ROBOTS DREAMS

Robot Laser Battle Comes to Tokyo

HotProceed and Kondo RoboSpot have joined forces to put on the first Blazer Battle "Akiba RoboSpot-The First Stage" robot laser battle competition..

The event is scheduled for Sunday, May 25th. Competitors check-in is from 11:00 am with the action kicking off at 13:00. A number of different formats, including 2 on 2, and 4 on 4 battles are planned.

Ramp-up To RoboGames 2008

It's hard to believe, but the premier robot event of the year, RoboGames 2008, is less than two months away. With close to a thousand robots, hundreds of teams from all over the world, and the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the top competitive robot builders the planet has to offer, you can bet we'll be there with bells on.

We haven't nailed down our exact travel schedule yet, but plan on spending a week to 10 days in the San Francisco area, either arriving a little before RoboGames, or staying for several days after the action. We're definitely interested in meeting, and possibly interviewing, people or companies in the area that happen to be as hooked on robotics as we are - so drop us a line.

To help all of us get in the spirit, we hacked together the short little RoboGames promo video clip below. Enjoy!

Roaming Robots Goes All Out

Are you feeling down in the dumps because you don't get your regular dose of robot madness and violence? Depressed ever since the TV networks stopped broadcasting combat robot battles? Have the urge to check out massive, pounding, flipping, fire-breathing robot destruction?

Well, look no further! Our friends in the UK at Roaming Robots have decided they want to become "Europe's leading Robotic Entertainment company, and they are pulling out the stops to make it happen. And, they are making a lot of their action available online...

The "Summer of Love" Redux - Robot Style!

It was 1967, San Francisco, and suddenly 100,000 young people flocked to the Haight Ashbury district creating an unbelievably powerful mix of music, freedom, creative expression, and new political thinking. It was Ground Zero for the hippie revolution, and the world will never be the same.

This summer, echoes of that unforgettable "Summer of Love" will rebound through the streets of San Francisco as robot enthusiasts from all over the globe gather to participate in three landmark events. The "Robot Summer of Love" gets off to a roaring start with the Combots Cup III event on May 3-4. Just one week later, on May 10th, and totally in keeping with the hippie "Make love, not war", the ROBOEXOTICA USA event comes to San Francisco. Then, mid-June, the worlds largest (and most exciting) robot competition - RoboGames 2008  is going to rock the walls, and probably the San Francisco Bay itself, with hundred of robots fighting it out in over 70 different events.

Segway RMP Robot Platform (Video)

Make Magazine posted a really intriguing video (see below) of the Segway RMP robot mobility platform that was taken today at the Robot Business 2008 event.

Capable of transporting a 400 pound payload, the robot platform can move in any direction, and can change directions instantaneously. The pricing could be as high as $50k.

Obviously, we want to learn more, a lot more....

Robot Championship BRAVE Expands to Larger Robots (Video)

At first glance, the Robot Championship "BRAVE" might look very similar to the battle robot competitions that are so popular in the US and the UK. Yet, look a little closer and some significant differences become obvious.

Most obvious, in the BRAVE competitions there is no intent to do damage, or disable, your opponents. The goal, purely and simply, is to flip the opposing robot over, scoring points in the process. Once a robot is tipped or flipped over, and is unable to right themselves within the time allowed, they are repositioned to the entryway, and the competition continues.

RoboGames 2007 - Combot Mayhem (Video)

It's been a long weekend, and we've managed to get a lot done, including a couple of long mid-day naps to try and get over the last vestiges of our RoboGames induced jet lag.

So, to celebrate, and to get one more 'to-do' off our long, long list, we thought we would share an other exciting moment of Combot Mayhem and destruction with you.

 We hope you enjoy it. There is nothing like it in Japan, or in most of the world for that matter. We won't see another battle like that until next summer when we go back over to San Francisco for RoboGames 2008.

RoboGames 2007 - The Red Barron in a Robot Dog-Fight!

