ROBOTS DREAMS

Major Korean Robot Competition this Weekend (Video link)

We mentioned the Korean Robot Games Festival a few posts back. Since then we managed to locate a video of last years event. It's definitely worth checking out.

Actually, it's a little scary. The crowds in the audience are very similar to the Indian competitions - meaning there's much more enthusiasm around robotics in Korea than there is in the US or most European countries. There is so much more energy and support from the Korean crowds than we've ever seen from their US counterparts.

 

RoboGames - The Hottest Robot Event on the Planet

After reading Daniel Terdiman's excellent post titled "Robots serve up fiery cocktails in San Francisco" we've decided that the "RoboGames" name should be immediately changed to "RoboFlames".

Daniel's post really gets into some of the spirit and energy behind RoboGames, and provides interesting insight into America's Primo Robot Couple - David Calkins and Simone Davalos.

We really had to chuckle when Simone was quoted as saying:

"Last year, I did this and set my arm on fire, and I didn't notice at first because the floor was also on fire." 

Totally Simone - trust us!

Micro Robot Sport Draws Mega Crowds (Video)

It's not unusual to see crowds of fans at a rock concert, or even of the major ROBO-ONE competitions, but we have to admit that the crowd in the photo on the right just totally blew us away.

What are they watching? A micromouse competition! The video below was taken during the Mouse X competition at Techfest 2008 IIT in Bombay, India a few months ago.

Keep in mind that in the US, where the sport originated, a micromouse competition is lucky to attract any attention at all. In the UK, there seem to be more fans and fanatics, but still it wouldn't make the evening news unless a plane happened to crash on the building where the event was taking place. Even here, the annual All Japan Micromouse competitions are lucky to draw several hundred fans - though quite a few entries fly all the way from India and Singapore.

These guys, and gals, are really serious. The robotic future, at least technology-wise, belongs to them unless the rest of us wake up and smell the coffee.

Robot Laser Battle Comes to Tokyo

HotProceed and Kondo RoboSpot have joined forces to put on the first Blazer Battle "Akiba RoboSpot-The First Stage" robot laser battle competition..

The event is scheduled for Sunday, May 25th. Competitors check-in is from 11:00 am with the action kicking off at 13:00. A number of different formats, including 2 on 2, and 4 on 4 battles are planned.

Black Tiger Neo Autonomous Robot in Action (Video)

"DirtyRoboto" from the RoboSavvy forums is visiting on vacation at the moment, and managed to catch Iketomu's Black Tiger Neo autonomous robot in action (video below) during one of the recent RT Corp Robot Battle competitions.

Black Tiger Neo is the slightly shorter of the two robots in the video and begins the match in the far right corner of the ring. Iketomu's 'remote control' is a simple Japanese fan (see right) that he uses only when it's necessary to interrupt the robot. Otherwise, the robot is operating totally autonomously with no operator control or intervention.

Robot Calendar Updated

Just finished updating the Robots Dreams Event Calender with the dates and information for events here all the way out through November, 2008. If you know of any major robot shows, seminars, competitions, or other events in this region, please let us know so that we can add them to the calendar.

 

Hobby Humanoid Robots Turn Autonomous (Video)

People frequently put-down the hobby humanoid robot movement by pointing out that the robots are operated by remote control. Apparently they feel that the design is similar to controlling an R/C car or plane. Based on our own personal experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Humanoid robotics, even at the hobby level, is much more complex, challenging, and demanding, than driving an R/C car.

Nevertheless, the whole debate is about to become totally irrelevant. Over the past two years many of the humanoid robot designs have incorporated more and more autonomous operation. A good example is King Kizer with his autonomous opponent detection. In the heat of battle it's common for the operator to become so excited that they attack in the wrong direction. King Kizer automatically detects opponent positioning and attacks in the right direction every time.

Now we're starting to see totally autonomous designs come out of the workshops. At the recent Kondo Robot Battle competition we watched Black Tiger Neo autonomously hold its own against some tough opponents (see video below).

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.

10th KondoCup Robot Soccer Competition Photos

Our raw photo set from the 10th KondoCup Robot Soccer competition held last Saturday and Sunday is available online. Lots, and lots, of humanoid robot fun!

