ROBOTS DREAMS

More on Mega-Dynamizer Doing Yard Work (Video)

We got the impression from some of the email we received that a few of our readers thought that we were putting them on about Mega Dynamizer mowing the lawn, or that the photo in our earlier post was staged.

To put all that doubt to rest, and to motivate and inspire you robot builders, we've included a short video clip (see below) that was kindly provided by Sugiura-san, the creator of Mega-Dynamizer.

We should also mention that Sugiura and his collection of ROBO-ONE champion robots, are off to Korea for the Korean Robot Game Festival. Not only is he going to battle against the top Korean robot humanoids, he'll also face some stiff (hopefully) competition from Chris and Rob Farrell with their twin Robotis based bipeds. We really wish we could be there to see the action.
 

Micro Robot Sport Draws Mega Crowds (Video)

It's not unusual to see crowds of fans at a rock concert, or even of the major ROBO-ONE competitions, but we have to admit that the crowd in the photo on the right just totally blew us away.

What are they watching? A micromouse competition! The video below was taken during the Mouse X competition at Techfest 2008 IIT in Bombay, India a few months ago.

Keep in mind that in the US, where the sport originated, a micromouse competition is lucky to attract any attention at all. In the UK, there seem to be more fans and fanatics, but still it wouldn't make the evening news unless a plane happened to crash on the building where the event was taking place. Even here, the annual All Japan Micromouse competitions are lucky to draw several hundred fans - though quite a few entries fly all the way from India and Singapore.

These guys, and gals, are really serious. The robotic future, at least technology-wise, belongs to them unless the rest of us wake up and smell the coffee.

Home Robot Assistants Coming of Age

Now that ROBO-ONE humanoid robots are 'growing up', both in size and capability, many of the builders have started to explore putting them to practical use. The Sugiura Family, well known for ROBO-ONE designs including Dynamizer, Retro, and Kappa, are pictured above enjoying a beautiful spring day while Mega-Dynamizer is busy trimming the lawn with an electric mower.

We expect to see a lot more practical applications coming out of the ROBO-ONE group since the builders are really taking the challenge seriously, and the ROBO-ONE organization is planning some 'Home Robot' related initiatives and events.

Black Tiger Neo Autonomous Robot in Action (Video)

"DirtyRoboto" from the RoboSavvy forums is visiting on vacation at the moment, and managed to catch Iketomu's Black Tiger Neo autonomous robot in action (video below) during one of the recent RT Corp Robot Battle competitions.

Black Tiger Neo is the slightly shorter of the two robots in the video and begins the match in the far right corner of the ring. Iketomu's 'remote control' is a simple Japanese fan (see right) that he uses only when it's necessary to interrupt the robot. Otherwise, the robot is operating totally autonomously with no operator control or intervention.

Hobby Humanoid Robots Turn Autonomous (Video)

People frequently put-down the hobby humanoid robot movement by pointing out that the robots are operated by remote control. Apparently they feel that the design is similar to controlling an R/C car or plane. Based on our own personal experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Humanoid robotics, even at the hobby level, is much more complex, challenging, and demanding, than driving an R/C car.

Nevertheless, the whole debate is about to become totally irrelevant. Over the past two years many of the humanoid robot designs have incorporated more and more autonomous operation. A good example is King Kizer with his autonomous opponent detection. In the heat of battle it's common for the operator to become so excited that they attack in the wrong direction. King Kizer automatically detects opponent positioning and attacks in the right direction every time.

Now we're starting to see totally autonomous designs come out of the workshops. At the recent Kondo Robot Battle competition we watched Black Tiger Neo autonomously hold its own against some tough opponents (see video below).

Nero Robot Isn't Fiddling Around (Video)

We were a little disappointed at ROBO-ONE 13 when some of the larger, MEGA-sized, robots we'd been following failed to clear the pre-screening test and put on their demonstrations for the audience. One of the most interesting new competitors is Nero, a giant that towers over the competition at 68 cm tall and tips the scales at just under 5 kg. Thankfully we got several chances to see Nero perform in the ring at the 1st Kondo Robot Battle event earlier this week.

Nero was developed at the University of Electro-Communications by Tatsuya Ishikawa, Yuta Sugiura, and Manabu Sugiura (think Sugiura Brothers... ), and gets its name from the Italian word for 'black' - his dominant color.

