Oh this is super good my friends, it seems that our agents in the field have reported back with the Inductees of the 2007 Robot Hall of Fame (put on by all our clever friends at CarNAYgie Mellon). The winners were announced at the RoboBusiness conference and a good time is still being had by all.

–Update–

In the SciFi category, only one robot made it in this year:

Data from Star Trek: Next Gen

He joins C-3PO, R2-D2, Maria, and Gort, among others. Trekkies can rejoice. No longer is the hall of fame filled up with Star Wars bots. Data finally got in… I kinda expected him to end up as the Susan Lucci of robots.

The real question is, will the borg queen make it in next year?

3 robots from the “real world” made it in:

Lego Mindstorms

Where would the world of robot builders be without Legos? Almost every professional robot builder I know does prototyping in Lego Mindstorms. It’s the one kit that I recommend everyone should buy. It teaches you the basics of mechanical engineering, sensors, and how to program. You can make everything from a line follower to a copy machine (darn you, Tony Fudd.)

At RoboGames this June, there will be 10 different Mindstorms competitions, not to mention the combat robots, androids, and soccer players.

NAVLAB 5

NAVLAB 5 was the first attempt at a self-driving car. It could follow the lanes, turn, and do other simple maneuvers. If you think that Stanley is cool, remember that NAVLAB was done back in the dark ages of 1995.

12 years ago, it drove coast to coast all by itself. Beat that, Junior.

The Raibert Hopper was the fourth inductee. Almost all walking robots can trace their lineage back to the Hopper. You think it’s hard making a two legged robot walk? Try a one legged robot. Not only could it hop around the room, it was dynamically stable, and it could do backflips.

I bet you can’t do that.

Suicidebots.com does award you the dubious honor of

COOL ROBOT OF THE WEEK

Everybody party.

Update to the Update: CNET has pretty things to say about this as well.

Less smelly pig than a real guinea pig, otherwise, you can’t tell the difference.

Meet Gupi:

Truly the wonder of our fast, cheap and out of control society, Gupi is a marvel of sensors deployed in an toothachingly inviting manner.

Gupi can run around the house and not bump into things, thank to the sensor in his eyes. He can also know when he is being petted, thank to the sensor in his back. He’s got an accelerometer in there just like the Aibos did, so he can tell which way is up, and also whether he’s falling or not.

He even has a carrot of his very own that charges him up when his little guinea pig batteries run dry.

He’s got leetle round guinea pig wheelie feets, and reacts to how much you love him. He’s essentially a furry Tamagotchi that can run away if he feels scared or unloved. He doesn’t appear to have any brain per se, but then again, flash memory is for pets that can do tricks.

We are personally relieved. Now, putting a small animal in the dog run for laughs will not inspire such guilt. Ah the things we do in the name of science.*

No word on how hackable this thing is. qDot, you want to give it a go and get back to us with your findings?

[Via Oh Gizmo!]

* No we did *not*, not really. Stop that. Sicko.

Though he’s still kind of recuperating, the Rotor was pleased to attend the FIRST Robotics Sacramento Regional competition a few weekends ago.

Amongst the mascots and general hullabaloo, the Rotor was especially tickled by this team logo:

The Fembots (not to be confused with haiku-hurlin’ Fembot), are a FIRST robotics team from St. Francis High School in Sacramento, California. They are careful to add:

NOTE: No, we are not in any way, shape, or form affiliated with or related to the Austin Powers Fembots.

To which we must append:

All-girl robot team?
We think that’s pretty awesome.
You go, Fembot gals!

This just in to the Suicide Bot Headquarters – Douglas Irving Repetto is going to be hanging out in the RoboGames Preview Pavilion with his darling little Foal!

Rumor are he’s also going to be flinging stuff into a pile in the hopes that another foal spontaneously generates! Watch this space for details!

Make Faire is going to be a heck of a thing. Look for RoboGames in the Fiesta Hall, we’ll be the ones making all the noise.

[Thanks Douglas!]

It’s really hard to find an adult around here.

[Thanks Mike Strange! Additional Commentary over at The Blog Of The Long Now]

Jeepers, it’s Comix Cthursday again. Presenting Refridgeron and Magnimus from the more-than-a-little-twisted Perry Bible Fellowship.

WHERE are my Mechanical men?

From the Paleo-Future Blog:

On December 9, 1928 The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden City, Utah), along with many other papers, ran a syndicated story about the mechanical man of the future. Much like the insistence that giant robots would soon fight our wars, this article clearly must be taken with a grain of salt.

The Ogden Standard-Examiner gets major points for their pasteup of robot images – we especially like the RUR reference in the upper right corner.

Paleo-Future blog also has a lot of great links to the robotic future of yestertime.

