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

Robot Sightings: iSOBOT Jedi Wars, Canadian Robot Sumo, Battlebot Photos, and more....

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

• 20:23 Reading an Instructables on gutting a toy piano. Great way to add sound to a robot. tinyurl.com/6889m2
• 23:18 The 2008 Japan Robot of the Year award events are coming up the 19th to 21st at TEPA. www.robotaward.jp/for_general/
• 23:37 ETRI in Korea is promoting a robotics open platform: tinyurl.com/5cge2u
• 07:38 The iSOBOT Jedi Wars continues tinyurl.com/6mylgd Paxshikai is so creative!
• 07:47 Setup Karen's Power Tools Replicator with the Drobo - automatic, painless backups! www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp
• 08:00 Robots7 built a pretty large hexapod tinyurl.com/5qdgb8 but, no link to their website. Drat! I'd like to know more.
• 08:05 The Canadians (www.robotgames.ca/) are also into robot sumo (tinyurl.com/59524m) Who would have guessed?
• 08:10 Pretty funny, but creative motor application tinyurl.com/5cd2vg . Might be useful to give a robot some personality.
• 10:22 Found an awesome collection of Battlebot photos going back a few years - flickr.com/photos/anniecatblue/tags/battlebots/
• 10:26 California Insect Bots (www.calbugs.com/). Remember to connect with them at Robogames 2009.
• 10:33 Robot Fighting League put together a 2009 Wall Calendar (share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0UctXDNs0ZORg) if you're into that scene.
• 10:35 Sorry - the full RFL Calendar link should be tinyurl.com/67lrrn
• 11:38 This brings a whole new meaning to the word "mooning" www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/12/12/full.moon/

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Robot Sightings: Onimaru Testing, Soldering Tutorial, iSOBOT Jedi Wars, Personal Hovercraft, and more...

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

• 11:38 Looking forward to the All Japan Robot Sumo competition next week. www.fsi.co.jp/sumo/index.html
• 12:02 Setup Loudtwitter to automatically post to Robots Dreams, but won't know if it works until tomorrow morning...
• 12:17 Watching Yamaguchi-san's latest Onimaru robot testing: tinyurl.com/5scygh It just keeps getting better and better.
• 12:20 Remember the brooms that terrorized Mickey in Fantasia? Japan has created a real version: tinyurl.com/5fzsrz
• 12:22 Dr. Robot teaches us how to solder: tinyurl.com/5l88ar Got to take up a collection to buy him a new shirt. !8-D
• 12:27 Think I'll pick up a PochiRobo kit next time I visit Tsukumo: tinyurl.com/5uox6e Pretty cool robot for USD$300.
• 12:31 Didn't Matt build one of these tinyurl.com/5gpa7g in his garage? If he didn't, he will now!
• 12:37 Idani-san is experimenting with a 90,000 rpm motor. tinyurl.com/5rzcc5 How fast will that make his micromouse go?
• 12:42 Home Wars! Paxshikai's i-SOBOT robot uses a light saber to defend home against the Dark Side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07uTqgYP1aE
• 12:47 Tsubame battles Captain PEKO at the RoboPro competition: tinyurl.com/66vvdo Nice moves!

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Robot Calendar Update #2 - Robot Sumo

"roboticsBCN" asked about the schedule for the FSI All Japan Robot Sumo Tournament. This will be the 19th annual competition. According to the official website, it will be held December 23rd at the Kokugikan building in Tokyo - the same location where the major human sumo competitions take place.

The 3 kg robot event includes two classifications - autonomous and R/C, and is an excellent opportunity to see the best robot sumo that Japan has to offer.

iHobby Expo: Robots, Robots, Robots! (Video)

  Left to Right: Futaba RBT-1, RoboPhilo, RoboNova I

Although we weren't personally able to make the trek all the way from Japan to Chicago, thanks to all of our great readers that sent in reports, photos, and videos it feels like we were actually there enjoying all the fun and excitement. The latest contribution was lots of great video footage sent in by Marc Lampcov, the CEO of RoboFactors, LLC.

Marc must have spent countless hours capturing all the participating robots on camera because his footage (see below) includes great performances by the RoboPhilo, Robotis Bioloid, Futaba RBT-1, Robonova I, and much, much more.

2nd Annual All Japan Robot American Football Competition (Video)

Living here in Japan we get to attend a lot of robot, and robot related events. Some of them are fun, others are educational, and a few of them are... well, a little boring. But there is one competition that is always a blast, extremely educational, and never ever boring in the slightest - the All Japan Robot American Football competition.

The robot football event is organized by Fuji Soft (FSI), the same company that developed and sponsors the annual Japanese Robot Sumo competitions. As you might expect, the teams build their robots based, in large part, on the same types of chassis and principles they use for robot sumo. But there are some major differences.

EMMA Just Gets Better and Better (Video)

Our recent visit with Nakano-san, the creator of EMMA-U0A - the small yet fully functional humanoid robot, drew a lot of attention from our readers. People are very interested in EMMA's design, how Nakano-san did the fabrication, availability of the GWS servos that EMMA uses, EMMA's gaits, and quite a few other details.

At this moment, we're not in a position answer all the questions that were submitted, primarily because of other pressing schedule commitments. But, we don't want to ignore our faithful readers, so to tide them over until we can put together a really comprehensive article covering EMMA, we've included some additional video clips below.

All Japan Robot Sumo-Kanto Regional Finals-Favorite Picks (Part 3)

In our earlier coverage of the All Japan Robot Sumo Kanto Regional Finals, we focused first on some of the interesting autonomous robots, and then on the RC class robots, to give you a general feel for the competition, energy, and excitement.

We saved what we feel were some of the best matches for last. The selection is totally our own, and is totally subjective. You'll find a real mixture of autonomous and RC class robots among our picks. In some cases we were fascinated by the technology (we are still nerds at heart), and in other cases it was the strategy or action that caught our attention.

We will give you a couple of hints before you watch the video below. First, "It ain't over till it's over." Second, make sure you're still awake and paying attention when the video gets to the 4:07 mark. You'll be glad you did.

All Japan Robot Sumo - RC- Kanto Regional Finals (Video - Part 2)

In our first video report from the All Japan Robot Sumo Kanto Regional Finals competition (see links below) we covered some of the autonomous robot bouts. For this report we're focusing on the radio controlled class of competitors, and have included quite a few of the matches that took place at the event here in Chiba last Saturday.

One thing that we need to point out - there's a common misconception that "radio controlled" robots are basically similar to RC cars or airplanes. People assume that the operator is doing all the driving and there is no intelligence or decision making power on board the robot. That may have been true years ago when the competition was just starting, but it is certainly not the case today. 

All Japan Robot Sumo - Autonomous - Kanto Regional Finals (Part 1)

As we mentioned a few posts back, last Saturday we had the great pleasure of attending the Kanto Regional Finals for the All Japan Robot Sumo competitions. Since we've already talked a lot about how Robot Sumo is played here in Japan, and interviewed some of the top officials (see links below), we won't repeat all the information here.

Instead we just want to show you some of the video clips we took of the action, and let them speak for themselves.

All Japan Robot Sumo Kanto Regional Finals - Photo Album Online

We had a fantastic time at the All Japan Robot Sumo Kanto Regional Finals yesterday. Lots of great robot sumo action, drama, and we learned a lot more about this fascinating robo-sport. Our Robot Sumo photos have been uploaded, so feel free to browse through them. We should have some detailed reports and videos posted over the next few days. Watch for them- we think you be surprised at how different and exciting it is.