More Monster Mash and Robot Interviews (Video)

Following up on our previous post featuring Matt Denton and the iC Hexapod Robot, we've included more interviews and creations from the Monster Mash event in the video clip below.

Enjoy!

Matt Denton on the iC Hexapod Robot Design (Video)

In the video below from the recent Film24's Monster Mash event in London, Matt Denton explains a bit about the design of his surprisingly realistic iC Hexapod Robot, and a couple of attendees talk about how awestruck they are by Matt's creation.

Robot Version of Rock, Paper, Scissors (Video)

In our previous post on the new MANOI AT01 robot hand option developed by Kyosho, we mentioned seeing the robot playing the Japanese equivalent of Rock, Paper, Scissors. We've included a short video clip of the session below.

Give That Robot A Hand!

Well, the design gurus at Kyosho (or some devoted MANOI cusotmers) have been putting in some serious overtime hours. In addition to the new sets of body shells we mentioned yesterday, they are also in the process of cranking out a series of new MANOI based options and add-ons.

One of their most useful, and exciting, new options is a fully functional, and artfully articulated, hand for the MANOI AT01 series humanoid robot. The new robot hand has five fingers, including an opposable thumb.

New MANOI AT01 Robot Body Shells - More Photos

For more MANOI AT01 Type-C shell photos, see below.

Robot Laser Tag - So Much Fun It Absolutely Blazes! (Video)

Last September our friends at HotProceed treated us to a small taste of the excitement of Robot laser tag, and we were immediately hooked. Over the past six months they've refined and improved the Blaser system to the point that it's totally over the top.

Last Sunday they put on "BlaserBattle The 1st Stage" robot laser tag competition in Fukuoka. As you can see from the video clip below, the 'battle' really lived up to its name. More important, everyone had an absolutely fantastic time.

American Humanoid Robot Spotted in Japan

We were flipping through the pages of the latest issue of Robocon Magazine, trying to decide which robot articles were interesting enough to invest all the time and effort in translation. Well, to be perfectly honest, all the robot articles are all 'interesting enough', but given our poor command of Japanese kanji, the translation process can be painfully slow.

Then, we happened to glance at the Robotis Dynamixel advertisement, and one robot immediately caught our attention. ZOG! One of the RoboGames champion humanoid robots designed by Farrell Robotics.

He's in good company too - surrounded by other high performance humanoids like Dynamizer, Hajime Robot 18, the NIMBRO RoboCup team, and Gadget 2. Of course we realize that it's an ad, and that Robotis is trying to promote their products by showcasing some of the builders that use them. Still, it's quite an honor for ZOG to share the stage with some of the best humanoid robotics has to offer.

RoboGames and Instructables Announce Robot Contest

RoboGames and Instructables have teamed up to sponsor an exciting new contest with some great prizes.  Their objective is simple. They want to motivate all of us latent robot builders to get up off our couches and into our workshops to actually build some of those robots we've been talking, and dreaming about. 

And, knowing from experience that building a complete robot can be complex and time consuming, the official rules only require that you document one of the significant subunits of the robot.

Oh, did we mention "prizes"? How about a Grand Prize that includes airfare, hotel (4 nights), and a VIP pass to RoboGames 2009? Or the First Prize of a brand new RoboPhilo humanoid robot kit?

Entries opened April 15, 2008, and will close on June 29, 2008. Don't just sit there! Get going, and get building! 

Will Work For Robots (Video)

The voracious little creature above has an endless appetite and needs to be feed regularly, basically non-stop, otherwise it's likely to turn into a real life clone of the Gremlins. But, as it turns out, his creator, animator, rigger, screen play writer, and voice talent (yes, he really is that multi-talented) is currently out of a job. 

Because he's a good friend, and also because he has a passion for robots that rivals our own, we're showcasing a couple video samples of his work below in hopes that one of our readers might be interested in putting his talents to work, or would be kind enough to point him in the right direction. Even if you're not in the market for an amazingly talented creative type, check out the videos anyway - they're a blast, and extremely well executed..

Japanese Robot Seal Migrates to the US

We've been following Paro, the Japanese baby seal companion robot, for the past couple years, and have even had a couple opportunities to interact with the cuddly little creature. While we've never felt compelled to run out and buy one (at least not out of our own wallet), we do understand the attraction.

