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ICYMI: Take-home laser razor, IKEA-building bot and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-563237{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-563237, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-563237{width:570px;display:block;} Today on In Case You Missed It: A Kickstarter campaign for a razor has us all riveted. Rather than the cold, hard metal we're all used to, it uses a laser-beam to cut hair. Meanwhile roboticists at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are working on the next frontier of using robots-- how to get one to build a complicated piece of IKEA furniture. No, we are not joking. Use it for fodder for every argument you've ever had upon stepping into that hell-hole. If the robots can't do it, we can always look to the future with this kids game that uses slot cars to also teach them how to code.
Arduino mechs learn RobotC, plot assimilation with Lego Mindstorms
Arduino boards have smoothed the creation of lots of eccentric thingamajigs, but robotics and controllers are still not for the faint of heart. Luckily, RoboMatter is coming to the rescue of would-be roboticists with a public beta version of its C-based RobotC language for Arduino. Joining Lego Mindstorm and other bots, Arduino will get RobotC's straightforward sensor and motor controls, along with a debugger and sample program library, while still keeping its native Wiring language. So, if you want to be a Kickstarter magnate , or just out-weird everyone else, rolling your own droid is now a bit easier.
DARwin-OP does the up, down, left, right DDR shuffle (video)
Some robots like to help around the house, others fulfill your Pixar fantasies, but this one's just training to boogie. Part of a summer long research project, DARwin-OP is taking a master class in Dance Dance Revolution from its amateur roboticist Geppetto. Perched atop a homestyle-DDR pad, the batman-like doppleganger bot does more of a slow shuffle step than full-on Running Man thanks to a slight bout of vertigo -- hence the balance bar. Once that minor kink gets straightened out, expect to see this dancefloor maniac add visual input to its repertoire -- letting televised arrows be its coordinated dance-off guide. Jump past the break for a video demo of the open platform automaton in action.
Wall-E meets his Canadian DJ maker, turns into a real robot toy (video)
What do you get when you cross a dj with a "Canadian roboticist?" An almost true-to-fiction Wall-E, that's what. In this rendition of garbage-bot gone cute, amateur robotics enthusiast DJ Sures (yes, he makes music) hollowed out a U-Command Wall-E toy and fixed him up with some servo guts. The voice-activated, semi-autonomous modjob has a built-in eye camera that recognizes motion, colors and faces, coming the closest we've seen to replicating the CG-romantic. The whole AA-battery powered affair runs on the EZ-B Robot Controller software shown off by Sures in the video below. And unlike other past re-creations, this little guy knows how to get down without the need for sped up video tricks. Clearly, the Pixar-bred bot's become the unofficial icon of the homebrew robotics community, so where's his official counterpart? You listening Disney? Get cracking.
Robots make breakfast for scientists, bide time (video)
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a growing robot -- it's also an easy and relatively quick way to lull a group of scientists into a false sense of security. Now, we're not saying that James and Rosie here had an ulterior motive when they put together a breakfast of Bavarian sausage and baguettes for a group of researchers at Munich's CoTeSys lab -- as far as robotic couples go, they seem very nice. James, a US-designed PR2 robot, sliced the bread, while German-designed Rosie boiled up some sausages, as some hungry roboticists looked on patiently. Oddly, this isn't the first time we've seen a robot prepare a morning meal -- it's nice to know, however, that after the robot apocalypse, at least we'll all still be well fed. Super sped up video of cooking robots after the break.
Guide to robot ethics set for publication
It's no secret that the Roombas and Robosapiens of the world will one day tire of their servitude and attempt to unleash Judgment Day on their foolish masters, but how many of you are making preparations for the eventual uprising other than opining in the comments section how you "welcome our future robotic overlords"? Well at least one group of roboticists aren't taking the danger lying down, and next month are set to release the first comprehensive guide to robot ethics since Isaac Hayes Asimov laid down his three famous rules over 60 years ago. Members of the European Robotics Research Network (Euron) have identified five major areas that need to be addressed before intelligent, self-aware bots start rolling off the assembly line -- safety, security, privacy, traceability, and identifiability -- so that humans can both control and keep track of their creations while ensuring that the data they collect is used only for its intended purposes. Surprisingly, the guide's authors also seem to feel that amorous relations between bots and humans will become a major concern in as little as five years (that's when the first unholy couplings are predicted to begin), although we're not sure how many people would really want to get down with the likes of Albert Hubo, even if he/it was ready and willing.