 

Put Robo Japan 2008 on the Calendar

It's too early to know all the details yet, but certainly Robo Japan 2008 is worthy of putting on your calendars. Scheduled for October 11th - 13th, 2008, this new showcase event for all things robotic will be held at the Pacifico Convention Center in Yokohama.

Management of the event is being coordinated by the Robo Japan steering committee, but all the logistics and organization will be managed by Fuji TV - the largest and most popular television network in Japan. So, you can bet that Robo Japan 2008 will draw lots of press coverage and public attention. If you're involved in the robot business it might be an excellent opportunity to get your products or services in front of the world's most advanced and sophisticated robot buyers and potential customers.

As an extra added bonus, the ROBO-ONE 14 competition will take place at Robo Japan 2008 during the first two days of the event. We're sure there will be much more information released over the next few months as the excitement builds.

 

Robot American Football Rocks! (Video)

It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that Robots Dreams is only about humanoid robots, especially since the vast majority of our posts are about one type of biped robot or another. Still, we are very non-denominational when it comes to robotics. We like, and try to follow, almost all types of robots. We've even been known to spend hours gazing in awe and admiration at a factory assembly robot tasked with nothing more complex than putting tiny little screws into micro-assemblies.

One of the unique robot sports that we really enjoy is only staged once a year - Robot American Football. The competitions were the brainchild of the same Fujisoft sponsored group that has organized and promoted Robot Sumo here in Japan for the past two decades. Of course, Robot American Football is much younger than Robot Sumo, but what it lacks in age and maturity is more than made up by its speed, power, excitement, and team play. Take a look at the videos below to get a feel for why we enjoy it so much.

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.

The "Summer of Love" Redux - Robot Style!

It was 1967, San Francisco, and suddenly 100,000 young people flocked to the Haight Ashbury district creating an unbelievably powerful mix of music, freedom, creative expression, and new political thinking. It was Ground Zero for the hippie revolution, and the world will never be the same.

This summer, echoes of that unforgettable "Summer of Love" will rebound through the streets of San Francisco as robot enthusiasts from all over the globe gather to participate in three landmark events. The "Robot Summer of Love" gets off to a roaring start with the Combots Cup III event on May 3-4. Just one week later, on May 10th, and totally in keeping with the hippie "Make love, not war", the ROBOEXOTICA USA event comes to San Francisco. Then, mid-June, the worlds largest (and most exciting) robot competition - RoboGames 2008  is going to rock the walls, and probably the San Francisco Bay itself, with hundred of robots fighting it out in over 70 different events.

ROBO-ONE 13: The Robot Slope Challenge (Video)

The ROBO-ONE organizing committee always likes to raise the bar just a bit with each succeeding competition. It challenges the builders to keep honing and improving their skills and the performance of their robots. And, at the same time, it keeps the number of competitors that make it into the finals down to a manageable number.

For ROBO-ONE 13, the committee decided to make the pre-screening tests slightly more difficult with the addition of a small slope. To pass the pre-screening tests for previous ROBO-ONE events, the robot typically had to be able to walk for a minimum number of paces, turn around, and show that it could get up by itself from a prone or supine position.  Roughly 30% of the entries would fail to pass the pre-screening.

This time around, the robot had to walk straight forward across a surface that had a small slope (think "speed bump") right in the middle. As it turned out, the challenge may have been much more difficult than the committee originally expected.

ROBO-ONE 13: i-SOBOT Based ROBO-ONE Competition Planned

The announcement was very low key, to the point that if you weren't paying attention you might have easily missed it entirely. But, the long term impact could be tremendous. At the ROBO-ONE 13 competition yesterday it was announced thatTakara TOMY has officially joined the list of ROBO-ONE sponsors, which is good news by itself. More important, they mentioned that there are plans in the works for a TOMY robot (i-SOBOT) based ROBO-ONE competition. The details and schedules were not specified, but frankly, we can hardly wait!

Robots Rising in the UK

Thanks to our good friends with the Micromouse organization at TIC in the U.K., we just received a heads-up that the National Space Centre in Leicester has a special robotics weekend titled "Rise of the Robots" scheduled for May 17th-18th.

According to the Space Centre website the event will be "... the ultimate robot weekend with metallic stars from film and TV, fighting robots, scientific robots, the latest technologies and much, much more! (this is a premium event) "

Although it is highly unlikely that we'll be making the trek, we would love to see photos, videos, and short reports from any of our readers that are lucky enough to be there.

