Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

Most of the UAVs we saw at AUVSI last week were expensive. Really expensive. Like, if you have to ask, don’t ask. This sucks, because UAVs aren’t just useful for people with a defense budget… There’s a sizable civilian market as well, for everything from security to aerial photography to flying around and freaking people out with a little round robot.

The HALO micro air vehicle promises to be simple, reliable, and above all, inexpensive. If it makes it into production in volume, by 2011 you (yes, you) could go by one for somewhere around…

Read More at BotJunkie…

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we watched the activation of a life-size Gundam in Japan, found out that Arnold Schwarzenegger was actually a Russian terminator robot from World War II, wondered why anyone would ever buy the most annoying robot toy ever, watched snakebots test out different types of movement, felt doom approaching with robots controlled by zombie bug heads, met a motorcycle evaluating robot named Flossie, watched a robot that’s trying to learn how to ski, saw the Rotundus Groundbot go for a swim, found out that the spunky little battery powered Evolta robot is attempting a new endurance record, cringed at the uncanniness of Archie, cringed again at HRP-4C modeling a wedding dress, watched a humanoid robot from Toyota that can outrun Honda’s ASIMO, felt sorry for a robot with a binary tramp stamp (but bought the shirt anyway), didn’t know what to think about a bizarre killer barbie death robot, and watched a new VTOL UAV take to the air.

So far this week, we’ve written about a robot bricklayer that creates complex patterns in buildings, a quad-rotor UAV that knows how to perform “provably safe” backflips, and some industrial robots that play baseball better than humans… Almost.

Last week’s Bots with Stuff, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we got cuddly and drunk with a dancing hexapod ferret octopus beer robot thing, watched some snake robots wiggle in all kinds of different ways, rocked and rolled with a round steerable mass robot made with LEGOs, reached the limit on our cute meters with Penbo the robotic pengin for girls, got depressed over how robots are doing in the current economy, watched an Albert Einsten robot learn how to make facial expressions, learned why you don’t talk to robots, responded to some simulations of needy behavior by Willow Garage’s PR2, celebrated our 1,000th post (W00T!!!), announced a contest to name a group of robots, and finished out the week with a press release informing us that a robot fueled by biomass doesn’t actually eat dead people.

So far this week, we’ve posted about a giant gundam statue in Japan, photographic proof that Arnold Schwarzenegger is actually a Russian Terminator robot from WWII, the most annoying robot toy ever, more vids of CMU snakebots, and a robot controlled by a zombie moth head.

We’ve also got last weeks Bot With Stuff for you, right after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Yesterday, we celebrated BotJunkie’s 1000th post. After two spectacularly successful years (and counting) of bringing you the latest happenings in the robot world, we’re holding a contest to come up with a collective noun for a group of robots… Like, a “herd” of robots, except something more robot-y. If you have some good ideas, head on over to this post for details… And did we mention there are prizes?

We have a bunch of awesome prizes for the most creative terms (that’s right, this is not a random drawing, it’s an actual contest), including a VEXplorer kit from Trossen Robotics, a WowWee TriBot, and weRobot t-shirts from Chop Shop. And of course, we’ve still got all the most interesting robot news, (like we do every day), so there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t click here right now, and again every single day from now on. Trust us. When it comes to robots, addiction is a good thing.

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By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we revved things up with a video of a transforming motorcycle robot with an attitude, had just a little bit of trouble telling the difference between a robot and a human, hungered for customized ramen noodle soup made by a robot, could barely see the world’s smallest wheeled robot with a gripper, met Sega’s new Dream Cat Venus robotic feline replacement, learned how Willow Garage’s PR2 robot managed to plug itself in to an electrical outlet, saw a prototype robot bat, fantasized about what we’d do with a 15 ton robot grapple arm controlled with a Wiimote, cashed in our 401ks to buy 196 robot shirts, saw some robot soccer videos from RoboCup 2009, got a little bit choked up over a robot tribute to Michael Jackson, watched a team of soccer robots score a goal against a team of humans, found out about a robot that’s deigned to clean up water pollution, watched a home built UAV launching rockets, desperately wanted our own fighting robot space cock, and of course, finished off the week with a Bot With Stuff, which you can catch right after the jump.

