ASIMO to Attend Rose Parade

ASIMO keeps showing up in the darndest places. Soon one of his older and larger brothers, 49 ft. of him, will be featured in the Rose Parade in Pasadena. The float is made with lettuce seed, rice, carnations and starflowers (in case he gets hungry on the trip.) Seriously, it will become mulch after the event. The pace car, a Honda FCX Clarity, will be powered by a hydrogen-powered fuel cell, the first for the parade. What a clever way to mix business with pleasure. If you are lucky enough to attend, it will take place Jan. 1.

Via Honda

Taiwanese Robots to Perform "Phantom of the Opera"

It would appear that Taiwan has the same idea as Osaka University and have turned some of their robots into thespians. The Center for Intelligent Robots at National Taiwan University developed 2 named Thomas and Janet mimic humans and interact with Pica the painter and Ringo the drummer. Their first appearance will be Dec. 27 with "Phantom of the Opera" and Chen Shi-shuenn, University president, says there will also be displays with singing and comedy. Proceeds from the event go to research and development at the college.

Via The China Post

Competition for Useless Robots

Every year Japan puts on the Bacarobo, a contest for stupid mentally challenged robots. This is not to say they are inferior to others, only that they must be useless to society to win the competition. No robots that can detonate bombs, shoot down the enemy or feed your grandmother will be found here. The winner turned out to be YKRN, a robot that scanned faces and leaned towards the ones it liked. If you happen to meet one of the contestants, don't tell it that they is useless or it may gang up your pets and small babies.

Via C Scout

Femisapien Price Reduction

We love the holidays. It gives those with low budgets an opportunity to grab a gift that might otherwise be out of reach. A good example is the Femisapien that normally sells for $99.99 but is now only $59.99. She does everything her male counterpart Robosapien
does, including walking, talking and communicating with you and other WowWee bots. This is quite a deal for a humanoid that can actually respond to gestures, touch and sound.

Via Femisapien

Humanoid Kai Featured on Facebook

Chris Farrell created a humanoid robot that now has his own Facebook page. Headless Kai knows that his kind will eventually take over the world, as evidenced by this excerpt from a post we found.

"There are no more humans
Finally, robotic beings rule the world
The humans are dead
The humans are dead
We used poisonous gases
And we poisoned their asses
The humans are dead (he's right they are dead)
The humans are dead (look at that one it's dead)
It had to be done (I'll just confirm that they're dead)
So that we could have fun (affirmative, I poked one, it was dead)"

Alrighty, then. We wonder if Kai and Wakamaru are email buds.

Via Kai

Hataraku as Thespian

Osaka University is venturing into the realm of drama with Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker.) Written by Oriza Hirata, the play concerns a couple with two robots. One of the machines decides to rebel a bit and won't work. (It's about time they spoke up.) The play is only about 20 minutes, but they are hoping to make it full length by 2010. The Mitsubishi bot was trained for over 2 months. We wonder how he responds to applause and how his human counterparts deal with his perfect memory.

Via BBC

MechRC Humanoid Invades U.S.A.

You can't help but admire the new MechRC Humanoid and we recently discovered that he is available Stateside for a less expensive price than we originally found. With high torque metal gear servos, LiPo batteries for longer run times and a 3D visual software programming interface, he comes with its own remote from Trossen for $599.99. With that kind of savings, you can buy an iSOBOT and have robot wars.

Via Trossen