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Another robotastic offering (and an HTML in-joke at the same time) from Chop Shop, best known (around here, anyway) for their 51 robots shirt (which, incidentally, is now available for pre-order with glow-in-the-dark robots). The Robots No Follow shirt is yours for $20.
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[ Chop Shop ] VIA [ io9 ]

Note: this movie trailer contains lots of obviously fake violence, but the really NSFW bits are from 1:48 to 1:54 and 2:17 to 2:22. Skip those and you should be okay.

Geisha is Japanese girl.
Geisha is beautiful.
Geisha is wild.
Geisha is… ROBOT!

Yeah, awesome! Now we’re talking!

GEISHA MISSILE!
GEISHA CHAINSAW!
GEISHA TRANSFORM!!!

But wait, there’s more!

FRIED SHRIMP!
BUST MACHINE GUN!
HIP KATANA!

This movie has it all!

Thank you Japan, thank you for being you. RoboGeisha will be in theatres in the fall. For real.

[ RoboGeisha ] VIA [ Fark ]

Have a pressing need for an autonomous robot car capable of avoiding obstacles? Instead of buying one, how about making your own from an old toy, an Arduino board, and a few sensors? The video from Make explains how, and you can find all the details you need on Dean Segovis’ website at the link below. This might be a fun (albeit ambitious) second project after you’ve mastered an iBotz kit or two.

And yes, I know that the ZMP car uses stereo vision based obstacle avoidance and not ultrasonic, and I’m sure that there are about 6,929 other ways in which it justifies itself over this little project, but still, isn’t it cool that you (you!) can build a robot that behaves in pretty much the same way for so much cheaper?

[ Dinofab ] VIA [ Make ]

ZMP’s 1/10 scale robot cars are designed so that groups who are working on DARPA Challenge style autonomous vehicles won’t have to shell out for the real thing, but can instead test their software on something a bit more affordable. The ZMP car has integrated stereo vision along with an optional image recognition module, as well as a gyro, accelerometers, IR distance sensors, and an optional laser rangefinder. The car runs on a Linux OS and can be controlled over WiFi.

The ZMP car costs $7000, and that’s just for the guts: the fancy plastic shell will set you back another six thousand (!) dollars. Hmm, if only there were some way to make something like this yourself, with the same basic functionality, only about a hundred times cheaper…

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Robot Watch (Translated) ]

AeroVironment, makers of the Raven UAV and the Dragon Eye UAV (among other things), have been working for several years now on a DARPA funded program to develop micro nano air vehicles that use flapping wings as a lift and propulsion source. Now, we’ve seen a lot of robots that use flapping wings, but only one other robot that could use them to hover, like an insect or a hummingbird. The AeroVironment “Mercury” NAV isn’t as small as an insect, but it is about the size of a hummingbird, and surprise surprise, DARPA has asked AeroVironment to dress up the next prototype in a little costume:

Okay, so it’s a little hokey looking, but honestly, I bet it gets the job done: nobody who sees something that looks like that flying around on wings is very likely to think it’s a robot… Except for maybe you, right now, after reading this. Psst… They’re watching you.

From the look of things, this bot is just about ready to go: it has already demonstrated fully controllable untethered flight, so the next step is to get it carrying a payload and perhaps some autonomous capability. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of this thing in action, but probably the clearest indication of the success of this robot will be if the program suddenly ends, and we’re never told anything else about it ever again.

[ AeroVironment ]

This is the second whiskery rat-bot we’ve seen in just a few weeks, which is a little random, to say the least. SCRATCHbot hails from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and has been in development since 2003. It’s designed to seek out humans “in environments where visually dominant predators perform badly.” Not to imply that SCRATCHbot is a predator (not yet, anyway)… Quite the opposite, in fact: SCRATCHbot is designed to be released into areas with zero visibility, and use its whiskers to find people who might need help. ‘Cause, you know, if you’re stuck in some dangerous pitch dark place, a big robotic rat with motorized carbon fiber whiskers is just what you want to have snuffling at your pantleg.

[ SCRATCHbot ] VIA [ Engadget ]

Building robots isn’t easy, and everybody has to start somewhere. Me? My first robot was a cute little photovore, but I had to teach myself to solder in order to build it. If that’s a big first step for you (it’s okay to admit it), iBotz kits are small, cheap, fun, and a good way to get yourself (or your kids) introduced to the amazing and spectacular world of DIY and hobby robotics, no soldering (or other experience) necessary.

The kits come in several different designs with different interactive capabilities. The cheapest (a little car that runs away from sounds) is only $30, while the most advanced (responds to sounds, avoids obstacles, and follows lines) is $65. This is easy cheap enough that after you’ve built it and played with it for a while, you should have no problem taking it apart again to hack it up into something different and/or better.

[ iBotz ] VIA [ Trossen ]

I don’t speak any Japanese, so unfortunately I’ve only been able to understand little snippets of information, but according to an article on Robot Watch, an autonomy of robots (yeah, I’m trying out a new collective noun) designed and constructed by Jiro Aizawa in the 50s and 60s have been located in a wearhouse in Japan. The robots have lights (and maybe some movements?) controlled by vacuum tubes, and are going to be restored. I think. The translation is pretty sketchy. More pics, after the jump, and if any of you can read Japanese, do us all a favor and post what’s really going on in the comments. (Read more…)

This is not, of course, the first steam powered thing we’ve seen here on BotJunkie, nor is it the first steam powered tank… But I’m pretty sure it’s the first one that’s driven by a humanoid, in some kind of steampunk/robot mashup. What’s the point? Er, I have no idea, but it’s got cool lighting and the i-SOBOT is wearing a costume… Just don’t give it any weapons, or we’re all gonna be screwed.

Or, you know, not.

VIA [ Robots Dreams ]

I think this is the fourth, and hopefully by no means the last, transforming robot car we’ve had the pleasure of posting… Here’s the other one two and three. What sets this apart (aside from the theme music) is that it looks like it may have been built from scratch as part of a robotics class, but information is a bit scarce. You can view the YouTube channel of the guy who is presumably the creator of this bot here, and rest assured that if we find anything else out about it, you’ll be the first to know.

VIA [ Make ]