More "Senses" for the Kyosho MANOI and Kondo Robots
Kondo has announced an upgrade to the RCB-3 robot controller board that features support of the new Kyosho 32PORT/RCB-3 sensor board (pictured at left). We guessing, because detailed information on the Kyosho board isn't available yet, that this will address the analog sensor port limitation of the RCB-3 based robots, and really stimulate the development of autonomous applications. This will probably include the KHR-1HV and Kyosho MANOI AT01 and PF01 robots. Given this exciting development, it's easy to imagine a team of autonomous AT01 robots going head to head against an Alderbaran NAO team when RoboCup 2008 rolls around.
The new sensor board is a Kyosho product, and Kondo does not intend to resell it, but has upgraded the RCB-3 firmware to fully support the board. The Kondo announcement does state that the firmware and Heart to Heart 3 (H2H3) application software upgrade only applies to RCB-3 controllers and is not compatible with the RCB-3J controllers (used for the KHR-2HV robots) at this time. That's likely to be a 'bummer' for KHR-2HV users.
In terms of additional RCB-3 and H2H3 functionality, the upgrade adds support for the Kyosho sensor board, but does not include any other changes or improvements. So, if you are already using Ver1.03 of the firmware and don't plan to use the new sensor board, there is no compelling reason to upgrade at this time.
Is SK-Pang up to Something With the GOGIC-Five robot?
We can't be sure exactly what SK-Pang has in mind for the next generation Gogic-Five humanoid robot kit, but the image below that was recently posted on the company's website looks extremely interesting, and has triggered a lot of thought, especially about robot transformers:
ROBO-ONE 12 Entry Deadline Extended Through Sunday
According to the latest news posted on the official ROBO-ONE website earlier today, the entry deadline for the ROBO-ONE 12 competition, coming up September 15th/16th in Takamatsu, has been officially extended through Sunday, September 2nd. As of 10:05 pm this evening (Thursday, August 30th Japan time) there were 78 official entries in the database, and we always see a flood of entries during the last day before entries close.Weird-72 Creator Kazuhisa Terasaki Talks About His Robot Creations (Video)
Long term readers of Robots Dreams may recall Weird-7, a wooden robot designed by Kazuhisa Terasaki. The robot was able to achieve surprising performance given the fact that it used really cheap servos and a controller board. One of Terasaki's favorite tricks is to have Weird-7 laying down, literally as flat as a board, and then have it pop up and come to life.
Weird-7 turned out to be quite popular in Japan, and eventually Terasaki was talked into marketing the product as a kit. The Weird-7 kit sells for just under 30,000 yen (roughly $260 US), and can still be found at Tsukumo Robot Kingdom in Akihabara as well as quite a few other robot retailers.
But, Terasaki wasn't satisfied, so he went on to create Weird-72, a bigger, better, more humanoid robot version of Weird-7 - only this time his robot could actually jump rope. We caught up with Terasaki, and Weird-72, in Mountain View, California during our trip to the Anybots facility in June.
’Weird-72 Creator Kazuhisa Terasaki Talks About His Robot Creations (Video)’ continues
i-SOBOT Responds to Keepon and Penguin Robot Dance Challenges (Video)
First we had Keepon, the cute little rhythmic yellow ball robot dancing it's way through Tokyo and Akihabara. Then, yesterday, Humanoido had his two servo Penquin robot doing a credible imitation of Mumbles from the Happy Feet movie.
So i-SOBOT just had to get into the act, and offer up a little Latin Rock dance performance (see video below).
’i-SOBOT Responds to Keepon and Penguin Robot Dance Challenges (Video)’ continues
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