Archive for the ‘News / Articles’ Category

Parallax Demonstrates a Simple Yet Sleek Robot Base

Monday, December 8th, 2008

It’s no secret that Parallax makes some awesome robot parts, but recently they’ve stepped up their game with the addition of custom CNC’d components. Specifically, the Motor Mount & Wheel Kit and their Caster Kit which provide the mechanical basics for an excellent robotics platform.

Parallax’s recent newsletter, The Parallaxian, has a cool little project overview showing just how easy it is to create a wheeled robot base using some of their spiffy new components and good old plywood. Used in this project is the Motor Mount & Wheel Kit, the Caster Kit, and a pair of HB-25 Motor Controllers. What we found neat was how simple this robot was to design. Rather than go through the trouble of designing the base in CAD and having it milled, the components were just laid out onto plywood, traced their outline, and holes for mounting them were cut and drilled using a jigsaw and drill. Ingenious! Be sure to check out the Parallaxian Newsletter for details.

Crabfu’s Review of the Bioloid Comprehensive Kit

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

This one sort of slipped under our ‘Blogdar’ and while this has been available for a bit we feel it’s worth mentioning here for those that missed it. The infamous Crabfu wrote up and shot a fantastic video review of the Bioloid Comprehensive Kit. What we feel is great about this review is that its from the perspective of someone who doesn’t consider himself to be highly technical, in fact more of an artist than anything. Definitely worth taking a look at if you’re interested in the Bioloid system as it sheds some light on how the entire kit comes together from a user’s point of view.

Be sure to check out the Full Review of the Bioloid Comprehensive Kit.

iHobby 2008 Pictures, Farrell Robotics Unveil New Robots

Monday, October 20th, 2008

We had a blast at iHobby 2008! We got to meet a lot of new people, old friends, and new robots!

We were super busy keeping up with visitors at our booth, but we tried to snap a few pictures before the show started each day. We created a gallery of some of the better pictures we took. Farrell Robotics was also there, showing off their amazing new robots Zyn and Kai, which are based on the EX-106, RX-28, and DX-117 servos. They are quite literally the most advanced competition humanoids in the US, completely custom built and a real marvel of engineering.

These bots are literally as big as toddlers, in fact they had Kai dressed the part. Seeing how quick and strong these robots are was truly a sight, I’m pretty sure they could at least take our software guy Alex (not me though, I know their weakspots!)

Here are a few pictures (click to enlarge) but be sure to check out our iHobby 2008 Gallery!

Trossen Robotics announces their new Educational Division

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

Trossen Robotics has announced the launch of their new Educational Robotics Division. Building upon the knowledge and experience they have gained as a premiere US distributor of robotic kits and components, they have hand picked the best robotic kits tailored specifically for classroom use to create a one stop shop for educators using robotics in education.

Trossen Robotics has been committed as a business to helping robotics advance in the US and the new Education Division is another step forward in their continuing efforts. Matt Trossen, founder, explains their focus, “We saw that one of the major stumbling blocks for educators interested in integrating robotics into their classrooms was the fragmentation of all the products and information. Our goal is to be a top notch aggregator for teachers. To create a single comprehensive storehouse of products, guides, and information.” Matt also comments on the future of the division and goals for robotics in education, “We will continue to integrate curriculum and project manuals into the site for educators to use. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for educators to research, choose, and integrate robotics into their curriculum. This is the way we as a company can help keep US schools cutting edge which is as important now as has ever been.”

Offerings from Parallax,  Robobuilder, Robotis, Lego Mindstorms, Robotics Connection, VEX and many more are displayed in an easy browse format. Educators are informed of exactly what each kit brings to the classroom, what difficulty and scope of work is involved in the projects, and what their students can expect to bring out of the learning experience. Ordering from the same source also saves educator’s time and valuable education dollars.

What do robots bring to the classroom? Robotics is an exciting field of science that brings mechanical, electronic, and even software engineering together. Skills ranging from physics, mathematics, mechanical design, soldering, programming, logic, and teamwork are built as a foundation of knowledge that has limitless potential. Students get to see the results of their work in a tangible, physical application of science as their projects come to life.

Trossen Robotics cordially invites educators, students, and parents alike to visit their new Educational Division.

Download the PDF version of this announcement here.

Giant robots terrorize city in Australia

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

That’s right folks, you heard it here first. Except instead of giant think ‘tiny’, and instead of city think ’scale model town’. The guys over at BP have created an amazing web based demonstration called BP Explorer using the Surveyor SRV-1 kit. Between the hours of 9AM-9PM GMT+10, you can pilot one of five Surveyor robots through a very detailed scale town and offroad area, exploring to find clues to unlock a code which allows for extended playing time. The kicker is that these bots are completely powered by BP solar panels, so everyone can have the pleasure of cruising through this hippy-fueled-utopia without the guilt of burning up our precious fossil fuels!

