ROBOTS DREAMS

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).

Weird New Robot Lifeform Springs From Guru's Junkbox (Video)

It's hard enough to build a robot from a commercial kit. It's even harder to design and build one from components based on your own concept. But it takes a real robotics and creative guru to dip their hand into their junk box, pull out a few old, worn parts, and hack them together to give birth to a cute, almost lifelike, robotic creature that performs better than a lot of robots on the market.

I-Wei (aka CrabFu) had a little bit of spare time on his hands (did we mention he's looking for a job?), and a pile of old parts from his robotics, steam punk, and R/C plane/helicopter hobbies. So, rather than sit around and mope, he started playing around with different robot designs based on worn R/C helicopter swash mechanisms.

The result of his labors, named the "Swashbot", is truly amazing to watch. And, in true CrabFu style, he openly shares all the background in the video below.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Amazing and Oddly Funny Humanoid robot design (Video)

Dauto-san is a top humanoid robot builder that consistently captures high standings in Robo-Fight, ROBO-ONE, and other Japanese competitive robot competitions. He is also the absolute best, in our personal opinion, at the challenging game of Robot Billiards.

He's not afraid to try some new approach with his robot designs. Some of them work, others don't, but he keeps trying and constantly improving. His latest design, which you can see in operation in the video below, initially made us chuckle. No, that's not quite right. We almost doubled over laughing.

Yet, when the initial laughter stopped, and we had a minute or two to digest what he had done with the robots lower half, we were totally amazed. It's a really  unconventional approach the provides greater stability and more DOF. And, surprisingly enough, it seems to fit within the basic humanod robot competition specifications. Brilliant, absolutely, brilliant.

Creating Smooth Walking Motions

A lot of new humaniod robot builders tend to ignore dynamics and the effects of momentum when they try to create their first motions. They have the robot take its first step, then repeat the exact same sequence over and over to simulate walking. Their stops are abrupt, often so abrupt that the robot loses its balance and tumbles over.

But, humans, and other animals, don't walk that way. They typically gently accelerate from a still standing position to full motion over two or three initial steps. Of course it's more work, but in the long term all the hard work is rewarded. "399"-san created his robots walking stride to slowly accelerate from a stop to full walking motion over the duration of two steps. And, he's also experimenting with a three step acceleration to see if that results in even better and more realistic walking.

Robot Kits Are Just The Beginning (Video)

Some people buy a hobby robot kit, assemble it, try out the motions provided by the manufacturer, and then get bored. But for others the stock kits are just the beginning of the fun and challenge. They take the standard robot and start to add a lot of their own creativity and skill. The results can be very rewarding in terms of personal satisfaction and peer recognition.

A great example is the work done by "Eullin" and posted recently on the RoboSavvy forums. He started with a standard, off the shelf, Hitec Robonova-1 then let his imagination and creativity loose. His video below should give you a good idea of what can be accomplished with some dedication, effort, and time.

"i-SOBOT, Please Bring Me a ...." (Video)

The i-SOBOT's a pretty tiny fellow, so expecting him to bring his master something heavy like a beer probably isn't going to happen. But, how about something lighter - or maybe something that would be used with a lighter?

That seems to be the thought process followed by 'paxshikai', who, from the white i-SOBOT and some of the katakana tags on his YouTube video (see below), must be one of our fellow robot fans living here in Japan.

Getting Your i-SOBOT Under Control - PC Control (Video)

Well, it didn't take very long before someone figured out how to control the i-SOBOT from their PC. We know of one successful project in the US that uses the USB-UIRT to send the proper IR signals to the robot.

Now there's a second successful project, this time by "togacat" that uses the Buffalo PC-OP-RS1 IR device, and their program is actually running under Linux (video below).

i-SOBOT: Robot-eye View From Downunder (Video)

"Officially" i-SOBOT has only been released in Japan and the US, and "officially" we'll have to wait until sometime next year for a model that includes an onboard video camera. But, devoted robot hackers have never been known for their patience nor their willingness to wait for things to become "official".And, the robot hackers in the land down-under tend to lead the hacker pack.

