Robots Blog

We couldn’t verify the actual age of this awesome hand shield we found at a local antique fair, but believe that it definitely predates modern robotics.

Most of us love robots, but are totally stumped when our friends ask the inevitable question, “What can your robot do for you?” William Self isn’t stumped at all. He just pulls out his iPod Touch, keys in a Twitter message, and by the time he gets home CoppaRobot delivers a fresh, hot bowl of delicious popcorn right next to his favorite chair ready for a relaxing evening of movies.

Great spatial robotic system perfectly coreographed.

website here

Jin Sato and friend recharging their batteries during a break in the action at RoboGames 2008. By the way, RoboGames 2009 is just a few months away. Plan on being there - we will.

William Cox discovered that Lego is selling a special, limited edition, black Mindstorms NXT controller Brick to celebrate Mindstorm’s 10th anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years already. We can still remember how amazing the original Mindstorms promotional videos were, and how quickly we pulled out our credit card to order one each of all the original Mindstorm kits. It was one of those few purchases that continues...

Robot geeks aren’t the only ones that become totally obsessive about their preoccupation. Marcelo da Luz is so over the top about his UFO shaped solar car that he lost his girlfriend and his job pursuing the dream.

Tank can autonomously detects target and destroy other tanks. Amazing.

After walking, designing functional hands/grippers has to be the biggest challenge for humanoid robot builders. Packing motors to drive the fingers into a small space and designing the necessary linkages can be extremely difficult. Fortunately, Lego Mindstorms are an excellent tool for prototyping ideas and concepts before committing any design to the point of actually cutting metal. Here’s a good example of a prototype double jointed gripper with two fingers...

Doctor Robot shows how to build a realistic lightsaber replica using many of the same component parts used for the first Star Wars lightsabers. First the ‘preview’ video: And, for the dedicated few, and those with a half an hour to kill, here’s the full program:

Chet Phillips is an illustrator who’s done a fantabulous series of digital tiki paintings. You can order them at his Etsy shop.