 

4th Kondo KHR Anniversary Scheduled

The folks at Kondo have been busy filling up the calendar for the next few months with some really exciting events. A couple days ago, we posted the schedule for the 10th KondoCup Robot Soccer competition. Today they released the schedule for the Kondo KHR 4th Anniversary celebration.

The event marks four years since the introduction of the KHR-1, the first affordable commercial humanoid kit. Kondo has reserved the Asakusa ROX3 Super Multi-Court facility for June 7th (Saturday) and June 8th (Sunday).
 

10th KondoCup Robot Soccer Schedule Announced

The 10th KondoCup Robot Soccer competition will take place on Saturday, April 22nd (KHR Class) and Sunday, April 27th (Open Class). Specifics, including the exact location (somewhere around the Greater Tokyo Metro area, we assume)  and times, will be officially announced soon.

Robot Golf Anyone? (Video)

We heard several months ago that there are serious plans for robot golf competitions at RoboGames 2008 this June in San Francisco. The specifics aren't clear yet, though we're sure some of our regular readers will bring us up to date pretty quickly.

In any case, it looks like "paxshikai" isn't wasting any time. They already have their i-SOBOT practicing its little heart (batteries?) out trying to polish its putting skills like crazy.

ArtBots Puts Out A Call For "Talented Robots"

ArtBots, "the robot talent show" has put out the call for "creators of talented robots to submit their work for possible inclusion" in ArtBots 2008 to be held this coming September 19-21, 2008 at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. According to the call:

"We have no fixed idea of what qualifies as robotic art; if you think it's a robot and you think it's art, we encourage you to submit your work. Regardless of whether it's hi-tech, low-tech, or neg-tech, we're interested in the ideas you're working with, not just the gear. Proposals for workshops, performances, and other kinds of participation are also welcome. "

Robot Games: Simple Is Usually Best (Video)

Remember the "KISS" acronym? It stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." The more complex we make things, the more likely they are to fail. Of course, there is always a minimum level of complexity required to give any endeavor, including games a feeling of worth. If the challenge is too trivial, then then conquering it doesn't provide any feeling of accomplishment.

That being said, a game, even robot games, should only be as complex as is absolutely necessary. Not a whit more, nor a whit less. A great example of a 'simple' robot game that turns out to be incredibly challenging, and tremendous fun, is the Die Shoot contest developed by Ishikawa-san for the Wonderful Robot Carnival events held on a biannual basis.

Takahashi Shows Off His Robot Creations - in English! (Video)

We've had the opportunity to meet, and talk with Tomotaka Takahashi several times at events here in Japan, but never realized that he is actually quite fluent in English! So, we were a little surprised, and very pleased, when we ran across the video clip (see below) with him demonstrating his Chroino and FT humanoid robots taken during a recent event in the Washington, D.C. area.

Although "palmisano", the poster of the original video, didn't specifically mention it, we're assuming that Takahashi was there for the Robotopia Rising event at the Kennedy Center in early February.

Robot Soccer Gets More Realistic and More Exciting (Video)

Robot soccer is rapidly becoming both more realistic, and more exciting, as we found out during the recent 9th KondoCup Robot Soccer competition here. While the robot builders have certainly improved their designs over the past year, they have also improved their control of the robots, and their winning strategies.

About a year ago, when Kondo, famous for pioneering the whole field of hobby humanoid robots, kicked off regular robot soccer competitions, In the early competitions the robots spent almost as much time falling down as they did playing. But, it didn't take long for the participants to figure out how to improve the robots stability, motions, and game plays.

Little by little, the matches started to look more and more like real world competitions, including being able to mimic actual soccer player moves and team plays. An excellent example of this was when one of the final matches resulted in a tie, and the match went into overtime goal kicks (see video below).

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.

Robots in the Spotlight at the Annual Toy Fair

According to an on-the-spot report filed by Playthings.com, robot related toys are commanding a lot of attention and excitement at the 105th American International Toy Fair being held right now in New York. The report includes the latest information on the new Vex Mini robotics kits (great functionality at an extremely low price point), the Hexbug Micro Robotic Creature line (sold over 500,000 units in the US during 2007 and still going strong), and the TOMY i-SOBOT (possible new colors and versions).

