For Hannukah, the soldiers of IDF Unit Yahalom have found a sweet alternative use for their bomb disposal robot.

Andros the bomb disposal robot was deployed on a mission that was also a mitzvah - it lit the candles on the menorah for the fourth day of Hannukah Monday, after passing out sufganiyot (Israeli Hannukah donuts, awesome) to the troops in its unit.

Here’s a video! (scroll down)

Military folks tout the skill and increased safety to soldiers in the field afforded by such robots as Andros, who are used for bomb disposal and scouting missions. These machines can also be confiigured for weaponry, but we here at Suicidebots thing deployment of tasty pastries is a much more suitable job for robots in general. Mm, pastry

[Thank You Discarded Lies and Ynet!]

. . .because if there is one thing we here in the robunker seek to promote, it’s the correct misuse of dangerous power tools.

The fine, fine folks at Instructables send us this fine fine shop tip for our Shop Tip List:

Nicad batteries often die in such a way that they won’t take a charge and have zero voltage. This usually means they’re shorted out by crystal dendrite growth.

Here’s a method of bringing them back to life by zapping those shorted crystal dendrites away with too much current and/or voltage. We’ll use a welder as a power source. You could also use a car battery, a DC powersupply, or almost anything with some voltage.

There are step by step instructions that follow, but my favorite part is the first warning:

If you get killed by a poisonous explosion it means you did something wrong.

From “Jason Pilarski’s 3rd term Rapid Prototyping class,” according to
Beyond the Beyond

Respeck to Mr. SB, but here’s an earlier suicide bot from artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991).

Homage to New York was a 1960 assemblage of junk found objects that painstakingly destroyed itself over 30 minutes.

Here’s a video (and a recollection that will sound very familiar to anyone involved in machine art):

The last few hours of the day were frantic. Jean insisted that we shouldn’t test anything. Instead he kept adding new stuff to the machine. Not until 6 o’clock did I get a cable for the electricity. The event was scheduled from 6:30 to 7:00. At 7:30, I asked Jean “On va?” Jean answered, “On va.” and I closed the switch.

Homage to New York video and commentary

Small Art works makes custom models. Like for movies. I just thought this was cool.

More from Chris Myers over there at IsoBots. Chris not only builds robots, he draws them too: rather well as you can see here. The students in the local robotics team were especially taken with his robot penguin:

Well, it was only a matter of time before Roomba-hacking had its own website: http://hackingroomba.com/ (Yes, it’s a promotional site for the eponymous book, but it’s still cool in our book, er, nonvolatile memory.)

One of the cooler hacks on the site is a tilt-control Roomba. It uses the built-in acceleration sensors in a Mac Powerbook. (But you know it’s only a matter of time before it gets Wii-mote controlled.)
Accelerate the positive, you movers and shakers!

(But still, Perl? Ick. The Head Rotor humbly suggests Python.)

Whoo Roboexotica!

Blah blah video blah! Blah Shifz!

Blahblah blah blah total coverage from Violet Blue.

Yadda blah Geek Entertainment TV blah live and on the scene!

Blah Blah Tinynibbles additional posting, blah.

Blah thank you monochrom blah and Shifz blah! Wild times.

Blah SB still not typing so good blah, witty comment blah more soon blah blah blah.

Blah.

If ever there was a kamikaze robot, Pixar’s TinToy was it.

Tin Toy - video powered by Metacafe

Take one for the team, little fella!

No, I’m not taking about $15 R/C toys you get at Walmart with cutsey pie plastic green antennae. I’m talking actual insects with clockwork gearing.

Each bug is a real bug, with it’s carbon guts removed, and metal/silicon guts put in their place by artist Mike Libby. He “spent his youth developing a keen understanding of the material world looking under rocks, dismantling appliances and practicing alchemy with ingredients found under the kitchen sink. Additionally he drew pictures, built fantastic machinations that completed mundane tasks and studied various musical instruments to little accomplishment.”

Ooo… Want one.