As one of the commenters on the original site says, “This makes me proud to be an American.”

So, this is not Truckasaurus Rex or Robosaurus, anybody got any ideas? Gator Tank? Mm?

UPDATE: YouTube, being an entity that knows what’s good for us whether we know it or not [eyeroll] has pulled this video. Happily, the educated technofetishists at Wired have hosted it on thier owne servers. The link is updated below. Thanks for the heads-up, Jackson!

Just to keep The Rotor giggling nervously, we have unearthed a nifty little Wired piece on a new and NSFW video featuring the scourge of young robots everywhere. Yes, Robot Porn. Yum.

The Sex Life of Robots is a film piece by artist Michael Sullivan which the artist characterizes as “a silent robot porno movie from another planet.” Sounds *exactly* like our cup of tea. Even better than The Terminator Kama Sutra.

It’s presently at the Museum of Sex in NYC.

I love Clayton Bailey. His robots may not run around and do cartwheels, but they sure do look cool.

[via Make]

The University Of Tokyo’s Lab for Intelligent Systems and Informatics has created Mowgli, a pneumatic frog:

So stable. So sexy. So delicious with tartar sauce.

Artificial muscles run by compressed air are nothing new, but this is a nice adaptation and it just jumps. . .so. . . high. . .

There’s a nice article that is not in Japanese here on Tech.co.uk

[Via The Raw Feed]

Did we do it? Did we *actually* scoop Lem Fugitt this time? Whoa.

One of the smartest people and brightest lights in the mechanical art arena has had a terrible accident.

Photo by John Mathieu Courtesy Laughing Squid

Todd Blair, of SRL, formerly the Exploratorium, Chico MacMurtry collaborator and many, many, many, many other fine projects, had a prop piece fall on him at RoboDock this year He is in a fine hospital in Amsterdam and is in a coma. We are all pulling for him to wake up and smile again.

There is a donation fund for him here, and a blog on his progress here.

Kick in a few bucks if you can. Todd is an artist and of course our culture is great at not enabling artists to be supported with all the benefits and etc a CEO or lawyer would have. We just have a surfeit of love.

Even if you don’t know him, he is one of those people that makes the world a little bit more amazing, and he and his love Alex can use your good wishes and everything else you have right now.

I’ve seen a lot of hexapods in my life. Heck, a 480 pound hexapod was the ringbearer at our wedding.

But Matt Denton at Micro Magic Systems has made a hexapod that blows everything else away. Even bipeds. Not only is it dynamically balancing, but it can shift it’s weight over it’s feet without lifting them. Kind of like geeks when they try to dance at a hipster bar.

Watch how the ‘bot shifts its weight as Matt moves in and out. The robot not only tracks his proximity, but “keeps its distance.”

Want.
One.

[via robots-dreams]

Next weekend, those irrepressible Wieners from Monochrom, as well as the usual cast of San Francisco freaks, bring you Arse Elektronika 2007, along with a panel of luminaries including Slashdong (but of course!) and other accomplished hackers. What are they hacking? Well, we note in particular the following session as of interest to SB readers:

Pornomechanics: Sex Robots and the Mechanisms of Love

This presentation will begin with a viewing of the film “Love Machine” (2001), directed by Peter Asaro. This independently produced feature length documentary looks at the development of robots capable of entering human social relations of love, caring, and friendship. It also explores the social interests and fears surrounding their potential as sexual partners, augmenting or replacing human sexual interactions.

It features interviews with leading roboticists, philosophers, sexologist and inventors, including: Rodney Brooks, Hans Moravec, Ken Goldberg, Hubert Dreyfus, Daniel Dennett, Manuel Delanda, Carol Queen, Robert Morgan Lawrence, Ernest Green, Lisa Palac, and others.

Following the film will be a discussion between film maker Peter Asaro and technology theorist Katie Vann, as well as an opportunity for audience questions.

The Rotor is old enough by now that he shouldn’t be embarrassed by stuff like this, but still is sometimes.

Gareth Branwyn over at Street Tech reports on a neat BEAM-style project involving a gutted Playstation, some aluminum flashing and a metric ton of patience.

