The fine folks at Ugobe are toiling away on their much-touted but still relevant autonomous dinosaur, Pleo.

For those of you not paying attention in the back, Pleo is a robotic baby Camarasaurus which has more sensors on its head, feet, nose, eyes, tail than the real one probably did. It can take pictures, look at stuff, respond to things, and learn. You know, your basic autonomous robot dinosaur fare.

A happy-making approach that Ugobe is taking is to make the robot hackable, principally by including an SD and USB port. This should make it way more interesting and interactive to Maker-types.

What’s more encouraging is that it should also spark the imaginations of people who might not have really *played* with their toys otherwise.

The particular dead chevaline we like to beat here is the fact that Sony’s Aibo wasn’t marketed as hackable, or as having any exciting capabilities other than as a novelty toy. We firmly believe that this lead to the Aibo’s long and painful decline and demise.

Sci Fi Tech has some nifty video of the baby dino in action (Although you do need to sit through a commercial).

The band “Robot Attack” only recorded one live song because after the first song, “You’re All Going To Die”, they fullfilled their promise. Fortunately, they uploaded an mp3 of the song so that you can hear it. Download it.

Last night we did something odd – We actually left the Suicide Bunker and ventured forth into the night, to Dorkbot SF.

I was accompanied by the always vivacious Gwen of Gwenmart, the creator of all the achingly cute Suicidebots graphics you see here.

We joined the ranks of the analog enthusiasts, the purveyors of mechatronic confusion, the wire benders, the software geeks, the robot auteurs, and all the other scary smart people for whom it tends to be a dangerous thing to have time on their hands.

Myself and Mr. Robotics are going to Vienna for the Roboexotica cocktail robot convention in three weeks, and the wee beastie you see in the photo above is my project – El Espanol Borracho! At least, it’s the third of EB that is not presently lying in pieces on my living room floor (we love design revision in the SB bunker).

The part you see is the all-important Spanish Coffee Ignition Execution Assembly.

A true Spanish Coffee is a thing of beauty, a joy forever, or until you summon the barkeep for another:

Courtesy the wonderful Absinthe Bar and Brasserie in San Francisco

A Proper Spanish Coffee is made with 151 proof rum, good coffee, maybe a bit of brandy or Tia Maria, and a dollop of whipped cream. One flames the 151, then pours the remaining liquids over top, with a delightful froth of whipped cream to tickle the nose. It is a classy yet labor-intensive drink.

Since we here at the Suicide Bunker are models of economy and efficiency, and since we don’t make Proper Spanish Coffee without getting tipped, and since our esteemed audience will probably just want to cut to the chase anyway, we will be gently altering the drink’s recipe.

Yes Friends, The Suicidebots Special Spanish Coffee will be a no doubt potent mixture of 151 proof rum and coffee liqueur, served flaming, with a dollop of whipped cream offered by my Lovely Assistant ™ and Intrepid Girl Reporter Violet Blue.

The whipped cream deployment will probably end up having very little to do with the actual beverage but one does like to offer the option.

The whole thing will be mounted on a custom built and re-purposed Hockey Bot chassis. The Hockey Bots will be a feature at RoboGames 2007, but for now we have assembled one of their number to serve as the Suicide Spanish Chariot. We will add bells and whistles time and innovation permitting.

Field tests to make sure that the Suicide Special is up, running, and palatable will be run in the coming days.

We’ll keep you posted!

Thanks to Karen Marcelo for the Dorkbot Pix. Full gallery can be found Here

UPDATE: More Photos from Simon Law here! Thanks Simon!

Oh Yes! Please note our lovely and wonderful favicon, produced and given to us by the Head Rotor of Rotorbrain Industries, Dr. Jonathan Foote. Wow.

One of the robots outside the “Robot Mirai Department” in Sakae, Nagoya…

What’s it cook?

A giant robot, sitting on a factory, enjoying a chocolate Coke.

But can it swim?

We did it. After years and years of heartbreak whenever a beloved kittycat died, SB’S Gramma was getting lonely and missing a little companionship in her house.

So we did what the Japanese have been doing for years, and got her a companion that will last for a while:

(apologies for the phone cam resolution)

Ita is now the proud owner of an as-yet-unnamed Aibo ERS-210 which asks her to play, likes to be petted, and turns itself off when she goes on vacation. It will also in time learn to recognize her voice and face, and parks itself on its charger when it’s running low on juice.

This is the sadness that is the discontinuation of the Sony Aibo;
Sony never really disclosed its full potential and all consumers saw was a neat little toy that got boring after a while.

Now Ita has a new little friend, we’ll see what she makes of it! Updates to follow.

[Thanks Cnet, Akihabara News and Aibo Life and Gadgeteer for the links, Thanks Mr. Robotics for the Aibo!]

…and I’m a boy.

The new Sony RPU-C2512 & RPU-C3522 cameras give you 360 degree vision, with on-board interpolation and tracking abilities. The camera points up from your robot, and gets a full 360 view of the world in one shot. Eyes in the back of your head, as well as in your ears.

This kind of technology has been possible for many years, but this is the first time (that I know of) that it’s been available as a plug-n-play module with configurable software for under $1000. From the propaganda:

* 2 Megapixel Panoramic Camera Module
* Unique lens design captures images in 360 degrees around the camera
* Pan, Tilt and Zoom digitally — no mechanical or moving parts
* Image output directly to display in NTSC or PAL Applications
* Unique 360° annular lens system, CCD image sensor, DSP, and proprietary software in a module solution designed for possible Security, Monitoring, and Video Conferencing OEM applications.
* Simple interface provides outputs of seven unique image sets via Sony proprietary software. Outputs derived from the raw 360° annular image include a new Rear View Mirror mode enhancement. All Pan, Tilt, and Zoom functions are controlled digitally or via software commands.
* Digital design of this technology results in high reliability of the overall system. Our design implements Pan, Tilt, Zoom (PTZ) functionality without the need for a mechanical device – maintenance is extremely easy and reliability is greatly improved.
* Dual standard video signal systems: NTSC and
PAL. With the video signal systems, the processed image can be directly displayed on a TV monitor. Standard video signal systems are offered in both NTSC and PAL to enable the widest possible product development.

. . .and your reagent.

Micro Robots Could Be Powered By Tiny Gel Muscles

Science has today published the findings of a really spectacular and incredibly arcane field of study from the University of Pittsburgh.

Belousov-Zhabotinsky gels expand and contract on the molecular level with the addition of reagents, and could possibly be used as synthetic muscled for teeny weeny robotage.

Oh, and yeah sure probably also heart valves and muscle grafts and other meat puppet stuff.

Just goes to show, now more than ever, what we need more of is science.

Hey Kids, so it seems that intrepid Wired reporter Tim Hornyak has mosied up to the bar and plunked down the dosh for his very first Manoi AT01.

He successfully put it together, with an excellent description of the pitfalls of this particular kit for the novice (cutting the shell out of the mold, seventy-teen different kinds of screws, etc etc) and initiated the era of the gentleman robot-builder.

Robo-One Otaku, you are now officially cool (again).

These videos are all awesome.

Dancing Citroen

Ice skating Citroen

And nothing says success like parody.

Man, that dancing car better watch his feet…

Sure hope that my old Citroen Can learn these moves.