ROBOTS DREAMS - Robot news and robot hacks from a true robot geek

Robot Sightings: Dr. Robot tutorial, Sugiura is an Indian God, Jonas and the Stupid Robot, and more...

What's going on today in my crazy robot world?

• 20:16 Tsukumo Robot Kingdom is open for business again after a breif shutdown. tinyurl.com/6pd6gd
• 20:31 Indian robot builders join ROBO-ONE 14 & learn from Sugiura-san (Dynamizer): blog.acyut.com/?p=73. They call him "legendary" & "GOD".
• 20:37 Dr. Robot teaches us how to build a sumo robot from hell: tinyurl.com/6zqggt Definitely got to buy him a new shirt.
• 20:59 We love Star Wars, but isn't making R2D2 into a toilet paper holder going too far? tinyurl.com/54wjlu
• 21:10 With only 256 MB this robot USB memory stick is impractical. tinyurl.com/6y9j39 So, why do I want one?
• 21:22 Jonas challenges the BakaRobo (Stupid Robot) contest, and gets slapped in the process. tinyurl.com/5m44wc
• 21:29 Basquash! Yet another robot movie I'll be putting on my "must-see" list. tinyurl.com/5l72xc
• 21:45 ATR is mapping human brain patterns into visual images: tinyurl.com/5nlmbt
• 21:48 Sangatsu Usagi's great report on the 29th Micromouse Competition: tinyurl.com/6xzhfn
• 23:37 With auto companies in trouble, and Honda dropping F-1, will other research, like Honda's robot legs, survive? htinyurl.com/69ngeb
• 08:51 John published a good, though troubling, study on robot hobby trends (tinyurl.com/robothobbytrends). Let's hope it's only temporary.
• 09:05 The Vex robot system has taken off like wildfire (tinyurl.com/vex-robot-competitions). What makes it so popular with schools?
• 09:15 For robot fans that don't want to build from scratch, PicONE released a cool micromouse robot kit. tinyurl.com/54pw94
• 10:20 Thanks to a reminder from Martin, here's one of the best robot resources around www.robot.org.uk/ even if it doesn't have a RD link.
• 10:25 Robert's next RoboDance version will be out next Spring and will even control the kitchen sink! tinyurl.com/robodance-specs
• 12:12 The Kyosho MANOI robots aren't drawing much attention overseas, but here in Japan they are still hot stuff! tinyurl.com/kyosho-manoi
• 12:26 RT Corp has an under-1 kg. humanoid robot competition scheduled for January 18th starting at 2:00 pm. www.rt-shop.jp/blog/?p=126
• 12:49 140 year old head for a smoking robot automaton (tinyurl.com/smoking-robot-head). Pretty spooky - looks very "Stephen King" style.
• 13:20 Daniel Ruben Rojas sent us a video of this blazingly fast line-follower robot: tinyurl.com/blazing-line-follower-robot running at 80%

Robotically posted for Lem by LoudTwitter

MINIROBOTICA - National Robotics Contest of Mexico - Report & Video

Roberto Rios, one of our friends and fellow robot fans (fanatics) that happens to live in Mexico City. He was lucky enough to be able to attend the MINIROBOTICA robotics competition a couple of weeks ago, and submitted the following report and video.

Line Follower (Tracker) Robot Competition (Video)

We just posted some video coverage of the recent Japan line follower robot competition held here in Tokyo at the Panasonic Center. The video is here: Robots Dreams Videos. We will post more about the competition background tomorrow when we get a free moment. Enjoy!

Robot Thunder From Down Under - The Viper

Just when we thought we had our Christmas wish list all sorted out and ready to mail it off to Santa, somebody comes along with a new robotic gadget that is unbelievably hot. This morning the Viper robot from Microbric in the Land Down Under totally wiped out and rewrote our wish list completely!