Instructables and RoboGames have teamed up to create a robot building contest. The task is to design and document one specific aspect of your robot. Good robot design is highly detailed, so we're asking you to document specific parts of your robot for this contest. Maybe you built the ultimate m…
Way back in 2001 I created a website called, The Robot Directory. It was designed to be a place for robot buliders to showcase their creations, see other people's creations, and generally get inspired. It worked out well until the scope of the site overstepped my abilities to do code. Chris Jo…
Today UGOBE has released initial details on the upcoming software development kit for Pleo. The Pleo Development Kit, or PDK, will allow users to create applications that will run on top of Pleo's "Life OS". The applications will be written in PAWN, which is ... ... a simple, typeless, 32-bit exte…
You may remember our posts on the sad plight of iRobot, who had accused their ex-employee, Jameel Ahed, of stealing their design, only to have the US Military award a whopping $280 million dollar contract to said ex-employee, and rejecting iRobot. Oh the injustice! Weep no more, fellow shareh…
The US Department of Defense (DoD) has released a report detailing the future of robotic military equipment and how the US military should proceed. The 188 page report (pdf) covers the next 25 years of unmanned military systems in the air, and sea, and on land. “The publication of this mos…
Dubai, that wonderful country city that gave us a private island paradise shaped like the world, and the world's first underwater hotel, is now going to be host to a dinosaur theme-park, called "Restless Planet." It will be home to the world's largest collection of animatronic d…
By 2015 several oil drilling platforms off the coast of Norway will be remotely operated by human operators on land, and robots on the platform. The project is being funded by StatoilHydro, a Norwegian company. The goal is to reduce costs and dangers to oil workers on the rig. Researchers at a ne…
Last time we had a Design Goodness post, it was featuring the amazing Minimechadon creation of Mike Smyth, this time its the steampunkesc insect/clockwork creations of Mike Libby. Insects have always fascinated me and so does human technology, or maybe its more the need for humans to create and us…
An article appearing in November's issue of the IEEE Spectrum (a magazine written by and for electrical engineers), asks the question, "Why do toddlers love robots?". The answer, it seems, lies not in their cute and fuzzy appearance, but more in their ability to be unpredictable and resond to int…
What if mankind evacuated Earth and forgot to turn off the last remaining robot? This is the premise of Pixar Studio's latest film, Wall-E, to be relased this coming summer. Even though Lem beat me to it, I've been meaning to post about Wall-E ever since my wife and I saw the trailer in front …
The world for terrorists and evil-doers just keeps getting scaier and scaier. First it was Predator drones with helfire missiles , then it was PackBots that can fire at 1,000,000 rounds/minute (more on this later), and now it's tiny flying vehicles with on-board cameras. Oh, did I mention they're t…
EngineeringTV, started in January 2007, is, "a unique online video program by engineers for engineers." Each week, EngineeringTV posts two new interviews and informative videos on relavant eneering subjects. Topics range from smart cars, robotics, wind turbines, to space missions. Each episode i…
In what was a stunning blow to iRobot and its investors, the US Army rejected the company in a high-stakes big for a large order of bomb-detection and tactical robots (Forbes story here). iRobot, the favorite to win the bidding, offered its PackBot robots as the product of choice to meet the de…
The internet is abuzz with some recent news on iRobot that Engadget uncovered - apparently iRobot's latest venture will be a gutter cleaning robot named "Looj " (no, not this kind). The FCC documents that Engadget discovered have since then been made private until October 13th. The robot is sup…
We received a note from Sven Behnke of team NimbRo. He pointed us to a video the team had uploaded of the final RoboCup match between NimbRo and Team Osaka. We also took some video of the event, but unfortuatenly it didn't turn out well. Sven wrote: RoboCup 2007 took place from July 1st to July …
Have you ever wanted to plumb the depths of your neighbors pond or swimming pool looking for lost treasure - cell phones, watches, ... ? Well, thanks to the smart kids over at Carl Hayden High School (also check out their blog) you can now buy a ROV-in-a-Box Project Kit for a mere $250 USD.…
