OVO

Trevor Blake: Remmitron. Silent, color, 46 seconds. Electric razor, screws, wire, glue.

Trevor Blake: Vibrotifer. Silent, color, 31 seconds. Battery holder, motor, screws, toothbrushes, on/off button. Also called vibrobot, bristlebot, skitterbot. March 2010.

“If you want, you can have this future.”

Japan, the world’s second largest economy, is facing a demographic crisis that will shrink the population dramatically. The Japanese aren’t having babies, and the country won’t accept immigrants to help bolster the population. But Japan may have a unique solution – Robots!

If you are someone who thinks or writes about race, immigration, labor, technology, population or culture in the USA this video of how things are done in another country might be of interest.

Swarm Bots: Now W/Solar Power, Complex Behaviors! | Boing Boing Gadgets

Fed by Birds is a South London haven for strange creatures, complicated clothes and forgotten books. And robots.

Fed by Birds

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies – Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News – FOXNews.com

OGRE Mark 1 by Trevor Blake. Drawn in Sketchup, rendered in the style of the videogame Battlezone. Based on OGRE by Steve Jackson Games. A paper model is in the works. Previous OGRE links here and here.

Altdroid by Trevor Blake. 19 June 2009.

Trevor Blake, Skitterbot 16 June 2009. Toothbrush, motor, tape, wire, switch, screw, battery holder, battery. Fast, can find walls and irregularities in the floor, could be fitted with a pen. Also known as a vibrobot or a bristlebot.

Autonome selbst steuernde Systeme mit kollektivem Verhalten und Technologieträger für die Automatisierungstechnik von morgen.

YouTube – Festo AirPenguin

Trevor Blake: Cohibot. 3 June 2009.

The Sikorsky Cypher and Cypher II are types of unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. They are vertical takeoff and landing aircraft which use two opposing rotors enclosed in a circular shroud for propulsion.

Sikorsky Cypher – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Robotic therapy can potentially help reduce impairment and facilitate neuro-development of youngsters with cerebral palsy,”

Robotic therapy holds promise for cerebral palsy – MIT News Office

The fully articulated robotic hand RAPHaEL (Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments) can firmly hold objects as heavy as a can of food or as delicate as a raw egg. It also is dexterous enough to gesture for sign language.

Low Cost, Dexterous Robotic Hand Operated By Compressed Air

The Crumba by Trevor Blake. An electric floor sweeper made out of a one-dollar electric toothbrush. Portland, Oregon USA. 2 May 2009.

Philosophy that is directly applicable to everyday human life and to robots.

Less Wrong: What is control theory, and why do you need to know about it?

Electric razor, nut, coat hanger, wire. Rechargable, quiet, can find walls and irregularities in the floor, could be fitted with a pen. Also known as a vibrobot. Variant of September 2008 skitterbot.

Mechanical engineering students from ETH Zurich have developed an unmanned sailing boat in a focus project that can reach any given destination completely autonomously. The Avalon robot sailing boat is due to set sail from Ireland in the fall and head for the Caribbean.

[Article continues at link. This is a grand invention for leisure. But it is also immediately applicable to more practical ends. If the sea was peppered with autonomous sail boats that could be remotely programmed, search and rescue operations would be improved. So would scientific research, including climate research. A few dozen robo-boats might do the job of one large tanker. These are exciting times. - Trevor]

That is one sweet giant home-made robot.

YouTube – giant beetle robot

Price: $6.99

Rehab and Therapy Supplies – Squiggle Ball