Now, after a successful 5+ year track record here in Japan, the Paro robot is about to go on sale in the US. Sales will be handled through a new joint venture company established by the Intelligent System Company in Japan and Walter Weisel, the former head of the Robotic Industries Association of the United States. Pricing is expected to be approximately USD$5,000 per robot.

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....

French Company Ready to Seek and Destroy the Leghorn Robot (Video)

The French robot guru's over at POB Technologies think they might have exactly the right robotics technology to track down, and defeat Leghorn, the ROBO-ONE champion rooster robot.

POB has developed some really interesting kits and peripherals that facilitate adding vision, object recognition, and other features to robot platforms. Their real claim-to-fame is the simplicity and ease of use provided by their products. At the same time, they've managed to keep the prices low enough to be affordable by a lot of robot experimenters and workshop wizards. And, they always love a good challenge....

ROBO-ONE 13: Leghorn - The Rooster Robot(Video)

Ever since we posted the interview with Tim Hornyak we've received email after email with requests to learn more about the 'chicken' robot that Tim mentioned.

The robot's official name in the ROBO-ONE directory is "Leghorn". He stands 51 cm tall (we're assuming that includes his beautiful red head feathers) and weighs 2.99 kg. Leghorn hails from the Osaka area where he frequently competes (and wins) in Iwaki-san's RoboFight competitions.

Waseda University - Takanishi Laboratory

Thanks to the great arrangement by Dr. Keishi Matsuda of Anabuki Technical College in Takamatsu, we were able to spend a wonderful afternoon getting a behind the scenes tour of the Takanishi Laboratory at Waseda University along with a briefing on many of the amazing robot research and development projects currently underway. We'll be posting detailed reports on some of the projects soon.


The Takanishi Laboratory is named for Dr. Atsuo Takanishi (right), a modern day Renaissance Man whose talents and interests cover every aspect of robotics from biped humanoids, to robot simulation of emotion and body language, human/robot interaction and cooperation, and bio-medical robotics.  We really appreciate the fact that Dr. Takanishi was kind enough to take the time out of his busy schedule to host our visit.

To make his robot dreams a reality, Dr. Takanishi has attracted advanced, and very talented, robotics researchers from all over the globe. During our brief visit to the Laboratory we met key researchers from Japan, Italy, Germany, and Mexico. Dr. Takanishi seems to focus on getting the best talent to achieve the Laboratory's objectives independent of their nationality, native language, or culture.

We should also mention that Dr. Matsuda is also the organizer of RoboCountry IV humanoid robot competitions.

ROBO-ONE 13: The Robot Slope Challenge (Video)

The ROBO-ONE organizing committee always likes to raise the bar just a bit with each succeeding competition. It challenges the builders to keep honing and improving their skills and the performance of their robots. And, at the same time, it keeps the number of competitors that make it into the finals down to a manageable number.

For ROBO-ONE 13, the committee decided to make the pre-screening tests slightly more difficult with the addition of a small slope. To pass the pre-screening tests for previous ROBO-ONE events, the robot typically had to be able to walk for a minimum number of paces, turn around, and show that it could get up by itself from a prone or supine position.  Roughly 30% of the entries would fail to pass the pre-screening.

This time around, the robot had to walk straight forward across a surface that had a small slope (think "speed bump") right in the middle. As it turned out, the challenge may have been much more difficult than the committee originally expected.

New Japanese Humanoid Robot Book

Iwaki-san and Tanaka-san have put together a new humanoid robot book that we know is destined to join our rapidly growing library, and workshop. The book, titled "Custom Robot Perfect Book", has us drooling just from the cover photos alone. Add in the fact that Iwaki-san has designed and built some totally awesome robots, including Five - one of the ROBO-ONE 13 finalists, and Tanaka-san is famous for his robot suit/shell designs....

Well, hopefully we'll be able to track down a copy of the new book in Akihabara this weekend. If we're lucky enough to snare one you'll hear about it here with all the great and gory details.

ROBO-ONE 13: OmniZero Turns in a Perfect Performance (Video)

It seems like Maeda-san and OmniZero have totally blocked out the Demonstration phase of the ROBO-ONE competitions as their own personal turf. They own it exclusively and don't intend to let any other builder encroach on their territory.

On Saturday, during the first day's technical demonstrations, OmniZero's performance (see video below) was letter perfect. The amazing robot met, and exceeded, all the event's theme challenges including dancing in time to the theme music and doing an aerial 180 degree jump turn.

