Kondo Robot Battles Set for August 27th in Tokyo
Back in March of this year everyone was really anticipating the 19th ROBO-ONE competition, and all of the ROBO-ONE partner organizations were busy staging events that would pre-qualify the winners as seeded entries into the world's most famous humanoid robot competition. Then the northern Japan earthquake took place and everyone's plans went right out the window.
It's been just five months since that horrendous disaster, yet most areas of Japan have quickly recovered and are coming back even stronger than ever. Not only have most businesses rebounded, the robotics sector has regained its momentum also. Later this month, on August 27th, Kondo Robotics will stage a double header series of humanoid robot competitions - the 5th and 6th Kondo Robot Battles attracting top robot builders from all over Japan.
The Kondo competitions, which are limited to designs utilizing Kondo components, will take place at the Kondo RoboSpot facility in Akihabara. Player check-in will start at 11:00 am with the Opening Ceremony scheduled for 13:00. Matches will continue throughout the afternoon with the awards ceremony tentatively set for 16:30. Attendance is open to the general public and admission is free, though space will be limited so be sure to show up early if you intend to get in.
(Via 第5回,第6回 KONDO BATTLE 詳細発表＆お申込開始！.)
Humanoid Robot Stair Climbing (Video)
In the early days of hobby humanoid robotics even simple tasks, like walking up a couple of stair steps, was a major challenge. The first robots lacked gyros for balance and used servos that weren't specifically designed for robot use. Later, as gyros became more commonplace, the top robot builders were able to accomplish climbing stairs, with varying results, but the servo power left something to be desired.
Now, with the benefit of high power servos and better, easier to use and program, some off-the-shelf humanoid kit robots, like the Kondo KHR-3HV, can conquer the task fairly easily, as Shibata-san with LIGHTFOOT Robotics demonstrated below.
’Humanoid Robot Stair Climbing (Video)’ continues
Robot Magazine – The latest hobby, science and consumer robotics, artificial intelligence
Subscribers to ROBOT Magazine are receiving their copies of the latest issue right about now, and the store copies should be in bookstores very soon.
This particular issue, with the Kumotek KT-X humanoid robot on the cover, will prove to be quite interesting and exciting since it includes coverage of robots at the Maker Faire, animatronic dinosaurs, a how-to on programing servos, Arduino Bot Brains, a chance to win a Parallax robot, a look at the latest Kondo hexapod robot, and our detailed coverage of RoboGames 2011.
(Via Robot Magazine - The latest hobby, science and consumer robotics, artificial intelligence.)
Fantastic Deal on Kondo KRS-6003HV ICS Servos for Humanoid Robot
Dennis2010, a German electrical engineering student on the RoboSavvy robot forum, has 22 brand new Kondo KHS-60033HV ICS servos that he purchased in late 2010 for a humanoid robot project. Because of his study load he's had to give up on the project without having actually used the servos.
The specs are quite impressive:
Maximum motion angle: 270 degrees
Torque: 67 Kg.cm
Speed: 0.22 sec/60 degrees
List price is typically around USD$390. Dennis is willing to let them go for USD$150 each, and has very attractive pricing if you prefer buying a set of 6 or 18. If you have any plans to build a hefty, muscular humanoid robot, this might be your chance. Check it out!
(Via RoboSavvy Forum :: View topic - Very cheap and strong Kondo KRS-6003HV ICS Servos.)
Kondo ROBOSPOT Gets a Twitter Account
ROBOSPOT, Kondo Robot's popular company operated retail outlet in Akihabara and the location for robot competitions like KondoCup Robot Soccer and the Kondo Land multi-legged robot obstacle course event, just introduced a Twitter account to announce and promote their services and competitions.
Posts to the ROBOSPOT twitter account will be in Japanese, but that doesn't typically pose a big problem for readers since many of the Twitter apps include a translation option, typically using Google Translate as the backend. It's also possible to bring up the Twitter feed in a browser like Chrome and use a browser plug-in for the translation dog-work.
The company has recently started broadcasting most events held at ROBOSPOT via UStream so that fans all over the world that can't travel all the way to Tokyo can still see the action and add their own comments or feedback, including cheering for their favorite teams.
(Via ROBOSPOT (KONDO_ROBOSPOT) on Twitter.)
Fanastic Robot Coverage in the July ROBOCON Magazine Issue
The July issue of ROBOCON Magazine hit the news stands yesterday and we were very pleased to see that it featured several articles near and dear to our hearts.
In addition to all the great, and always detailed, technical and event content that ROBOCON is known for, this issue included major articles covering RoboGames 2011, the Robot Japan First event, and Taylor Veltrop's master/slave robot control implementation using the Microsoft Kinect device.
’Fanastic Robot Coverage in the July ROBOCON Magazine Issue’ continues
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