So far this week, we’ve posted about a thirsty hexaferretpod, snake robots from Carnegie Mellon, a rolling orbital Bluetooth operated thing made with LEGO, and Penbo, a robot penguin for girls.

Enjoy the Bot With Stuff, and then come check us out. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we started out on a bit of a sour note listening to some robots figuring out how to sing, watched some industrial robots pick things up and put things down very very fast, read about a concept robot that prints on your walls, were incredibly impressed by a simple robot that climbs stairs, pondered what we’d stash away in a customized robot pouch, watched a humanoid robot transform into a car, fled in terror from an i-SOBOT riding on a steam tank, admired some awesome Japanese retro robots from the 1960s, checked out some new iBotz beginner robotics kits, felt a little better now that there’s a whiskery robot rescue rat on patrol, felt a little worse now that DARPA has a UAV that looks like a hummingbird, decided that $7000 is probably too much to ask for a little robot car, decided that $70 is not too much to ask for a little robot car, and finished out the week with a bizarre movie trailer for “RoboGeisha” and a nifty robot HTML t-shirt.

So far this week, we’ve posted about a robot that transforms into a motorcycle, an uncanny picture of a robot and a human, a robot that delivers customized ramen noodle soup, and the smallest wheeled robot with a gripper in the world.

Bot with stuff (post 4th of July edition), after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Last weekend BotJunkie was at RoboGames, so we owe you a couple weeks worth of robot awesomeness. Of course, we know you’re reading BotJunkie every day anyway, but still, we wouldn’t want you to miss an opportunity to relive it all.

We started off optimistically with a presentation from Rodney Brooks (of MIT and iRobot) about the forthcoming robotics revolution, got introduced to the cutest little robotic rat with an unpronounceable name, were overjoyed to find out that Pleo will be making a comeback, watched Nexi and pals rescue humans from a burning Navy destroyer, learned why exactly Pleo went extinct in the first place from one of the founders of Ugobe, watched PackBots doing awesome stuff (like parachute drops) in an iRobot promo video, found out what the problem is with android girlfriends, got scared by an exploding suicide snake robot being developed by the Israelis, watched robots preparing food and feeding people in Toyko, counted our change after seeing an $18 cardboard walking robot, wondered whether a snail robot that cleans buildings leaves a slime trail at the same time, watched R2-D2 and C3PO on Sesame Street, were tempted to turn vegetarian by a high speed cucumber slicing humanoid, learned how to turn your netbook into a robot, met a new Buzz Lightyear robot toy (since Toy Story 3 is only like a year away), were happy to see that the DEKA “Luke” robotic arm got 3 more years of funding, found out about a military project to create a wireless network with chirping cyborg insects, watched Psikharpax the robotic rat scuttle around, saw some kind of Mortal Kombat / Mario Kart deathmatch with LEGOs and balloons, and ended up marveling at a life-sized Gundam from Japan.

So far this week, we’ve already posted about a humanoid robot that makes coffee from scratch, a robot octopus posse t-shirt, the 2011 release of a movie version of the first play about robots, and some terrifyingly plausible micro air vehicles. All this robot stuff just keeps getting better and better, so make sure you don’t get left in the biological dust… BotJunkie: all the cool robots are doing it, you should too!

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By Evan Ackerman

Last weekend BotJunkie was at RoboGames, the world’s largest robot competition, here in San Francisco. We posted one highlight video over the weekend, but after the break, we’ve got a photo gallery plus three more videos featuring Saturday and Sunday highlights and feature on the new Mech Warfare competition. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

This is a highlight reel I put together of the best of the combat robot events from Friday, the first day of RoboGames. The event runs through the weekend, and includes much more than just combat… We’ll be updating BotJunkie.com with plenty more pics and vids. If you want to see more video of Saturday (day 2) highlights, including a couple 340 pound super-heavy combat bots tossing each other into the air, head on over to BotJunkie.com right now, ’cause we’ve got it posted.

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