robot armed with paintball gun chases down victims

March 6th, 2008 post a comment (3) stumble it! by: technabob

The only thing worse than taking a paintball pellet in your ass is when your return fire won’t end up inflicting the same pain on your opponent. That’s what you have to look forward to if you end up going toe-to-toe with this robotic foe.

Gepetto AI Robot with Paintball Gun

Created by builder Che Edoga (aka “darkback2″), his wood and metal robot “Gepetto” can fire paintballs while it tools around via remote control.

click to view this video clip

While Gepetto was designed first and foremost as an artificially-intelligent mobile robotic platform, the paintball add-on turns it into a work of pure evil genius.

click to view this video clip

In addition to being able to carry a load, Gepetto has a built in video camera and screen for interacting with passersby (or maybe to remotely taunt its victims when in paintball mode).

Gepetto AI Robot with MacBook

Gepetto is actually strong enough to carry around a laptop on its back, and can manage driving on challenging surfaces thanks to independent wheel mechanisms that can travel as much as three inches in height. While the robot is strong enough to navigate on carpet or other uneven surfaces, it’s probably not going to climb hills any time soon.

Darkback2 plans on continuing to refine the ‘bot’s navigation, intelligence, vision and other systems in the coming months. Check out the details of his progress over on the Trossen Robotics forums. (by the way, Gepetto was a runner up in Trossen’s latest robot contest).

In the mean time, if I see Gepetto coming down the road, I’m heading the other way.

March 6th, 2008 post a comment (3) stumble it! by: technabob

3 comments post a comment

1. Daily Tech Impressions | March 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

maybe he should put a wiper on the camera lens cause us experienced paint ball players would look to cripple it by the means of sight!
2. Paintball Pistols | May 8th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

This is seriously sweet. It’d be great for when you want to practice shooting and there is no one around. Or you could put a heat censor on it and play some paintball hide and seek or something. Awesome!
3. Henry Switzer | June 3rd, 2008 at 6:37 pm

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