Mercury is a light seeking, dark detecting, almost completely analog bugbot. It’s so elegant we want to make one, but we get distracted by things that are shiny.

Okay, so we know Lem covered this waaay back in 2005, but we were very excited to see Kiyomori up close and personal.

Kiyomori is made by Tmsuk, which specializes in heavy work robots and robots that perform functions unsuitable for living things. Kiyomori is Tmuk’s flagship robot, developed with the Atsuo Takanishi research lab of Waseda University (go bears!). Kiyomori was built specifically to further human/robot interaction, at least this is what they would have us believe. We believe that with that warrior stance, those gleaming red eyes, and that fine fine Samurai garb, Kiyomori is bent on assuming the position of chief human administrator, just like the original Kiyomori did. By human administrator, we mean of course, administrator of humans, not administrator who is human. Please.

Those crazy kids down at Hanson Robotics made their way to the Wired NextFest

This is Einstein Hubo, the robot body with the head of Albert Einstein. The face is made of Hanson’s spiffy development, Frubber. It looks, moves and feels like skin and is one of those things that can be very Uncanny Valley if you’re not careful.

They brought th newest addition to the Hanson Family, Xeno! Xeno is billed at The World’s First Complete Robot, in that he can see, hear, react and walk! He’s also cute as a button.

We seriously want to make a steam punk version of this, just like in Steamboy.

Those crazy kids from the Netherlands are at it with their one-wheeled personal transportation device. The makers compare it to a land-dwelling jet ski, a vehicle made solely for fun. Hells yeah.

This video was taken by SB out on the loading dock of the LA Convention Center, where Wired Nextfest was held last weekend.

At Nextfest, we saw first hand the awesome power of L’ Ecole Polytechnique Federal De Lausanne’s Biologically inspired Robotics Group.

Behold, The Salamander:

The wheels of the Salamander are in no way active. The wheels are free floating and connected to no motors. The Salamander’s motion is generated entirely through spinal cord action, which we think is incredibly sexy.

This video was taken by Mr. Robotics at Wired Nextfest last wekend, which was a rollicking good time.

AHHHHHH! TEH KY00T!!!

This is LittleDog, made by Boston Dynamics, sure to be turned into an adorable lethal killing machine by DARPA. Yay!

Boston Dynamics is also the maker of the subtly disturbing BigDog.

(Thanks Amybean!)

For all you folks that don’t have enough to do online, follow SB online as we wander around the universe on Tumblr! Just check out suicidebots.tumblr.com

Trossen Robotics, that fine purveyors of all things that buzz and go *bing!*, has announced HARD COLD CASH PRIZES for their monthly Robot Project Contest.

Actualy, thety had hard cold cash prizes before, but they have doubled the amounts so now it’s HARD COLD CASH!

Here’s a bit from them:

For those unaware, every month we are hosting a contest for people who are creating cool projects in robotics, home automation, interactive arts, RFID, or similar technical DIY projects. Last month was so much fun that we decided to double the winnings.

The Trossen Robotics Monthly “Submit Your Project and WIN Contest!”

Trossen Robotics Wants To Know What You Are Building. If you have a cool project that you’ve built it’s time to make some money showing it off.

What sort of projects can you submit, you ask?

Robotics, HCI, home automation, RFID, art projects, useful mods & hacks, fun/entertaining projects, etc. Have you made wireless entry into your car? Did you make an electric backyard catapult? Figure out a way to have your robot take over humanity? Awesome! Homebrew/DIY projects are just as good as improving an off the shelf item. Complete systems or components for systems are all welcome in our book. If you created a vision tool for a robot, a keyless RFID based entry lock, a Rube Goldberg invention, or even part of a home automation, that’s cool too! It could be some navigation or voice recognition software or even a new drive train. We love projects that focus on solving particular problems because then others can use those ideas in their projects.

Sounds good and all, but what’s the prize, you ask?

September 2007 – Certificate to: Trossen Robotics

1st place – $200

2nd place – $100

3rd place – $50

To find out all the details, visit us on the web!

Good luck to everyone, and we hope to hear from you soon!

To motivate you in you quest, here’s a picture of SB’s Mom with a Trossen Robotics sticker stuck to her: