Robotorama » Robots

Breakdancing Robot

B.Greenway — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:43:58 +0000

We’ve seen some pretty impressive physical feats from robots here over the years but this one might take the cake. This is what I assume to be a modified Manoi AT01 actually breakdancing.

Be sure and check out the end of the video for the big finale. Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Via GetRobo.

BIOLOID Robotic Kit

B.Greenway — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:31:45 +0000

The BIOLOID from ROBOTIS are kits geared towards students at any level in robotic education, whether you want to learn the basics or you are taking a college course in robotic engineering. These kits are made up of cleverly designed interchangeable block-shaped parts and with these parts you can build robots in a variety of ways, such as humanoids, spiders, puppies, probes, turtles, dino, etc. All the kits come with BIOLOID Software which have behavioral and motion editor programming.

The different kits available are beginner where a 4 DOF (Degree of Freedom) robot can be built into a few basic shapes. This robot has simple motion and can avoid objects with its optical sensors. It can also be easily upgraded once you get the hang of robot building.

With the comprehensive kit, which is the next step up, you can build an 18 DOF robot. This kit contains the basics like the beginner kit but also has 12 additional robot examples. In the expert kit, you can build up to 26 different robots and it also includes a wireless camera, wireless communication module, and C level language example. In recent months we’ve seen life size androids, animal robots, fighting robots and everything in-between, it’s nice to see education as the main theme again.

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