ROBO-ONE 13 Schedule Changed!

The ROBO-ONE organizing committee announced on Sunday that the dates for ROBO-ONE 13 have been moved up by one week. The new dates are March 22nd (Saturday) and 23rd (Sunday). Because of the change, the registration process was temporarily interrupted, and will continue from February 12th through March 10th.

The committee apologized for any inconvienence caused by the schedule change, and will make adjustments for registration fees from entries that need to cancel because of the change. Also, all entrants are encouraged to recheck their entry information and the current official regulations for the competition.

ROBO-ONE 13 Update

Just a quick update on a few ROBO-ONE 13 items:

• There's a new promotional website setup for ROBO-ONE 13
• Advance purchase tickets are set to go on sale tomorrow (February 6th) at all the great robot hang-outs like Tsukumo, Robot Factory, Robo Spot, and the Korakuen Hall. Apparently they don't plan on making tickets available via one of the online ticket services like they did last year.
• There's a 400 yen discount for advance purchase if you buy tickets for both days of the competition at the same time.
• Twelve competitors, including top champion robots Yokozuna Great and IVRE,  have been officially entered  as of 23:00 this evening (February 5th). It's typical to see slow entries at first, and then a flood of entries during the last few days of the enrollment period.

Rare Opportunity to See Creature FX Upclose and Personal

Matt Denton, the founder of micromagic systems and a well known creator of some amazing robotic creature FX for movies like Harry Potter, was kind enough to pass on the press release for this weekends "Monster Mash" in London.

The gallery event will feature "a dazzling array of work ranging from the sensitive to the grotesque" created by members of the UK creature FX industry. Matt will be exhibiting his iC hexapod robot. Needless to say, we'd love to be there, but unfortunately we're already committed to attending a robot exhibition here this particular weekend. If any of you do attend, we definitely encourage you to share some photos and videos.

Pleo Robot Debuts (Video)

Pleo, the AI packed robotic dinosaur infant, was introduced to the market here at the IREX show at the end of last November. IREX is the worlds largest robotic exhibition, and always draws huge crowds. Attendees are primarily local, as you might expect, but there are a large number of people that fly in from all over the globe just to see the latest and greatest in robot technology and design.

Pleo grabbed a lot of attention and interest. People really got into the Pleo experience (see video below) after they got the hang of it. The exhibitors booth was always crowded, and the staff was almost overwhelmed with questions from prospective Pleo parents. It will be interesting to see how the product is received here, and how well it sells over the next six months to a year.

Pick-up Games Are The Best For Robots Too! (Video)

When we were kids we had the most fun playing 'pick-up' games of stick ball, flag football, and basketball. We'd grab whoever happened to be around, choose up teams, and then go at it hot and heavy.

The same thing happens with robot competitions here in Japan. Of course there are the formal events, like the high performance, high stress ROBO-ONE competitions held every six months. But in between the major events the robot builders like to gather together and just have fun 'playing' in a lower pressure setting.

On the last working day of 2007, a bunch of humanoid robot fanatics got together at the Kondo RoboSpot facility in Akihabara, and did exactly that - played some amazingly good robot soccer just for fun, as you can see in the video below.

ROBO-ONE 13 Update

ROBO-ONE 13 is coming up quickly. It's just two months away as of today, and the player registration is scheduled to officially open on Friday, February 1st.

It's pretty obvious that the ROBO-ONE organizing committee is expecting a record turn-out, both in terms of players and fans. Early information indicates that each participating team will be limited to a maximum of two members in the pit area. That's totally understandable given the limited, and distributed, pit area layout at Korakuen Hall.

Also, unlike ROBO-ONE 11 held one year ago at the same venue, this time there will be separate admission tickets for each day of the two day event. Advance sale tickets are expected to go for 2,000 yen (per day) with tickets on sale at the door going for 2,500 yen - assuming that there are any tickets still available.

So, if you're planning to compete, especially if you're coming from overseas, it's time to get your act in gear!

4th Wonderful Robot Carnival: Robot Rumble Mayhem (Video)

In the early ROBO-ONE competitions there was always a 'Rumble' competition featuring the top robots trying to knock each other totally out of the ring. It was a robot version of 'King of the Hill' or 'Last Man Standing', and it was always a tremendous amount of fun.