The combat robot builders devote endless hours and considerable budgets to their battling creations. Some of them do it to win. Others do it to show off. Some do it for the opportunity to share time and a sense of community with other builders that have the same passion. And some appear to do it for the pure pleasure and fun.

Imagine Snoopy, dressed in his Red Barron costume, zooming around the combat ring on his bright red doghouse airplane, dog fighting with a really aggressive opponent. What would happen? Would he shoot down his opponent, or would the Red Barron crash and burn, going down in flames?

RoboGames 2007 - Bot Hockey (Video)

One of the great aspects of participating in RoboGames was that we were exposed to many new and different robot sports, and, of course, got to make lots of new friends in the robot community. As it turned out, the table we were assigned in the open pit area was right next to a group of 'Bot Hockey' players.

Don't know what Bot Hockey is? Don't feel bad. We didn't either, but now we do, and we're definitely impressed. The action is fast and furious, but unlike their combat robot cousins, the bot hockey players aren't out to mangle or destroy each other - though that could certain happen accidentally as you can see in the video below as one player gets stuffed into the goal box instead of the puck.

RoboGames Here We Come!

Well, we made the first 5,000+ miles okay - all the way from our home in Chiba, out to the Narita airport, and then a little over nine hours on the plane to San Francisco.

The weather here is fantastic. Bright, sunny, but not too hot - at least not downtown where we're staying. Right know we're waiting for some of the other team members to arrive, then we'll go over to check out the venue.

According to the map, we should actually be able to walk it - a little under three miles one way, or take one of the famous San Francisco Cable Cars almost all the way to Fort Mason. Of course when we take all of our robots and equipment over, we'll probably stretch the budget a bit and make some taxi driver very happy.

We haven't seen the detailed schedule yet. Hopefully they will provide one when we check in. Until we know the exact times for the events we'll just have to play it by ear. Our game plan that in addition to trying to run around and take photos of everything in sight (which I'm sure our team will), most of tonight and tomorrow will be spent getting our robots setup, fine tuned, and the motion files finalized.

We did do a quick damage survey as soon as we got to the hotel, and everything looks like it survived the flight and baggage handlers okay - knock on wood.

More to come soon ....

Optimus Prime Robot Review (Video)

The new Transformers movie is scheduled to hit theaters in the US on the Fourth of July, but unfortunately won't be released in Japan until early August. But, we did find a short video review (see below) by Gizmodo featuring the latest Optimus Prime robot toy from Hasbro.

The review immediately brought back lots of fond memories of hours playing with Transformers, and also triggered a few negative memories as well. We'll save the downers until after you have a chance to enjoy the video.

King Kizer Featured In Summer 07 Robot Magazine Issue

In the week between last Christmas and New Years, we had the great opportunity to visit Nao Maru and his family at their home in Hikone, Japan. They were kind enough to answer all of our endless questions about the development of King Kizer, the ROBO-ONE Champion robot for ROBO-ONE 10, why they feel so strongly about robotic competitions, and how that has lead to an amazing winning record at events here in Japan over the past two years.

Thanks to their patience and cooperation, the Summer issue of Robot Magazine, due to hit bookstores and news stands in the US on May 1st, will feature a four page, detailed article titled "Playing to Win!" - Nao Maru's core philosophy and a major driving force behind the success of Maru Family and their King Kizer series robots. 

ROBO-ONE 11: Dr. GIY Pulls Off A Hat Trick (Video)

The term "hat trick" in sports refers to winning three times, and on Sunday evening during the final bout of the two day ROBO-ONE 11 competition, Dr. GIY and Yokozuna Great finished an absolutely perfect hat trick.

Back in January, Dr. GIY won the ROBO-ONE Grand Prix Championship competing in numerous bouts over a period of six weeks. Then on Sunday, against an extremely tough field of robot competitors, his robot managed to win the championship for its weight classification, and went on to fight Chrome Kid for the ROBO-ONE 11 Grand Championship.

