Mechancial Toy: Flying Space Marines Duel in Air

This is the kind of mechanical toy I could only dream about as a kid.



From ThinkGeek:
"This Dueling Space Marines Copter Set gets you a set of two mini r/c helicopters with infra-red laser tag style battle action. Take to the air from the palm of your hand then use the shoulder button on the remote unleash a plasma blast your opponent copter. Each shot causes the gun of your space marine to flash with simulated gunfire. The first hit causes your enemy to spin. The second makes the enemy copter lose power... the third cuts rotor power completely as your opponent plummets to the ground and you gloat in victory."

Get a lot more information about the Dueling Space Marines Copter Set at the ThinkGeek site.

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A History of the Quest to Make Mechanical Life

Originally published in the United Kingdom as Living Dolls, this book will be fascinating to those interested in the history of automata. As suggested in the subtitle –– "A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life" –– the author explores the motives of people who have made automata, androids, and robots through the ages.

This is a very well-researched account of humankind's ongoing efforts to simulate, emulate, and duplicate living things in mechanical form. A rich intellectual and cultural history, this book provides a context for understanding why automata have been created in the first place.

This book was included in my Kircher Society Essential Library of Automata list.

You can search inside many pages of Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Lifeon Amazon.com.

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Kinetic Sculptor Nemo Gould's Giant Robot Artwork

As part of an upcoming show called "Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon" at the San Jose Museum of Art, Nemo Gould (Nemomatic) has created this amazing new piece called Little Big Man. Standing at 8 feet tall, the robot swings its arms and moves its mouth. Closer inspection reveals a tiny robot inside the abdomen of the larger one. The artist uses found objects and this time has blended wood with metal to create a truly unique work of moving art.

Here is a nice video that shows the robot(s) in action.

Visit the Nemomatic web site to learn more about Little Big Man and see videos of the artist speaking about the piece and his particular style of creating kinetic art.

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Bioloid Humanoid (or non-humanoid) Robotics Kit

Bioloid features 18 servo motors, an amazing range of movement, and versatile modular construction. The Bioloid Humanoid Robotics Kit is truly a KIT. This means you will can assemble the Bioloid's modules together to form any one of dozens of different robotic creatures (see image below). This really sets it apart from other humanoid robot kits and lesser toys.

The sensor array is impressive: an IrDA receiver, three proximity sensors that can measure distance and luminosity, and a microphone for sound detection and a piezo-electric speaker that can be used to play musical or beeps. This is a robot aware of its surroundings -- another big plus.

Using the included motion editor software and visual programming environment, you can make the Bioloid interact with its surroundings and perform complex movements. Motions are built up frame-by-frame like a story board in an animation sequence. This allows quite complicated movements to be programmed. Once a motion has been defined it can then be downloaded into the Bioloid's memory and called from the Behaviour Control Program. The Bioloid comes with several example programs to make it walk, avoid obstacles and interact with sound.

This is an impressive platform for roboitics allowing for many configurations, many ways to sense the environment, and a well-developed system for programming actions.

Take a look at the extensive documentation (including the manual and screen shots of the programming interface) on the Bioloid Humanoid Robotics Kit.

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Robot Lizard Kit - Electronics Meets Mechanics

Here is neat little lizard robot kit designed to teach the basics of robotics, electronics, and mechanics. Never mind all that learning stuff...it just looks cool.

The design combines a single motor, crank system, and a gear box to create a reptile-like walking motion. Sounds you make start and stop the robot's motion and cause its Light Emitting Diode (LED) eyes flash. The clear body allows you to see what's going on inside the little beast.

All components and parts are included to assemble a working lizard robot. Good, clean fun for about $20.

Order your own Lizard Robot Kit.

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Highly Configurable Remote Control Robot Kit

Here is a cool looking robotics kit, which includes four motors, 24 gears, steel braces, an extendable arm, a grasping claw, six rubber tires, and a digital camera -- 300 parts in total.

This kit allows you to build a huge variety of robot configurations to suit your interests or application. (It looks like the ones the bomb squads use, doesn't it?)

This version also has a belt-driven tank tread kit and an additional motor and joint that allow the extendable arm to rotate.

The robot is controlled by a six-channel radio transmitter with a 150 foot range. The 6 channel radio gives you a lot of control over any robot you design with this system.

The included digital camera can be mounted to the robot, allowing you to wirelessly transmit color video directly to a television.

This looks like a great value as a platform for remote controlled robot projects.

Check out all the details of this Remote-Controlled Robot Kit.

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More Video of Boston Dynamics Big Dog Robot

I posted earlier this week about an impressive biomimetic insect robot. I've also posted in the past about Big Dog. Here is more video of this impressive four-legged robot.

The video is a bit long, but I encourage you to watch at least as far as when the robot slips on ice. You will immediately recognize its efforts to stay upright as pure biological motion.

I expect soldiers will have robotic mules based on this design running next to them in a few years time.

I must credit BoingBoing Gadgets for bring this to my attention.

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Biomimetic Insect Robot with Uncanny Movements

Biomimicry ("bios" - meaning life and "mimesis" - meaning to imitate) may be relatively new to robotics, but has a long tradition in automata. Still, I cannot recall seeing an automaton succeed in imitating biological motion to this degree.

This six-legged robot is uncanny in its motions. I find it both beautiful and spooky (as when I am startled by the first-sight of an insect).

