Sigh.

*ahem*

O hai i has got LOLBOTZ fer u but i gots bored so i readed them all.

sry kthxbye.

[Dammit Xeni.]

A moment of silence for the poor schlub in Denmark who was tragically killed by a robotic lawnmower.

Here is a happy shiny promo video of the model in question, which proudly shows off all the ways *your* brand new automated garden-helper can wreak havoc and destroy the human race with a bloodthirsty vengeance.

[via Engadget. Thanks Rick!]

Mr. Woo makes robots out of junk. Mr. Woo can make walkers and rickshaw pullers. Mr. Woo can solder better than your mom. Mr. Woo’s tears can cure cancer, which is too bad, ’cause he NEVER CRIES.*

Thank you Honorable Street Tech, and also Honorable O’Reilly Radar.

* Mr. Woo is secretly Chuck Norris.

An online posse, that is. .

The Flaming Lotus Girls, purveyors of fine large-scale, life-affirming fire sculptures at Burning Man and beyond, have unveiled their new completely impossible mission*:

The Serpent Mother World Tour:

The Girls are planning on taking the Serpent Mother around the world, all 168 glorious feet of her, plus an egg, to RoboDock and Beyond. How freakin’ cool is that? Donate To Their Noble Cause Here!

These things ain’t cheap, but with YOUR help you will spread the gospel of cool-ass fire effects around the world to the poor deprived people who only get to light small heaps of trash and woodshavings on fire for fun.

Keep up with their progress on the Flaming Lotus Blog, and lust after their deft use of welders and lipstick for yourself at their various exciting fundraisers this summer!

*Mind you, the FLGs do impossible things on a regular basis, so with your help they’ll go ahead and do this too, no problem.

. . from our friends at Robot Fight Club:

Speed Controllers: $180 each
Motors: $280 each
Keg: $200 + beer
Labor: Hundreds of hours

Riding a flaming beer keg down the halls of a major university……

Yep. It’s that Comix Cthursday again Today we are proud as a peabrain to bring you goofy-toothed goodness from Goopymart.

Even the names make me chortle. Enjoy some more:
space food
saint miscellaneous
crude robots
beater saucer
emo on a stick
crackpot Any resemblance to the Rotor is purely coincidental.

OK. I can’t resist. One more:

emo on a stick. emo on a stick. Bwahahahahaaa! emo on a stick.

Holy Moly. Wendy Maxham of Team Plumb Crazy got some sweet footage of the arena breach at The Combots Cup at Maker Faire this past weekend.

No one was hurt, and the hey-ooge hole in the wall was a vertical compression fracture, not caused by a direct impact. The wall that was breached was on the judge’s and contestant’s side, facing the pits, so the audience was robbed of the opportunity to have the bejeezus scared out of them.

The arena was fixed in record time (luckily this was the last match of the day) and is brought to a psychotically paranoid state of safety by our crack team of materials specialists, welders, arena engineers, and brute force technicians.

We get a great wholesale price on bulletproof polycarbonate, so we’ll be back atcha with crystal clear windows for Robogames.

Poor Suicidebot, we hardly knew ye.

The kooky kids from Robot Fight Club sent their auxiliary bot, Suicidebot, into battle for an exhibition match against CM Robotics’ Texas Heat, a cute little flamethrower wedge.

Here are Suicidebot’s charred remains after we peeled it off the floor of the arena:

Suicidebot lived up to its name and had the back end of its keg can armor handed to it on a flaming platter.

Robot Fight Club’s other robot, Beer Bash, made a great showing against the Mortician, but not without taking a wee bit of damage itself. Here’s a nice little family portrait:

Let us give our best to Suicidebot and Beer Bash, for fighting valiantly and losing with grace and pyrotechnics.

So it seems that during the last fight of the day, Brutality versus Last Rites, Brutality got a little enthusiastic.

Both robots are horizontal spinners with a ton of torque behind them, and during one golden moment, Brutality caught Last Rites juuuust right. Last Rites sheared Brutality’s 55-pound tool steel blade, flung it into the side of the arena, and blew a nice hole in the polycarb.

