robo-one

Go a few rounds with this kid-sized boxing robot

In Japan's hobby robot circles, Naoki Maru is a respected name. He has won the Robo-One fighting tournament more times than I can count, and now he has a new version of his legendary pugilist King Kizer.

Maru and his son recently showed off a kid-sized edition of the robot with a new master-slave control system. Inspired by the film "Real Steel," Maru's Real King Kizer wowed fans at an Osaka robot festival that wrapped up earlier this week.

Using a Kinect-style Xtion Pro Live sensor, the 3-foot, 2-inch Kizer reproduces the movements of Maru's son, who controlled the machine while Maru explained how it works. … Read more

Bike with no brakes no prob for mini robot

A showdown is brewing in the realm of bicycle-riding robots. Murata Boy, the balance-beam daredevil, has competition in the form of a brash young upstart.

Primer-V2 is the brainchild of Masahiko Yamaguchi, aka Dr. Guero, a hobbyist who thrilled visitors to the recent iRex 2011 robot trade show here in Tokyo.

The bot is being touted as the first cyber-cyclist that can maintain its balance simply by moving the handlebars. … Read more

Hobby robot Robovie packs PC power

Osaka, Japan-based robot maker Vstone has announced a new humanoid hobby robot that has its own 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, compatible with Windows and Linux.

Developed in collaboration with Japan's ATR labs, the new Robovie-PC represents an evolution in hobby robots with its advanced electronics.

Robovie-PC attempts to fill the gap between high-end machines in research labs and competitive hobby bots as seen in Robo-One and Robocup.

The 15.3-inch Robovie-PC comes preassembled and has an impressive 20 degrees of mechanical freedom, a gyro sensor and accelerometer, as well as onboard Wi-Fi and a 1.3-megapixel CMOS … Read more

Transforming robot kicks butt, carries creator

Japanese robot builder Takeshi Maeda is blowing minds with an exciting demo of the latest version of his OmniZero robot.

The ninth generation of OmniZero can transform from bipedal fighting machine into a rolling vehicle as well as a walking seat (See it in action in the video below). The shape-changing robot is 3.4 feet tall and weighs in at 55 pounds.

Maeda, who weighs about 115 pounds, can ride piggyback on OmniZero when its head tilts back. The front wheels serve as handholds. In chair mode, the robot can change direction but doesn't seem able to move … Read more

Video montage: Robo-One bots play catch

The third-party Robo-One 12 coverage keeps rolling in. Robots Dreams has a video montage of this year's bipedal robot competition in Japan that showcases this year's special challenge: to have robots catch and throw a ball.

Results and throwing styles vary. From two-handed soccer throw-ins to one-armed frozen ropes, they're all here.

In keeping with the fun-lovin' 1980s theme inherent in video montages, the clip is accompanied by a Night Court theme song soundalike.

Robo-One videos will astound/confuse you

If you've been following Robo-One 12 vicariously on the Internet, welcome to the motherlode.

Robot Watch recently posted a smorgasbord of videos showcasing the best demos and battles from the recent bipedal robot competition in Japan, and they're all available right here, about a third of the way down the page.

If you don't want to do all that clicking and deciphering, here are some of the best clips of the lot. Mind you, I can't read Japanese, so I've offered my own personal interpretations of what the hell is going on in each video, … Read more

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

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.

Amazing robot makes terrible omelettes

Fresh from the Robo-One 11 bi-ped robot competition at Kourakuen Hall in Tokyo comes this impressive video of OmniZero.4.

As you can see, OmniZero.4 climbs ladders, clomps around, jumps rope, and makes crappy, shell-heavy omelettes.

According to Robots-Dreams.com, OmniZero.4 edged out the spawn of the Great Majingaa by a score of 453 to 432 to win the demonstration competition.

An earlier iteration of The Great Majingaa can be seen below, controlled by an emotionless child wearing some sort of robotic exoskeleton device.

You may also want to check out this epic Robo-One 10 battle between King … Read more