Robot Sightings: Free Robot Simulation Software, Bre Pettis Lives, Spooky Swarmbots, Basil the BeerBot, and more…

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

00:55 Paxshikai turns his iSOBOT into a shuriken throwing ninja! (tinyurl.com/isobot-ninja) And, he even discloses how it's done!
01:16 Tekzilla shows how to build a DIY photo studio great for shooting robots (tinyurl.com/diy-photo-studio) Starts at the 32:30 mark.
05:39 Alabama Robotics Technology Park expected to be a game changer (tinyurl.com/robotics-technology-park) making the area a robot center.
05:43 Robots can go almost anywhere and do repair work that would be almost impossible for humans (tinyurl.com/submarine-robot-repair)
06:47 Swarmbots hold a lot of promise for the future. Still, this video seems a little spooky. (tinyurl.com/swarm-robots-and-child)
10:27 The 8th IEEE Humanoid Robots Conference was held in Korea a few weeks ago (tinyurl.com/humanoids08). Anyone care to share a report?
10:45 The Cirque du Soleil ZED theater in Tokyo uses some awesome automation to do its magic (tinyurl.com/theater-automation-robots)
12:18 Ever wonder what happened to Bre Pettis after he stopped making those weekly Make videos? We did - (tinyurl.com/bre-pettis-lives)
12:23 Free simulation software for your Futaba RBT-1 robot (tinyurl.com/rbt1-robot-simulation), or just try out if you don't own one yet.
12:26 And, the same robot simulation software has been ported for the Hitec Robonova-1 (tinyurl.com/robonova-simulator). And it's FREE!
12:45 Jim and Louise Gunderson have great plans for their robot Basil, far beyond just fetching a beer. (tinyurl.com/basil-the-beer-robot)
12:56 The annual national Robot Sumo competition final competition was held yesterday here in Tokyo. (tinyurl.com/robot-sumo-tv-news)
13:18 Takahashi-san decided to build a humanoid robot, and to document every step of the way. Here's step1 (tinyurl.com/khr-robot-guide-01)
13:48 What were we thinking? The iSOBOT is under 1 kg! Maybe we should enter the RT <1kg competition! (tinyurl.com/under-1kg-robot-event)
13:59 The 11th ROBO-ONE Technical Conference (1/24/2009) expert lecture lineup looks great! (tinyurl.com/roboone-technical-conference)