Bugger.

Our crack team of Arena Repair Gnomes is hard at work right now repairing the damage and double-paning the judge’s wall.

We’re going to be spending a leetle more on polycarbonate than strictly necessary, but the arena will be way over-engineered for RoboGames, you betcha.

Here’s a picture of Paul and Ray, showing off their handiwork:

We are very proud and amazed that they built such machines, and we’re looking forward to pacing the technology with the arena. We salute Team Brutality and Hardcore Robotics on their fine, fine craftsmanship.

Jerks.

Fight updates as they happen at Missy SB’s Twitter Stream! Keep up in case you can’t be here, and get the inside scoop if you can!

We are here at Makerfaire, ready to roll. Our crack announcer Scott The Voice is entertaining the crowd with information. Gad this kid knows his stuff. We found him via his blog, where he chronicled in loving detail every single match of the first Combots Cup. He’s up here from San Diego and we’ve never seen a bigger fan.

Missy SB would like to state that Tecate is the perfect libation for robot combat. Thank you David Cutler.

We are starting right now

UPDATE – First heavyweight bout was GREAT! LNW (Leave No Witnesses) versus Last Rites, LAst Rites wins after LNW taps out. We love the smell of shaved metal in the morning.

More later! Fight updates in the twitter window to your right!

. . .for maker faire.

It all started Tuesday. Tuesday was the day ahead of the day we were officially to start loading in, but the Expo Center was nice enough to offer it to us a day early. So, spirits high, we called Larry, our Esteemed Trailer Hauler, and said “Make Mine a Combat Arena, Jeeves!”. Larry shows up that evening, raring to go, keys to the gate provided by Mr. Snook of Nimby LLC, where our trailer, Snuggy*, is parked.

Larry calls at 11pm and says we have a flat tire. Right. Okay.

Thus beginneth the Maker Fair Combots Cup Saga.

(more…)

What’s better than robot/monster art, helping charity, and puzzles? How about if you get to keep the art?

One of Suicidebot’s favorite artists, Joe Alterio, is offering to draw YOU a robot or a monster for just $25! And all proceeds go to benefit AIDS research.

“I’m proud to announce the creation of my new project, RobotsAndMonsters.org .. in an effort to raise money for the SF AIDS Foundation, and the Pangea Foundation, dedicated to prevention as well as helping those with HIV/AIDS, in the SF Bay Area and the developing world, respectively. It’s a great cause that hits closer to home than many of you may know: in such a powerful and wealthy country, we shouldn’t be letting people die from any pandemic, let alone be shamed into covering up their affliction.

Robots And Monsters, a charitable effort that is one part fund raiser, one part low brow art gallery, and one part collective art experiment. The concept is simple, but unique, I think: for a small sum, I’ll draw either a robot or monster, as defined by three words or phrases you provide. The benefits are plain: the money is raised for a great cause, I get some good forced drawing time in, and you get a great piece of art in the mail, perfect for you, or as a present for a friend, or for your kids, or whomever.

What’s more, any illustrators or drawers on here that feel like spending a few hours drawing some rad robots or monsters, be sure to contact me, I’d love to have you on-board.”

We have Austrians.

Cocktail Robot Making Austrians.

This could get ugly.

C’mon, you know, like the one where they make Bishop do that thing with the knife and he’s totally the robot and it’s all cool with the white blood and stuff?

Yeah, like that, only way, way better.

Karen sent us this. She asks “Would you trust it and put your hand underneath it?”:

Okay yeah, but what about when it’s finished, and that cute, blunt little claw is holding a nice shiny knife or pitchfork?

Yeah we didn’t think so. Wuss.

Adds Karen,

“Its programmed to be precise! It was used at Genentech or some other gene lab – based on the programs still in memory, it did things like put things in and out of the oven, control a carousel, etc.

Along with dangerous knife tricks, it will also scoop stuff up and fling it. I’m not sure yet what it’ll scoop and fling. It’s also coded it to poke/stab at whomever’s standing in front of it.”

This robot was obtained and programmed by two of our favorite people who do strange things with electricity, Karen Marcelo and Marc Powell.