It looks like WowWee has taken on the sweet job of producing a commercial version of that lovable bot from everybody’s favorite yet-to-be-released movie.  We have to admit that we’re incurably infected with WALL-E-Mania just like the rest of you, but we can’t help but step back and marvel at the astounding level of buzz surrounding this movie.  It’s pretty neat to see the world go ga-ga over a movie about a cute little trash compactor on treads, toiling away in a barren post-apocalyptic future Earth.  Anyway, here’s WowWee’s "Ultimate WALL-E," which is slated to retail for $189.99:

WALL-E!

Pretty slick.  This will probably be pretty tough to get when it comes out, but we’ll do what we can.

We think this is pretty cool, but we’re DIY’ers.  What really gets us excited is seeing stuff that people have made.  So what we find even more impressive is that people have been building their own WALL-E’s in anticipation of the blockbuster release.  One of our TRC members, "4mem8," posted a great thread about his project.  Here’s a pic from the build process:

This robot is sad because he has no arms.

You can check out thead here.  Also worth checking out is the WALL-E Builders Group, an online community dedicated to this kind of thing.

WowWee Wall-E found via Engadget.

We’ve had some very cool multi-legged walkers showing up in our forums and blog in the past few months, including Kåre Halvorsen’s Phoenix and Matt Denton’s B.F.Hexapod, and we’ve been really impressed by the varying capabilities and gait calculation methods they’ve used.  Taking it to the next level, the builders have decided that they’re not content with just making their robots walk about and wave their legs around any more.  In February, Phoenix learned a new trick:

Then Denton gave it a shot with his B.F.Hexapod, showing off some impressive drawing skills:

If you want to see more info, or to drill these guys for more information on their projects, hit up the forums.  Kåre’s thread; Matt’s thread.

Matt Denton, of Micromagic Systems, posted a few cool videos of his latest hexapod in our forum today.  You may remember news of his iC Hexapod making the rounds last year.  The project he's showing off right now is the B.F. Hexapod (V5).  One of the main features of this robot is its adaptive walking style.  Thanks to its gimbal-mounted, contact sensitive feet and its on-the-fly gait adjustments; it is perfectly suited to uneven terrain.

I'd be a damn fool if I didn't include his demonstration videos, so here they are:

Here’s another video.
Yet another.
Just one more.

If you want to discuss how awesome this robot is, visit the forum thread.

First off, happy new year from the Trossen Robotics crew!  We hope you had a fun and safe holiday season.  And now… on to today's article.

We last reported on the RoboPhilo when it was unveiled at the iHobby Expo.  We had a good time talking to the RoboBrothers team and messing around with their new bot, and we've really been looking forward to getting the RoboPhilo in our shop.  Well, the time has come!  We received our first RoboPhilo shipment last week, and we've been itching to show them off.  So, like a kid at Christmas, we tore open the boxes and examined all the fun bits inside.  The following is a rundown of the major parts that come with the kit and some important features that we think you should be aware of.

We have both the kit version and the ready-to-walk version, but we took more pictures of the kit because… well because everybody's already seen pictures of the assembled robot and we just like kits better.  This guy comes in some pretty swank packaging, complete with a window so you can see everything inside.  As usual, the pictures link to larger versions.

Front.

(more…)

The immensely popular Surveyor SRV-1 has just received some major upgrades!  The tracked base remains unchanged, but the electronics have gotten a complete overhaul.  Wi-Fi has replaced the slow and sometimes unreliable ZigBee wireless link, the camera can now grab video at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024, an Analog Devices Blackfin processor has replaced the comparatively puny ARM7 processor, and they've even added laser pointers for distance sensing.

Wi-Fi:

The SRV-1 now benefits from the extended range and faster data rates of Wi-Fi.  All you need is an 802.11 b/g wireless LAN card and you're ready to start spying on the neighbors.

Camera:

Speaking of spying on your neighbors, this 1.3 Megapixel camera is roughly on par with most cell phone cameras, with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024.  Unlike your cell phone camera, this one’s going to be riding on tank treads.

Main Processor:

Here it is, fully assembled.  The red board on top carries the 1000MIPS 500MHz Analog Devices Blackfin BF537 processor.  [Editor’s note: When I was 17, I built my first computer around the 500MHz Pentium, which was the top of the line at the time.  Now you can get all that power on a circuit board that’s smaller than a playing card.  Crazy, huh?]

