The 2006 inductees into Carnegie Mellon's Robot Hall of Fame were announced at a reception held this past Tuesday at CMU's Entertainment Technology Center. As in years past, the new class is a mix of both real-world and fictional robots, including Maria, the art deco-inspired "Machine Human" from the 1927 film "Metropolis," Gort, the imposing alien humanoid from 1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still," David, the mecha-boy from the 2001 Spielberg/Kubrick collaboration "AI," AIBO, Sony's recently terminated robot dog, and finally, the Selective […]

Engineers from Carnegie Mellon's NanoRobotics Lab have created a robot capable of walking on water (and eventually land). Like most of the robots developed by assistant professor Metin Sitti's research team, the amphibious Water Runner finds its inspiration in nature, mimicking the locomotive mechanics of the basilisk lizard. The scientists hope that the robot can eventually be used for exploration, search and rescue, or for combating pollution by delivering a bacteria payload to attack pollutants. Hometown newspaper the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has an article today […]

NewScientist.com is reporting today that researchers from Germany and Scotland have built a two-legged robot able to trot at a record setting 3.5 leg-lengths per second, a speed more than twice as fast as the previous best held by a robot from MIT. The foot-tall robot, dubbed RunBot, utilizes a simple sensor system coupled with a neural control program that mimics the way humans walk. The result is a robot with a more natural, efficient gait and the ability to learn to react reflexively […]

For some time I've been following Aussie robot hacker sprocket2cog and his work with the Viper robotics kit. The modular robot construction set offers plenty of bang for the buck but has been slow to take off internationally because of limited availability outside of its native Australia. Robots-Dreams.com is reporting that Microbric, creators of the Viper kit, announced earlier this week that they will begin taking international orders online. The Viper kit, Line Tracker Add on Pack, Sumo Add on Pack, and Wheels Add on […]

TechEBlog.com scores a second nod today with their post about a six-legged robot constructed from precision-milled plywood. The brainchild of Danish amateur radio guru, PC modder, RC expert, and robot builder Thomas Scherrer, aka OZ2CPU, the crawler started its life as two sheets of 3mm thick plywood from which the structure subsystem components where cut based on a stencil Scherrer designed on his PC. The robot has 16 servos: 14 servos for moving the legs and 2 for providing its head with a full […]

It's been a little over 7 months since Tsukuba University engineering professor Yoshiyuki Sankai's HAL (hybrid assitive limb) bionic suit was unveiled at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan. The Raw Feed is reporting today that it will be put to the ultimate test late this summer when mountain climber Ken Noguchi will attempt to reach the summit of Switzerland's Breithorn mountain while wearing a HAL suit and carrying Seiji Uchida, a quadriplegic, on his back. Accompanying them on their historic journey will be […]

Wow. Just wow. It's not a functioning robot, but if this fully articulated mech sculpture fails to capture your imagination then you have none. TechEBlog.com had a post earlier today about this incredible piece of art. While there is no text, there are plenty of photos on the original site showing the humanoid in various poses and also photos of the man I assume is its creator. These pictures were just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing on this dismal Monday morning. […]

Robots-Dreams.com brings us word today that multi-national retailer Target will begin selling the RoboNova-1 bipedal humanoid in the very near future. I was especially excited to hear the news since my town just got its first Target store two weeks ago. So Target came to town, and now Lem says they'll be selling robots. While contemplating whether it was a coincidence or a sign that I needed to pick up another robot kit, I was leaning heavily towards the latter until further investigation revealed […]

It's been nearly two weeks since I purchased the Vex Robotics Design System starter kit, power pack, and programming kit, and although I haven't posted much about it so far, I've spent all my recent free time unboxing, examining, reading, and yes, building. Today I've posted a photoset documenting my first look at the Vex components as well as some of my initial thoughts about the system. I've actually already built my first robot (the Sqaurebot example from the Inventor's Guide) and will be posting […]

Still looking to fill the void left since Sony surreptitiously put down their robot dog Aibo, I am always excited to read about any new robotic animals under development. The Raw Feed is reporting today that Illinois-based robotic research group Iguana Robotics Inc. has created TomCat, a headless robot cat whose lack of visual aesthetics is more than made up for by its performance. TomCat is available for purchase through Alegrobot, Inc., the retail corollary of Iguana, for $2750 USD. […]