Somehow, no one is saying how it happened, a brand new black US version i-SOBOT has found its way down to Australia and has already been hacked to attach a video camera so that it can report back what it sees real-time (Videos below).

i-SOBOT: Rumors Open the Door to Extreme Hacking

We don't usually post unverified rumors about robot products. But in this particular case the source is very credible and the information does match our previous experience with both the pre-production and commercial i-SOBOT versions, so we're going to pass it on to our readers.

We also believe that TOMY wouldn't consider any 'on the record' confirmation, especially since one exciting aspect of these rumors opens the door to some really extreme hacking of the robot. Keep in mind that although there is a good chance that they are true, the 'rumors' below are currently unconfirmed.

Exclusive Gogic Racer Close-up (Video)

 
  Father and son Transformer robots, WR-07 (left) and GOGIC Racer

SK-Pang, located in Himeji, Japan, introduced a kit that converts their popular Gogic Five humanoid kit into a super Transformer robot. Right after the ROBO-ONE 12 competition wrapped up last month, Masumoto and Nakamura, the two key players at SK-Pang, invited us to see some of their creations up close, including getting the detailed footage below of the new Gogic Racer showing off its stuff. 

i-SOBOT Robot Equipped with Canon (Video)

Some people think that i-SOBOT is just a toy. But, what if we told you that one Japanese i-SOBOT owner has already mounted a canon and has figured out how to shoot, and hit, opponents from clear across the room?

Sound unbelievable? Just take a look at the video clip below.

Ready for Halloween?

Using their robot skills and a few robot servos and parts, Joe Strout and his son Kevin converted their house into a giant monster with moving eyes for Halloween last year! And, like all good robot builders, they documented how they did it with a detailed writeup, photos, and even a video (see below).

Exclusive: First Look At RoboPhilo In Action (Video)

 As our regular readers are already aware, the new RoboPhilo humanoid robot will be unveiled at iHobby Expo 2007 this week in Chicago. It will be definitely be interesting to see how the crowds react to this innovative new product and it's very attractive price/performance.

Unfortunately, we're hard at work here in Chiba, Japan this week, and won't be able to make it to the show in person. Still, if any of you are able to attend the show, please send us some photos and a brief write-up. We'd be happy to post them on Robots Dreams with full credit to you and a link back to your website.

And, just to provide a little extra encouragement, we put together a short video of RoboPhilo in action (see below).

Giving Your Robosapien Some Eyes, and a Brain (Video)

We're currently doing an evaluation of some POB Technologies products, and are trying to decide which particular project would be best to demonstrate their power and capability. We have lots of different robotic platforms, some wheeled, some with tracks, and quite a number of humanoids, so the best project would involve one, or more, of our existing robots. And it should be something of practical use - something that can be applied to autonomous operation, tracking, or even just a simple fun project as long as it's not trivial or meaningless.

In going through the specs, manuals, downloads, and forums on the POB site, we ran across fairly detailed documentation showing a mash-up that uses the POB-EYE and related modules to give an original Robosapien robot vision and the ability to track objects.

WR-07 Transformer Robot Close-up (Video)

Remember that fantastic transformer robot that went viral on YouTube and gadget sites about a year ago? We certainly do.

The 'transformer robot' was WR-07 designed for ROBO-ONE competitions by Nakamura-san at Himeji Soft Works. As it turns out, Nakamura is also one of the founders at the SK-Pang labs in Himeji, and was kind enough to invite us over for an exclusive demo session showing off several of their humanoid creations, including WR-07.

Elmo-Sapien Lives! (Video)

 +

    = Elmo-Sapien!

Going on two years ago, we put out the challenge for someone to hack together Elmo and the Robosapien. The popular Robosapien at the time was the V2, but since then the RS Media, with it's personality editor capability has come out and has been just pleading for someone to do an Elmo-Sapien.

Well, we're happy to report that 'someone' just did....

