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

Jo-Zero & Minoru Kamiya-Robot Manga Creator

It turns out that the Jo-Zero robot image concept was inspired by Minoru Kamiya, the popular manga creator responsible for the "Act On!" series of manga that feature ROBO-ONE robots and builders.

[From the Robots Dreams iPhone]

Nakamura Rolls Out New Humanoid Robots

Nakamura, one of the top ROBO-ONE competitors, has a long line of other humanoid robot achievements under his belt.

For example, he's the creator of the transformer robot, WR-07, that totally amazed and delighted both the crowds and the judges during the demonstration phase of the ROBO-ONE competition a few years ago. The robots performance was so cool, and so totally unexpected that a YouTube video of the robot has racked up over 6,000,000 views todate.

At the same time, Nakamura created Kondo's highest performance robot controller for several years, the Motion Processor, and he was the guiding light and mentor for the creation of the popular Gogic Five robot kit. And, in his spare time, he organized the Himeji Robot Challenge competitions to inspire and motivate young (and old) robot fans in his community.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Nakamura is rolling out a new set of humanoid robot kits, Jo-Zero and STD-Zero, that are sure to set a new standard with robot fans and competitors both here and abroad.

Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, we weren't able to be on hand for the official unveiling. However, one of top Japanese reporters we know and respect, Hideo Ishii, was able to make it and filed an extensive report including lots of great close-ups, detailed performance specifications, and video clips.
Ishii's detailed report

Ishii, by the way, isn't just a technology reporter. He is also the author of several leading books on building and modifying humanoid robots and other high tech gear, and is also a key member of the champion robot soccer team, Bamboo Bridge.

[From the Robots Dreams iPhone]

Melissa Robot Performs Some Useful Tasks (Video)

Melissa is definitely evolving, and is getting to the point that we can believe evetually robots like this will provide useful service around the home and office. And, we really appreciate Melissa’s builder’s sense of humor and willingness to openly share his ‘bloopers’ and false starts with everyone online as well.

KHR-3HV Humanoid Robot Has Big Feet...

The new Kondo KHR-3HV humaniod robot kit has feet that depart from the popular bathtub design used in older Kondo designs.

You can compare the relative size in this photo. The older bathtub foot is on the left in the package, while the new foot is to the right.

Proportionally, the new feet are larger and not as natural looking - they almost give the robot a circus clown feet look.

That being said, the new robot's expanded footprints should make it easier to align and balance correctly, which will contribute to smoother, more human-like walking and other motions

One curious observation: the new feet have lots of extra holes and servo mounting locations designed in from the git-go.

The bottom (sole) of the foot reveals a huge array of holes, many of which are countersunk for use with mounting screws, and two servo mounting patterns. The foot edges have also been designed for better robot walking providing more of a bevel and clearance for the robot to tilt its foot slightly without dragging or tipping while initiating a walk move, much like humans do.

The top side of the foot shows the holes, and the unused servo mounting patterns more clearly.

Note that the stock KHR-3HV only uses four small screws and nuts to attach the ankle servo frames to the feet. It’s functional enough, however our huge paws are going to find it difficult, and a little frustrating, to work with those tiny parts. We’re not watchmakers…

Does this indicate that Kondo has a lot of options or add-ons in the works? They had to have something in mind, even if it was only to provide lots of flexibility for future KHR-3HV hackers.

Hopefully there will be some exciting follow-on products that use those extra holes, but we're not going to hold our breath waiting for them to appear.

[Posted from my iPhone]

Vstone Robot Center Featured

The new Vstone Robot Center is being featured in the current issue of Hiragana Times, a popular magazine for both students of the Japanese language and for Japanese trying to improve their command of English.

According to the article, Vstone was established in 2000 as a specialty camera manufacturer by Nobuo Yamato. As it turned out, one of the company's executives was really into robotics as a hobby, so the company decided to try it's hand, and introduced it's first humanoid robot kit.

Although the robot was fairly expensive, listing at just over 400,000 yen (close to $4,000), the market acceptance was surprisingly strong, amazing every one. Encouraged, the company shifted it's focus from cameras to robots.

Robovie, the most popular Vstone series, was introduced in 2003, and has racked up sales of over 5,000 units so far. That's quite aways behind Kondo, the market leader, but still quite a respectable number.

The new Vstone shop plans to offer training courses and a fully equipped workspace for hobbyists to use fabrication equipment, in addition to robot kit and parts sales over-the-counter and online.

[Posted from my iPhone]

New Humanoid Robot Kit Set For Sale (Video)

JO-ZERO, Nakamura-san’s impressive humanoid robot kit, is scheduled to start shipping next Thursday (July 2^nd), beating Kondo’s new KHR-3HV to market by a few weeks. With 20 degrees of freedom (the stock KHR-3HV has 17), and based on Nakamura’s long experience as a ROBO-ONE champion robot builder, JO-ZERO is very likely to give Kondo a run for their money.

What most people outside of Japan,  and outside the ROBO-ONE builder’s circle, is that Nakamura also developed the Motion Processor series of robot controller boards favored by many of the top builders.

Dr. GIY provided the 4 minute video clip below showing JO-ZERO demonstrating it’s flexibility and realistic moves.

WR-07's Younger, and More Nimble, Robot Brother (Video)

Nakamura-san, the creator of WR-07, the humanoid transformer robot that amazed everyone and racked up millions of YouTube views, hasn’t been resting on his laurels.

We caught up with him at the Technologia Robot Center in Akihabara on his last visit, and he was happy to show off his latest 20 DOF humanoid.

At first glance it doesn’t appear that different from other ROBO-ONE champion robots, but take a closer look, especially at the last section of the video below where we zoomed in and slowed the frame rate down. This robots flexibility and moves are absolutely killer!

MANOI Robot Builders Take Breakdancing to the Next Level (Video)

We’ve often joked about programming our MANOI AT01 humanoid robot to dance like Michael Jackson, knowing full well that it would be almost impossible.

However, two well known robot guru’s here, Dr. GIY and Okamoto-san, put their heads (and hearts) together to create a highly tuned, and no doubt very expensive, MANOI hybrid that can really wail on the dance floor (video below).

They named their new robot “MANOI GO!”, which we’re guessing is a play on words. Of course, the meaning of “Go!” in English is obvious. In Japanese, “Go!” also represents the number 5, and could indicate that the robot costs at least 4X the standard model, which wouldn’t be surprising if they upgraded all the critical servos with the top of the line, high torque, Kondo KRS series.

There are also rumors going around about a major debut for this awesome bot. Stay tuned….

King Kizer & Dynamizer Battle in Hong Kong (Video)

Two ROBO-ONE Champions duke it out for the crowds in Hong Kong last weekend.

Evolution Just Happens, Even With Robots (Video)

We tend to think about robot and advanced technology as if it was driven by some grand plan with every piece of the design well thought out and analyzed to the nth degree.

But, in the real world more often than not, life just happens. Even the best robot designers, like Chrome-Kid’s Papa, evolve their champion robot designs by trial and error, often in the ROBO-ONE competitive ring.

Last year, the NHK television program “Tokyo Eye” featured the Akihabara robot scene including a visit to Tsukumo Robot Kingdom and Kondo RoboSpot. The segment (see video below) offered unique insight into the robot builder and Otaku scene here along with some very frank insight into the builder’s world including the extremely honest “I kept on modifying it and it ended up like this!” comment shown above.