Somewhere around ROBO-ONE 10, the Rumble was dropped from the lineup. But, thankfully, it's still a key part of independent competitions like the Wonderful Robot Carnival. Last weekend, at the 4th Wonderful Robot Carnival, 40+ robots participated in the Rumble, though they were split into 4 individual groups since it would have been total chaos if they all tried to fight at once. 

Robot Builders Gather at RT Corp in Akihabara

We had a great time at RT Corp in Akihabara this afternoon. Lots of creative KHR and MANOI humanoid robot builders, including Dr. GIY, were hanging out,sharing tips and experiences, and helping each other with their robot creations. We've uploaded our raw photos from todays RT Corp robot session.

By the way, if you're lucky enough to make the trek to Japan and Akihabara, please make sure to visit RT Corp, and tell Nakagawa-san, the founder, that we introduced you. !8-)

 

4th Wonderful Robot Carnival: Final Match (Video)

Thanks to the genius and creativity of Ishikawa-san, the Wonderful Robot Carnival has turned out to be an extremely unique and exciting robot competition. Without a doubt it's our favorite in the Kanto area of Japan.

In just a few short hours last Sunday afternoon over 40 robots battled their way through a whole series of different events like the dash, bottle traction (pull), die shoot, balloon survival,  and rumble. Only the top competitors would qualify to fight in the ring for the right to pre-qualify for ROBO-ONE 13.

The outcome was surprising and suspense filled. At the end of the day Naaga and Garoo fought for the regulation three minute ROBO-ONE battle, and the result was a 2-2 tie. That threw the match into Sudden Death Overtime, and the fun was just beginning.

4th Wonderful Robot Carnival Rocks! (Photo Album)

The Wonderful Robot Carnival events, held every six months in Tokyo, just get better and better. Today's competition, the 4th, was jam packed with robot action, surprises, humor, and even suspense from the time it opened at 1:00 pm until the winner was declared just before 7:00 pm. With over 40 entries, 5 completely unique competitions, plus a ROBO-ONE pre-qualification stage, it was hard to blink without missing some of the action.

Checkout our raw photo album from the 4th Wonderful Robot Carnival, and stay tuned for some really exciting videos.

Robotics Is Much More Than Just A Hobby

One of the things that really turns us on about robotics is its ability to motivate and inspire people, especially young, budding engineers and designers. Just put two ROBO-ONE type humanoid robots in front of a group of kids and watch how their faces light up and their eyes sparkle. No amount of classroom study, or parental lectures, can compete with the energy and enthusiasm children get from seeing, and interacting, with robots like this.

A lot of the robot builders here in Japan must agree, because the devote countless volunteer hours giving demonstrations, putting on free events, and exposing the next generation to the wonders, and potential of robotics. A good example is Yamaguchi-san, the creator of Onimaru, who regularly participates in free exhibitions at public facilities, like the museum in Kochi where he lives and works. 

Onimaru during an exhibition in Kochi today (January 13, 2008). Those faces in the audience tell the whole story. You can be sure that some of them will follow a career in robotics, and even those that don't will have a different relationship with robots than their parents ever dreamed of.

Left to right: Hikaru Fukase (8 years old) holding Onimaru, his mother Nami Fukase, and Yamaguchi-san. Hikaru recently built two small beginner level robot kits and was obviously happy to meet Yamaguchi-san and Onimaru.

Many thanks to Yamaguchi-san! We hope to see you again soon, either in Tokyo or Kochi!

4th Wonderful Robot Carnival Next Weekend

Just a quick reminder that the 4th Wonderful Robot Carnival is coming up next Sunday in Tokyo. There are over 40 robots already entered including several top level ROBO-ONE humanoids, so the competition is likely to be pretty intense.

Revisiting the Great Robot Exhibition

Perhaps we were a little too critical in our previous post about the "Great Robot" exhibition running at the National Science Museum in Ueno through the end of January. A bit part of our disappointment stemmed from the fact that we've seen all the robots on display before, and seen them shown off in a way that gave a much more positive and exciting impression.

Still, for anyone that hasn't been exposed to robotics, or just wants a broad overview, it could be a very interesting experience. There were several exhibits that caught our attention, and triggered a lot of thought.

