Tiny Robots, Smaller than a quarter

These amazing micro robots measure in at under 1/4 cubic inch in volume, and weigh less than an ounce. Sandia National Labs has developed these tiny automatons which operate on the power of three watch batteries.

Teensy little treads drive the bots over a variety of surfaces (although at a rate of only 20 inches per minute). They have an on-board 8K ROM processor and a temperature sensor. In addition, they can be enhanced with a miniature camera, microphone, communication system, or even a chemical micro-sensor. Be sure to check out the video clip to see them in action.

The robots apparently are designed to be used in “swarms” to accomplish cooperative tasks such as disarming bombs, but I think that they’d make a pretty cool desk toy all by themselves.

[Spacial Robots via Bot-Junkie]

The Kondo KHR-2HV

The Kondo KHR-2HV Robot is now available from importer AudioCubes.]

For those adventurous types, the Kondo KHR-2HV is a complete kit to build your own autonomous walking robot.

The robot features 17 servo motors to control arm, leg and head movements and a lightweight aluminum alloy frame. You can program the robot’s movements from your computer using a USB or Serial connection.

The kit is quite complex and consists of hundreds of pieces and a cryptic Japanese assembly manual, so it’s definitely not for the meek. That said, one avid robot builder has taken the time to put together an English language “how to” guide. Ready for the challenge? You can pick one up for 89,985 yen (appx. $761 USD).

HUBO FX-1, The Walking Robot Chair

I stumbled across this video over on Technovelgy this morning and thought it worth a mention. The HUBO FX-1 is a humanoid robot that happens to have a seat on top of it instead of a head.

Just sit in the chair, move the joysticks, and the gyroscopic stabilization system allows the ‘bot to walk like you and I. The whole thing looks really strange in action:

The 6-foot tall, 330-pound robot can hold a driver weighing up to about 220 pounds and can walk forwards, backwards, left, right and even turn around 360 degrees.

Pimp My Segway

Got an old Segway scooter lying around? Why not give it a makeover and get rid of that drab grey exterior?

California’s Segway Junkyard takes the personal transportation devices and gives them new life with custom paint, metal trim and shiny chrome wheels. They’ve even made a version with a custom diamond plate trailer so you can haul your junk while you tool around town.

I’ve recently moved to a new office, and was debating how I’d get to work each day. I think have my answer now.

[The Red Ferret Journal via Engadget]

Roller-Walker: The Real Roller Skating Robot

A while back I had a very popular post about Plen, a little bipedal humanoid robot who happened to be able to rollerskate. While that was all for show, this robot actually skates around as one of its primary methods of locomotion.

Developed by Hirose-Fukushima Robotics Lab, the Roller-Walker robot walks like an insect when in walking mode, but then can transform itself into a rolling, wheel ‘bot when it’s instructed to. You’ve definitely got to watch the video clip to get the full effect - it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen a robot do.

I’m assuming that this dual approach allows the robot to deal with more challenging terrain when in walking mode, then move around more quickly on flat land in wheel mode. It’s all very cool stuff indeed.

[via Robots.Net]

Plen: The RollerSkating Robot

PLEN, the Desktop Hobby Robot is a little (9-inch tall) robot from Japan which is capable of balancing itself on a mini-skateboard or to skate on its own included rollerskates.

PLEN’s 18 joints can be controlled remotely using a Bluetooth phone and can run for about 25 minutes on a single charge. Created by Systec Akazawa, PLEN is available from Plen Japan for 262,500 Yen (appx. $2220 USD)

[via thisnext]

Hiroshima engineers develop robotic carp

Ryomei Engineering (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), in cooperation with two other Hiroshima-area engineering companies, has developed a robot resembling a koi carp. The robot was demonstrated at a pond on the grounds of Hiroshima Machinery Works.

The robot is modeled after a Nishiki koi carp as a form of tribute to Hiroshima Castle (whose nickname Ri-jo means Koi Castle). The 80-cm (31-inch), 12-kg (26-pound) fish has a white body with bright red spots. Though the tail movement is very smooth and lifelike, the remote-controlled koi is capable of moves that a genuine koi is unable to perform, such as swimming in reverse and rotating in place.

The robot is Ryomei Engineering’s fifth in a line of fish robots that includes a sea bream, a prehistoric coelacanth, and a golden carp. New features added to the robotic koi include a CCD camera built into the head and sensors for analyzing water quality.

UPDATE: Check out the video at Riding Sun!

[Source: Kyodo News]

The Kondo KHR-1 build-your-own fighting robot kit

Alright, alright, alright. Please promise us that if you shell out the $1,645 for the Kondo KHR-1 build-your-own fighting robot kit that you'll only use it for kicking the asses of lesser robots and won't make it dance around or perform tai chi or greet foreign dignitaries or any of that more civilized crap they've suckered the QRIO into doing.

Serial servo control

This serial servo control software was written in “Visual Basic 5 Pro”. It uses the PC serial port “com1″ to talk to a Basic Stamp, or a Pic Micro programmed with MicroEngineerings PicBasic.In between positions are available as well.You can just click on the slider and hold the mouse button down while moving the slider for large adjustments, or use the up/down arrows for slower more precise positioning.

Dual DC Motor Control

This project will be created for use with 2 LMD18200 H-Bridge ICs. These H-Bridges are capable of driving a motor with a voltage range of 10V-DC to 55V-DC with up to 3A continuous. It can drive the motor at a variable speed and reversible direction. It also has current sensing and thermal overload protection.DC motors can be controlled from the OOPic in a variety of ways utilizing everything from relays to power mosfets. This project shows how to configure two oPWMs and some oDIO1 Objects into a Virtual Circuit that will control the speed of two DC motors. with simple commands like M1Speed = 10 for a slow speed, M1Speed = 255 for full speed, and even M1Brakes = cvOn to slam on the brakes.

Open Automaton Project

The purpose of this project is to engineer modular software and electronic components, from which it is possible to assemble an intelligent PC-based mobile robot suitable for home or office environments. This project aims to fill the gap between the powerful mobile robot platforms typically used by researchers, and the small rug-roving robots with limited processing power that are popular with hobbyists.