By Shane McGlaun

Transformers were some of my favorite toys when I was a kid. I had lots of them, though my brother tended to break them because he was a goober and couldn’t transform them correctly. With the new feature films, the latest of which is due out this summer, new Transformers toys are hitting the market.

The cool part is that several of the new transforming devices are actually functional. Take this Qosmio netbook transformer. The thing turns into the Decepticon Soundwave, which is a bad choice, he was like the bastard Transformer in my book. Turning into a tape player just isn’t cool.

What is even stranger is a Transformer that originally turned into a tape player now turns into a Qosmio netbook. The robot is functional though acting as neither a netbook nor a tape player. The thing is a four-port USB hub. You can get your own for about 5,775 yen if you are inclined to import one.

[ Coolest-Gadgets ]

This post is syndicated with permission from Gadgetoholic.com

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced today that it was developing what it calls a Personal Transport Assistance Robot known as Winglet. TMC says that it is still in the process of refining the Winglet and it plans the device to be a small and compact robot that will offer ease of movement and expand a user’s range of mobility.

I can’t tell from that description if it intends the Winglet to be a scooter for the masses to use rather than a car, or if this is one sort of assistance device for those with problems walking like the elderly. At any rate, TMC has created three different Winglet models that only vary in how tall they are. The height difference for the models is from the different length handles used that give riders something to grasp.

The models include the “L”, “M” and “S” and all of them share some common features. The Winglet body has a projected area about the size of an A3 sheet of paper that measures 265 mm long by 464 mm wide. Inside the housing resides the motor, two wheels, and internal sensors that detect the rider’s position and adjust power to maintain stability.

The “L” model uses a hands-free riding style is 462 mm tall, weighs 9.9kg, and has a 5 km cruise range. The “M” model is 680 mm tall, weighs 12.3 kg and has a cruise range of 10 km. The “S” model is 1,130 mm tall, weighs 12.3 kg, and has a 10 km cruise range. All three models have the same 5 km/h cruise speed, 0 meter turn radius, and a full battery charge takes one hour.

Via Gadgetoholic

The Seascout is a prototype rescue craft designed and created by Andre Harley. He created the prototype using the Lego mindstorms robotics NXT kit. The Seascout will use GPS to track anyone who has fallen into the water. It will scoop the person up and take them to safety. It will also have radios so that the person in the water can communicate with someone on the shore(or boat). It is also intended to be able to work in situations and weather that a human lifeguard would not be able to handle.

So now we have robots that can serve beer and robots that can save you when you get drunk and fall into the ocean. Forget about terminators taking over the world. We’re being taken over by helpful and cute Wall-Es.

[ Andre Harley ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By Jonathan Kimak

The Asahi Robot Bartender was unveiled at Selfridges Department store in London, England a couple days ago. “Mr Asahi” as the creators like to call him can serve beer in draught pints, half-pints and can take the cap off a bottle. He can serve a person in 2 minutes and even has a few programmed replies to customer questions.

He was “trained” for six months before being revealed to the public on July 2. It took 200 hours and eight engineers to assemble this robotic beer baron. He is also lifesize and weighs over 250 pounds so if he had working legs he could probably throw you out of the bar if you were drunk enough to pick a fight with an inanimate object.

For a bar this could be a great addition. An employee that never needs to get paid, doesn’t need to keep it’s own tips, never takes a break and never steals drinks. And maybe after a few hundred years he’ll turn into Wall-E but with a built-in keg.

[ Selfridges ] VIA [ Trusted Reviews ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

The team at BotJunkie are doing a great job unearthing cool bot stories. Here’s a few highlights:

- The Germans know how to live… and eat. They’ve built a robotic restaurant, with robo-waiters… of sorts. [ Robotic Restaurant ]

- Robots don’t always have to be useful. It’s cool when they’re made into art, like the awesome pieces from Laurence Northey. [ Robot Art ]

- The Roller-Walker is a hybrid bot that can walk, and roll. It manages this by doing a little transformation, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching on the video in that article. [ The Roller-Walker ]

Subaru, (aka Fuji Heavy Industries) and Sumitomo have teamed up and created a robo-janitor! His name is Tondon and he currently resides in the the outdoor hallways of a new 14-story Bali-themed luxury apartment complex in Tokyo. Tondon works unsupervised, sweeping and cleaning, and relies on an optical communication system to control the building’s elevators, allowing it to move from floor to floor. It has also been strengthened, to better endure the elements, and has added cameras, to prevent unwanted collisions. It also pulls double duty as a security guard. Looking at this thing’s ink I know that it has been to prison before. At least twice.

