Today’s Kickstarter shout out is for RK-1, an adorable wifi arduino bot to be controlled by smart phones and tablet devices.
From the project page:
The RK-1 is a fun mobile robot, that uses an ad hoc wifi connection, which is controlled using your iOS or Android device.
The control board on the robot is built on the Arduino hardware/software architecture, which is open source, and the controller software and hardware will also be available open source. The idea is to give the community the ability to make Arduino projects mobile. There is no end to what you can do- you can add sensors and actuators to this fun little device and control it remotely.
I have implemented a new and amazing way of controlling the robot using swipe gestures.
By looking at the video, we’d say that the dream is a reality.
In hexapod mode, the MorpHex elegantly traverses terrain – then, very subtly, it begins to constrict its size until it’s ready to transform. In sphere mode the MorpHex can roll, stop and even dance around. And while there are a million things to love about the MorpHex, the fact that the body was constructed out of a earth globe is the cherry on top.
It’s just another day at the office here at Trossen Robotics. You know, the usual paperwork, service calls, order packing, and Awesome Quadcopter Demonstrations.
Don and Jason of Mad Lab Industries came by to show off their amazing Quadcopter. They gave us a great demo, and shared some of their stories about the ups and downs of working with aerial vehicles. One small glitch, and suddenly your vehcicle can drop out of the air, or fly head first into the nearest building, the duo told us.
Their Hoverfly based monster of a Quadcopter is a amazing piece of machinery. This beast can quickly zip to an fro or it can hover in a stationary spot, compensating and resisting for wind. In addition, this machine also has a servo positioned/controlled camera. Here’s a shot of our team marvelling in awe at the Quadcopter.
Flying robots might not actually be a part of daily life here (though someday, they will be) so it’s great to see what people like Jason and Don have built. We love to see these kinds of projects, so if you’ve got a great project, show off in the Project Showcase in the forums!
Thanks again to Don and Jason for bringing in their quadcopter.
This is the Bioloid GP. Watch it run in slow motion. It’s pretty bad-ass. Look, it runs all over the place. “Woah, watch out!” says that bird. Ew it’s got a snake? Oh, it’s chasing a jackal? Oh my gosh! Oh the Bioloid GPs are just crazy! The Bioloid GP’s been referred to by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most fearless animal in all the animal kingdom. It really doesn’t give a shit. If it’s hungry, it’s hungr-ew what’s that in its mouth! Oh it’s got a cobra? Oh it runs backwards? Now watch this, look, a snake’s up in a tree. Bioloid GP don’t care. Bioloid GP don’t give a shit, it just takes what it wants. Whenever it’s hungry it just- ew! And it eats the snakes. Oh my God watch it dig. Look at that digging. The Bioloid GPs really pretty bad-ass. They have no regard for any other animal whatsoever. Look at him just grunting and- ew! Eating snakes! Ew what’s that, a mouse? Oh that’s nasty. Oh, they’re so nasty! Oo look! It’s chasing things, and eating them.
The Bioloid GP’s have a fairly long body, but a distinctly thick set, broad shoulders, and you know, their, their skin is loose, allowing them to move about freely, and they twist around. Now look, here’s a house full of bees. You think the Bioloid GP cares? It doesn’t give a shit. It goes right in to the house to bees to get some larvae. How disgusting is that? It eats larvae. Ew, that’s so nasty. But look, the Bioloid GP doesn’t care, it’s getting stung like a thousand times. It doesn’t give a shit, it just, it’s hungry. It doesn’t care about being stung by bees. Nothing can stop the Bioloid GP when it’s hungry. Oh what a crazy fuck! Look! Ew, it’s eating larvae, that’s disgusting. There it is running in slow motion again. See, now what’s interesting is that other, other animals like these birds here the just like to wait around until the Bioloid GPs done eating and then it swoops in to pick up the scraps. It says, “You do all the work for us Bioloid GP and we’ll just eat whatever you find, how’s that? What do you say, stupid?” Look at this bird. “Thanks for the treat, stupid!” “Hey, come back here” says the Bioloid GP. Birds don’t care, and you know what, the jackals do it, too. Look at these little dogs. They’re like, “Thanks, Stupid! Thanks for the mouse! See ya later!” The Bioloid GP does all the work while these other animals just pick up the scraps.