As if that wasn't enough, the robot then went on to turn true gymnastic cartwheels around the ROBO-ONE rink. There is no question that Maeda-san and OmniZero are true ROBO-ONE champions.

Maeda/OmniZero Nail Top Position During the ROBO-ONE 13 Demonstration Phase

This won't come as much of a surprise to most ROBO-ONE fans, but once again, Maeda-san and OmniZero quickly captured the top position during the first days competition. This is the 'Demonstration' phase where builders have to put their robot through a 2 minute, totally autonomous demonstration of the robots abilities in front of a panel of expert judges. The OmniZero series of competition humanoid robots has always been a strong crowd favorite, and has frequently placed #1 during the first day over the past few years.

Tomorrow, Sunday, the top qualifiers, including OmniZero, will face off against each other in the ROBO-ONE ring. Historically, OmniZero hasn't done as well during the fighting phase of the competition, and we don't expect him to win the Championship.

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.

Under $20 Humanoid Robot Kit (Video)

Okay, we admit it. We're absolute suckers for anything robotic. That's why we never keep money in our wallets when we go to trade shows. If we had any spending cash it would literally burn a hole in our pocket. So, late last year, when we attended the IREX show (International Robot Exhibition) with almost no money on us, we thought we were totally safe from temptation.

But, Gakken, the well known manufacturer of popular Japanese educational kits, must have seen us coming. They were showing off their latest creation, the Co-Robot (see video below), a humanoid robot kit that lists at 2,171 yen. That meant that it would be available on the open market here for under USD$20.

Needless to say, we walked out of the trade show with our wallet a little lighter, and a new Co-Robot box tucked neatly under our arm.

Unfortunately, due to our work and personal commitments, the Co-Robot box went on the shelf for a while. Then, earlier today, when we were trying to select a project to post about, the Co-Robot seemed a natural choice.

Toyota Partner Robot Demonstrations (Video)

Toyota is going to be showcasing their trumpet playing partner robot starting this coming Thursday at Toyota Universal Design Showcase (2nd floor) located in the MEGA WEB facility in Tokyo.

Admission is free to the public. Demonstrations will be held at 13:00, 15:00, 16:00, and 17:15, on Thursday March 20th, and each Saturday and Sunday from now through April 6 th.

For those that aren't already familiar with the Toyota robot trumpet player, we've included a short video preview below.
 

ROBO-ONE 13: More Super-Sized Humanoid Robots

The ROBO-ONE organizing committee has been trying to encourage the development of larger, more powerful, and more realistic humanoids for quite a while. Scaling up a competitive robot presents some significant challenges, including increased development cost, severe shock, and really demanding power and torque requirements. So, it wasn't surprising that just a few super-sized ROBO-ONE robots appeared on the scene.

Now, with ROBO-ONE 13 just one week away, it appears that we will finally see some totally awesome robot giants step into the ring to do battle. Here's a graph of the robots height charted against their weight:

   ROBO-ONE 13 Entries - Height (cm) versus Weight (kg)

Robot Games: Simple Is Usually Best (Video)

Remember the "KISS" acronym? It stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." The more complex we make things, the more likely they are to fail. Of course, there is always a minimum level of complexity required to give any endeavor, including games a feeling of worth. If the challenge is too trivial, then then conquering it doesn't provide any feeling of accomplishment.

That being said, a game, even robot games, should only be as complex as is absolutely necessary. Not a whit more, nor a whit less. A great example of a 'simple' robot game that turns out to be incredibly challenging, and tremendous fun, is the Die Shoot contest developed by Ishikawa-san for the Wonderful Robot Carnival events held on a biannual basis.

Takahashi Shows Off His Robot Creations - in English! (Video)

We've had the opportunity to meet, and talk with Tomotaka Takahashi several times at events here in Japan, but never realized that he is actually quite fluent in English! So, we were a little surprised, and very pleased, when we ran across the video clip (see below) with him demonstrating his Chroino and FT humanoid robots taken during a recent event in the Washington, D.C. area.

Although "palmisano", the poster of the original video, didn't specifically mention it, we're assuming that Takahashi was there for the Robotopia Rising event at the Kennedy Center in early February.

