So ::sob:: beautiful ::weep::

Courtesy those masters of modern problem solving techniques, Willow Garage (proud and beloved Sponsors of RoboGames, full disclosure, natch)

Mechanical Victorians -Mechtorians- look great in drawings, paintings, prints and prototypes. They also raise the bar for production-run, high end, limited edition vinyl toys.

Bruce Whistlecraft, aka Doktor A, employs an array of olde and nu skool craftsmanships to take the entire cast of fictional robots on a time-bending fantasmutational romp.

I’m completely charmed by the imagery from an actual past, informed by a recent past, reconfigured as robot characters from the past’s alternative future. Check it out for yourself.

This guy is totally using his powers for good. Canadian Rob Spence had an unfortunate mishap in his teens that led to losing an eye on his right side. He’s decided to one-up nature and become: EYEBORG. With the help of a few of his friends he has developed an eye prosthetic that can broadcast its video, and eventually will be available as a public feed for those who want to see through another (Canadian, filmaking) person’s eyes.

Eyeborg Phase II from eyeborg on Vimeo.

Never underestimate the power of bored nerds to solve excellent problems. How long ’til it’s elective, like tattoos or unusual piercings or suspensions or sideshow performers? I am excited about the cyborg revolution.

[Via Le Boing and IEEE, whee!]

[Thanks Wondermark, Le Boing, and everyone else who posted this]

A cunning little thing from Japan that is a lot cooler than it looks at first blush:

Thanks Ralf Burgert!

More cool stuff at Citadrobo’s YouTube page.

Israeli Scientists are doing a thing with some handshake robots, it should be cool (sorry for the lack of liguistic precision but it’s late and I’m tired and PopSci has done a better job on this anyway).

Image Courtesy Robot Magazine

From Popular Science:
Sure, you can make a robot walk or cook or even play beer pong, but can you make a robot friendly? Ben-Gurion University of the Negev wants to know, so the Israeli university will host the world’s first international competition to build a robot that can shake a human hand.

This is actually a lot cooler than it sounds, because handshaking is a more complex problem than puny humans realize. The conditions, pressure, etc are different every time; differences between hands necessitate decision-making on the fly and – okay remember what I said before? They do a better job explaining things over there at the bigfancy tech magazine, so read and enjoy.

I will indulge in one wholesome and heart-swelling demonstration of sentiment and say that it would be super swell if the folks who sign up for this competition refine their creations, and come to RoboGames 201l as a lovely demonstration of symbolic friendship and brother hood across all nations, creeds and climes. Science and love conquer all.

Yeeegh okay that’s enough. Back to the carnage-loving and haphazard robotic reporting so near and dear to this website’s heart. LOOK! Here’s a contest that rewards the robot who does the most inefficient and laboriously done trivial task! Stupid robot trick yeah!

Okay now I really have to go to bed.

Cris Rose has so many talent chops, that I’m thinking about writing this post in a spreadsheet.

Artist, Designer, Fabricator, Collaborator, Customizer, Collector Whew! He’s busier than a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest who designs, builds and sends original robot toys all over the world to collectors and galleries. Though the figures have no traditional “working parts”, they do have incredibly believable details and lovely backstories. Cris is particularly interested in the relationship between robots and nature, and each character shows its wear and tear with pride. I hope to catch up with Cris soon and find out more about his robots, their histories and the art of decay.

[Via Neatorama!]

Moreover, this was built by RoboGames Regular and Lego aficionado extraordinaire, Steve Hasseplug

You can see MonsterChess in action at Brickworld 2010 this weekend in Chicago.

Kazu Terasaki, longtime SB friend colleague and contributor, comes at us with a new variation on a familiar theme:

iPad walking robot!
\

Whee.

[Thank Lem!]

Jameco Electronics, find purveyors of components, useful bits and pieces, and things that go “bing!”, has a nice review of exactly how much fun they had at RoboGames 2010.

[apologies for the extreme lateness of this post, but if you were following my twitter feed, yo will note that my upgrade horcked all over me the other afternoon and thusly I will appease the Blogging Gods by actually posting here more often.]

Equals OSM:

“Chinese students built this awesome robot sculpture for their graduation project. Almost all of the parts come from an old truck and the total budget was 300,000 yuan. The final robot is almost 32 feet tall and weighs over 8,800 lbs.”

Via Instructables

O robot fans the world over: in an effort to open myself up to as much drunken heckling by my friends as humanly possible, while also spreading the love for robots and, especially, RoboGames, I am giving a 50 (!) minute talk this Saturday, May 22nd, at Makerfaire!

The talk is “Build A Robot, Be A Rock Star: RoboGames” and it will be about various and sundry interesting tidbits about our seven years producing RoboGames.

So, grab a giant can of Tecate, camp out in the parking lot, and troop in to hear me talk a bunch about robots, games, and other things.

MakerFaire is this Saturday and Sunday May 22-23rd at the San MAeo Convention Center in lovely San Mateo, California. See everything cool you could possibly think up in the wildest realms of your imagination, all in one place, and learn how you can make each and every single thing yourself.

Whee! So much will be going on, you won’t even be able to absorb it all in one weekend. Yay!

I always cry at weddings, but this made me laugh. The full story of the i-Fairy wedding officiate in today’s news. Thanks, Neatorama!

Okay that headline was lame. But what is *not* lame is the fact that Bon Jovi is now touring with a bunch of auto assembly robots:

These robots, by ABB Robotics North America, are not cheaper than regular backup singers, but at least the robots won’t get dumped out of a cop car in front of the venue ten minutes before show time, smelling of carcinogens and twitching.