Blaser Tag: Robot Laser Tag Game System (Video)

Our friends at HotProceed have been busy creating lots of new accessories for Kondo RCB-3 based robots like the KHR-1HV, KHR-2HV and Manoi AT01. First they introduced the TEC-1, an interface board that makes it possible to control your robot using a PS2 gamepad. Then they topped that with the TEC-3, adding analog joystick control.

But, what they showed us during a break in the ROBO-ONE 12 action in Takamatsu last weekend was totally over the top. They've created a super robot laser tag game system, named "Blaser" that's an absolute blast to play.

ROBO-ONE 12: OmniZero - A First Look

We mentioned in our previous post from the ROBO-ONE 12 competition in Takamatsu that OmniZero has changed quite a bit. Actually that's an understatement. The new OmniZero is dramatically different, and dramatically larger, than his predecessors:

More photos and background information below.

Pleo Release Date Pushed Back Due to Battery Issues

UGOBE announced a few minutes ago that shipments of the long awaited Pleo robotic  dinosaur have been pushed back due to a change in their battery strategy. Originally the robot was to carry a single battery pack on board, and would go to its 'food bowl' to recharge when necessary. Now, because of problems that were uncovered during the "pre-production testing", UGOBE is switching gears to implement multiple rechargable battery packs - presumably that the owner/parent will have to change manually. Here's an excerpt from their email:

"During pre-production testing, the UGOBE? team encountered some significant problems with Pleo's battery life. We solved these problems in a way that I think you will appreciate: all Pleos, including First Hatch Pleos, are now designed to have an easily removable battery and an external charger for the battery. That means that with multiple batteries and chargers, you can keep Pleo going for hours on end. However, implementing this design change will delay production. We are working hard to make sure everyone who has ordered a Pleo will receive one by the holidays."

Gogic Racer - Gogic Five Turns into a Transformer Robot (Video)

A couple days ago we ran across, and posted about, a sign on the SK-Pang website that looked like they were busy designing some sort of transformer robot.

And, it turns out that our guess was right on target. We've managed to obtain a short video (see below) showing their new add-on kit for the popular Gogic Five robot that converts it into a Transformer robot that not only can walk, and drive around on wheels, but can also turn somersaults!

New Kyosho MANOI 32PORT Sensor Board About To Go On Sale

A few days ago, Kondo added references to their website covering the latest firmware upgrade for the popular RCB-3 robot control so that it could be used with a Kyosho MANOI "32PORT" sensor board. The whole thing was a little mysterious because even Kyosho hadn't officially announced the new board yet.

Now Tsukumo Robot Kingdom has added the 32PORT board (HRP100) to their web offerings with projected availability date of September 15th. Unfortunately, although they do show a photo of the board, there is very little other information available at this time. Tsukumo's listed price of the module is 21,000 yen, which is a little too pricey for our limited wallet, but its always nice to dream .

 

RoboQuad Becomes RoboSpy with RoboDance and Skype (Video)

At first glance, the robot on the right looks like a standard RoboQuad from WowWee, that you could find at toy and specialty stores almost anywhere.

But, on closer inspection you might notice that this particular RoboQuad is equipped with a video camera mounted on the top of its head, and has been transformed into a really unique, remote controlled, spy bot.

Robert Oschler, the publisher of RobotsRule.com and developer of the popular RoboDance software application, has really outdone himself this time. He's equipped his RoboQuad with a video camera, Skype video conferencing ability, and can control the robot remotely from anywhere in the world using voice commands processed through RoboDance. He explains it all, and promises some interesting follow-on information, in the video below.

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: 

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. 

Cherubim Robot From Robot Force is a True Transformer (Video)

Iwaki-san, the guiding spirit driving the Robot Force organization in Osaka, and the co-author of the great KHR-Perfect book, just posted a new video (see below)  featuring Cherubim, his red 'Transformer' robot in action.

The Robot Force group is heavily involved in humanoid robot development, sales, marketing, support, and stages several major robot competitions including Robo-Fight and Robo-Gong. Iwaki-san definitely enjoys robotics, but more important, he really treasures the motivation, joy, and inspiration the hobby/sport provides to his customers, employees, and the spectators that attend their events.