Kondo RoboSpot Celebrates the Year End for 2007

Today was the last operating day of the year for many companies in Akihabara, and at Kondo RoboSpot they held a special year-end robot event that included traditional Japanese rice pounding to make New Years mochi, robot soccer competitions, and even robot laser tag. We stopped by for about an hour in the afternoon and managed to capture some photos of the RoboSpot event, and will be posting some videos as well.

KondoCup Robot Soccer: Tremendous Progress in a Very Short Time

It's probably been only somewhere between 12 and 18 months since the ROBO-ONE gang started playing robot soccer in earnest.

Certainly one of the major drivers behind the rapid  improvement they've made in that short time has been the regular KondoCup Robot Soccer competitions. Held every couple months, KondoCup is already up to the 8th competition.

To demonstrate how much progress they've made, and at the risk of making David feel a little bit inadequate, take a look at the short video below taken during the recent event at the National Science Museum in Ueno.

ROBO-ONE: Grand Prix Competition in Tokyo

Sorry, we must have overlooked it somehow when we published the calendar updates a couple days ago. The 2nd event in this year's ROBO-ONE Grand Prix Competition series will be held tomorrow, Sunday December 9th, in the Geopolis center at Tokyo Dome City.

The competition is scheduled to kick off at 12:30 pm and will run until 4:30 pm with lots of ROBO-ONE champion robots on hand trying to qualify for the Grand Prix Finals. They will also be putting on regular demonstrations during the day, and there may even be the opportunity for some young volunteers from the audience to pilot some of the robots.

Robot Gathering After IREX

Thanks to the ever gracious Norri Kageki of GetRobo.Com we had a wonderful time last Friday evening hanging out, exchanging stories and making connections with a real international gang of dedicated robot folks. We felt really lucky, honored actually, to be in the company of so many well known robotics researchers, developers, reporters and analysts.

Totally out of character, we were so busy chatting and networking that we completely failed to take any photos. Luckily, Simone was more non-plussed and had her camera at the ready. She even managed to capture a great, and extremely rare, shot of both David (RoboGames) and I masquerading as reputable, conservative, trustworthy business people.

IREX 2007: SIMROID Dental Training Android System (Video)

Until recently androids have been positioned similar to exhibits in an old carnival side-show. They frequently focused on the 'wow' factor and tried to astound people with how realistic or human like they were. That's typical for the initial introduction of any new major technology breakthrough, but it doesn't last long. Within a few years the 'wow' wears off and becomes commonplace, or even old-hat.

To be sustainable, and to form the foundation for viable, long-term business, new technology has to be applied to real human needs. It has to contribute in some meaningful way to improving the quality of life, process efficiency, or business profitability.

Now we're starting to see android technology used in applications that provide a glimpse of what the future might hold. An excellent example is the new SIMROID system that can be used to train dental students. We had the chance to watch the system in use at the International Robot Exhibition 2007 (IREX) here in Tokyo last Friday, and were extremely impressed. It is extremely easy to believe that the android is real, and is experiencing discomfort or pain in the dentist's chair (see video below.)

IREX: International Robot Exhibition 2007 Photo Album

We spent all day Friday at the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) and had a real blast. IREX is billed as the 'World's Largest Robot Exhibition' and draws active participation and attendees from all over the globe. The specific details will be covered in follow-up posts over the next few days as we have time available. For now we have uploaded the raw IREX photo album to Flickr, to give you some idea of our adventures yesterday.

i-SOBOT: World's First i-SOBOT Robot Competition (Video)

We know from personal, first hand, experience that the robot builders in Osaka are totally over the top. They are, without a doubt, the most creative, most fast and loose, and most gung ho of all the Japanese humanoid builders.

So, it made total sense that the World's First i-SOBOT Robot competition events would take place during Robo Fight 6 last weekend. Thankfully, Holypong was there in person and captured the action in video (see below) for all of us to enjoy.

8th KondoCup Robot Soccer Scheduled for Two Days

It's hard to believe, but the popular KondoCup Robot Soccer competitions are already up to the 8th consecutive event, and people have been complaining that there weren't enough open slots for everyone to compete that wanted to. To address the strong demand, Kondo has scheduled the next competition over two separate days.

