Giant mechanical spiders take away some of the hurt in the world:

Just *listening* to it is awesome. See the giant stompy monster action from a different angle here.

[Thanks Alexander Rose! Merci Beaucoup pur les fotos, Tristian Sabatier!

One of the cool things about RoboGames is all the people we meet from different walks of life. Most are not engineers. Many are artists, some are blue-collar workers, some kids, some white-collar, some retirees…. You get the picture.

Of all the many people I’ve met, one of the most talented is I-Wei Huang, who made the above steam powered robots. He’s also a creator, animator, rigger, screen play writer, and voice talent (yes, he really is that multi-talented) and he’s currently looking for a job.

If you’re in need of an amazingly talented robot builder, animator, illustrator, thinker, or doer, I-Wei is your guy (in my experience, work ethic is more important than IQ or talent, but I-Wei has all three in spades). Look at the below examples, and then recruit him.

I must say, I-Wei has the single greatest resume I’ve ever seen. I wish that I had the balls to write a resume like that.

Those wacky Germans. They’ve done away with human waiters. Replaced them with robots.

From the BBC:

Germany likes to call itself the “Land of Ideas” - and over the centuries it has certainly had plenty of them. It was Germans who invented the aspirin, the airship, the printing press and the diesel engine.

But Germany has surely never produced anything quite as weird as the automated restaurant. I say “restaurant” - but it actually looks more like a rollercoaster, with long metal tracks criss-crossing the dining area. The tracks run all the way from the kitchen, high up in the roof, down to the tables, twisting and turning as they go. And down the tracks - in little pots with wheels fixed to the bottom - speeds food.

Supersonic sausages, high-pace pancakes and wine bottles whizzing down to the customers’ tables with the help of good old gravity. One pot is spiralling down so fast, it looks like an Olympic bobsleigh (but it’s only Bratwurst).

What’s more, at the ’s Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg, you don’t need waiters to order food. Customers use touch-screen TVs to browse the menu and choose their meal.

You can even use the computers to send e-mails and text messages while you wait for the food to be cooked. But all this may not appeal to those who like traditional waiter service.

The Orb Swarm has been blogged by Radiolab, a show on WNYC that explores and experiments with science, philosophy, sound and everything else.

They have written a very nice article. Read it here. They have also linked to an intriguing short doc on how the swarm works, explained by the excellent Michael Prados, Simran Gleason, Coreyfro, and Steve “‘Dillo” Okay.

I have embedded the video here too. Also check out The Orb Swam Blog for up-to-the-minute Swarm news and updates, and and The Rotor Show (A fine product of Rotorbrain Industries) for more Swarmalicious video.

And yet, it is high-larious. At least for me. But I’m easy.

Or Passover, whatever.

I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE FOR THE SOUNDTRACK! AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [cough]

I swear to god I thought of this years ago. But my dogs don’t chase balls, so I never got around to building one.

Anyway, for those people too lazy to even throw a ball for their dog… I give you:

Apropos of Whurley’s account of his near-death robot experience, imagine what they coulda done with another robot and a giant bulletproof robot arena?

Here’s two other superheavyweights, Ziggy (the white one) and The Judge (both of whom you might recognize from some TV show or other:

Keep in mind that though they look small on the screen, these guys are each 340 pounds of solid robot muscle. They regularly tuna-can the arena bumpers (those I-beams inside the arena) with very little effort. They also take three or four people to load in and out, and they are sharp and pointy.

Here are two more ‘bots that I know for a fact are never, ever, ever tested or demo’ed anywhere where there is even a remote chance a human might get in the way, and these guys are “only” 220-pound Heavyweights. Please take note of the squeals of childish delight as the mechanisms steadily beat the shit out of each other:

This is Brutality Vs. Megabyte. Megabyte has been a robot combat knucklehead since small times, and is truly the major reason we had to buy and entirely new arena. Brutality is notable in that Little Paulie Ventimiglia, age 19 at the time, beat the living heck out of previously undefeated world Battlebots champ Biohazard.
On his first ever robot combat outing. With his first ever combat robot. I love evolution.

Here’s another video that shows you don’t have top have a Spinning Thing Of Death to kick serious ass:

That was Sewer Snake Vs. Original Sin, both of whom tightly conform to Judge Dave’s Rule, “Learn To Fucking Drive”. That match was at MakerFaire 2007 (which coincidentally is coming up soonish!)

Here’s another video that shows exactly what kind of physical forces we’re the dealing with here. There’s a reason we have an arena with a roof:

Once again, these robots are as large and heavy as Steel Reign, the robot which figured in the BarCamp Austin Anomaly. Look at how big the robot is compared to the humans. We’re not talking tinkertoys here, boys and girls.

The best part about this whole debacle, is that it is proven that it’s WAY better live.

So get your tickets to RoboGames and bring your freakin’ earplugs already.

Finally, here is a little snippet of video of Chassis being put through his beer-serving paces. Notice the Head Rotor operating in the background, and Al Honig adjusting my grip on the robot’s. . . um. . .appendage.

Congrats to Al and The Rotor, Chassis is a heck of a guy. And shiny!

In the “See “More” but after the video ends, there is lots and lots of coverage of RoboGames 2007! Lots of which was uploaded by Lem Fugitt! Thanks Robots Dreams!

Whurley alerts us to teensy weensy, tiny, itty bitty almost nonexistent leetle accident that happened in the parking lot of BarCamp Austin featuring Team XD, former robot combat contenders.

Click below for the video.

It appears that during a demo in the parking lot, Steel Reign got a little bit big for his britches, plowed through the crowd and managed to take out the A/C unit on the neighboring building.

Good Times.

Now really, who wants jocks playing footbal when yu can have animated robots playing football?

From Super deluxe.

FiGHT!

[Thanks SeanBonner!]

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

I am fully in favor of all of President Executron’s policies.

I just got a couple of videos anonymousishly IMed to me as a part of the Great CarNAYgie Mellon Conspiracy. Daniel H. Wilson, the “mild mannered” humorist and author of How To Survive A Robot Uprising is uses his perverse powers of reverse psychology to make us think he’s on the side of the humans. Hah. Tis video shows us differently by trying to lull us into a false sense of security.

Yes, it’s Keepon, the infamous, adorable, squishy, slightly testicular robot that is actually much more complex than one would think (even Mr. Robotics, jaded fuck that he is, admitted this). Don’t let Keepon’s cuteness fool you. He’ll be just as much a part of the revolution as Skynet.

Daniel Wilson is also shilling for his alma mater CarNAYgie Mellon with this spiffy splash page that shows of his videos and the work of the lovely Ali Spagnola, whom we have previously covered.

I almost went to CarNAYgie Mellon once. I wanted to move to Pittsburgh and be a Penguins fan. Alas, it was not to be, I only made it into H&SS and not engineering or drama. Bastards.

At last, the Metroccolis Inventors of Mechanical Evolution have finally perfected the ultimate breakthrough in personal robotics. Your Personal Robot is on sale right now, today, for normal household use. Your Personal Robot makes the everyday tasks of life just that much easier. Your Personal Robot is safe, sanitary, and effective for all your robot-oriented needs. Your Personal Robot will clean your house. Your Personal Robot will do your homework. Your Personal Robot will love you when your friends do not.

This unprecedented research has been going on since 1996, proving once again that science is sexy, and you would totally buy it a drink if you were cool enough.

(I must confess to a small piece of my history here: I went to circus school. I am a clown by birth and training. Your Personal Robot must be cool, because I am posting it against my very genetics. Having said that, I will say this to my brethren: WARNING: Mimes.)