Robotics posts

Morning, all – or, afternoon, as it were. I trust your Halloween was both hollow and weeny? Mine sure was, but we won’t get into that. Instead, let’s hardcore gangsta rap about robots. Incidentally, yesterday was Asimo’s 10th birthday, and frankly, I don’t think the date could be more fitting – the little guy’s movements are so Uncanny Valley, it’s nothing short of spooky. You don’t agree? Let’s go to the tapes, then. To celebrate 10 years of creeptacular human motion emulation, Asimo’s team thrust the robot into the thick of a dance battle versus Japanese comedian Papaya Suzuki. Really, ‘battle’…

This is just downright threatening. Software engineer Will Gorman has seen fit to play god and create a robot out of Lego that can build things out of Lego. Really. The machine is essentially a robotic tank of Lego that is fed instructions from MLCad, a 3D modeling program. As of yet, it can only do up to 8×2 bricks (you know, the Lego brick), and can’t handle much more than simple structures. But imagine a Mk.2 that could work with NXT hardware? What about one that could 3D-print its own Lego bricks? “There is a recursiveness to this whole thing,” says Gorman of his brainchild. “I love the idea of…

Six Slovenian volunteers have been undergoing a bizarre test: being punched in the arm over, and over, and over, and over again by a robot. A researcher at the University of Ljubljana, Borut Povše, has somehow coerced six of his colleagues to agree to let an industrial robot repeatedly sock them in the arm, in an effort to discover the threshold of robot power. Honestly, had I known this is the kind of stuff I could be doing with my life, I’d have paid more attention in science class. “Even robots designed to Asimov’s laws can collide with people. We are trying to make sure that when they do, the collision…

What’s your kid wearing for Halloween? He’s not going as Batman, is he? I see, like, a trillion child Batmans running around every Halloween, all wearing that foam (plastic?) muscle bib chestplate deal, with snowpants so they don’t catch a cold. Parents, your child isn’t going to catch a cold. He’s the goddamned Batman. Anyway, the point is, your kid’s Halloween costume is stupid – muscle bib or no. If you really wanna have a pissing contest with the other parents on the block, you’ll consider the Kid’s Walker from Sakakibara Kikai. Obviously from Japan, the Kid’s Walker is a robot that… well,…

I have a couple friends who are big into building scale models of Gundams. I’ve never really understood the appeal (of building tiny giant robots, not of giant robots themselves – they’re the bee’s knees), but it seems to be quite a phenomenon. Have you ever built a model? Y’know all those little plastic runners that are left over when you’re finished? The ones you had to twist all the little pieces out of? What the hell are you supposed to do with those when you’re done? Why, you build another Gundam out of them, of course. A quick trip to Hirotyun’s web page reveals him to be quite the trash-building Gundam…

One of the great things about Twitter is that it’s actually pretty easy to control and inhibit spam. SEO people have grabbed hold of Twitter because they see the value in fast moving, viral information, but stopping spam on Twitter is as simple as blocking or reporting someone. Yet still, the bots persist. If you’ve never had a bot retweet something of yours on Twitter, you’re probably not tweeting enough. But here’s something original – a retweet bot that is aware of it’s own futility. At the BMW Mini plant in Oxford, UK, a robot connected to Twitter is manually retweeting messages sent to it by writing…

Microsoft’s Kinect would have you believe that no controller is the way of the future for gaming. Microsoft’s Kinect would have you believe that gaming hardware represents a barbaric, uncivilized class of gamer. Well, colour me barbaric, because Microsoft’s Kinect don’ got nuthin’ on this. Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have slapped together (I guess more accurately, like, ‘toiled meticulously for countless weeks’) a gaming rig that refuses to take any of this new age motion control bullspit. Seriously, start making some phone calls – you’re…

You know what’s too cool? This is. In an exploration of digital content delivery, record label Ghostly International is debuting a new label format: the Totem. Looking more like an otherworldly obelisk, this monolithic object serves as much more than a simple sculptural keepsake. Each Totem is embossed with its own three-character code that grants the listener access to a unique, private page where they can stream or download the album. Check out what Ghostly has to say about the debut Totem, for Matthew Dear’s Black City: The MDBC Totem is both a sculptural representation of the themes explored…

If you’re not good and rested, take a nap before continuing with this article – because you’re never gonna sleep again. Bina and Martine Rothblatt are an extraordinarily wealthy couple concerned with human immortality. Martine is involved in the Terasem Movement, which explores immortality “via geoethical nanotechnology and personal cyberconsciousness.” In short, the Rothblatts are really keen on not dying. I don’t blame them – I too am pretty stoked about this whole ‘life’ thing I’ve got going on. In an attempt to immortalize herself for her partner, Bina has contracted Dave Hanson of Hanson…

Concerned less with bettering mankind so much as revelry, the team at Willow Garage has spent what I can only assume must’ve been an enormous amount of effort creating a ‘beer-bot’: a robot that – surprise! – goes to the fridge and grabs you a beer. ‘Now, Ty,’ you say, ‘Ty, this beer-bot business is old hat!’ I hear that. Musty, crumpled stovepipe hat. Every time you turn around, everyone and their grandma is building a beer-bot. The market saturation of beer-bots is just getting ridiculous. Gee whiz, guys. Slow down. But this isn’t grandma’s beer-bot. The PR2 (Willow couldn’t be arsed to give the…