It’s pretty hard to translate, but it looks like a bunch of robots that were created by Jiro Aizawa in the 50s and 60s have been found in a wearhouse in Japan. They are awesomely retro and have all of the design aesthetics from the era.

They have lights controlled by vacuum tubes and it looks like they may move as well. The robots will be fully restored to their former glory to terrify and thrill a whole new generation. They are a sight to see and should probably be in a museum somewhere.

[Botjunkie]

Creating and selling stuff has always been the way of our economy, but an even more hot topic is manufacturing at minimal levels. Assembly lines have gotten more and more productive throughout the years, but we have not gotten something so small before.

The M-1iA from FANUC robotics is what I am talking about. It only weighs 17 Kg, which is pretty amazing for something that would replace a 86.6 Kg worker. As you can see in the video, the M-1iA is very swift about its job of putting keyboards together; and accurate too. Nothing that isn’t expected from robots. Add this robot to the Self-assembling robot and you got mass destruction production.

[Eggshell-Robotics]

The SCRATCHbot was designed for search and rescue missions. What’s interesting about this one is that, much like a real rat, it uses its whiskers to detect disaster survivors in dangerous areas. The Bristol Robotics Laboratory developed the rat-bot over the past 6 years and now they hope to find interest for it in underground and underwater projects where vision can’t locate people/things.

It may have some other uses as well, like textile inspection and implementation inside intelligent vacuum cleaners, where it would be able to adjust the cleaning to the particular surface it senses. Video below.

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The trailer for Robogeisha is three minutes of absolute robot/geisha craziness. This is NSFW due to violence alone. I mean, in one scene a girl gets stabbed in the ass and blood shoots out. This may be the best or worst thing ever. TENGU MILK! HANDICAP GUN! GEISHA CHAINSAW!

[Topless Robot]

Clara is a creepy little robot baby with a duct tape diaper on her midsection instead of her ass, and a hankering to play the theremin. Clara was created by Sarah Angliss, a musician and sound artist. And Clara will be in my nightmares henceforth, terrifying me with her creepiness and occasionally shitting herself, while providing her own otherworldly theremin soundtrack.

This music video looks like it was shot in the 60’s and I believe it may be some kind of cult propaganda. The damn baby keeps making weird sounds and waving a kitchen whisk everywhere.

[Robot Living]

European researchers have developed a robot capable of moving autonomously using human-like visual processing. The robot is helping researchers explore how the brain responds to its environment while the body is moving. The end result may be machines that are better able to navigate through cluttered environments.

The robot is a wheeled platform with a robotic head that uses two cameras for stereoscopic vision. It can turn its head and shift its gaze up and down or sideways to check out its surroundings, and can measure its own speed relative to its environment.

The robot is controlled by algorithms designed to mimic different parts of the human visual system. Instead of capturing and mapping its surroundings over and over in order to plan its route, the way most robots do, this robot uses a simulated neural network to update its position relative to the environment, continually adjusting to each new input. So it mimics human visual processing and movement planning.

[Technologyreview]

In the first Cylon war, some forty years prior to humanity’s eventual colonization on Earth1, the original robotic centurions rebelled against their human creators. Much like they will do to us, oh, any time now.

The war was bloody and brutal as depicted in this beautiful lithograph of an original oil painting, commissioned by Universal Studios and hung on the wall in Admiral Adama’s office. It was painted by BSG assistant art director Ken Rabehl and mixes medieval elements with the robotic onslaught.

[Thinkgeek] VIA [The Awesomer]

We heard just earlier this month that Pleo, the lovable dinosaur robot was going to be made available again thanks to Jetta buying out the rights for the bot from original maker Ugobe. But availability for the dino was questionable.

Now, it seems Pleo will be available in the U.S. thanks to Senario. There are still plenty of these bots in stock and ready to be purchased from a number of outlets. So, there you have it, folks. Pleo lives on for another day!

[robots.net]

LMR-user Arek ArunioSmo has created a very unique robot design, the Climber. To allow the robot to go up stairs, it needs a wooden arc design so the energy is perfectly spread out, making it be possible for it to propel itself yet hold it’s position while doing so.

The first prototype was a failure on the first and last steps, but Arek had fixed that by adding an additional rubber wheel to the front, so it would be able to climb the first step and last step without falling. The Climber is a really unique design, which will lead to many other stair-climbing robots.

[Eggshell-Robotics]

When I first saw this pic, there was something about it that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Then it hit me. Maybe it’s just me, but do these two bots not resemble Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman?

Jamie is the one on the bottom. That’s clearly a beret instead of hair and he has the mustache and glasses. Then you have Adam on top. Granted, Adam doesn’t have a stache like Jamie’s but he’s always got some growth. It makes sense that his stache would grow with no arms to shave. The hair is dead on and of course the glasses again.

Apparently they both lost their arms to one of Grant’s robots and judging by their chests they heart each other bunches.

[Randompictures]