3rd RCS BRAVE Robot Competition - Part 1 (Video)

Sometimes the simplest approaches to a problem turn out to be the best. That's certainly true of the RCS BRAVE Robot competitions, held regularly in Kawasaki, Japan.  The event organizers have gone to great lengths to keep the rules as simple and straight forward as possible, and to encourage active participation by robot builders of all ages and experience levels.

RCS BRAVE Robot Competition Rocks!

Words can't explain it, and the photos don't really do it justice. You really have to see the videos, or better yet attend in person, or even better - compete yourself. The RCS BRAVE robot competition is totally 'over the top'. Fast, furious, and a tremendous amount of fun.

The 3rd RCS BRAVE Robot competition was held today in Kawasaki, and we had the opportunity to watch and record the action. Today's photo set from the competition has been uploaded and is viewable now. Over the next couple of days we'll process the video clips, review our notes, write up a report and post them as soon as possible here on Robots Dreams. We're sure you'll be just as amazed and delighted as we were.

RoboGames 2007 Adds Some Awesome Humanoid Events

The ROBO-ONE style humanoid robot events have always been an interesting part of the annual RoboGames competitions held in San Francisco early every summer. But most of the focus has been on the massive combat robot battles where teams dedicate themselves to building some of the most aggressive and destructive robots known to man.

But, this time around it looks like the humanoids are set to gain a lot more attention, have more competitive events, and more robot teams competing than any RoboGames in the past. According to David Calkins, the guiding force behind the popular robot competition, a whole raft of new "Humanoid Challenges" are scheduled for RoboGames 2007.

In addition to the existing ROBO-ONE events, that are loosely based on the well known Japanese competitions, the new events will include robot Basketball, Lift and Carry, Marathon, Obstacle Run, Penalty Kick, Dash, 3:3 Autonomous Soccer, and Weight Lifting. David also stated, "We've got 17 teams already registered on the University side", which should ensure that the new events get off to a successful, and exciting start.

We've included links to the rules for all the new Humanoid Challenges below. And, we've already got our vacation time scheduled to make the long trek from Japan to partcipate in RoboGames 2007. This is one event we wouldn't want to miss.

Countdown: Coming Up - The Most Exciting Robot Event Ever!

ROBO-ONE 11 is just a few weeks away, and the excitement is really ramping up here in Japan. Several of the major television networks, including NHK and NTV,  have started broadcasting program segments featuring some of the top robots, and hobby robot articles are popping up in many popular Japanese magazines,

When entries to compete in the event closed last night, there were a total of 186 robots signed up, which we believe to be an all time record. Advance sale tickets to the March 24th/25th event are available online via the Lawsons Ticket system [code: 31716] for 1,500 yen versus 2,000 yen for purchase at the event itself.

2nd Annual All Japan Robot American Football Competition (Video)

Living here in Japan we get to attend a lot of robot, and robot related events. Some of them are fun, others are educational, and a few of them are... well, a little boring. But there is one competition that is always a blast, extremely educational, and never ever boring in the slightest - the All Japan Robot American Football competition.

The robot football event is organized by Fuji Soft (FSI), the same company that developed and sponsors the annual Japanese Robot Sumo competitions. As you might expect, the teams build their robots based, in large part, on the same types of chassis and principles they use for robot sumo. But there are some major differences.

ROBO-ONE Gran Prix: Tokyo Dome City - Photo Album

We had a great time at the ROBO-ONE Gran Prix event at Tokyo Dome City today. Our basic event photo album has been uploaded - so go ahead and browse through it. We plan to post some reports and videos of the robot competition soon.

AKIBA Robot Festival 2006 (Video)

As promised, we'll be posting a detailed report, photos, and video clips from the three day AKIBA Robot festival held last weekend here in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. But before we delve too deeply into the details and specific events, we thought you might enjoy a brief video tour.