At night time, the Bioloid GP goes hunting, cuz it’s hungry. Look! Here comes a fierce battle between a king cobra and a Bioloid GP. I wonder what will happen. Look at this, there’s the Bioloid GP just eating a mouse. And then look. “Get away from me!” says the snake, “Get away from me!” Bioloid GP don’t care. Bioloid GP smacks the shit out of him. The snake comes back and it lashes right at the Bioloid GP. Oh! Little does the Bioloid GP know, FYI, it’s been stung! It’s been bitten by the snake, so while it’s eating the snake- ew, that’s disgusting- meanwhile the poisonous venom is seeping through the Bioloid GPs body, and it passes out. Look at that sleepy fuck. Now the Bioloid GPs just gonna pass out for a few minutes and then it’s gonna get right back up and start eating all over again, cuz it’s a hungry little bastard. Look at this! Like nothing even happened, the Bioloid GP gets right back up and continues eating the cobra! How disgusting. And of course, what does a Bioloid GP have to eat for the next few weeks? Cobra.
The Bioloid GP.
This is the Bioloid GP. Watch it run in slow motion. It’s pretty bad-ass. Look, it runs all over the place. “Woah, watch out!” says that bird. Eww it’s got a snake? Oh, it’s chasing a jackal? Oh my gosh! Oh the Bioloid GPs are just crazy! The Bioloid GP’s been referred to by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most fearless robot in all the robot kingdom. It really doesn’t give a crap. If it’s hungry, it’s hungr-EWW what’s that in its mouth! Oh it’s got a cobra? Oh it runs backwards? Now watch this, look, a snake’s up in a tree. Bioloid GP don’t care. Bioloid GP don’t give a crap, it just takes what it wants. Whenever it’s hungry it just- ew! And it eats the snakes. Oh my God watch it dig. Look at that digging. The Bioloid GP is really pretty bad-ass. They have no regard for any other robot whatsoever. Look at him just grunting and- ew! Eating snakes! Ew what’s that, a mouse? Oh that’s nasty. Oh, they’re so nasty! Oo look! It’s chasing things, and eating them.
The Bioloid GP’s have a fairly long body, but a distinctly thick set, broad shoulders, and you know, their, their wires are loose, allowing them to move about freely, and they twist around. Now look, here’s a house full of bees. You think the Bioloid GP cares? It doesn’t give a crap. It goes right in to the house to bees to get some larvae. How disgusting is that? It eats larvae. Ew, that’s so nasty. But look, the Bioloid GP doesn’t care, it’s getting stung like a thousand times. It doesn’t give a crap, it just, it’s hungry. It doesn’t care about being stung by bees. Nothing can stop the Bioloid GP when it’s hungry. Oh what a crazy robot! Look! Ew, it’s eating larvae, that’s disgusting. There it is running in slow motion again. See, now what’s interesting is that other, other animals like these birds here the just like to wait around until the Bioloid GPs done eating and then it swoops in to pick up the scraps. It says, “You do all the work for us Bioloid GP and we’ll just eat whatever you find, how’s that? What do you say, stupid?” Look at this bird. “Thanks for the treat, stupid!” “Hey, come back here” says the Bioloid GP. Birds don’t care, and you know what, the jackals do it, too. Look at these little dogs. They’re like, “Thanks, Stupid! Thanks for the mouse! See ya later!” The Bioloid GP does all the work while these other animals just pick up the scraps.
At night time, the Bioloid GP goes hunting, cuz it’s hungry. Look! Here comes a fierce battle between a king cobra and a Bioloid GP. I wonder what will happen. Look at this, there’s the Bioloid GP just eating a mouse. And then look. “Get away from me!” says the snake, “Get away from me!” Bioloid GP don’t care. Bioloid GP smacks the crap out of him. The snake comes back and it lashes right at the Bioloid GP. Oh! Little does the Bioloid GP know, FYI, it’s been stung! It’s been bitten by the snake, so while it’s eating the snake- ew, that’s disgusting- meanwhile the poisonous venom is seeping through the Bioloid GPs body, and it passes out. Look at that sleepy robot. Now the Bioloid GPs just gonna pass out for a few minutes and then it’s gonna get right back up and start eating all over again, cuz it’s a hungry little bastard. Look at this! Like nothing even happened, the Bioloid GP gets right back up and continues eating the cobra! How disgusting. And of course, what does a Bioloid GP have to eat for the next few weeks? Cobra.
