Hasta La Gadget!

Back in the 1980s we had a little game system here in the States called the NES. In Japan, that system was called the Famicom. It looked mighty different, but played most of the same games. And while the Famicom has long-since been discontinued, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get the occasional hack done to it just like the NES. Here, we have a Famicom, hacked to control a robot.

Ninagawa Izumi’s robot is controlled by the classic red and gold Famicom gamepad. While I’m not sure of all of the steps in the hack, it involved the use of a Bluetooth dongle, a Wii controller, an NES/SNES to Wii adapter, a PS to Wii adapter and a Bluetooth-to-serial adapter. All of this was put together to control a cute little ROBO-XERO humanoid robot with some googly eyeballs. Here, check it out in action:

Funny thing is, this isn’t the only controller that he’s operated his robot with…

Sweet, eh? I wish Nintendo would come out with their own line of robots operated by game controller. Heck, they could even skip the Famicom, and go straight for the Wii U controller. It would be cool if you could pilot a Nintendobot using motion control and get a ‘bots-eye view using the screen. I bet they’d sell at least a few more Wii Us if they started offering Wii U robots to go with. And yes, I know it wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo connected a robot to a console.

[via Tiny Cartridge]

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are working on a rescue robot that can take on both humanoid and tank forms like a Transformer. No word on whether it is a Decepticon or an Autobot. It’s called CHIMP (CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform) and it can work like a human (or monkey) when it needs to climb a ladder and such. But if the terrain gets rough, it can drop onto all fours, switch on its motorized treads, and become a tank.

In that form CHIMP can traverse disaster areas and seek out survivors. The robot is being developed by CMU for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The goal of the Robotics Challenge is to take disaster response robots to the next level, making them capable of doing just about anything a human can do.

As part of the challenge, robots must be able to do everything from driving across rubble, to climbing a ladder, to breaking through concrete, to repairing a leaking pipe.

The key to this is flexibility. Sometimes two legs are better, other times four is what you need. I can’t wait to see where this goes. Thankfully, it will be some time yet before these flexible bots enslave us.

[via Geekosystem]

If science fiction films are to be believed, when an astronaut needs company in space, a robot can be a good companion. In keeping with that idea, Kibo the robot will soon join the crew of the International Space Station. The robot will be sent up with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and of course it will be able to speak to him in his own language.


The idea is that Kibo will keep everyone entertained by interacting with them and taking pictures and updating his Twitter account back on Earth. Like any astronaut, Kibo has undergone training. He recently practiced in zero gravity, as you can see in the video clip below.

The little robot stands 13.4 inches tall, weighs just 2.2 pounds, and boasts natural language processing technology from Toyota. He also has facial recognition software in his head.

The robot was designed by Tomotaka Takahashi who created Panasonic’s Mr. EVOLTA mascot. Hopefully he fits in on the space station and they have lots of fun.

[via Daily Mail]

A group of scientists and engineers from the University of Zürich’s Artificial Intelligence Lab has unveiled a robot called Roboy. While their intentions are good, this creepy-looking robot reminds me of an adolescent, hydrocephalic, Terminator sent back in time to destroy mankind. But that’s not what it’s designed for – the team working on the project hope that it might be a sort of blueprint for human service robots.

Eventually, the robot will be covered with a soft skin and make it more comfortable for humans to touch and look at. The design uses a series of mechanical actuators to allow the robot to move around freely combined with artificial tendons. The use of these artificial tendons allows the robot to mimic human movement.

The designers of the robot say that it is still in the construction phase. So far, the team has completed the robot’s torso, leg development, a CAD model of the entire robot, and other tasks. In the middle of December, the team announced that the robot had its face and could move its arms. To finance the completion of Roboy, the researchers and engineers have taken the unique approach of selling ad space on the robot’s body.

[via Phys.org]

Well, there goes my plan of hiding on a rock cliff from robots who can’t get me because they don’t know how to walk a tightrope. It appears they can now walk tightropes with the greatest of ease. Then again, I’ll just bring some scissors with me. That’ll teach ‘em.

Check out this video of a humanoid robot walking a tightrope with no problems at all, complete with techno music to accompany the feat. It takes its time doing it, but still it’s doing it way better than most humans. The robot spreads its arms to help maintain balance and slides its feet one at a time.

So I have my supplies ready, including scissors and I have a nice high spot picked out to survive the robot apocalypse. Even if they deploy a high wire, I can cut it with cable cutters. I will probably starve up there after my supplies run out, but they can kiss my cold dead corpse.

[via Hackaday via Geekosystem]