Lasers:

Fact: lasers make anything cooler.  The new SRV-1 uses two parallel lasers as a low-cost range-finding system.  Try not to blind your friends/family members/pets.

Links:

Purchase the new and improved SRV-1

More information (Manufacturer’s site)

We just got WowWee’s RS Media in stock!  As we’re sure you already know, this is the newest incarnation of the revolutionary Robosapien series, and it’s clearly the most advanced robotic media appliance on the consumer market.  I don’t even know where to start.  First off, it’s huge.  Well, it’s 23 inches tall, which may not sound that huge, but it’s pretty imposing.  If you stood him on a stool in the middle of a room full of dancing badgers, nobody would pay attention to the badgers.  That’s right.

Check it:

Hello, sir.  Please don’t hurt me.

We’re glad that WowWee finally strayed from the white-with-black-accents motif.  RS Media proves that they are no longer competing with Apple for shiny monochromatic blandness.  Here’s a full shot of him, still in the box. Unfortunately, he’s going to have to stay there until we have time to give him a proper test-run.

As with all WowWee products, he’s strapped into his box like a monkey ready to be shot into space.  A space monkey.

Seriously though, you’ll need much more than a test-run to really get the full experience.  It has more amazing features than Ron Popiel’s Magic Rotisserie.  For starters, it’s a really cool looking bipedal humanoid robot that’s loaded with sensors and other goodies.  That, in and of itself, should have you running for your credit card.  It can roam free, responding to its environment by talking to inanimate objects and ordering around your other WowWee Robo-family bots.  From the remote, you can trigger demo moves, walk around using three different gaits, move his arms around, pick up and throw stuff, switch between his different personalities, and run through his various media capabilities.

Let’s talk about those media capabilities.  RS Media is a walking and talking MP3 player, audio recorder, still picture camera, video recorder, video player, and video game system.  If he had cell phone and internet capabilities, you’d pretty much never have to buy another piece of consumer electronics ever again.  Pretty much everything he does is modifiable via a slick software interface.  He connects to your computer via USB, and from there you can upload and download music, pictures, videos, personalities (including new voice files), motions, and Java games.  He has 40 MB of on-board memory flash memory, but you can add up to 1 GB to this by installing an SD memory card.

RS Media comes packaged with several Java games (one of them resembles the old Neo Geo game "Bust-a-Move," one of the greatest time-killer games ever), and you can even upload Java-based mobile phone games!

For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s WowWee’s promotional video:

For more information, check out the following links:
Robosapien RS Media product page at Trossen Robotics
Official RS Media Home Page
RS Media Roboguide page at Evosapien.com (Hacking tips, including pictures of RS Media’s guts!)

Last week, when we got back from the iHobby Expo, there was a nice surprise waiting for us: our iSOBOT shipment finally arrived!  Naturally, we did what all decent geeks do when they get a new toy.  We took a bunch of pictures and videos, and now we’re sticking them on the internet.

The box is pretty awesome.  It looks like brushed stainless steel.  It’s so shiny that it kept overloading my camera’s iris, causing most of my pictures to come out almost completely black.

 

More shiny packaging.

 

Still more.

 

Ok, here’s what you get: 1 robot (duh.) a controller with two analog sticks and lots of buttons 3 NiMH AAA batteries a charger that will charge up to four AA or AAA cells an instruction manual an "Action Table" quick-reference sheet for remote commands an allen wrench for tightening the joints if necessary.

 

Download the Action Table and manual in PDF form for a closer look!

 

He’s just a little taller than a piece of American paper currency.

 

Leg detail:  The servos in this guy are freaking TINY.  You have no idea how hard it was to resist the temptation to just tear this thing apart and build something else out of the tiny servos.

 

The battery case, located in i-SOBOT’s chest cavity, holds three AAA batteries.  Below the batteries you’ll see his speaker, which is behind the gray plastic grill.

 

Hand detail:  The thumb, finger, and wrist are movable, but not motorized.

 

Head detail: The head swivels.  There is one green LED inside, and one blue LED outside.

 

The IR receiver, located on this critter’s right shoulder, looks identical to the one found on Robonova’s head.

 

And now, some videos!

Quick demo.  One of the cool things about i-SOBOT is that, in addition to using the canned motions, you can also directly control his limbs from the controller.  That’s mostly what we were doing in this video.

