I found out from reading Wired, that apparently there’s a name for the family of robots that resemble hamsters on a treadmill: “miniball” robots. The name comes from a now-retired do-it-yourself kit to build such a robot, formerly manufactured by Solarbotics. I was bummed when I discovered that I can’t just buy the kit with all the parts intact (I am lazy AND impatient). It turns out that I cannot find much information on this family of robotic devices anymore, however, the miniball was originaly invented by Richard Weait of North York, Toronto and used battery power. This design produces a very amazing robot with simple circuitry that proves to be a very capable robot that rarely got stuck.

However, SWARM, the large-scale kinetic art project uses electrically powered spheres, radio-controlled units that receive their commands from a mother node.  This video is of the SWARM units at Maker Faire 2008:

The folks at Instructables note the original Miniball had a geared motor that moved as a counter weight around a fixed shaft inside the plastic ball container. As the motor tries to move the weight forward, the ball starts to roll in that particular direction.

Jérôme Demers, an intern with Solarbotics has resurrected the irresistibly cute design and given it a solar facelift:

“In our case we have a motor with wheel, which spins the ball forward as it runs. Imagine this like a hamster in a ball – it’s almost the exact same thing! But in this case, we’re feeding our hamster with photons!”

Watch the video (with great audio track background) here:

Sega, the famous Japanese toy company, has produced a robotic virtual pet modeled after a real 3-day old chick.  They are very cute and have a pretty real-looking appearance.  I am not sure if they are sold anymore or not.  Check out this very adorable video:

Scientists are now building a new kind of robot capable of self-assembly and doing tasks too difficult or too dangerous for human beings. These awesome little swarm bots can ‘speak’ to each individual unit and coordinate to achieve a task.

Check out thsi video where we see the robots assemble and ‘swarm’ to accomplish the task of climbing over a barrier and walking down a stepped path!

The term ‘swarm robotic’s is  the study of how large numbers of relatively simple physically-embodied agents can be designed such that a desired collective behavior emerges from the local interactions among agents and between the agents and the environment. It is a new concept and approach toward the coordination of large numbers of robots. It is inspired by the observation of social insects such as ants, termites, wasps and bees in nature. These collective animals use communication techniques (still unknown) to coordinate large numbers of simple individuals and interact to create collectively intelligent systems. Social insects are known to coordinate their actions to accomplish tasks that are beyond the capabilities of a single individual: termites build large and complex mounds, army ants organize foraging raids, ants can collectively carry out the annihiliation and transport of large prey hundreds of times their individual size. Such coordination capabilities are still beyond the reach of current multi-robot systems.

A project started in 2001 called Swarmanoid has since continued with more bio-inspired artificial intelligence robotics.

This is a link to more swarm-bots information.

And an awesome creepy video of swarm-bots pulling a child!

This 23cm tall Nabaztag rabbit moves its ears, light up in hundreds of colors, play music, speak and even accept voice commands.  By the way, this slightly expensive wireless companion is compatible with PC, Mac and Linux computers.  The good part for non-saavy electronics person is that the configuration for this little guy (or girl) is entirely web-based and requires no platform-specific software

Self-labeled ‘the next gen in smart toys,’ this Wi-Fi Internet Rabbit will inform the user of the weather, air quality, traffic, stocks, email arrivals or blab up a storm with stories. Even better, family and friends will be impressed by the Nabaztag’s ability to be controlled from a distance, via SMS or email commands.

Where is this being sold?  On a few limited sites such as the robotshop.com and thinkgeek (plus a few others).

This entire website outlines the trajectory of the development of robotic fish.  Earlier on this blog, I highlighted Robotuna and RobotPike.  Now, there are many more projects concentrating on more than just understanding the functionality of the caudal fin.  Mitsubishi company has designed and created an animatronic robot modeled after the ancient extinct creature called the Coelacanth for the sole purpose of displaying a living fossil to its viewers!  A Japanese museum (the Aquatom) features this creature in an aquarium for the public to witness what the Coelacanth might have been like when it inhabited prehistoric oceans.

Just kidding.

The moniker ‘bugbot’ has been used plenty of times before, I just did not know that the nickname had invented long ago by robotics engineers and other high-tech tinkerers.

Wowwee, a company aimed at making fun toys for grown-ups, is “a leading designer, developer, marketer and distributor of innovative hi-tech consumer robotic and entertainment products.” They’ve come out with their own answer to the hexbot; these little guys are also the same price (about 10 bucks) and will be available to the general public in the next months.

Tearing through underbrush, tumbling over railway tracks and sliding dusty hills, through rock-strewn canyons and  troughs of mud, Boston Dynamics’ RHex robot is pretty amazing. 

Stairs, falls, rocks or swimming pools do not stop the rugged RHex robot.  When this creature starts running, the chances are you will, too: in the opposite direction!

A slab of technology graced by six whirling, curved arms, it’s operated by a remote control and has a range of up to 600 meters. Cameras on its front and rear ends, and an integrated GPS module, allow for use out of the line of sight or in tight areas.To check out the video, click this:

Busy as bees, Nissan is in the process of working on a crash prevention system that makes use of the type of technology that bees use in practicing crash avoidance.  Research on bees and their navigation has provided some insight to Nissan engineers on how to design the next generation of sophisticated automotive technology.

Based on joint project with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at Japan’s prestigious University of Tokyo, the Biomimetic Car Robot or BR23C is a robotic micro-car that mimics bee navigation with the goal of producing a system that prevents collisions altogether.

This video is a clip from the convention:

Finnegan is the name given to this roboturtle which turns out to be quite an agile and aggressively maneuvering biomimetic autonomous underwater vehicle, propelled entirely with biologically inspired oscillating foils. The goal of biomimetic robotics is to observe, adapt and apply the design and behavior of biological examples (such as turtles!) to improve the performance of human-designed devices. Biomimetic propulsion and oscillating foils in particular, have been extensively studied as a possible means for improvement of underwater vehicle agility and maneuverability.

The objective of this particular project was to prove the ability of rolling and twisting foils to improve the maneuvering performance of underwater craft as defined by the turning radius and turning rate at speed, while simultaneously providing the agility to control six degrees of freedom at low speed in confined space.

In developing the roboturtle, the doctoral students at MIT took advantage of the growing body of knowledge into the dynamics of fish, bird, reptile and mammal swimming strategies to extend the state of the art in underwater vehicles.  And the motion looks so real!