3D Printed Humanoid Walking Robot
When I visited Makerbot Industries last month I came away with some of the windup walker mechanisms for a special project I have in mind.
The first step was to create a 'negative' model of the space needed by the walker mechanism. That took a few attempts, but finally I managed to get the dimensions and geometry close enough to be functional.
Then I modeled a shell for the robot. In this case it was extremely simple - just a proof of concept. Once I had the shell modeled, I subtracted the negative model, exported the STL, sliced it using Slic3r 0.8.2 (corrected 8/2/2012), and printed it on my Tantillus RepRap printer.
The print turned out very well and only required some minimal cleanup to remove a few stringers inside the shell. The walker mechanism slipped in perfectly the first time, and the robot was off and walking.
Now I can get creative and design some shells that actually look like a robot. 
Michael and his robot Minions
Michael Curry and his 3D printed robot Minions at Makerbot Headquarters in Brooklyn, NYC last week.
Visit to the MakerBot BotCave
I had a wonderful afternoon visiting Makerbot Industries in Brooklyn.
This was my fifth visit over the past two and a half years. Every time the energy, enthusiasm, and creativity seems to have been cranked up by at least another order of magnitude.
8th Kondo KHR Robot Anniversary Celebration Schedule Announced
The 8th Kondo KHR Robot Anniversary event will take place in Tokyo on August 4th (Saturday) and 5th (Sunday). Competitions will include Kondo Battle KHR Class which follows the standard ROBO-ONE competition rules, and KondoCup Robot Soccer.
Since this event celebrates the anniversary of the popular Kondo KHR humanoid robot series, it will feature the KHR classifications for all competitions.
The event will be open to the public, and admission is free. The venue is the 3331 ARTS CYD facility at 11-14 6-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Sotokanda, in the Akihabara district just a few minutes walk from the Kondo RoboSpot location.
Via: Kondo-robot.com news
Montana State University Team Scores Big with NAO Robots
Professor Hunter Lloyd's team from Montana State University put their NAO humanoid robots through the hoops and managed to come away with five medals at RoboGames 2012.
Mech Warfare Hardcore – Rocket Fuse
This is one of the fuses used to fire the rockets mounted on the robots competing in Mech Warfare Hardcore during RoboGames 2012.
Basically, it's small light bulb with a protective tape cover. The bulb glass is carefully broken without damaging the bulb filament.
When the robot controller board receives the rocket firing command it applies current to the bulb. The filament heats up igniting the rocket.
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