21st Century with HPI's G-Dog, a $700 mutt that runs on a 7.2V Ni-MH and can do a break dancer's headstand (00:20!):

Joel Johnson

Robotic Pets and Children: A Developmental Study

From ISAZ Newsletter, Number 29 [pdf]:

Robotic Pets and Children: A Developmental Study

Gail F. Melson, Alan M. Beck, Peter Kahn, and Batya Friedman (University of Washington) All data has now been collected for our study of children across three age groups (7-8, 10-11, 13- 14 years) as they separately interact with a live specially trained dog and with a robotic dog (Sony's AIBO). The analysis is now underway and international presentations of the data are scheduled. Children aged 7-9 yrs. (n=26), 10-12 yrs. (n=24), and 13-15 yrs. (n=21), half boys, participated. After a 5-min. play session with AIBO, each child completed a 20-min. interview, with AIBO present and "on." The same play session and interview was conducted with "Canis," an Australian Shepherd. As part of the interview, each child was asked whether or not the target dog possessed biological properties, social companionship, and moral standing. Most dog type comparisons were significant.

For 23 of 25 questions, fewer children affirmed AIBO's (as compared to Canis') biology, psychology, companionship, or moral standing. However, more children endorsed punishing Canis (80%) than AIBO (51%) for breaking something expensive. Children unanimously affirmed Canis' biology, at least 70% of children affirmed all mental state and companionship questions about Canis, and at least 80% stated it was "not OK" to cause Canis harm (5 questions). However, over 50% of children also affirmed AIBO's mental states (4 of 6 questions), companionship (5 of 6 questions) and moral standing (6 of 7 questions). In summary, while children sharply distinguish living and robotic dogs, most children attribute psychological, companionship and moral standing (but not biology) to a robot dog, even after a brief exposure. Preliminary data were presented at the Tenth International Conference on Human- Animal Interactions, Glasgow, Scotland, October 8, 2004.

Steven Leckart

Video Gallery: Dogs vs. Robots

Consider the Fourth Law:

A robot must confuse, agitate and/or do battle with all canines, unless such action conflicts with the First, Second and Third Laws.

After the jump, videos in which robotic dogs, raptors, humanoids, vacuums and other bots face off against "real" pooches...

This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs.

READ THE REST

Steven Leckart

Gallery: A Visual History of The Artificial Dog

Sony's four-legged entertainment bot AIBO launched a decade ago. At left is a figure from patent #6458011, which was filed in 2001 by inventors Makoto Inoue and Emi Kato:

A walking-on-four-legs type robot whose body is connected at the front right, front left, rear right, and rear left with legs is adapted so that its action saves the user trouble and increases the user's affection for, and curiosity about, the robot.

I find the evolution of the artificial dog fascinating. Check out more patented pooches &mdash from analog to animatronic, including more iterations from Sony &mdash after the jump...

[top right image via Sony]

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Power On Self Test: S.H.E.R.L.O.C.K.

Rob Beschizza

Bare metal R2-D2

Joel Johnson

LEGO: Walkers vs Wartracks

Steven Leckart

Programmer Hanging 10 On a KUKA Robot

No comment.

Joel Johnson

Music Video: Röyksopp + Robyn "The Girl and the Robot"

This really isn't that great of a song, but I think Robyn is fantastic despite myself (even if she's ripped off my haircut). Plus she nearly gets [redacted]-[redacted] by a robot in the video. What's not to like? There's also a Nokia N97 in there for second, which I have about as much likelihood of using as I do a robot who will [redacted] on my [redacted].

I think someone emailed this in as a tip a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post it, but I can't find the email, either. So if I didn't just make that all up, thanks for sending it in!