Dr. GIY Out To Set New Robot Speed Records (Video)

Most of the humanoid robot builders, including ourselves, think they are lucky if they can keep their robots standing, or perhaps walking slowly. But, there are a few builders that really excel. They build, or hack, humanoids to the point that the robots performance is really surprising.

A recent case in point is the Kyosho MANOI AT01 robot modified by Dr. GIY. One of the key events in the Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup competitions is a 5 meter dash. It's challenging enough to get your robot to walk in a straight line, much less run. And, with only 17 degrees of freedom, the stock AT01 robot usually takes some difficult, and time consuming, course corrections.

But, through a liberal application of his own special magic, Dr. GIY has hacked his AT01 to the extent that it rockets down the 5 meter sprint course in 10 seconds, and course corrects on the fly without loosing even a millisecond in wasted moves. Even more amazing - when it reached the end of the course it literally stops on a dime!

New Robot Plays Air Shamisen (Video)

It seems like now days almost any humanoid robot worthy of the name can play the air drums or air guitar. Even the low cost, entry level i-SOBOT robot plays a very cool air guitar.

But a real Japanese robot ought to play some unique and totally Japanese musical instrument - say like an air shamisen....

Rocking Robot T-Shirt, but...

It's one of those "eat your heart out" situations that we run into from time to time. Joe Gonzalez tipped us off to a really neat new t-shirt titled "A Few Good Men... I Mean Robots", and of course we wanted to order one to wear to robot competitions.

But, since we're 6' 7" tall, and usually wear a 1XT size, it isn't going to happen... The XL sizes are just too short for our extra long body.

 

 

ROBO-ONE: The Move To Larger Robots (Video)

When we visited the Sugiura Family a few weeks ago to gather material for an upcoming article in Robot Magazine, a very interesting part of the conversation was devoted to how larger robots fit into the ROBO-ONE competitive humanoid robot picture. That brought back memories of ROBO-ONE 7, just three short years ago, when a robot named MYRO-2 stepped into the ring literally towering over its competitors.

Tipping the scales at 8.0 kg and a height of 70 cm, MYRO-2 could easily sweep the average ROBO-ONE robot at the time off their feet. For example, in the video below you can see Metallic Fighter, a ROBO-ONE champion, do its best to make a dent in MYRO-2 with almost no impact. That particular version of Metallic Fighter was 2.5 kg and 40 cm tall, yet it couldn't begin to budge MYRO-2.

Robots Take to the Water Like a Duck (Video)

Over the weekend we finished writing an in-depth magazine article on Mega Dynamizer, the 50 cm, 5.0 kg ROBO-ONE humanoid robot champion designed by Sugiura-san. One of the main themes of the article was the Sugiura Family's desire to create robots that can productively share the world with their human counterparts in a symbiotic manner complementing each others strengths and weaknesses.

We were so impressed, that we couldn't stop talking about what they are doing, probably to the point of overwhelming our friends with our bubbling enthusiasm. Then, over coffee yesterday, one of our friends asked if the Sugiura robots could swim....

At first, that question really threw us for a bit of a loop. We've seen their robots fight in the ring, do back flips, climb stairs, run an obstacle course, ski down a snow covered hill, and catch fish with a fishing pole and tackle. But, we had never seen one of them swimming around in the water, until tonight...

Exciting New Robot Scholarship Contest

There's an exciting new robot design contest that offers 25 robot enthusiasts the chance to vie for several great prizes including a $5,000 college scholarship for 1st Place, a $2,000 college scholarship for 2nd Place, and $200 gift certificates for the 10 3rd Place winners.

The contest, officially titled "The Grant Imahara VEXplorer Robot Challenge", is co-sponsored by Revell, Innovation First Inc., Robot Magazine, and SolidWorks Corporation. Initial 'concept' applications have to be submitted by March 24th. Twenty five entries will be selected from the initial submissions and will be supplied with a VEXplorer set to construct and test  their robot creations. The final designs and robots will then be reviewed by Imahara and the winners selected. Check out the official contest rules for details.

ROBO-ONE: Sugiura Family Profiled in Major Newspaper

The Sugiura Family, creators of ROBO-ONE champion robots that include Dynamizer, Mega Dynamizer, Retro, and Kappa, were profiled in a special article that appeared in this morning's Yomiuri newspaper. The feature article, which goes into quite a bit of detail, emphasizes the motivation and passion behind the family's preoccupation with robotics.

