Remember the Twitter-reading robot fish from back in September? At its core was an mbed microcontroller, a $60 alternative to the Arduino intended for rapid prototyping, and we’re now seeing the first of the optional baseboards for the mbed filter through. Embedded Artists’ have come up with the LPCXpresso, a ‘board positively bristling with connectivity and inputs that includes an OLED display, accelerometer and light sensors, joystick and wireless.
Want a WowWee Rovio but either can’t justify the price-tag or fancy building something yourself? Over at Instructables there’s a guide to pretty much doing just that, with an off-the-shelf radio controlled car, Barracuda Controller, WiFi router and IP webcam. The end result is a vehicle you can remotely drive while seeing exactly what the car sees.
Video demo after the cut
Fancy a sneak preview of what Christmas morning might be like for various tweenage kids expecting a new WowWee robot this holiday season? RoboCommunity’s appropriately-named Rudolph has picked up the company’s second new ‘bot, the Joebot, and has shared an unboxing photoset together with some hands-on feedback.
Video demo after the cut
Data Robotics have doubled their range of so-called intelligent backup systems with the launch of two new models, the Drobo S and the DroboElite. The Drobo S takes the original four-bay Drobo and adds in not only an extra drive bay but an eSATA port and enhanced FireWire 800 performance, meaning that the backup system now boasts hardware redundancy against up to two simultaneous hard-drive failures. Meanwhile the DroboElite has a full eight drive bays and dual iSCSI ports and is, unsurprisingly, targeted at small and medium businesses who want 16TB or more of backup space.
We know this looks like a plastic trashcan full of junk electronics, but it’s actually the inside of WowWee’s Rovio robot webcam just after he’s been given a remote-control mod. Obviously blind to the dangers of granting your robot power over high-voltage appliances, RoboCommunity member Thel has hacked together a system whereby he can switch devices on and off at the mains using Rovio.
Over at Let’s Make Robots! Tyberius is showing off Giger, his two-foot tall DIY humanoid ‘bot. A roughly 100 hour project so far, Giger runs embedded Linux and has both an integrated camera and WiFi, and apparently cost around $10,000 to build.
Now that might sound like an awful lot – probably because it is an awful lot – but you can blame the pro-quality servos. Tyberius used Dynamixels RX-64 and RX-28 units, which come in at $300 and $200 each, respectively; however unlike cheap servos they put out a whopping 1,000 ounces per inch of torque.
We’re not sure what we like most about Giger: his classic Cylon-style eye, mean looking pincers, or how easily he segues from a butch fighting stance to a reasonably camp wave. Tyberius’ next job is tightening up the dynamic balancing and getting the walking gait more natural; right now Giger looks a little drunk.
Video demo after the cut
Japanese robot manufacturer Robo Garage have been demonstrating their latest ‘bot, and what distinguishes the endearing 38cm tall Ropid is its ability to not only run but jump 8cm into the air. Ropid is intended to demonstrate a new leg design, which uses a double-jointed “linkage belt” – each point of which can be independently locked for stability in different movements – paired with four gyro-sensors.
Pentax pulled the wraps off its new entry-level K-x DSLR camera back in September and for the money the little cam offered up a nice feature set. Pentax has offered up a new and very colorful version of the Pentax K-x DSLR called the Korejanai K-x that outfitted in bright basic colors of red, blue, yellow, and white.
Endearing robo-dino Pleo may have faced a second round of extinction earlier this year, but the autonomous robot has weathered the storm and gone on sale again this week. PleoWorld are offering the dinosaur for $349, with shipping to the US, Canada and the UK, together with those all-important accessories such as replacement battery packs and chargers.
Robots are cool and the day we can invent a robot that will mow the lawn for me and do all that other crap I don’t like doing will be a great day for humankind. Until then we have to make do with much smaller scale robots that play games and let us have fun like the Robonica Roboni-i that is now available to purchase.
SlashGear Japan