So, it was natural for Robot Force to develop several Transformer type humanoid robots like Cherubim. These aren't 'toys' - they are fully functional humanoid robots that are capable of competing at the top levels in ROBO-ONE events and robot soccer matches.

Kondo GENEX Robot Suit Review by CrabFu

I-Wei, the founder, designer, and resident mad-scientist behind all those wonderful steam robot creations from CrabFu Steamworks, has been bitten by the humanoid robot bug really hard. It's become much more than just a hobby or passing interest, it's his primary passion and perhaps even obsession.

Right after RoboGames 2007 in June, he purchased a Kondo KHR-2HV and started his humanoid adventure. It wasn't long before he had the robot performing realistic moves that would make some of the top ROBO-ONE builders green with envy. And, through a constant stream of 'why?', 'how come?', and 'what if?' questions he pestered inspired us into developing a series of software applications/tools for the Kondo robot products.

His most recent project with the robot was to assemble the Kondo A-621 "GENEX" robot suit, and in the process he also created a very straight forward set of LED eyes for his humanoid companion. We're very pleased that he shared his complete product review (see below) including the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of this new Kondo option.

New Application For Kondo Robots Released

We mentioned in a previous post a few days ago that we've been working on some interesting software applications for Kondo based robots like the KHR-2HV and Kyosho MANOI AT01. Well, the first application has finished its qualification testing, at least in our labs, so we're going to go ahead and officially release it today for downloads.

 

The application, "RCB3 Button Box" is a simple, and hopefully easy to use, Windows program that triggers motions and scenarios in the robots RCB-3 controller. It also provides error reporting and other important information including the robots battery voltage.

RoboGames 2007: Android Wrestling Awards Ceremony (Video)

In going back through all our video and photos from the June RoboGames 2007 event, we discovered some good footage, probably taken by Jason, of the awards ceremony for the Lightweight and Heavyweight Android Wrestling competitions (see video below).

No great robot action in this particular video, but still it's extremely meaningful for the participants and their big fans - like us!

RoboGames 2007: Stealth Appearance by the Pleo Robot (Video)

We're not sure why they did it, but the UGOBE folks brought the new Pleo dinosaur robot to RoboGames 2007 in San Francisco this June. They were there on Friday, the first day that the event was open to the public, but then disappeared completely a day later. We suspect it was an exercise in test marketing to see what kind of reaction the robot drew.

Anyway, we're not complaining since it did give us the opportunity to see - and even touch - what is sure to become one of the top selling robot toys/gadgets for Christmas 2007.

Optimus Prime Robot Practices Riding a Motorcycle (Video)

Inspired by the Robot Magazine project to have a humanoid robot execute a world record motorcycle jump, Matt Bauer mounted his Robonova-1 based Optimus Prime robot on a motorcycle, and started practicing (see video below).

As you might predict, the robot had some difficulty in steering the motorcycle - after all this was his first ride ever. And, we have to admit that the robot did better than we did with our first motorcycle - much better.

Rook's Pawn Shows Off His Gyro Stabilization (Video)

Rook's Pawn III started off life as a stock, off the shelf Hitec Robonova-1 humanoid robot kit. Over the past year and a half, Rook's has evolved tremendously - to the point that Rook's creator, Matt Bauer, feels as if he has redesigned the robot from the ground up at least two or three times, including redesigning and replacing almost all of the metal frames and other hardware.

And, all of his hard work and dedication has paid off well. Rook's took home metals from both RoboGames 2006 and 2007, and has even made the trek all the way across the planet to join in the activities at last year's ROBO-ONE 10 competition in Japan.

Eurobot Robotics Contest - The View from the Inside (Video)

It's a small world, and getting smaller all the time, especially with the internet making it possible to contact and develop relationships based on common interests, even when the people involved literally live on opposite sides of the globe.

So we weren't surprised to receive an email request late last month from 'Raul' in Spain asking for more information on some of the Japan robot competitions shown on our Robot Events Calendar. Raul is a devoted robot fan, and builder, and as it turns out, he will be visiting Japan for the next couple weeks.