I’m sure this can’t last forever, so make sure to check it out while it’s active!

Get your Bot Mag back issues right here!

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

We now have the full run of Robot Magazine back issues available in our catalog, for just $5.99 per issue.  That’s almost three years of robot goodness!  Every issue is packed with product reviews, robot building tips, industry insights, and more.  Visit our Robot Magazine back issue section for more information about each issue, as well as links to free online content.

I can only assume that, having seen this, you’re about to go order all of the back issues so you can catch up on all the cool news you’ve been missing.  Go do that, and then head over to BotMag.com and subscribe!

Robots Evolve And Learn How to Lie

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

Last month's issue of Discover Magazine featured the "Top 100 Science Stories of 2007," a look back at some of last year's important discoveries, developments, and advancements in scientific fields.  Not surprisingly, a few of these stories were robotics-related; and one that I found particularly fascinating was titled "Robots Evolve and Learn How to Lie."  In a swarm of robots, whose behavioral software was evolved by successive generations of natural selection, the tendency to deceive others for personal gain arose naturally in some of the robots.  Of course, if this were the predominant outcome of natural selection, the species would fail.  Thus, it's also interesting to note that altruism developed as well, allowing the swarm as a whole to survive.

Though it wasn't mentioned explicitly in the article, a little digging revealed that this experiment was carried out by the team that developed the "Swarmbot" and "Swarmanoid" projects.

Check out Discover.  For a limited time, their online archive of articles (from 1992 up to the current news stand issue) is available for free, no subscription or registration necessary.  Regardless, I urge you to pay for a subscription.  It's a fine publication.

[Edit:] Found another article about this from New Scientist, with a few more details:

"Robot swarms ‘evolve’ effective communication"

Announcing the 1st US Hitec Robotics Cup!

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

If, like us, you enjoy some good bot-on-bot combat, you’re in luck!  There’s a new competition coming up, hosted by Hitec and taking place at the Electric Flight Expo on April 25th, 2008.  It’s more than just combat, though.  There will also be a 3-meter dash for your speediest humanoid and an obstacle course where you can show off your bot’s agility.  Like any decent competitive event, the Hitec Robotics Cup will end with trophies and large sums of cash awarded to the winners.  If you’re going to be anywhere near Arizona this spring, don’t miss it!  Here’s the lowdown from the press release:

  Hitec Robotics is proud to announce the 1st Hitec Robotics Cup in the US. This US humanoid robotics challenge will take place at the University of Phoenix Stadium (Home of the Cardinals) during the Electric Flight Expo and tradeshow – EFX on April 25th through 27th, 2008. For more information on EFX you can go to www.efexpo.com.  The site lists directions, accommodations in the area and the other fun events taking place at the same time.

The Cup is composed of three different events - Robo Speed, Robo Mission and Robo Duel.  Humanoid robots of all types are welcome to compete. The complete rules are found in the download section of our website.  A schedule for the events will be posted at a later date.

If you have any questions about the event please email: tonyo@hitecrcd.com

There you have it, people.  All humanoids that fit the qualification specs can compete, so whether you have a stock Robonova or a suped-up Kondo killing machine, you’re good to go.  Start training now, and get ready to show off your skills, vanquish your opponents, and win goodies.

You can get the official Hitec Robotics Cup 2008 rules by clicking this link right here.

What’s that?  You don’t own a humanoid robot?  Well, it just so happens that we sell a fine selection of humanoids!

Sony Aibo to Return in 2008

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Thanks to Suicide Bots, we just found out about a rumor that the Sony Aibo will be returning in 2007.

For those that are unfamiliar with the Aibo (or Artificial Intelligence roBOt), it was a robot dog far ahead of its time originally introduced by Sony in 1999 packed full of wicked, geek-friendly features. Unfortunately this little guy was discontinued by Sony in 2006. I can go on and on with all of the cool things about the Aibo, but let’s just shoot you the Wiki link to start with and hope that you go from there with some research:)

Supposedly, the new Aibo, dubbed Aibo PS (yes, as in PlayStation) will have the autonomous features as in the original, but also be controllable with your PlayStation 3 controller. You will be able to connect the new Aibo to your PS3 and download the pictures that it takes in with it’s embedded camera. No word yet on if the level of autonomy is the same or better than the original.

Sony Aibo

via Suicide Bots

Robots That Are Self-Aware

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

We just received a nice heads up about a video from speaker Hod Lipson’s demonstration at the TED Conference.

Here’s what TED had to say about about Hod:

Engineer Hod Lipson demonstrates and talks about a few of his cool little robots, which have the ability to learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate. At the root of this uncanny demo is a deep inquiry into the nature of how living beings learn and evolve, and how we might harness these processes to make things that learn and evolve.

We checked out the video, and I must say, Hod is working on some amazing stuff! I recommend checking this video out; He has a pretty interesting perspective on robotics.

You can download the video here, or check it out on TEDTalk