Robotorama » Robot Events

MANOI the athlete humanoid

B.Greenway — Sat, 20 May 2006 08:35:59 +0000

All the way back in 2004 the Kondo KHR-1 robot kit was introduced and it was mainly geared at hobbyists. The KHR-1 was capable of doing flips, cartwheels and had 17 adjustable joints. Obviously being a kit it required a dedicated robot enthusiast with the time, skill and the $1500 or so necessary to purchase the robot kit. But what about robot fans who wanted to own an advanced robot, yet didn’t necessarily want to assemble one?

Kyosho is now slated to release a robot built on the KHR-1’s skeleton already assembled. The “MANOI athlete humanoid” is touted as a Robot Athlete is specifically designed for competition.

The company that handles MANOI’s distribution (Kyosho) has even scheduled the “Kyosho Athletics Humanoid Cup”. I like the idea of a product that already has events planned for its user base.

Some of the competitions include: a 5-meter run and a 20-meter run. Look for the MANOI to be released sometime this summer.

MANOI Video

Robot Expo Aichi Japan

B.Greenway — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 07:39:46 +0000

In what has to be one of the largest commercial robot displays in the world, Robot Expo has more than 60 robots on display. The robots range from the practical to bizarre in their intended uses, with one touted as the most humanoid robot to date, covered in a ’skin-like’ substance and mimics breathing.

The show which runs through June 19th is a showcase of some of the most advanced robotic projects in the world. Some of the robots on display can swim, taste, read and draw which goes to show just how far robotics in general have come. While these individual skills alone own may appear to some as nothing more than parlor tricks, the combination of all or some of these skills into a single robot will likely herald in a new

BotStock 2

B.Greenway — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 07:33:47 +0000

I wanted to post a bit of information I just ran across, the sad part is only found out about this after the fact. Botstock is a gathering of robot enthusiasts from across America who meet up annually to share their passion for all things robotic.BotStock 2 was held this past weekend in Spokane Washington at the ‘Robot Hut‘ quite appropriately.

Many of the participants are members of a forum dedicated to robots called Alphadrome, the forum is a wealth of knowledge and has quite a bit of photos and stories from the event. Well worth a look. I missed this year’s event, but hopefully I can make next years.