GetRobo Blog English

[IREX 2011] These candy colored robots will tell you a story

 There is a new humanoid robot in town!  Meet Matanya from Singapore!

 

 

 What's cute about Matanya is how you can press it's arm down to tell it to continue with the story. It's a little like flipping a page of a book. If you want to listen to a part over again, just press down the other arm. That's what Kenichi Kato, who designed the robot, is doing in this photo. 

 It's the first robotic product from Katotec.  The robot now costs 200,000 yen (about 2,600 dollars) and the business model is to sell stories online. Katotec will sell you its original microcontrollers in case you want to build your own humanoid robot too.

[IREX 2011] Volcano Rover Prepares for Fukushima

 Dr. Yoji Kuroda, Director of the Autonomous Mobile Systems Laboratory at Meiji University, came back from the mountains just in time to show off his volcano explorer robot Micro6 at IREX 2011. The robot had spent 2 weeks exploring on its own at a volcano on a Japanese island before it was picked up by Dr. Kuroda and shuttled to the exhibition hall.

 Being able to explore a volcano autonomously for 2 weeks is pretty cool in itself, but what makes this story even more interesting is that the robot was testing some new software that can be used for a future radiation monitoring robot in Fukushima. Right now people are not allowed inside the 20 km radius of the nuclear power plant and there is the need for an autonomous robot to measure the radiation within that area. The low power consumption system that enables the robot to operate for a long period of time and teleoperating techniques that Dr. Kuroda's team have been developing for the volcano rover will come in handy for this type of robot.

 Exact plans to actually implement such robots in Fukushima is still unclear at this point. The biggest issue is deciding who is going to pay for this kind of robotic mission.

 Dr. Kuroda (photographed below) says his lab is building a new robot specifically for Fukushima and will be testing that in the next few months.

[IREX 2011] International Robot Exhibition is full of fun!

 GetRobo is in Tokyo this week to cover the International Robot Exhibition 2011 which started today. This is one of the world's largest trade shows in robotics and is held every other year. And all my goodness! There is so much to see and learn! I will try to post as much as I can. Stay tuned!!!

Riverside Robot Expo 2011 on Nov. 19

The Riverside Robotics Society presents the Riverside Robot Expo 2011. This is an exposition of robots and robotics that will include live-size replicas of robots including Wall-E and R2D2 as well as presentations on robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotic sensors including the Microsoft Kinect.

This largest robot event in Southern California will be held Saturday, November 19, 2011, 12:00 PM at the Woodcrest Library (Address: 16625 Krameria Ave, Riverside, CA  Phone: (951) 789-7320).

Some of the many exhibits for 2011 include * Life-Size Wall-E * 3D Printer Exhibit (a "matter replicator") * Life-Size R2D2 * Theremin Musical Performance * Life-Size B9--The Lost in Space Robot (Sometimes called "Robby") * Terminator Robots: T100 and A T800 on a Motorcycle * Singing Robot Elvis * Singing Robot Betty9 * Robot Races (You control the robots) * Robot Soccer (You control the robots) * Lecture in Robotic AI * Ghostbot and lecture by bestselling author Albert Taylor - Ghost Hunter * Door Prizes * The Build-a-Bot Robot Building Workshop * Demonstration on using the Kinect for Robotics * And MUCH MORE! 

The Riverside Robotics Society hopes that through robotics they will inspire children to get into math, science, or engineering.

Photos are from the Expo last year, by courtesy of Thomas Messerschmidt.

GetRobo Logo in LEGO

GetRobo now has a logo in 3D!

It is a work of art by Jack Marquez (Ewok in Disguise). This is GetRobo's main logo on the top of our home page. Jack's site has a better photo, but here are my shots from the side and back.

So now you know whom you should contact when you want a LEGO version of your favorite robot!

Thank you Jack!!! This is awesome!!!