Awesome Robots

Assaulted by legions of gigantic monsters, man builds equally massive fighting robots to fight back. It’s monsters vs. mecha in director Guillermo del Toro’s latest. Is it just us, or is that GLaDOS talking?

An improved version of the the remote-controlled transforming robot car. It fires plastic projectiles and has a Wi-Fi camera. It gets better: the inventor Kenji Ishida is selling 10 units. Roll out!

If Quentin Tarantino had a baby with Pixar and named Sergio Leone as the godfather, Rocky Curby’s brilliantly bloody Dark Vessel would be the result. Cartoon robot murder and revenge rules.

An incredible futuristic prosthetic limb, which provides its wearer with 14 precise hand positions and grips, helping amputees do everything from write with a pen to gently crack an egg.

Moritz Simon Geist paid homage to the legendary Roland TR-808 drum machine by recreating the sounds it makes using real percussion instruments, with the help of custom made robots and Arduino.

Suidobashi Heavy Industry has launched a site where you can customize the $2M Kuratas mech and then place an order. Who cares if it’s a hoax? We just built a robot. Your argument is invalid.

Japanese engineers are working on solving some pretty important technical problems. Not chief among them is making robots perform circus acts. Though robot bike messengers could be cool.

Dancer Yash Agrawai (aka “RoboPop“) takes on a tiny humanoid robot, and does his best to replicate all the moves of the little mechanical dude. Or is it the other way around? We’re not sure.

Robot designer Jaimie Mantzel first showed off an early build of his six-legged robot toy a few months back, and now here he is, unboxing his awesomely cool production version, dubbed the Attacknid.

DARPA and Boston Dynamics’ Cheetah robot just broke the robot land-speed record by running at an insane speed of 28.3mph – quick enough to catch Usain Bolt should Skynet eventually go online.

Blitzkrieg bot! This is StickBoy, a robot drummer built by Frank Barnes. He has 4 arms, 2 legs and a head with bad-ass metal mohawk spikes. He should use his wrists more though.

YouTuber timtrusler saw a video of DARPA’s humanoid robot being tested and appreciated the robot’s swagger. It only needed two things: the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive and an audience.

Double Robotics’ gyroscopically-balanced robot gives you a remote-controlled avatar you can drive from anywhere on the planet. It uses an iPad as it’s display and camera, and another as its controller.

Mike Senna’s remote-controlled, life-size replica of Wall-E. Senna spent more than 3,800 hours total to make the robot, which can move, move its head and arms and say its name. More here and here.

Japanese engineers have unveiled Kuratas, a 13-foot-tall, wheeled mech which actually can drive up to 10km/h, heads-up video display, and can be operated remotely by an smartphone.

A clever hack using a robotic wheeled bin, and a Kinect created the ultimate waste basket for slobs, automatically detecting the trajectory of flying rubbish and moving into place to catch it.

Fluxel Media has found the perfect use for pop dubstep: the sound of robots fighting. One of those clips you’ll watch over and over again. The song is a remix of Knights of Cydonia.

Robot overlords PX-Micron and Calculord 3 do their best impression of ATHF’s Mooninites in their quest for world domination, from their evil lair – located somewhere between the bench and the bin.

Japan’s Ishikawa Lab puts their scientists to good use, building a robot which can beat you at rock-paper-scissors every single time, thanks to its lightning-fast reflexes. In other words, it cheats.

An amazing visual feast featuring an army of 16 flying quadrotor robots dancing through air and manipulating sound and light. Created for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’s Showcase.

It’s not exactly Real Steel but Tomy’s BattroBorg 2.0 is definitely a step up from Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em. It lets you face a friend (or enemy) with a robot that responds to your ninchaku-style controller.

Director Yves Geleyn’s wonderfully animated short film features a giant wooden robot marionette, some woodpeckers, and a tremendous amount of heart and soul for a 2 minute film.

Cathy Hutchinson suffered a stroke 15 years ago, and is unable to move her limbs or speak. Using a neural interface called BrainGate, watch as she is able to use her thoughts to control a robotic arm.