RobotOutbreak

Make me some coffee... bot! oh wait, make that espresso

One step closer to getting ROSIE, Dexmart of Italy created a robot which can, using two hands, make coffee.  No word on getting espresso from her yet.  The team built Justine as part of their endevour to create better coordination between two or more hands on the same robot. 

They did feel necessary to note that she can pick things up off the floor.  And they are calling "it" a "she".  Which tells me that they, like me, have dreams of coming home to a robotic maid who will make me coffee, pick my socks up off the floor, cook me dinner and rub my feet....

read more:

• http://robots.net/article/2472.html
• http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-02-20_120190597.html

overlordling controlled with a nintendo ds

  French engineering students have ensleved a pekee robot, and now command it with thier nintendo ds.  with just a tap on the directional pad, or a stroke of thier stylus, or even a word wispered into the microphone, the students can command it ask it to do stuff. 

I totally share in dsfanboy.com's concerns that this will just quicken our impending robot to human enslavement.

see the original post for a video of the pekee robot being controlled by the french.

robots play trumpet, look like cantina musicians

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101018.html?wpisrc=rss_technology

Check out this article on "robotopia rising".  Apparently, the trumpet playing bot will roam the halls of the Kennedy Center in Japan while playing music. 

Robotopia Rising Thursday-Feb. 17 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW Info:202-467-4600. http://www.kennedy-center.org. http:// Hours: Monday-Friday from 12:30 to 7:30, Saturday-Sunday from 10 to 7:30. Admission: Free. Robotopia Rising Thursday-Feb. 17 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW Info:202-467-4600. http://www.kennedy-center.org. http:// Hours: Monday-Friday from 12:30 to 7:30, Saturday-Sunday from 10 to 7:30. Admission: Free.

RHEX can go anywhere you can, does it with style

Taken from digg:  RHex is a man-portable robot with extraordinary rough terrain mobility. RHex climbs over rock fields, mud, sand, vegetation, railroad tracks, telephone poles and up steep slopes and stairways....

did you notice "telephone poles?"  this thing is great.  it looks like a grown up, industrial strenght version of some of the kits I have seen at Robot Village.  It also swims.  sort of like an iguana, only without the messyness of digestion.

RHex
Uploaded by Youpinadi

Green robot eyes = good, Red robot eyes = bad

Re-enforcing their alignment with our future robot rulers, the Japanese have enlisted a team of 200 robots to hang around, staring ominously at passers-by all while warning and reporting on a huge lifestyle concern for its citizens: pollen.

Taken from Pink Tentacle : “As hay fever season approaches, Tokyo-based weather forecasting company Weathernews, Inc. is deploying a 200-strong army of beady-eyed, ball-shaped robots nationwide to monitor the pollen situation.”

There is something very anime about these little white guys with thier eyes and bodyless heads....

Robots in New York City’s Penn Station

This might be one of the scariest things I have ever seen.  This old man has been at penn station, track 19s north end, for a few days now.  He is a designated entertainer playing polka music.  Yes, polka.  I think he might be 100 years old, but the guy does it with a boat load of energy.  He is using an electronic keyboard piped through (what I believe to be) a fender pignose amp.

What adds to the creepiness factor is the dancing robots.  You need to visualize this.  Old man, hunched back, loud polka music and dancing robots. 

**Please excuse the poor quality of these images.  I was shooting with my iphone while trembling in fear.

*** yes, I asked if I could take his picture, and yes, I gave him some money