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Awesome multi-legged robots

 We recently wrote about robot builders in Japan becoming more interested in multi-legged robots and here are some awesome photos and a video from the 47th Kanto (Tokyo region)-Gumi (group) Robot Training Meeting  which was held at robot shop Robotma.com  in Tokyo on Valentine's Day, 2010. The meeting was organized by Ishikawa-san , who is the leader of Kanto-Gumi. 

 
 You can read more about these robots at Sanzai’s Blog  and Biped Robot News Japan.

「多脚が征く!_#4 」

Dear Hershey, Wanna start a robot competition?

 

 If you do, here's something you can look into - a robot competition that involves lots of chocolate.

 The TIROL-CHOCO Robot Competition is an annual event where robot builders in Japan gather with their robots that look like a big piece of a TIROL chocolate, which by the way is very yummy.

 The robots compete in 3 events - foot race, knocking down paper cups and carrying chocolates.

 Below is a video of the foot race from the 4th TIROL-CHOCO Robot Competition that was held on Feb. 13.

 It's really a fun family event and the interesting fact is, the chocolate company didn't have to do anything to get this going. Robot builder MASAYUKI

 and others thought it was a fun idea, because one of their robots looked like a big piece of chocolate and yes the sweets happen to have this cute wrapping paper that come in wide variety so why not start a game? They send in a proposal to the chocolate company for approval and TIROL checks to make sure that the event will not damage their brand or anything.  Then TIROL just sends them a bunch of chocolate to be used in the games and as prizes. Robot shop RT Co. sponsors the competition. 

  The winning robot is decided by a combination of points they collect in the events and a popularity vote. What a great way to be able to market a product.

 
  If you're interested, you can read more on Biped Robot News Japan.

[FIRST 2010] Gaining Momentum

 The complete track system has not arrived yet, but the tank track module has, and there is definitely more activity going on in Rm. 602. 

 (Photo 1: Tank track module has arrived)

 

(Photo 2: Preparing to use a retired robot to test the camera)

 Next up will be driving around the new robot as soon as the track belts come.
 

Interview with Max Safai, Neato Robotics CEO

 GetRobo had the chance to visit Neato Robotics in Mountain View, CA, and got a first-hand look at the new robotic vacuum cleaner Neato XV-11. I wanted to try out their "crown jewel" - as CEO Max Safai puts it - which is their original inexpensive laser rangefinder that costs only $30.

 First of all, I wanted to see how the XV-11 can detect and avoid obstacles on the fly. 

 Very clever!

  It's also neat that the robot can identify a door and will not go out of the room until it has finished cleaning. Once it's done, it will go out of the door and move on to the next room. You can check out the other videos on the YouTube GetRobo Channel.

  There were some questions that I wanted to ask the company. The main one being whether they are willing to sell the laser rangefinder component separately. 

 The following is an edited excerpt from an interview with Neato CEO, Mr. Safai. The original article appeared on GetRobo Japanese on Feb. 6. 

 

 Q. How do you feel about competing with iRobot?

Biped robot builders in Japan become interested in more legs

 Until recently, robots with more than 2 legs have been less popular compared to biped robots among hobbyists in Japan.

 There was just one 4-legged robot kit, the G-DOG , which HIP JAPAN started selling in July 2008.

 But nowadays, Japanese robot enthusiasts who have been working on custom-built biped robots are starting to become more and more  interested in making multi-legged robots. This is a noteworthy trend.

 It kind of started off with Shimaken -who is a well-known humanoid robot builder - when he joined the `Wonderful Robot Carnival - Petit `  with his original hexapod `Shiguma` in November of 2008. Bishii  of  (Asakusa-giken) and Tanaka  of  (Dainihon-giken) declared in December 2009 that they have begun to make multi-legged robots loaded with toy guns and sensors for future competitions. They used the image monitor such as `Remo`.

 This year,  ROBOSPOT held an information exchange meeting about multi-legged robot on Jan 23rd. A number of robot builders joined the meeting and exchanged ideas. Some people made presentations about their new robots. One of them was me. I presented the videos of my new robots with 5 legs, BT-L5 and BT-L15 .

 After the meeting, ROBOSPOT announced it's plan to start a new competition for multi-legged robots this coming spring. Mr. Morinaga , who is known as the `Father of ROBO-ONE` also started to make multi-legged robots, one being the Metallic Bio with 7 legs.

 Igaa , another famous biped robot builder know for `Saaga` and `Soga`, also made a new multi-legged robot with wheels for `the 1st Kanto Robot War` and published his video below. His wheeled complex multi-legged robot can move with high speed.

 K who is famous for a big Gundum robot at S.H.R.B. , is also making a multi-legged robot with 4 legs .

 So why is this trend happening now?