Bar2D2 Answers All Your Nerd Drinkup Prayers

January 3rd, 2009 by SB

. . and now you too can have a Bar2D2 of your very own! Jamie Price, mentioned in this space before, has been ever so kind to put up an Instructable on how to make your very own Bar2D2!

Jamie also demonstrates the axiom that you don;t necessarily need to get all fancy with the education to build something completely extraordinary:

Just a quick note about me - I am a regular DIY’r and don’t have any formal robotics, electronics, or mechanical training. I have picked up most of my skills from various hobbies and projects, as well as my father who is a skilled woodworker. If you have a basic knowledge of woodworking and working with low voltage power, then you can build a mobile bar! Enjoy!

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Happy New Years - Robot Evolution Video

December 31st, 2008 by Mr Robotics

So cool.

Via the Squid

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I-Wei Huang Once Again Keeps Me From Actually Having To Work For It

December 22nd, 2008 by SB


So back a couple days ago
I mentioned I-Wei Huang, who is still cooler than you and sheds mechanical ninja-fu like some people shed viruses. Well, he’s shown up again, saving me from actually having to look for something good to post:

Embrace the Crab-Fu, people.

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RoboBaby Strikes Again!

December 19th, 2008 by SB

Found this thanks to the always awesome Lem, who got it from I-Wei, because I-Wei lives the life you wish you had:

More posts up soon if my brain ever resembles something that is not oatmeal or boiled millet.

Mister Robotics is still in Tokyo (Follow him on Twitter!), and after a month of sustained human contact I believe the Rotor is presiding in-self contained splendor in the Fortress Of Solitude, so It’s all me until then. And I like I said, my brain is millet.

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RoboExotica 2008 Annual Cocktail Robot Awards - Winners!

December 8th, 2008 by Mr Robotics

The results are in at RoboExotica, the votes have been tallied, and the lovely cocktail making robots in Vienna have garnished their accolades. Eddie Codel has a good write-up of the event at LaughingSquid.

“To Serve Man” indeed…

Category - SERVING
winners: Sloth (kal spelletich)

And
fairy juicer (mitch heinrich, david fine)

Category - MIXING Read the rest of this entry »

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Roboexotica! 2008!

December 5th, 2008 by SB

Because we lack, we present LaughingSquid’s quick post on RoboExotica, partly because I personally am despondent that I am no there, and partially because I am a paradoxically extremely busy lazy fuck this morning (Afternoon? Whatever).

Roboexotica 2008, the 10th annual festival for cocktail robots organized by SHIFZ, monochrom and Bureau of Philosophy, kicks of this Thursday, December 4th at Freiraum in Vienna’s Museumsquartier and runs through December 14th.

Here’s a gallery of photos and video from previous Roboexotica events.

Until recently, no attempts had been made to publically discuss the role of cocktail robotics as an index for the integration of technological innovations into the human Lebenswelt, or to document the increasing occurrence of radical hedonism in man-machine communication. Roboexotica is an attempt to fill this vacuum. It is the first and, inevitably, the leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics world-wide. A micro mechanical change of paradigm in the age of borderless capital. Alan Turing would doubtless test this out.

The Rotor is there with Chassis (background) and collaborator Al Honig:

Zwei Groβes Bier shout-outs to Magnus, Kal Spelletich, Bre Pettis, Johannes G, Gunter, Evelyn, Tina and everyone else! Mister Robotics and I are sitting here having itchy-vein junkie fits because we’re not there, but hey turnabout is fair play I guess. . .

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“Metal Fingers In My Body”

December 4th, 2008 by SB

This video is NSFW and NSF just about anyone who isn’t completely comfy with hardcore juicy robot sexytimes (Rotor I’m lookin’ at you)

Yet, it is oddly compelling.

[Thanks(?) David Fine]

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The Saddest Robot

December 4th, 2008 by SB

Don’t let this happen to you (seen today on the gorgeous Simulated Comic Product)

[Thanks Lee!]

(The Rotor is in Vienna, Mister Robotics is in buried in Systm and I am wrangling art stars and tentacles, so apologies for the lack of posting, I shall take my beating with my tea.)

