Dear Santa:

-Mister Robotics

Dear Mr. Robotics:

Love,
Santa

picks up stacks of signatures and puts them down again

You might suspect it’s all shiny happy flamethrowers with a Krautrock soundtrack here at the SB bunker, but now and then we like to take the safety pads off our actuators and shred something real good. Today’s target is Microsoft Robotics Studio, which sure smells like another attempt by everyone’s favorite software monopoly to lock you into using their overcomplicated and incompatible development environment. Flames commence after the break; stay clear of the stripy yellow zone lest you get hit by fragments.

I hereby release SB from liability from injury due to gratuitous flamage
(more…)

Sometimes I wonder if the human race are really worthy of Kraftwerk.

SB pal Quinn Norton reports from a leading Korean robotics lab: software bots, genetic programming, and robotic personality are all on the menu.

“Someone said that men make robots because they can’t have babies,” says Naveen Kuppuswamy, gesturing across his cluttered lab to where an 20-inch high mechanical biped stands inert on a center table. “That’s our baby.”

Wired News: The Seoul of a New Machine

Mike Winter of the illustrious Stupid Fun Club send in this little video of his awesome Moonbot driving to the corner store!

Moonbot is made up of stuff you can find at any big electronics store, and is wired together with about a dozen USB hubs. It’s a cute little semiautonomous machine with an expressive face and a deliciously elegant design.

[Thank you Stephen Felk!]

[Yes, yes, Roboexotica, yes, stickers, yes. Our internet is down at The Robunker and I can't type very well at the mo, give us a day or two to reconnoiter.]

These are stickers. I’m not sure for what.

“YOU SUCK SO MUCH YOU’VE GOT WRINKLES ON YOUR CHEEKS.”

And much other amusing antihuman bombast from GTRBOT, lead axemanbot of the robot band Captured! By Robots. GTRBOT’s all-caps (and slighty unsafe for work) ranting reminds me, touchingly, of a DEC LG14 line printer that I swear wanted to kill me.
Anyone seen them live? How can they not rock?

While those effete Europeans swan about with their la-de-da cocktail bots, closer to home we have some real he-man beer fetchin’ action. SB pal and Power Tool Drag Race Champeen Steven Nelson’s E.V.A. shows what it takes to open the fridge and retrieve a Bud.

Really. If you’ve ever built — or driven — a robot you know this is not nearly as easy as it looks, so major major props to Steve! DON’T MISS THE VIDEO.

The technically minded will note the expert use of duct tape.

Congratulations to our own Missy SuicideBot for winning Best Cocktail Serving Robot at RoboExotica 2006!

Full story tomorrow, but for now, all winners:

Cocktail Mixing: External Combustion
Cocktail Serving: El Espanol Borracho
Conversation: AAACGD
Cigarette Lighting: WERP
Other Achievements: DWI, IEiswurfelmorder, & Leichtbekommlichv
Public Choice: Ballet de Sacacorchos

All in all, a wonderful event, and much credit to Johannes, Magnus, Rolli, Gunther, and everone else who helped.

Extra thanks to our magnificent host, Tina - better hospitality can’t be found in Vienna! We love you Tina!

CNN reports on Roboexotica as well:

Staring with glowing red eyes at a young woman strolling by, bartender Chapok slowly extends his arm to offer her a gin and orange.

She takes the glass, murmurs a flustered “thank you” and walks away while the cocktail-mixing robot turns his attention back to a row of bottles.

Wired News: I, Robot Bartender

As bartenders go, El Espanol Borracho tends toward the mercurial side. Get too close to his little flamethrower, and he’s likely to set you on fire.

That’s not the only risk at this week’s Roboexotica Festival, which bills itself as the world’s leading exploration of cocktail robotics. The milling crowd of hackers and techno-artists here hardly looks fight-prone, but Robomoji’s saw-blade gears look wicked sharp, and the sledgehammer arm on the easy chair’s built-in ice crusher could easily crack a misplaced skull.

(Guys, I told you to be careful with that flamethrower!)

Me old china Dr. Dave is a boffin (look it up) over in that England. Turns out he builds a cracking Dalek, in this case “Barney The Purple Dalek.” That’s him in the middle there. So he’s in a great position to tell us:

Hey Dave! Is a Dalek as much a chick magnet as old Artoo? (The Head Rotor, whose chick magnet seems to be set on the wrong polarity, wonders whether “EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS” might actually be more successful than his usual pickup lines.)

Chris Myers over there at IsoBots makes robots. Unlike a lot of us dorks, he has a superb designer’s eye and all his creations are gorgeous. I don’t know how you hack a Roomba and leave it looking like a Ferrari rather than my ugly spare parts box, but he did it: IsoBots - Roomba