Robot Gadgets

The next time you want to purchase a lamp to dress up your home, we would recommend holding off that trip to Ikea for a moment. After all, why go for Swedish-designed products when you can settle for something which is totally different and unique in the form of the Robolamp series? Using bits and pieces from a hardware store, these pipes will hide all the essential electrical wiring underneath, where the head of the robot functions as the lamp. Too bad there is no remote control associate with this though – it would’ve made it infinitely more desirable and fun.

Remote control toys were once all the rage back in the days where I was a kid, but those were limited to just cars. Fast forward a few decades and you have remote controlled toys that do not stick to the ground – no sir, they will hover and zip about in the air instead just like the PicoZ SkyBot Attack.

This incredible battle set features twin-channel cyber-warriors capable of shooting each other out of the sky with well-placed infra-red blasts. Score a direct hit and your rival’s rotors will cut out, causing it to plummet to earth. Or Mars, or Tharg, or whatever other planet you’re pretending to fight for. Think miniature Transformers with heli-packs and phasers and you’re halfway there. Robot wars? Not half! You control your rechargeable robot with a nifty transmitter that doubles up as a charger. Simply plug in for around 20 minutes and your Skybot will fly forwards, backwards, left and right, buzzing about for around five minutes – more than enough time to conduct a full on laser ding dong above the conference table.

The PicoZ SkyBot Attack set will cost you £49.95, and unless you want to get the sack by the boss, we’d recommend playing this only during the lunch break instead of trying to lighten up the mood at the office meeting by letting them rip.

You know that young Anakin Skywalker had one of his arms sliced off during his first encounter with Count Dooku, right? Well, at least he has the advantage of a robotic arm to help him live a normal life.

The Darth Vader Robotic Arm kit shows you how to build a robotic arm and lets you grip and move real objects with interactive controls. The arm assembles quickly with snap-together parts, and includes a stand with built-in controls. Authentic Darth Vader styling means that, once built, the Darth Vader Robotic Arm becomes a totally cool piece of room decoration for any Star Wars fan, young or old.

It will cost you £28.99 to bring home this Darth Vader Robotic Arm that features gripping, turning, and extending ability, alongside the added bonus of holding lightweight objects – like say, a replica lightsaber?

Imagine if you were to chop off Johnny Five’s head and put him on your dashboard. I realize that sounds gruesome, and I’m sure someone actually did that at the end of the original Short Circuit, but just imagine that cute little head on your dash having loving expressions, and showing you the way to go home.

This is essentially the role of AIDA (Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant). This robot head not only serves as a GPS Navigation system, but it actually has expressions. It’s eyes will look happy when you’re going the right way, and become a warning sign when you are not. There is a video of this intriguing concept after the jump if you aren’t already sold on it yet.

AIDA is more than a navigation system, though. It is intelligent enough to remember where you have been, and from this information determines your driving habits. It uses a lot of sensors to gather intel, and will even let you know when you’re low on gas, and where is the best place to stop for gasoline on your way.

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You got to admit that Ropid the robot looks like it should have been in the recently released Astro Boy movie. By the way, that movie is actually pretty good, just so you know.

Ropid is the creation of a Kyoto based group known as Robo Garage, and it has the ability to run and jump. By the way, the robot is programmed to jump with a vocal command. In other words, if you say “jump”, then the robot may not say “how high”, but it will jump as high as it can, which is 8 centimeters high.

That’s not bad considering Ropid measures 38 centimeters tall, and weighs 16 kilograms. The robot has 29 joints and four gyro-sensors, and is powered by a lithium-ion battery. By the way, the vocal commands will also run when you tell it to run, and stop when you say stop. Now if it could run and jump, perhaps it could beat the Olympic long jump record.

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Robonica has rolled out the Roboni-i toy that will fuse elements of robotics, R/C vehicles and interactive gaming to deliver a brand new entertainment category known as “Robotic Gaming”. Gamers will find meaningful and structured gameplay within regardless of whether they play alone, with friends or online. Retailing for $249.99 a pop, Roboni-i is touted to be the “evolutionary ‘next step’ for entertainment robotics.”

A smart, fully programmable and highly agile two-wheeled robot, Roboni-i is the first entertainment robot to offer unlimited play patterns. The state-of-the-art robot features 16 sensors and four processors, RF (ZigBee) remote control and peer-to-peer protocol allowing for competitive gameplay with real-world robots. It also comes packaged with game accessories and six action games enabling players to lay out a playing field and use the gaming controller to select a game as they enter a new dimension of interactive, real-world robotic gameplay. Whether alone or with friends, they will need to beat the odds, race against time, manage resources, neutralize threats, execute special effects and collect bonus points to improve score.

The Roboni-i’s online universe is tipped to roll out this November in its beta version. Are you looking forward to this new method of gaming?

Press Release

One of the problems with firefighting is that firefighters often run into burning buildings, without any idea if anyone is in trouble. I’m sure there are times in which firefighters have ran into empty burning buildings, only to have the structures collapse on top of them. It is always terrible when someone dies for nothing, but the Hoya Robot from South Korea could help cut down on needless deaths.

The Hoya is a rolling robot that resembles the Sony Rolly, and travels at one foot per second. It has a range of 54 yards, and can transmit images of what is inside. It also has onboard lights to illuminate its path, and it can check a burning building for temperature, smoke, and gas.

The Hoya can withstand temperatures of up to 320 degrees Fahrenheit, is water resistant, and can withstand drops of six feet. It can operate up to 30 minutes without charging.

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I’m sure you all remember the classic scene in Aliens where Sigourney Weaver enters the room wearing that bulky, yellow, and yet powerful Power Loader suit and heroically exclaims: “Get away from her, you b___h!” Man, did that make the Mother Alien say: “oh, s__t!”

I remember reading a screenwriting book that talked about how awkward that scene would have been if that Power Loader not been given proper introduction in an earlier scene. In fact, when that movie first introduces the Power Loader, I knew it was going to work its way into the film much later.

After all, it was too cool not to. It appears that a company called Activelink, a Panasonic subsidiary based in Kyoto, Japan, has created one in real life. There is a video of it after the jump.

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