After a little discussion, Raul decided to attend this month's Robo-Gong competition in Osaka. We were happy to assist him, and even happier when Raul was kind enough to submit the article below covering the Eurobot competitions held in Europe, along with his team's experiences with the event.

ROBO-ONE 10: Grand Prix Demo by Dynamizer (Video)

We've been exchanging a long series of emails, files, and videos with humanoid robot owners overseas recently, and the discussion always comes back to creating more fluid and realistic movement.

To give them a good idea of what's possible, even with the limited DOF of a ROBO-ONE style robot, we typically show them the Grand Prix demonstration put on by Dynamizer last fall during a break at the ROBO-ONE 10 competition. Dynamizer's creator, Sugiura-san, is a strong believer in natural movement, good design, and being gentle to servos just as if his robot was actually alive.

We think you can easily see what we mean from the short video below.

RoboGames 2007: Gold Metal Robot Builder Interview - Chris Farrell (Video)

We're always fascinated by the way that people are motivated and excited by robotics, so when we recently had the opportunity to interview double RoboGames metal winner, Chris Farrell of Farrell Robotics, we immediately jumped at the chance.

Chris, and his dad - Rob, have done some surprising work developing Oro and Zog - their competitive robots - completely from scratch, to the point that between them they won a total of four metals at RoboGames 2007 in San Francisco last month - Gold and Silver in Wrestling along with Silver and Bronze in the Biped Race.

Chris was kind enough to share their story with us, along with a lot of insight into their motivation and dreams.  

Enhancing The Kondo KHR Humanoid Robot Series - Part 1

Our first Kondo robot was Gulliver, an original KHR-1 (not to be confused with the more recent KHR-1HV kit). He's great, and we've had a tremendous amount of fun playing with him, and learning from him. But, seeing all the newer KHR-2HV robots out there playing soccer had us wishing for another robot just so that we could play too.

But, that would cost $$$, not to mention having to negotiate with our better half and trying to explain why we just can live without three, or four, humanoid robots to experiment with. If we weren't careful about it, we might have ended up with only the robots in an empty house...

So, we took the safer, and cheaper path, and swapped out Gulliver's older RCB-1 control boards for a single, and much more powerful RCB3 controller with the latest firmware. But we still needed to address the motion sequence differences between the two robots or we wouldn't be able to use all those cool soccer moves.
 

Anybots Lab Visit (Video)

After RoboGames wrapped up, Noriko Kageki, who publishes the excellent Getrobo.com set of weblogs, invited us to join several other friends for a visit to the Anybots labs in Mountain View. We're really glad that she did, because the work being done at Anybots is extremely encouraging, as they demonstrated for us  in the video clip below.

In addition to the photos and video, there's another post about one of their other robots that will go live soon. Also, a full page article on Anybots.com will appear in the Fall 2007 issue of Robot Magazine, on sale in stores at the end of July.

Optimus Prime Shows Defiance to Crowds in Ohio (Video)

Oops, we mistyped that headline. It should have read, "Optimus Prime Shows Off to Crowds in Defiance, Ohio."

Last weekend, Defiance, the hometown of Matt and Jen Bauer of Bauer Independents, and birthplace of Rook's Pawn, was anxiously awaiting the upcoming opening of the new Transformers movie on the Fourth of July. Matt knew that a small town like Defiance, located in the heart of the mid-West wasn't likely to draw any of the movie's stars to the opening, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

In the matter of just a few days, and a few long nights,  he completely converted Jen's Robonova-1 robot into the spitting image of Optimus Prime!

RoboGames 2007 - Alan Downing's Autonomous Robot Bear

There was more to RoboGames than the ear deafening noise and chaos of combat robots trying their utmost to disable or destroy each other - much, much more. Taking the opportunity to check out all the nooks and crannies of the Fort Mason facility we discovered lots of non-violent and simply delightful robots and their enthusiastic creators.

One of our personal favorites was the "PoohBearBot" - the work of Alan Downing, a manager at a large Silicon Valley software company, and an active member of the famous Home Brew Robotics Club. Alan was kind enough to spend some time explaining the robot to us, and patiently responding to our questions.