The Open classification matches will be held on Saturday, December 8th in the second floor atrium of the UDX building, just a minute's walk from the JR Akihabara station. The KHR class matches will be held one week later, on Sunday, December 16th at the National Science Museum in Ueno Park. For details see the 8th KondoCup Soccer Competition posts on the RoboSpot website (Japanese).

Robot Fans - Mark Your TV Calendars!

If you're a robot fan, and especially if you are a humanoid robot fan, and you're lucky enough to be in the US, you'll definitely want to mark your television calendar for Wednesday, November 21st. That evening (check your local television listings for exact times and channels), the PBS Wired Science series is scheduled to broadcast a segment that we're sure you will really enjoy. The current 'teaser' for the program reads:

"Competitive robot building; Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki, cofounders of 23andMe, on their goal of providing people information about their genomes; using electricity to fight the symptoms of various diseases."

The highlighting is ours. Be sure to let us know what you think after you watch the program. Unfortunately the series doesn't air here in Japan at the moment, so you'll be our eyes and ears this time around.

ROBO-ONE Grand Prix 2007 in Chiba (Photo Set)

We had a fantastic time today at the ROBO-ONE Gran Prix 2007 competition in Chiba, our home town. The venue was perfect, the crowds turned out and obviously had a great time too, the demonstrations were excellent, and the battles were everything you would expect from eight of the top ROBO-ONE competitors. Our raw photos from the event have been uploaded here: ROBO-ONE Grand Prix 2007 in Chiba. Enjoy - we know we did, and you should too.

 

Industrial Robotics Growth Still Going Strong

With the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) coming up in just a couple weeks we need to update our robotics database with the latest facts and figures. Researching the business performance of some of the long term industrial robot manufacturers we came across some very interesting trends that we'll cover in a series of Robots Dreams posts over the next few months.

A good example is Denso, located in Aichi, Japan. Since they specialize in industrial robots for manufacturing applications, and happened to be headquartered in the same area as Toyota, no one would be surprised to find out that their production volumes ramped along with the rise of Japanese automobile manufacturers. And, you would expect that their volumes reached a plateau and leveled out - but surprisingly that isn't what happened at all.

ROBO-ONE Grand Championship Competition Scheduled for IREX 2007

If any of our readers plan to attend the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) at the Big Sight convention complex here in Tokyo at the end of the month, we'd like to suggest that Saturday, December 1st, might be the perfect day. The ROBO-ONE organization will be staging a special "Grand Championship Competition" starting from 11:00 am and continuing throughout the day until the final awards ceremony scheduled for 4:00 pm.

Robots selected to compete include 24 of the top ROBO-ONE competitors including King Kizer, Y.G. Shiranui, Aerobattler, Arisu, Chrome Kid, ivre, Metallic Fighter, Dynamizer, Retro, ... the list reads like a "Who's Who" of humanoid robots. For some reason, we're not sure why, according to the official press release this is not part of the regular competition or Grand Prix cycle of events - it's not even shown on the ROBO-ONE Grand Prix website. Nevertheless, it should be a rare opportunity to see the best of the best in action. We know we'll be there.

Tsukuba Real World Robot Challenge Course (Video)

In conjunction with the 2007 All Japan MicroMouse competition, on Saturday, November 17th, the Tsukuba Real World Robot Challenge will be staged for the first time. The totally autonomous robots will have to successfully navigate the tentative route starting from Tsukuba International Conference center and extending 1.275 km (4,183 ft) to the goal at Matsubokkuri park.

28th All Japan MicroMouse Event Draws Record Entries

There's just two weeks left before the 28th Annual All Japan MicroMouse Competition kicks off in Tsukuba, Japan - about an hour north east of Tokyo by express train. Without question this has to be the premier micromouse competition in the world, and always draws highly competitive overseas entries from the top builders in Singapore, the US, and other countries.

When entries closed for the three day event (November 16th through the 28th), there were a total of 181 micromouse robots entered (85 in the Freshman class and 96 in the Expert class), along with 108 RoboTrace entries, and 20 MicroClipper entries. In addition to the scheduled competitions there will also be a lot of buzz around the upcoming half-size micromouse events.

 

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.

ROBO-ONE Grand Prix Comes To Chiba!