No word on commercial availability beyond this.

[ FHI Press ] VIA [ Pinktentacle ]

By Evan Ackerman

The RoboCup soccer tournament in Atlanta has drawn to a close; congrats to team NimbRo who won the “kidsize” 2v2 competition. There are of course lots of videos of RoboCup 2007 kicking around on YouTube, but here’s an especially close quarterfinal match pitting NimbRo against the Darmstadt Dribblers. If you’re a soccer fan, you’ll appreciate the dramatic saves from the goalies (well, sometimes dramatic) as well as the unbridled robot-on-robot brutality. And of course, just like real soccer players, you’ll catch these robots taking dives from time to time when nobody is anywhere near them.

[ RoboCup ]

By Evan Ackerman

This is a photograph of a soccer field for robots, part of the RoboCup games taking place though July 10 at Georgia Tech. There are various size brackets for different robots to compete in, and this particular field is smaller than a grain of rice (each of the ‘defenders’ are about the width of two hairs), designed to challenge robots smaller still, called nanobots. Nanobots generally weigh in the tens to hundreds of nanograms, while your average grain of sand is a hefty three hundred thousand nanograms.

The Nanobots face three challenges (while spectators watch under microscopes):
-The 2-Millimeter Dash: Each nanobot chooses the optimal time for a goal-to-goal sprint across the playing field.
-Slalom Drill: Robots race from goal to goal while avoiding “defenders” (polymer posts) that block the path.
-Ball-Handling Drill: Robots “dribble” as many microdisks as possible into a goal within a 3-minute period.

Here’s a video of a Swiss nanobot practicing the ball-handling drill:

VIA [ USA Today ]

By Evan Ackerman

My apologies for the lame (but obligatory) headline. Vortex Regenerative Air Movement Mobile Robot Platforms (that would be VRAMMRPs) employ patented “tornado in a cup” technology to suck themselves onto flat surfaces including walls and ceilings. They then use 6 drive wheels to get around, and can send back video via secure Bluetooth. Current versions are controllable with a joystick, but they have the capacity for autonomous operation and room for a variety of payloads. Although the website says they’ve “minimized audible sound emission,” if you made it to the end of the video above (the first two scenes are muted, as far as I can tell), I think you’ll agree that they sound more like a dust buster. These bots may not quite be ready for stealthy deployment, but as the video above shows, being able to drive on walls does have distinct tactical advantages.

[ Vortex VMRP ] VIA [ Robot Living ]

By Evan Ackerman

These helium blimps, nicknamed “Blubber Bots,” are fully autonomous robots that gracefully float from place to place, searching for food ( represented as LED lights) and companionship. Created by Jed Berk, the fat and happy form factors of these ALAVs (Autonomous Lighter than Air Vehicles) belies the hardcore wireless brains that are slung beneath them. Their blimp brains are powered by Sun SPOT chips, which are able to sense and react to movement, sounds, lights, and heat. In addition to being equipped with blinking LEDs themselves, they have cell phone vibrators attached to their helium envelopes, and when the vibrators go off, the blimp resonates at a specific frequency, allowing it to “talk” to other blimps, and to you. That’s right, besides interacting autonomously with each other, the blimps are able to socialize with humans via cellphones. You can chose to talk to the blimps as individuals or as a group, and based on your actions, they’ll react with different behaviors. Check out the video to see what I’m talking about:

If you happen to be in the LA area, you can sign up to make your own Blubber Bot (with the help of the designer) for $185.

[ ALAVs ] VIA [ Wired ]