ROBOTS DREAMS

HPI Preparing New Parts Options for the G-ROBOTS Robot Kits

It's going to take us a day or two to translate, and perhaps longer than that to figure out the full implications, but it appears that HPI will be rolling out a long list of new parts and other items for its popular G-ROBOT humanoid robot kits.

The G-ROBOTS line was designed in conjunction with Futaba, and is essentially identical to the Futaba RBT-1 robot sold in the US. At this point there is no word on whether or not the same new parts will be made available for sale outside of Japan.

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...

Keepon Robot Gets Down With Spoon in Akihabara (Video)

Marek Michalowski setup the bright yellow, and extremely rhythmic, Keepon robot to perform to Spoon's "I Turn My Camera On", recorded it on video, then uploaded it to YouTube where it became an instant hit scoring close to 1.3 million views.

Now Keepon and Spoon are paired up again, only this time it's an official production (see video below), sponsored by WIRED, directed by Jeff Nichols, and with walk-on roles by many of our favorite local humanoid robots. The result is, in our very biased opinion, the best robot music video ever.

By the way, the interior scenes towards the end of the music video took place at RT Corp's store in Akihabara and were organized by Yuki Nakagawa, one of the most well known and well respected robot leaders here.

Robot Week In Japan!

ROBO-ONE kicks off next Saturday morning, and early indications are that tickets for the premier robot event may sell out long before the doors open. The latest measure of the extreme interest in personal humanoid robots here is a content rich, multiple page, robot special section unveiled this week at the top of the Yahoo Japan website. 

Exclusive Software Report: HPI G-Robots GR-001 Part III

The first post in our review of the new HPI G-Robots GR-001 humanoid robot covered the overall design, architecture, and motions, including a video of the robot being put through its paces. The second post in the GR-001 series focused on the 3D display and using it to adjust the robots servo positions interactively.

Now we'd like to show you how the motion editor application makes it a pleasure to work with the robots poses, motion sequences, and scenarios. It's probably particularly timely since the GR-001 robot kit goes on sale tomorrow morning here in Japan.

Robot Fever Grows By Leaps and Bounds: RT Corporation

RT Corporation, founded by Yuki Nakagawa, has always been one of our favorite stops whenever we have the opportunity to visit the Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo. Now she has given us a couple of new reasons to visit the RT showroom as often as we possibly can manage.

As you can see from the photos below, RT has moved to a bigger, and much more spacious, facility just a couple minutes walk from the main Akihabara train station. It's obvious from the size, and the stock in the RT showroom, that they are firm believers in the concept that the robot boom is starting to experience a strong growth explosion, not just here in Japan, but globally.

Exclusive Software Report: HPI G-Robots GR-001 Humanoid Robot Kit

Our previous exclusive report featuring the new GR-001 humanoid robot kit from HPI Racing covered the overall robot design and hardware along with a video of the robot in action. But hardware is only one part of the total picture, so in this report we'll give you an exclusive pre-sales look at the software application that comes with this exciting robot.

We should point out that our evaluation was based on the GR-001 robot kit that will be released for sale in Japan by HPI later this month. All of our testing was done with the Japanese version of the product and software, so as they commonly say in the automotive business, "your mileage may vary."

New HPI G-ROBOTS GR-001Humanoid Robot Closeup (Video)

 
We first saw an early version of the HPI GR-001 humanoid robot at a trade show here in Japan a couple of months ago, and liked what we saw. Now, since it's almost ready to be released for sale, we tracked down one of the production robots and arranged for an extended hands-on, no holds bared, session. The net result? We like it even more!

We'll be posting detailed information, photos, notes, and some additional videos here on Robots Dreams from our evaluation session with the GR-001. But, just to kick things off, we put together a 3+ minute video clip (see below)  to highlight just a few of the robot's most impressive features.