This project, by creator Kare Halvorsen, is called "Phoenix". He has achieved an amazingly lifelike motion using hobby servos and an off-the-shelf servo controller. Here is a video clip of the Phoenix in action:


Let's all hope Kare continues to use his technical prowess for good and not evil.

Visit the Trossen forum to learn more about the Phoenix robot. This gem comes to us by way of the MAKE blog.

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CAM-10 Micro Walking Robot

Take a look at this tiny bipedal robot. What's the big deal, you ask, we've had walking wind-up toys for ages.

Well, apparently this little robot walks with more natural walking gait than the old wind up toys. This robot shifts its weight from one leg to the other as it takes a stride. Here is a video clip of this little guy in action.



As you can see, the robot also swings its arms and moves its head back and forth as it walks. I'm thinking: very hackable! The Cam-10 stands 4 inches tall and uses 1 N size battery (included, thank goodness!). Your choice of "Stealth Black" or "Invisible Clear".

Check out the CAM-10 Micro Walking Robot

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Pleo, The Automomous Animatronic Dinosaur

Pleo is a animatronic baby dinosaur. Pleo is programmed with sets of complex behavior routines that are triggered in responds to different stimuli. This give each Pleo something of a unique personality.

Pleo has a impressive sensory system. The robot's sensor array is made up of a color camera, two sound sensors, two infrared sensors, 14 servos, 106 gears, eight touch sensors, an orientation sensor, and four foot switch sensors.

The animatronic dinosaur is responsive to light, sound, and touch making more autonomous and interactive than most robotic toys on the market.

The creator is a famed inventor Caleb Chung, who insisted that Pleo's bio-mechanical skeleton and servos deliver natural movement. Watch this video clip and I think you will agree he has succeeded.

Pleo is the Winner of the prestigious Nuremberg Toy Innovations Award.

Check out Pleo - The First Animatronic Dinosaur.

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Robots, RC, Electronics Clearance @ HobbyTron

HobbyTron.com is offering a whole bunch of cool stuff in a clearance sale. Included in the sale are many robot toys (like Robone shown here), radio controlled vehicles, electronic kits, and magic tricks. Cool store, eh?

They are also offering a coupon code that should get you an addition 10% off the listed prices.
Here are the details:
Coupon code: 10CLEARANCE
Expires: 11/14/08

Take a look at the HobbyTron.com clearance section

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Good Deal on I-SOBOT Robot by Tomy

Amazon is selling the Tomy I-SOBOT for just over $200 USD now -- that's a savings of $97.03 off of original retail.

Update:
The price seems to have jumped back up to $242 -- still a savings, but only of about $57.

From Amazon:
With unbelievably smooth robotics, the i-SOBOT walks more like a human than a robot. This fully-functional and fully-assembled robot features 17 custom designed actuators and gyro-sensor, allowing it to keep balance and freely move joints for impressive performance, vivid movement, and incredible flexibility. Other main components include a built-in speaker unit and built-in microphone with a voice recognition chip. With built-in clutches and metal gears, the i-SOBOT offers up to 220-degree movement. The two infrared transmission bands allow the robot to be operated with an LCD remote control.

See all the details of the Tomy I-SOBOT Robot

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15 New Robots from WowWee

Head over to the MAKE magazine blog to see their roundup of reviews for toymaker WowWee's new line of robots.

Here's an article on the new robots from PC Magazine's coverage of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

I'll be updating the robot toys section of The Automata / Automaton Store, once these new toys are available through Amazon.

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CarveWright CNC Woodcarving Machine

I take pride in the hand-crafting that goes into making each Dug North Automaton. Still, there is a tool addict side of me that cannot help but dream about the possibilities of a machine like this one: The CarveWright CNC Woodcarving Machine.

While less robust than full-fledged CNC router table, the price of this machine is so much less, it is in a class of its own. I won't go into the technical details of this automatic wood carving machine here...they are too numerous.

Just consider this for a moment: automata building more automata. Wow.

Check out the CarveWright Woodworking System.

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Mechanical Toys - Automata/Automaton Store

Just in time for the holidays...tons of cool mechanical toys! There has been a HUGE update to The Automata / Automaton Store. An entire section of mechanical toys has been added.

Under the Mechanical Toys heading there are many subsections:
* Tin Toys - Robots
* Tin Toys - Vehicles
* Tin Toys - Animals
* Tin Toys - Games
* Contemporary Wind-Ups
* Motorized Mechanical
* Wind-Up Flying Toys
* Mechanical Banks
* Balancing Toys

There are also sections dedicated to:
* Robot Kits
* Robot Toys
* Construction Toys

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Dug North's List of Top 12 Robotic Toys for 2007

I scanned Amazon.com for a hours in search of the coolest robotic toys. The slideshow above shows you 12 of my top picks (in no particular order). Many of them have video on Amazon so you can see what they can really do.

1. LEGO Mindstorms NXT

2. Pleo Dinosaur - A Ugobe Life Form

3. WowWee Robosapien Version 2 Humanoid Robot

4. WowWee Roboraptor Robotic Dinosaur

5. Tomy I-SOBOT Robot

6. i-Que Personal Robot

7. WowWee Robotic DragonFly

8. Robone Fully Articulated Robot

9. WowWee Robotics Roboquad

10. WowWee Robosapien RS Media

11. Tyco R/C N.S.E.C.T. Robotic Attack Creature

12. Hitec 77002 Robonova I Ready-To-Walk Humanoid Robot

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Automomous LittleDog Robot on Uneven Ground

Boston Dymanics has done it again. Check out this small dog-based robot traverse a complex terrain. Amazing!

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