This year the event was about three times larger than 2005, and included everything from state of the art extremely life-like androids, to robots playing tag with kids, to window washing robots (imagine a Roomba that does windows), to robot soccer matches, to ... well, just about anything and everything robotic you could possibly imagine.

KondoCup Robot Soccer Photo Gallery Online

Our photo gallery from today's KondoCup Robot Soccer competition in Akihabara was just uploaded and is available on-line. As usual, the videos will take a little longer, so please be patient. 

Playing Hookey With GUNDAM

 
We were originally scheduled to be at RT in Akihabara this afternoon to take part in a ROBO-ONE practice session. But when we heard that Bandai is closing their Character and GUNDAM museum in Matsudo, we immediately knew where to put our priorities. Participation in the practice match was important, of course, but GUNDAM immediately outranks any other kind of robot activity hands down.

Battle Robot Photo Album

Battle Beach I, March 2003
Originally uploaded by mr_tentacle.

For readers that are devoted fans of combat robots created to tear each other apart in battle, "Mr. Tentacle" has a fantastic robot event photo set posted on Flickr.

The unique set includes hundreds of behind the scenes photos from several years of robot battle events. He's even gone to the trouble of captioning the photos, which we really appreciate.


For some people it's a rare chance to see what these events are like from a competitors perspective, and for others it will be a great trip down memory lane.

ROBO-ONE J Photo Gallery

ROBO-ONE-J-522
Originally uploaded by Tempusmaster.

All the photos from Saturday's event are online in the ROBO-ONE J Photo Gallery.

ROBO-ONE Robot Battle Ball (Video)

Everyone loves soccer, and everyone loves robots. So, a mash-up involving robots playing soccer has got to be really exciting and popular - at least that's what you would think. However, in the real world most of the robot soccer played today is relatively slow and time consuming to the point that it is only fascinating to a small group of robot geeks that know the technology inside out.

But, what if we bent the rules a little. What if the robots were allowed to be remote controlled instead of totally autonomous, and what if they could not only use their feet but also their arms? And what if they were allowed full body contact without having to worry about getting yellow carded?

Wouldn't that be an absolute blast? Apparently that's what the ROBO-ONE organization in Japan thought when they created ROBO-ONE Robot Battle Ball.

Massively Unexpected Consequences - Robot Style (Video)

Most modern designers and engineers are very familiar with the law of unexpected consequences. You set off to design something with all of the best intentions in the world, but suddenly you find that your creation seems to have taken its destiny into its own hands and is doing something totally unexpected. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes it's bad. Sometimes it's just funny or stupid. But when the creation happens to be a 350 pound battle robot that spins like crazy, the results turn out to be a giant physics lesson. 

The Battling Robot Spirit Lives On (Video)

The Rock Em Sock Em robots were first introduced 40 years ago in 1966 and seemed to have had a significant impact on the kids, primarily young boys, that played with them for hours on end. Although most of those robotic toys were probably consigned to municipal land fills ages ago, their combative robot spirit lives on in the hearts, and minds of those boys who have grown up to be parents with children of their own. So, what do they do in their free time? Why they fight robots, of course!

ComBots In Action At RoboGames In June! (Video)

You've probably seen combat robots trying to tear each other apart on television. This June at RoboGames in San Francisco you'll have the chance to see them in action 'up-close and personal', and to mingle with the robot crazy folks that create those metal eating, fire breathing monsters. For a quick taste of what you're in for, check out the video clip below, then visit the RoboGames website for all the event details.

All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament - Interviews (Part 2) (Video)

In this second part of the All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament interview series we explore some of the technical background behind the sumo robots and the strategies and tactics used by some of the top Japanese competitors. In addition to patiently answering all of our endless questions, the officials provided us with video clips from the 2005 competitions (see video below) that clearly, and dramatically, illustrate many of the topics they touched upon.

