ROBOTS DREAMS

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.

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.

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.

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....

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.

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.

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)

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....

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...

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...

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.

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.

New Robot Suit to Assist Japanese Farmers

The 'catch phrase' for Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology is "MORE SENSE" which is derived from "Mission Oriented Research and Education giving Synergy in Endeavors toward a Sustainable Earth." The university traces its own roots back to 1874 and Japan's Meiji Restoration period, and has been chartered as a full fledged university since 1949.

Capturing the spirit of that inspirational catch phrase, a university team lead by Professor Shigeki Toyama formally announced the development of a robot suit they hope will dramatically ease the burden on agricultural field workers as well as other manual labor intensive jobs.

Closeup: Bandai HexBug Low Cost Robot (Video)

We're an absolute sucker for anything robotic, especially if the price is equal to, or less than, the coin of the realm that happens to be gracing our wallet at the moment. The situation is even worse come the holiday season since its way too easy to rationalize a robot impulse purchase as a Christmas gift to ourselves.

So, as you might have already guessed, we picked up a few inexpensive robots at the International Robot Exhibition (IREX 2007) held here in Tokyo last month. The simplest, and cheapest, was the Bandai HexBug.

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.

Gogic Series Robots Make the Major Leagues

Although SK-Pang is a small start-up robotics company, the founders have a tremendous amount of humanoid robot design and competition experience as well as native talent. So it was great to hear that their "Gogic" series of robots will be sold by EK Japan, one of the major Japanese electronic kit companies. This is equivalent to graduating from the farm leagues to the major leagues in baseball.

The business tie-up brings a lot of benefits to both parties. It will strengthen EK's product lines that are already well known for their ELEKIT offerings, and it gives them a strong, well established foot in the growing hobby robot market. From the SK-Pang side, it allows them to focus on developing exciting new products without the headaches of managing sales, support, and distribution.

It's also a big win for customers. The Gogic robot products, like Gogic Five and Gogic Racer, will have a much broader distribution and availability. EK also has plans in work to make the popular products available overseas.

Building DIY Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Robots (Video)

We've seen how the rapidly dropping cost of advanced technology has made it possible for hobbyists and researchers to build humanoid robots with 70% of ASIMO's functionality at just a small fraction of the cost.

But what about other aspects of robotics? Is the same evolution taking place? Absolutely. A good example is hobby level development of advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) where dedicated individuals, like Chris Anderson, are putting together autonomous planes and helicopters with tremendous capability, usually for just a few thousand dollars or less.

Anderson, Wired Magazine's editor-in-chief and author of the best selling business book, "The Long Tail", is also fascinated by autonomous planes and spends a considerable amount of his free time designing, building, and operating his home made UAVs. He recently pulled together a group of UAV robot builders for an outing in the San Francisco Bay area, and documented everything as a feature piece on the PBS Wired Science program (see video below). He even managed to include a visit to the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field to see some of the larger, and much more expensive UAV's in operation.

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.

Vstone Introduces Some Totally Awesome Servos

Vstone has become famous in the humanoid robot field for developing numerous state of the art robots and components including the VisiON 4G autonomous RoboCup soccer robots. Now they have announced commercial availability of their most advanced, high torque, high performance servos so that humanoid robot builders with the passion, and deep pockets, can follow in their foot steps. 

i-SOBOT: Disassembly and Analysis - What's Inside

It didn't take long at all before one of the i-SOBOT was completely disassembled and analyzed to the n-th degree. And, lucky for all of us i-SOBOT fans the first autopsy published online was accomplished and documented by Ishii-san, one of the best and most experienced robot technical writers we know.

In his complete i-SOBOT tear-down and analysis, posted by Robot Watch, Ishii takes everything apart, shows all the servo gearing and internals, analyzes the circuit boards and data formats, and even makes some educated guesses about how to hack the i-SOBOT in some interesting ways.

Related links:
   i-SOBOT Disassembly and Analysis (Japanese)
   i-SOBOT Disassembly and Analysis (English via Google translation)

 

More Robots Take to the Air! (Video)

Right on the heels of the Kyosho flying robot the AirBots (video below), designed by Wiz Co. Ltd., are about to start commercial shipments on November 23rd. here in Japan.

The robots, which are already listed on the Amazon Japan website, are cheap enough at 2,830 yen that many robot enthusiasts will buy two just to stage an impromptu aerial battle. Confidentially, that's what we did - one black and one blue.

New Crawlspace Robot Introduced by Sanyo Electric

Sanyo Electric is showing off a new tracked robot designed to inspect the crawl spaces under single family houses. The robot, which only measures 200 mm x 260 mm x 420 mm, can enter the crawl space via a fresh air vent, then move around the crawl space under remote control observing the foundation, walls, water and sewage pipes, and electrical cables.