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Aluminuminuminum Centipedededede

November 20th, 2008 by The Head Rotor

For those of you who can’t make tomorrow night’s show of kinetic art, we have a sneak preview. This centipede was made by that virtuoso of aluminum Nemo Gould, whom we have several kinds of crushes on over here at SB*. If those kind of look like bundt pans and bike brake levers, you are exactly right, Sir or Madam!

Nemo Gould centipede

*[SB adds: Seriously, you have no idea]

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More Hexapod Adorableness

November 17th, 2008 by SB

As a follow up to the Hexapod-Meisterschaft post (sent to us courtesy Laughing Squid) we bring you little bit of explanation, and a little bit of Massïve Hëxäpöd Meistermäschinen!

These six-legged carryings-on are the result of the Fachhochschuler Oberösterreich, which as near as I can figure out is a network of technical high schools in Austria (any Austrians reading this please to shed light on this?). They have a lovely hexapod competition, and from the funk these machines bring, they do teach them a thing or two at FH Oberösterreich.

You can get your own hexapod kit to play around with at the wonderous Trossen Robotics, which I personally think is really great idea because baby robots need new pairs of shoes over here, if you get my meaning (yes, we are proud participants in the Trossen affiliate program).

Speaking of Austria, we are shipping the Rotor off to Vienna this Saturday for RoboExotica; his crate is almost done and we promised to put enough water and padding in there this time, so expect to hear from him and what those crazy Austrian cocktail roboticists are up to.

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Walking iPhone

November 16th, 2008 by SB

RoboGames fave Kazu Terasaki demonstrates an incredibly cute concept in iPhone add-ons: if your phone rings, why should you go fetch it? in this day an age, make it come to you!

Kazu has developed a kit for making just about anything into a walking robot, a la this iPhone, check it out here (some assembly and Japanese language skills required)!

[via robots.net and Norri!]


[Yes, thank you I know video posts are a cop-out. I imagine someone might have something intelligent to say at some point around here, I promise. Many thanks to the adorable and Vienna-bound Head Rotor for holding down the fort for us for a while; it's been hectic around here]

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The Uncanny Valley Problem, Only Backwards

November 16th, 2008 by SB

Or maybe it’s upside down? Inside out?

The irresistible Lem sends along this experiment that one intrepid young scientist undertook to. . .well, he could be doing it to to explore involuntary impulse control, investigate natural reactions to outside stimuli, or working up a prototype for machine-face interaction.

Or he might have just wanted to see what happens when you tape a bunch of electrodes to your face and give yourself little shocks alongside an amusing little electronic track:

Remember kids, science is freakin’ AWESOME.

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Burn-E

November 13th, 2008 by The Head Rotor

This will likely last precisely as long as it takes the Dailymotion people to wake up and find the C&D from Pixar in their inbox, but here it is anyhoo:


Burn-E

Tip o’ the hubcap to the ever-reliable Waxy

[Edit by SB: Aaaand there you have it. I am sure it is around elsewhere, and it's worth finding!]

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Exclusive Roboholic Preview

November 12th, 2008 by The Head Rotor

So the Rotor was just over at the Seemen Development Labs and managed to get an exclusive spy photo of the latest alcohol delivery unit under construction by Artistic Director Kal Spelletich. This gadget walks gripper-over-gripper along an overhead wire, and carries a payload of an electrically-valved bottle of Jameson, as well as some cameras and video monitors allowing you to see the world through the robot’s eyes. Too early in the development cycle to even have a name yet, you can see it in action at Roböxotica, the International Festival of Cocktail Robotics, should you happen to be in Vienna the week after Thanksgiving.

The Rotor will be there, hopefully with Chassis in tow. See you in Wien, prost!

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Neat Feat: a Twitter Spitter

November 8th, 2008 by The Head Rotor

DocPop alerts us to Ganzbot, a personable (robotable?) device that speaks and emotes. Ganzbot is designed to be hooked into microblogging site Twitter, which, among others, has ensnared MissySB and the Rotor in it’s addictive embrace.

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