Robots

Baseball robot will eventually sign with Yankees for $18 million per year

More video is rolling in from last week's Robo-One 12 competition, courtesy of Robots Dreams. One of the challenges of the recent bipedal robot competition in Japan was to have a robot play catch.

As this video shows, robot King Kizer took that challenge to another level altogether, also fisting an inside changeup to the opposite field, diving back to first base on a pickoff attempt, and stealing second with no throw. Let's watch.

This isn't the first time we've seen a robot with baseball skills, although King Kizer may have the most well-rounded game. This … Read more

Empire strikes back with Lego's help

Now this is more like it. Forget about those Lego iPod docks. Toys should be toys--and armed vehicles, of course. The new "Motorized Walking AT-AT" just listed in the Lego catalog fills both requirements, as seen on Boing Boing. (That's "All-Terrain Armored Transport," for the Star Wars-challenged among you.)

This is no ordinary remote-controlled toy, but a multi-jointed beast with a moving head and rotating laser cannons that stands a foot tall. We're particularly fond of the dangling Luke Skywalker that's included, because his precarious position is something we can easily relate to.… Read more

Vote: The nonviolent robot Final Four

Voting is now closed for this round. See the results of these battles here and vote on the championship battle here!

Get it now! Your updated, printer-friendly tournament bracket.

This is why they play the games have online robot polls.

The Final Four is set, and only one No. 1 seed is still in contention. Not only that, but fan darlings The Beer-Launching Fridge, Bender, Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Nintendo R.O.B. have been sent packing due to heart-wrenching losses in the Elite Eight. They are still champions in the hearts of many, but when it comes to … Read more

Robo-doc to perform weightless surgery

Don't book just yet--soon you'll be able to take a space cruise and get a face lift at the same time.

This month, researchers from SRI International and the University of Cincinnati will conduct the first-ever robotic surgery in simulated zero-gravity aboard a NASA C-9 aircraft flying 34,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico, it was announced yesterday.

The C-9, aka the "Weightless Wonder," will simulate the microgravity of space and variable gravity of military critical care air transports by performing 40 parabolas per flight, each 18 to 25 seconds long.

The experiment will compare … Read more

Tamagotchi morphs into Mr. Roboto

Lest you think the Tamagotchi has suffered an untimely demise (or a timely one, depending on your view), witness the Japanese icon's latest incarnation--as a robot.

Well, sort of. The "Roboco" actually looks more like a wind-up toy with a Tamagotchi's guts. Takara Tomy's new brainchild, as it were, virtually eats, sleeps, gets sick and generally follows the same path as its needy predecessors, according to GeekSugar.

And why not? We've already seen the little Mr. T go enter its teens, go virtual and even get its own Wii game. Besides, morphing into a … Read more

Impromptu robot fight breaks out at Robo-One 12

I wasn't able to finagle my way to Japan to cover it, but the 12th Robo-One bipedal robot competition recently wrapped up on the island of Shikoku.

In addition to the regularly scheduled robot festivities, Robots Dreams captured this footage of a pick-up robot fight breaking out in the cafeteria. In it, a Hawaiian-shirt-clad chicken robot lays the smackdown on a more traditional robot. Enjoy. It's hard not to.

Nothing of this ilk would happen during lunchtime of our ongoing battle of the nonviolent robots. The robots would just sit there, trade snacks, and talk about stuff.

Is Tomy's i-Sobot a Robosapien killer?

iPod or i-Sobot? For just a little bit more than an 80GB iPod Classic, you can now preorder Tomy's tiny-but-impressive bipedal robot on Amazon.com.

The 6.5-inch tall, $300 i-Sobot has already been available in Japan for a while, and it's slated to hit U.S. stores in October.

The miniature robot uses three AAA batteries to power the 17 servo motors for its joints and limbs, three separate CPUs to control its voice and movement, and two gyroscopic sensors, which give it a pretty good sense of balance. The robot can perform such nimble actions as … Read more

Vote: Battle of the nonviolent robots (The Elite 1000)

Voting is now closed for this round. See the results of these battles here and vote on the Final Four matchups here.

Get it now! Your updated, printer-friendly tournament bracket.

This is why they call it Late September Lack-of-Sanity. Upsets, upsets, upsets were the theme of last week's nonviolent robot vote-battles, and only two No. 1 seeds are still in the mix.

Which nonviolent robots will win their division finals and go on to the Final Four? Vote for the winners right now; you have until Sept. 23 to vote on these Elite 1000 matchups.

See last week's final scores … Read more

Inflatable RC robot for less than $10 per foot

The words "inflatable" and "robot" rarely appear next to one another in a sentence, but there's a first time for everything.

The sub-$40 Mega Mech Airmagination radio-controlled robot may be full of air, but as the photo that accompanies this story shows, it's also full of enough awesomeness to cause amazed facial expressions from mulleted youngsters.

The robot has a built-in voice chip that spits out pre-loaded phrases, as well as wheels in its feet that let you drive it around RC-style.

Like most cutting-edge robots, the Mega Mech Airmagination is available at Walmart. … Read more

A robot that laughs at your jokes, even if no one else will

Of all the things a robot should be able to do--smashing things, shooting stuff with lasers, lifting large objects, transforming into a 18-wheeler--making you feel like you're the world's best comedian should be pretty high up on the list.

And hopefully, you're willing to pay $3,000 for that privilege.

The Speecys "Mi-Rai" PC-101C robot is notable because it boasts facial-recognition skills and an open-ended software platform that lets developers write applications for it. More importantly, it also goes friggin nuts when you tell a joke. For evidence, watch this video.

[Via GeekAlerts.]