Their vision, their dream, goes far beyond just winning competitions like ROBO-ONE. In the interview, Sugiura-san says, "In the future, if the robot is equipped with a camera, and is capable of climbing mountains like the northern Alps, then even if you become bedridden you can still experience mountain climbing."

Their hope for the not too distant future is a time when robots and humans live productively and usefully together. Surrounded by his family, Sugiura-san showed a hint of deep emotion, squinting his eyes, and saying, "Children will surely realize that dream."  

 

ROBO-ONE: Mega Dynamizer Close-Up

We spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday visiting with the Sugiura Family and getting briefed on Mega Dynamizer, a super-sized ROBO-ONE champion robot. Based in part on the outstanding Dynamizer humanoid robot, Mega Dynamizer is taller (50 cm), heavier (5.0 kg), and even more awesome - if that is possible.

Mega Dynamizer features 23 degrees of freedom and takes full advantage of the Dynamixel RX-64 servos and CM-2 Plus control board from Robotis (Bioloid). Control communication uses 2.4 Ghz RS232C (ZIGBEE).

The robots technology and design are extremely impressive from a specification perspective, and even more so when you see Mega Dynamizer in action as we did (see video below). If Mega Dynamizer is any indication, ROBO-ONE 13 next month is going to be the most exciting ROBO-ONE competition ever.

Kondo Rolls Out New Robot Controller Board

Here's the scenario: A few years ago we bought a Kondo KHR-1 (the original version) and took a two day class covering how to assemble, test, and program the humanoid robot. As fate would have it, we also had the opportunity to sit in on a pre-release private seminar on the RCB-3 robot controller board. The board was released for sale within about a month, and was quickly followed by the new KHR-2HV humanoid robot that used the controller board.

Now, a couple years later, Kondo has just announced a brand new controller board, the KCB-1, that looks pretty sweet, at least from the published specifications (see below). Will history repeat itself? Will Kondo release a hot new humanoid robot in the near future? It's any body's guess. We don't have any inside info on this one, but we would sure love to...

Flying Robot Trend Gains Momentum

Of course we love robots, and anything almost remotely robotic for that matter. And, from time to time, we have enjoyed RC cars, planes, and even helicopters. But, for some unknown reason, a lot of companies, like Kyosho, have decided recently to release new products that mash together robots and helicopters.

The most recent entry in this puzzling trend is the flying Doraemon "TakeCopter" from Epoch, a remote controlled toy implementation of Doraemon's bamboo copter. The new robot carries an age recommendation of 15 and up, which is typical for the highly conservative Japanese toy market. The same product in the US would most likely end up with a "10 and above" recommendation.

A bit pricey at 7,329 yen (roughly USD $65), the robot flies for 2 to 3 minutes and takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to fully recharge. This is definitely an indoor-only product due to it's light weight construction and IR based remote control that wouldn't work in sunlight. It's scheduled to go on sale in Japan this Saturday, February 23rd.

Dr. GIY Gives A Robot Performance Sneak Preview (Video)

With ROBO-ONE 13 just a little over a month away, we were lucky enough to get a little preview yesterday of exactly how tough the competition is going to be this time around.

During a short break in the action at the 9th KondoCup Robot Soccer competition, Dr. GIY put Senpumaru, one of his ROBO-ONE humanoid robot creations, through its paces for the fans. One of the robots most impressive moves (see video below) was a handstand jump turn followed by a push-off hand spring that landed the robot back on its feet.

It's easy to see that the top robots at ROBO-ONE 13 next month are going to be absolutely awesome.

Onimaru - Special Demonstration in Kochi (Video)

Sorry for the delay, but we finally got the video clips from Monday's Onimaru demonstration processed, edited, and uploaded (see video below).

The demo started off with a short exhibition of a humanoid robot built by local college students that Yamaguchi-san has been mentoring and encouraging. Then Onimaru was put through his paces.

They also encouraged some of the children in the crowd to operate both of the robots. For example, the young boy and girl operating Onimaru towards the end of the video are Hikaru and Manaka Fukase. Both are elementary school students and are 9 and 6 years old respectively.

Onimaru's Night Out (Video)

We had promised to upload the videos from Onimaru's special demonstration on Monday, but unfortunately we ended up spending all day today on the bullet train and fighting some missed connections caused by unexpected snow. So the full robot demo video will have to wait for another day or two.

