Continuing from the link in the last post about making your own LEGO bricks, it looks like Derek is at it again. This time he's creating his own LEGO Mindstorms RCX like brick, but this one is powered by a GumStix computer. He's machining the housing out of Delrin and details the process on his bl…
Have you visited The Robot Directory lately? It's a great place to post your robot projects. Myself and the most excellent Chris Jorgenson created the site. Unfortunately, Chris had to leave the project, so, I'm looking for someone interested in helping out bringing The Robot Directory into the We…
MachineDesign has an article on DARPA's foray into the world of exoskeletons, specifically the Bleex exoskeleton's created at Berkeley. DARPA has invested over $50 million dollars in exoskeleton research. One of the more successful groups working on them is at Berkeley. Their suite, called the Blee…
Last week Honda announced the new and improved version of the Asimo. What's the main improvement? It's actually useful now. Well, at least Honda says so. Asimo, can now interact with human beings by delivering objects, or holding someone's hand. Asimo can also locate and track said human provided …
Have you been to the SheekGeek robotics store yet? The company, run by an aquaintance of mine, Adam Harris, sells educational robotics kits. Adam says, I started a company and am now making and selling robot kits among other electronic and educational products (still developing products actually.) …
People love to anthromorphize robots. I'm not sure why, but they do, and because of this the Smith family is now selling Roomba costumes at myRoomBuds.com. Greg Smith (the father) says, "My kids started a business to sell costumes for Roombas. We have two and are now just another one of th…
Here's an audio presentation by Theo Jansen at PopTech 2005. Jansen is the creator of the amazing beach creatures that we've covered before (which happens to be our most popular post). Jansen talks about his creatures and how he started creating them. Unfortunately, there seems to be a significant …
IEEE Spectrum magazine has an excellent article detailing the current status of exoskeletons worldwide. The article is from last month, so, as of this writing the HAL-5 Exoskeleton from Cyberdyne Labs should be available in Japan. It has two control systems: one reads from the wearer's body to dete…
Apparently bombs are becoming more and more of a problem for Israel (and other places) and in response, InRob Tech Inc. is beefing up it's lineup of bomb-disposal robots. Information Week says: [InRob] will begin developing a larger version of its bomb-disposal robot. The beefed up system wil…
This isn't strictly robot related, but have you seen the South Leicester Aeronutz website? There's some really amazing radio controlled creations on there. Most of the creations use very thin (2mm) foam walls and tiny pager-type motors to turn the prop. You can purchase super-small (under 1cm squ…
In continuation with our first post about the International Robot Exhibition 2005 (IREX), here's some more cool robots from the exhibition. Breakdancing robot - I'd really like to see some video of this one.Also check out the exploding robot.Here's a small humanoid robot that can be controlled via …
ZMP, the Makers of the Nuvo robot have created an educational version called, "eNuvo" for use in schools. Robots-Dreams.com has some video and more information about it, in addition to the video on ZMP's site. [The] 12 weeks course includes: Coordinate systems of link structure, Motor Driver circui…
Joe Engelberger, called, "the father of modern robotics", because he started the first company to use robots, has called the robots featured at the International Robot Expo, "toys," reports the Sidney Morning Herald. "These are toys that are being made," h…
The International Robot Exhibition (IREX) is going on right now in Tokyo, Japan! The 4 day long exhibition is featuring over 200 companies and some really cool robots. It looks like about the only site really covering the event is Akihabara News. The PacMan robot at IREX (with video) is cur…
Hansen Medical just raised $30 million dollars in its third round of funding. Vanguard Ventures lead the funding. The company has raised about $58 million so far. According to their website, Hansen Medical: ... marries robotic technology with computed movement and is designed to enable …
And you thought all that business about synthentic hands replacing real ones, viz Star Wars, was Hollywood trickery. Well, you thought wrong! It would appear that the Cyberhand Project is bringing a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, to the here-and-now. Each of the five fingers is arti…