The design appears to be fairly rugged, weighs 9.6 kg, and can operate for over two hours using a lithium ion battery. The tracks allow the robot to cross surface level differences of up to 85 mm. Sanyo hasn't disclosed the projected production dates or market price, but has stated that their target price for the robot system is 1 million yen (approximately USD$ 8,600.)

 

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).

Dynamizer Website Adds 3D View

Ever wonder what a ROBO-ONE Champion robot like Dynamizer looks like up close and personal?

Here's your chance: Sugiura-san, Dynamizer's creator, has added a Real3Di display to Dynamizer's website so that you can rotate the robot to any angle you want and then zoom in and pan to get a real close-up view.

Just look for the widget at the top of the left sidebar, click on it, and have fun.

JPL NASA All Terrain Space Robot Video Online

JPL NASA released a great 3 minute video (link below) overview of the ATHLETE robot showing an actual half sized working model in action. The robot's main objective is to serve as a mobile platform on the moon or other planets enabling the movement of large laboratory or equipment modules supporting remote exploration.

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.

WonderKit Releases New Low Cost 9 DOF Humanoid Robot Kit

We haven't seen it in person yet, but from the online information it appears that the WonderKit folks at Kyohritsu have come out with an interesting low-end humanoid robot kit named PetitRobo X.

The new robot has 9 servo motors and takes from 4 to 8 hours to assemble, based on the builders experience level. And, like all the WonderKit products, the price is rock bottom at 29,988 yen (roughly USD$262) at stores in Akihabara.

Of course we plan on picking one up during our next trip into Tokyo's electronic playground.

 

Futaba RBT-1 Robots Strut Their Stuff (Video)

We did one of the first reviews of the Futaba based HPI G-Robot when it was first introduced to the press almost a year ago, and have to admit the design and performance was quite impressive, even if it was a little pricey.

Since then Futaba has released basically the same design in the US, at a lower price point, as the RBT-1 humanoid robot. So, we were quite interested to see how the Futaba robotics group staff would show off the robot to its best advantage.

We got exactly that opportunity (see video below) a couple weeks ago at the All Japan Plastic Model/Radio Control show at the Makuhari Messe Convention Center complex.

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).

Sugiura Brothers: Growing Up With Robots (Video)

The image on the right looks kind of like a father and child, and perhaps that's the most appropriate metaphor. It's actually part of some innovative work being done by Yuta Sugiura (one of the Sugiura Brothers) and Kento Kikuchi at the University of Electro-Communication. Their project, named 'Ubiquitous'  features very creative, and insightful, approaches to controlling a humanoid robot, and has its roots in a long, and very constructive and healthy, father and son(s) relationship that also involves ROBO-ONE.

The Sugiura family is well known within robotic circles, for their ROBO-ONE champion robots like Dynamizer, Retro (on the left in the photo), Dynamizer Jr. (aka Kappa), and for their contributions as advisers to Kyosho on the MANOI AT01 project. While the head of the clan is certainly a technical wizard, and was responsible for Dynamizer's basic design, a large part of the programming, operation, and input of creative ideas came from the sons - the Sugiura Brothers.

Dad took on the role of coach, adviser, mentor, and number one fan for the boys. The results have been very gratifying, and even inspirational.

ROBO-ONE 12: It Happens to the Best of Us

It never fails. You can practice, practice, practice all you want, but when the time comes and you have to go on stage in front of thousands of people and a panel of judges, something is bound to go wrong.

If it's a human being, then stage fright is the most likely excuse. But, what if it happens to be a robot? During ROBO-ONE 12 last month at Takamatsu, quite a few of the robots failed to perform the theme challenge - playing catch - to the full extent they were capable.

Was it robot stage fright, or were the operators just nervous and under intense pressure? We'll probably never know exactly. Fortunately one participant managed to record their robots totally amazing intended performance (see video below).

ROBO-ONE 12: Robot Bouts Get Real (Video)

After every ROBO-ONE competition we see comments posted online pointing out, usually rightly so, that some of the bouts aren't very realistic or human like. It's important to keep in mind that the overarching goal of ROBO-ONE is 'Biped Robot Entertainment.' That doesn't necessarily equate to modeling humans or their boxing and wrestling styles. Nevertheless the ROBO-ONE organizing committee has gently and consistently pushed the builders in that direction as much as possible. Now it appears that their efforts and guidance are really paying off.

Exclusive: First Look At RoboPhilo In Action (Video)