However, we did manage to put together a short video (see below) showing off a lot of this amazing robots really cool, and realistic, moves. This footage is a little dark because we were shooting at a local restaurant that was packed with customers. You can definitely hear how they reacted by the video soundtrack.

Robot Noodles - Part 2 (Video)

It has to be one of the most amazing 'transformer' robots we have ever seen. Most evenings just before 10:00 pm, when the local people are getting hungry for some noodles or need a meal to balance out some of their drinking, a small truck pulls into an open space just in front of a down town department store.

The driver gets out, moves a few bicycles out of the way, positions the truck in his favorite spot, then begins the truck's transformation.

In less than 10 minutes, magic happens. Awnings automatically extend, table tops fold down from the truck body, gas burners fire up, and a diskwasher robot postions noodle bowls at the ready.

The driver dons his chef apron and hat, steps into the center of his resturant/truck, and offers a big, happy, smile as his first customer of the evening sits down and orders his meal.

Military Robots Get Real Depth Perception on the Way to Autonomy

Most of us understand how conventional 2D video camera sensors work, and we know how lasers can be used to determine distances to a target. What if we could combine the two technologies? If a laser pulse could be split optically into a grid, say 128 by 128, and used to scan a target so that the delay times of the reflected pulse 'pixels' tell us the distance to the object, then we might have an extremely useful 3D scanner. And, if we could repeat the process fast enough, say 30 fps, then the resulting scans could be used as part of the sensor and control system for next generation autonomous robots.

According to a recent report in Design News, that's the approach being explored by iRobot Corporation to design their next generation military robots. They're attempting to give the PackBots robots improved real-time depth perception using 3-D Flash Ladar sensor systems developed by Advanced Scientific Concepts, Inc. 

Although the sensor's basic principles are fairly straightforward, actual implementation can become rather complex and potentially expensive. Don't expect to see it rolled out at the consumer level with Roomba like products in the near future. However, for dangerous or demanding applications, like assisting or replacing military personnel in the field, it has tremendous potential.

More "Over The Top" Automata - Cabaret Mechanical Theatre (Video)

Every once in a while we run across an article or video of a robot related event that just blows us away. It's one of those, "WOW" moments when you want to just run out, catch a taxi to the airport, and fly to whatever corner of the globe that's depicted in the video.

The video (see below) we saw tonight of last summer's Cabaret Mechanical Theatre exhibition in London fits that description to a "T". We are really sorry we missed being able to attend in person, and can hardly wait for it to visit Japan someday, hopefully in the not too distant future.

19th Century Automata Rival Today's Android Creations (Video)

There's a lot of the "WOW" factor in today's androids. We're amazed and totally impressed by the lifelike robotic creations like Ishiguro's doppelganger or David Hanson's realistic robot clones.

But, from time to time we like to remind ourselves that the roots of their work and accomplishments go back for centuries. Man's desire, passion, to create automated life forms in our own image isn't anything new.

For example, in France during the last half of the 19th century some surprising automata - lifelike mechanical devices - were created. In many ways some of them rival the best that modern science has been able to come up with. Thankfully, those magical robotic creations are being lovely restored and shared with the world by Michael and Maria Start.

Aldebaran Robotics and NAO Start Recruiting

Looking for a fantastic opportunity to join a leading edge humanoid robotics team? Want to do state-of-the-art work that will be immediately put to the test by the top universities and robot labs in the world? Love robots?

Well, polish up your resume (CV) and get cracking! Opportunity, in the form of really exciting robot career positions at Aldebaran Robotics, is knocking!

Nano Scale Development May Yield Macro Results for Robots

We keep struggling to build bigger, more powerful and more useful robots, but invariably battery capacity and life turn out to be major roadblocks. Practical robot applications require a level of autonomy and independence, which means that they have to carry their operating power along with them and can't be constantly traveling back to a charging station to refuel.

Even at the hobby robot level batteries have been a major obstacle. A Kondo KHR-2HV or a Hitec Robonova-1 typically operate for considerably less than 30 minutes before their batteries need to be replaced or recharged. Of course the same problem is prevalent among other consumer electronic devices like cell phones, laptop computers, and mp3 players.

Thankfully, because of advanced nano-wire research conducted at Stanford University. all that may soon change. Operating times could be expanded by up to 10 times as long. Laptops could run on batteries for several days, and humanoid robots could go for 4 to 6 hours at a stretch.