 

Here are some of his slick fighting moves.  He punches, kicks, and makes some fun sounds effects.  He also talks, laughs, and I think he even begs for mercy at one point.

 

Tomy i-SOBOT: $299.99 $239.00!

The TR team spent last weekend at the iHobby Expo, and we were impressed by the strong robotics presence at the event.  One of the high points was getting some hands-on time with the brand new RoboPhilo, and speaking with some of the minds behind it.  RoboPhilo is another addition to the growing number of “budgetâ€? humanoids on the market.  To keep the cost down, RoboPhilo uses plastic frames instead of aluminum, and lower-cost hobby servos instead of precision digital servos.  Of course, some performance is sacrificed, but RoboPhilo makes up for it in a number of ways.  For starters, the articulation is great.  It has 20 servos, including hip and waist rotation.  The hip and waist joints are pivoted by indirect-drive systems, so less load is placed directly on the servo axes.

The software is very intuitive.  It has a graphical interface for setting servo positions and programming motion sequences, and an SDK for people who want to use some of the robot’s more advanced features.  The SDK will be necessary for accessing the 8 analog inputs and setting up sensor-driven events.  Unfortunately, since the servos are analog, there is no "pose and capture" capability for setting servo positions.  We spoke with RoboPhilo’s creators at the expo, and they said that a firmware update was in the works that would add support for digital servos.  They also said that there are many add-ons coming, such as servo upgrades and sensors.  We’ll be keeping a close eye on RoboPhilo.com for updates.

We shot some video of RoboPhilo in action, and also of the software.  We’ll post the software video as soon as YouTube is finished processing it.

Edit: Here’s the software and overview footage we promised.

UPDATE: We now carry the RoboPhilo!

Tomy’s hotly anticipated (and impressively diminutive) humanoid robot, "i-SOBOT," is available for presale!  This little guy can can be programmed via remote control, responds to voice commands, dances, speaks, does impersonations, and brews a damn fine cup of coffee.  Ok, fine.  It doesn’t make coffee, but it does all that other stuff, which is pretty cool.  i-SOBOT will be available at the end of October, but you can preorder to reserve yours today!

Here’s a sneak peek:

For more information, or to preorder i-SOBOT, follow this link.

Chuck Durham (a.k.a. "cdraptor") got his hands on an SPC-101C, the new humanoid robot made by Speecys.  The SPC-101C is quite a piece of work.  It’s just over a foot tall, and it sports 22 Futaba serial servos, a video camera, WiFi network connectivity, stereo audio output, and a whole slew of LED’s for.  Chuck was kind enough to post a quick unboxing report in our forums, and we figured we’d take it one step further and blog about it.  Here it is, from the man himself:

Well I got the SPC-101C today and spent a good amount of time trying to figure out enough from the manuals (in Japanese - which I don’t read). I actually figured out a good bit with the diagrams and such. The worst was getting it to connect to the wireless - I won’t go into details because they very likely may change some when it’s released here in the US. To start off here are some unboxing pics. Now for some info. It’s fully assembled with full body casing, The SPC has a video camera and you can see in the above picture it has a video receiver - I hooked it up to the big screen for now, as soon as it was on the picture was coming up - it’s much clearer than the little swan camera I bought and the reception was a lot better. It has a battery (which is the same that is in my Futaba RBT-1 so that is nice) and it comes with AC Power Adapter. You don’t even need the battery in, you can just plug it into AC power and turn it on and it boots up - very cool feature if you want to set up the SPC-101C for some security with the vid cam or have it checking data from the web - right by the foot you can see a USB WiFi adapter which fits nicely into the back. One funny note on the AC Power is where you plug him in, which is his lower backside. I installed and ran the MIRAI-VCE control application which you connect from the application through the web and you can send commands with the arrows on the app to move forward/backward/turn left/turn right - there were some pre-programmed demos which you can see on the existing video, including the very cool hysterical laughing routine. Next day or so and I will be playing with the motion editor, I am getting some translation done on the buttons so I know what the heck I am setting, the servo control adjusting and 3D representation can be used for moving for poses - It actually is very similar to the Futaba RBT-1 motion editor, not overly surprising since the SPC-101C is using a Futaba RPU, Servos and Battery.

Well, there you have it!  Check out the thread for more info, and for any updates from Chuck.

You may also want to check out PlanetSpeecys.com.