Tag: Robot

A while back, we showed you a funny clip of Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot falling on his ASS-IMO trying to climb some stairs. Well the good news is now the little guy seems to be doing fine climbing stairs.

Wowwee, known best for their Robosapien and Roboraptor educational toy robots has revealed two new models they’ll be showing off at this week’s CES show. The two new models couldn’t be more different, with one being cute and cuddly, and the other ready to eat the cute and cuddly one.

This has gotta be one of the creepier robotic animals I’ve seen from Japan in some time (or at least this week.) This frightening little guy sits on your dashboard and uses GPS technology to point you in the direction of your destination.

[UPDATE 10/31/2006: The Kondo KHR-2HV Robot is now available from importer AudioCubes.] For those adventurous types, the Kondo KHR-2HV is a complete kit to build your own autonomous walking robot. The robot features 17 servo motors to control arm, leg and head movements and a lightweight aluminum alloy frame.

PLEN, the Desktop Hobby Robot is a little (9-inch tall) robot from Japan which is capable of balancing itself on a mini-skateboard or to skate on its own included rollerskates. Here’s a video of the robot in action: PLEN’s 18 joints can be controlled remotely using a Bluetooth phone and can run for about 25 minutes on a single charge.

Who said that robots needed to be all clean and shiny (or functional for that matter?) The Bennett Robot Works designs sculptural robots made from junk. Each (non-functional) robot is unique and handmade by Gordon Bennett and made from a carefully selected assemblage of old and new parts.

While NEC was showing off their cute little robot, capable of “tasting” wines (using its built-in) photospectrometer to the Associated Press, they got just a little more than they bargained for… When a reporter’s hand was placed against the robot’s taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto.

I guess that Sony and Honda’s Dancing robots weren’t enough proof that designing humanoid robots was a waste of time and money…. Toyota has now developed a Trumpet playing robot. The world is saved!