We’re still reeling from our trip to Korea; jet-lag, last minute flu bugs, and a tad too much Soju really did a number on us. One thing is for sure- Asia has the US beat handily on robotic presence. What we didn’t know when heading to the competition was that IRC2010 also was attached to Robotworld 2010, the single largest Robotics Convention we’ve ever seen. Literally hundreds of booths and double or even triple that number of robots ran wild in a convention hall bigger than an aircraft hanger. It’s going to take us a few weeks to sort through all the video, but we’ll give you a sneak peak at the hundreds of pictures we took. There is some SERIOUS robot-eye-candy in these galleries, be sure to check it out.
Our friend RobertLam18 put together a very straight forward explanation of how he develops custom walking gaits on his modified Bioloid Premium Kit. I had the pleasure of meeting him in South Korea earlier this year for the Korean Robot Games Festival and his tricked out Bioloid was certainly impressive! The same basic principles here apply to most humanoid configurations and it’s nice to see a step by step process put together and the results it produces. Definitely check it out if you’re interested in developing your own walking gaits!
Technically there is only one GIANT ROBOT. I have nothing to say that can top the title, so here is a video of a GIANT ROBOT, aka Japan’s 1:1 scale Gundam, with some awesome time-lapse footage of the sky behind it (though I suggest you check it out in HD directly on youtube for full effect).
Robot Pioneers is a short documentary about people who are passionate about robotics. We’ve had the privilege of meeting a plethora of fantastic innovators over the years; through our own online community, at Robogames, via various business communications, universities, techshops, hackerspaces, and at a number of tradeshows.
Each of these makers has a story to tell, and with this short documentary we hope to showcase even just a glimpse of the inspiration we draw from connecting with our fellow grassroots engineers. The future of technology is often grown in one’s own backyard and is open for anyone with the will and want to get involved. Build. Create. Innovate. Make. Join the Robot Revolution!
Meet Acroban, a compliant humanoid project being developed by the Inria Flowers Research team in France. This humanoid robot, made mostly from RX-64 Dynamixels from the look of it, is impressive in that it uses a semi-passive dynamic locomotion and reliance on natural backlash compliance (along with structural flex & elastics) to portray some very lifelike movements.
Acroban is a lightweight compliant humanoid robot capable of robust semi-passive dynamic locomotion, life-like movements, and offers the possibility of a new kind of playful physical human-robot interaction. We developped this platform to explore how morphological constraints can simplify the developmental acquisition of complex sensorimotor skills, as well as to explore novel kinds of human-robot interaction.
The video demonstrates this very well, bringing a rather mechanical and utilitarian looking robot to life. Inria Flowers calls this the ‘Luxo Jr. Effect’ named after the pint size companion of Pixar’s lovable Desk Lamp mascot. It really is true though; something about the way this robot moves reaches out to our primal emotional response, making our brain think it’s something actually alive. In doing this, the robot effectively leaps over Uncanny Valley by coming across as very human-like without the increasingly creepy aesthetics that many humanoids fall victim to.
The Luxo Jr. Effect
Furthermore, Acroban provokes spontaneous highly positive emotional reactions, especially in children. Yet, as opposed to many other robots, its morphology is neither roundish nor cute. He has no big eyes. He is just made of metal, and its appearance shows it explicitly. At first glance, its visual appearance creates low expectation of intelligence and life-likeness. But when it begins to move and one can touch it, its natural dynamics, much more life-like than most other robots, triggers a high contrast and positive surprise. Life unexpectedly appears out of a neutral metallic object, much as Pixar’s Luxo Jr. This is the Luxo Jr. effect.
Enough talk, check out the demonstration video (especially the interaction with kids later on). If you’re looking for more info, the Acroban Page has a wealth of videos and writing on the project.
Sourcing the right eyeballs for your bot can be a pain. With the help of our awesome community of roboticists we have identified some great cameras for each level of price point and quality from low cost to high end research.
We have the cameras in stock now. Stay tuned because soon we will offer them with custom made brackets for mounting solutions making your life just that much easier!
Need to go wireless for teleprescence or offloading processing? The perfect video solution for your next 