All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament - Interviews (Part 1)

We recently had the opportunity to visit the All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament Office and meet with Takeshi Kanai (Secretary General), Masaru Ishikawa (Vice Secretary General - Chief Judges), and Akiko Tsuda (Public Relations Section). They were kind enough to share a lot of the Japanese Robot Sumo history, and gave us some surprising insights into what is actually involved.

And The Robot Winner Is? (Video)

There are endless debates, usually in bars, over which fighter is better. If you could put Mike Tyson in the ring with Mohammad Ali, who would emerge triumphant? It’s no different with robots. Each robot has strong supporters and feels that their robot is unquestionably the best in the ring. For example, Matt Bauer obviously thinks he knows who would win a match between the Robonova and the Robosapien. . .

Robot Builder Profile: Matt Bauer and the Robonova-1 (Video)

There's tremendous interest in bipedal robots, especially since the KHR-1 and Robonova-1 robot kits have been featured recently on television and in major publications. We've been getting a lot of questions asking how difficult the kits are, and what it takes to actually put one together. So, we tracked down Matt Bauer who just finished putting assembling his first bipedal robot - a Robonova-1 - and asked him to share his experiences with all of you. 

A Gathering of Robots (Video Link)

NY1 - New York City’s “24–Hour Newschannel On The Web” has been running an interesting series of articles on the latest in consumer technology. The Valentine’s Day post and video (see links below) focus on robots like Robonova-1, LEGO Mindstorm NXT system, the P.E.A. BOT, and other new robot technology.

"A Car And A Robot Are A Boy's Dreams" (Video)

A lot of the toys we play with as kids have a huge influence on what we desire as adults. If you played with 'Transformers' as a child, then it's only natural that you would want a robot that can transform itself into a car. And, if you happen to be a Robo-One robot designer, you just might go ahead and make one yourself. . .

Robo Fight 3 Scheduled For May in Osaka

Most robot fans outside of Japan know about the ‘Robo-One’ competitions, but haven’t heard anything about the Robo Fight and Robo Gong events. That’s a shame, because in many ways the Osaka based Robo Fight and Robo Gong competitions tend to be more fun, draw a wider range of competitors, and are often much  more interesting than their Robo-One counterparts.

Robo-One Robots: Banshee from Team Lilac

With the next major Robo-One competition coming up soon (March 17,18, 19 in Tokyo), all the battle robot competitors are rushing to finish and test their latest designs and fighting strategies. We’ve been keeping an eye on the blogs to see how they stack up, and thought it might be interesting to introduce a few of the less well-known Robo-One participants – like Team Lilac.

Robonova - Up Close & Personal (Video)

We happen to think that the new Robonova bipedal robot is 'way cool', so when we accidentally had the opportunity to catch one up close and personal, we jumped at the chance. Thankfully we had the good sense to have our camera along and recorded it all on video.

Robot Builder Profile: Team Cosmos - Champion Robot Builders

We're kicking off a series of Robot Builder Profile articles featuring - guess what? Robot Builders!

The first profile features Team Cosmos, responsible for combat robots that have stacked up an unbelievable string of competition wins, and consistently bring home the bacon, and the trophies.

Combat Robot Builders Shout Out!

Think that combat robots are on the marginal fringe - a weird sport with only a few minor robot builders actively participating?

Wrong! Think again. This sport is HOT and it's getting HOTTER all the time.

ComBots Robot Competition Coming Up Soon

For the lucky folks that happen to live in the San Francisco area, or those with an unlimited travel budget, just a quick reminder that ComBots 2005 is coming up in the next few weeks. Over 100 robots will be trying to rip each other apart to win the top prize money - and bragging rights, of course.

Battle Raptors!

Mark Tilden and his elves did a wonderful job designing the Roboraptor as a ‘toy’ robot, one that’s a lot of fun, yet safe enough to let your 8 year old play with in the living room.

But come on! This is a RAPTOR! It should be ripping, tearing, and going for the throat! And, recent reports from Roboraptor hackers indicate that will be possible sooner than you think.