Imagine; you have trained for years to be all you can be. You have undergone humiliation, education, hardening and risen to the top to become The Best Of The Best. You willingly send your men into battle to die for their country.

But when Mark Tilden sends *his* agent into battle, even for a test, you Just. Can’t Watch.

Ladies and Gennlmen, it’s in print, therefore it must be true, those generals have a soft spot for Bots On The Ground:

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have become an unprecedented field study in human relationships with intelligent machines. These conflicts are the first in history to see widespread deployment of thousands of battle bots. Flying bots range in size from Learjets to eagles. Some ground bots are like small tanks. Others are the size of two-pound dumbbells, designed to be thrown through a window to scope out the inside of a room. Bots search caves for bad guys, clear roads of improvised explosive devices, scoot under cars to look for bombs, spy on the enemy and, sometimes, kill humans.

Even more startling than these machines’ capabilities, however, are the effects they have on their friendly keepers who, for example, award their bots “battlefield promotions” and “purple hearts.” “Ours was called Sgt. Talon,” says Sgt. Michael Maxson of the 737th Ordnance Company (EOD). “We always wanted him as our main robot. Every time he was working, nothing bad ever happened. He always got the job done. He took a couple of detonations in front of his face and didn’t stop working. One time, he actually did break down in a mission, and we sent another robot in and it got blown to pieces. It’s like he shut down because he knew something bad would happen.” The troops promoted the robot to staff sergeant — a high honor, since that usually means a squad leader. They also awarded it three “purple hearts.”

The article goes on to expand the ways in which people become attached to their machines, name-checking Rodney Brooks and Cynthia Breazeal in the process.

We here at SB think it’s completely silly to humanize a robot, because they are after all just lumps of batteries and machinery. Even when SB apologizes to R2D2 for doing something painful (“That glue’ll set in a minute, little guy. . .”) or Mr. Robotics gives a robot a talking-to for its own good, we clearly keep in mind that they are merely tools, extensions of human ingenuity and not endowed with any spearate intellect or personality. Yah.

Folks in the article disagree:

“Every robot has its own little quirks. You sort of get used to them. Sometimes you get a robot that comes in and it does a little dance, or a karate chop, instead of doing what it’s supposed to do.” The operators “talk about them a lot, about the robot doing its mission and getting everything accomplished.” He remembers the time “one of the robots happened to get its tracks destroyed while doing a mission.” The operators “duct-taped them back on, finished the mission and then brought the robot back” to a hero’s welcome.

As any roboticist will tell you, sometimes, the machines just do stuff, and no one knows why. Personality? Who knows? All we know is that we still find ourselves talking to our charges when we are alone, late at night, in the workshop.

It’s when they start talking back that it gets a little unnerving.

[Thanks Alexander Rose!]

Panasonic has come up with a prototype that will cause every Burning Man aficionado to drool helplessly in their playa-coated fun fur.

From Pink Tentacle:

The carpet’s luxurious coat of faux fur (available in white, brown, or skunk-like black and white) houses a set of smart heating elements that deliver warmth only to the areas you touch when you cuddle it. Squishy, flesh-like control switches modeled after the paw pads of your favorite furry friend enhance the carpet’s overall zoomorphic feel.

What a great pickup line: “Could you cuddle my long, warm, furry love cushion? It’s lonely. . .”

“If a robot has sex with a motherboard, would that be considered incest?”

[Courtesy Science Fiction Robots]

Man, but those user interface research cats can get carried away sometimes. Not only does this crazy Korean cellphone squirt smelly liquids at you, it runs around on tiny wheels. Dig it (one g please) after the annoying 30 seconds of test pattern:

Boy, the things you can do with a $100,00 industrial robot. Not that I’m jealous or anything.

tip o’ the hubcap to Hacked Gadgets

You should have been there.

Thank you Karen for the pictures.

Rudy Sr., MC’d by Rudy Jr., was a hoot.

The Rotor was there, as was Mr. Robotics; we were all a little perturbed at actually having to interact with each other in person.

Thanks to Chicken John for the use of Chez Poulet.

Thanks to everyone who tipped.

More pix to come!

It’s not often we have occasion to link to the august paper of record, but this New York Times article about home-renovation accidents is just full of excellent power-saw mayhem and nail gun fu.

As Mr. Barrett said, “When a medical professional in an emergency room gasps at your injury, it’s probably a bad sign.” The blade had sliced two-thirds of the way through his middle finger below the knuckle, and had pulverized the middle joint.

A question regarding his project: Those skinny little pieces of wood trim — can’t you just buy them?

“What are you, a wise guy?” Mr. Barrett said.

So read on, campers, and remember not to leave the nailgun on top of the ladder. NYT link has been Rotored so registration not required.

Robots are supposed to make life easier. Sometimes they don’t. Comix Cthursday continues…