Start-up company Romotive took its creation to the CES 2012 last week to introduce it to the greater good. Romo dances or can stream video when the user controls it through an iPod or smartphone. The appearance was successful enough to get the company to hire more workers to fulfill orders for 2,000 of them and regroup for mass production. A clever little bot, you can get yours from their website for $99.99.
Build your robot bit by bit with Cubelets that snap together automatically and can move, emit noise and light, and can detect temperature and motion. Each block uses logic to determine what the others will do without any additional programming and is a smaller robot in itself. For example, if you set 2 speaking blocks and battery block together they will communicate. Pre-order a 20 piece KT01 Construction Kit for an April delivery that will set you back $520.00 but give you a whole new meaning to the term DIY.
Give my cat a catnip mouse and she's a happy camper. Not so with Taylor Veltrop who took a 21" Nao robot, some Wiimotes, Kinect sensor bar, mini-cam, treadmill and brush to tend to his. We admire him for sticking to his project for over a year and hope his feline forgives him for that slight bonk in the head. We cannot wait for the 2-way audio chat that is to come next.
This is no Mindstorms NXT, still the Lego Creator Rescue Robot can be posed, has an armored chrome head protector and comes with a lighted brick, rocket booster and antenna. This kit is recommended for kids ages 7 - 12, has 149 pieces and can also be turned into a laserbot or robocat.
Nothing quite represents the holidays better than this T. Rex's skull that sings "Jingle Bells." RWeaving was inspired by his 4 year old son and made a 3D printing of the dino's head. The music is triggered by a servo motor. Ho ho ho y'all.
We seem to have missed this one last week but better late than never. Toronto, Canada's bd594 came up with a duet of a robot snare drummer and HP scanner rockin' to "The Little Drummer Boy." When creating this ditty, he claimed the project was "70% timing and 30% execution." Check out his YouTube page for other robot band concerts.
Meet Wendell, an open source robot powered by an Arduino board that runs on wheels. Marc Cryan came up with the friendly looking bot and software, and he is looking for a few good contributors on Kickstarter to help develop the licensing and manufacturing of 50 DIY kits. If you would like one, a donation of $198.00 will put you on the list. And if you want to build your own, check out his Instructables page.
Kare Halverson (aka Zenta) has shown his creativity with a robot that literally does what its name implies. The MorpHex started out as a globe that the Norwegian engineer turned into a hexapod. The bot can crawl forward and turn back into itself for now and he plans to get it to roll in the future. Check out his blog to see details of the building of his inspired creature.
Beginning in October, an English-speaking classroom in Los Angeles and French-speaking one in Montreal teamed to create Robot Heart Stories, a learning project from storyteller Lance Weiler and producer Janine Saunders. The 40 students were encouraged to make a "heart pack" and write stories to fuel a robot named Laika who crash landed in Canada and had to make her way back to her ship in CA.
The robot was "fueled " by the students' creativity as they decided where the journey would go. A picture was taken at each of 56 cities for a total of 2010 miles and 397 photographs. Future plans include NASA sending the project to the ISS and to chronicle the experience in a coffee table book.
Want to start your own robot horde? That's exactly the idea behind My Robot Nation, the brainchild of Sarah Stocker and Mark Danks. You visit their site, design your own bot in a size from 2 - 6" and they will 3D print your droid figures in color. Once yours is made, it will be delivered to your address. Prices start at $17.99 per bot and there are holiday parts available this month.
Plan Toys feels it can help your 3 year old learn about emotions while building tactile skills with its Planpreschool Build A Robot. The 7.9" toy is made with chemical free, recycled rubber and wood in non-toxic coloring. It has 4 interchangeable heads and arms and legs are movable.
Recommended for children over 5, the 11" tall Alex Build and Roll Kit comes with 7 heavy duty cardboard pieces, 8 bolts, 4 wheels, 2 eyes, 6 markers, 30 stickers and plastic screwdrivers.
Again we note that some people have way too much time on their hands, in this case Jason Huggins, who developed a robot that plays Angry Birds. Bitbeambot was made to accompany him in a talk he gave at the first Jenkins User Conference earlier this month in San Francisco.
The University of Tokyo has taught their PR2 to fetch a sandwich. If one is not available in the fridge, he goes to the Subway in another building. The bot is using "semantic search," the ability to use common sense when seeking an object. It can also add to the knowledge as it gains more experience. So, although he did have a bit of a bind at the elevator, we still call this a $5 footlong success.
It's that time of year again as robots that are useless compete to find out the one that is the buffoon of the year. The Bacarobo will take place at Budapest's Trafo House of Contemporary Arts October 30th, when the 12 finalists try to prove their unworthiness. That leaves plenty of time for other useless Do It Yourselvers to catch up. The winner, or should we say loser, takes home €2,000 (~$2,897.)
Romo Gets Attention at CES
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