Awesome Robots

We felt shivers up our flesh-and-blood spines watching this PETMAN prototype for the US Army; it walks at 3.2 mph (the same speed as a human) and stays upright even when shoved.

Letting robots drive is still a touchy matter, but Stanford has developed a robotic Audi TTS able to hit speeds of 80 mph and drift; they aim to tackle Pikes Peak next year, rally style.

Designed to go head to head with an out-of-control Hulk, this 1:6 polystone Hulkbuster Iron Man is sold out in the prop-open helmet version, but still available for preorder as a regular edition.

Kobe’s 59 foot tall Gigantor is finished; costing $1.5 million and weighing 50 tons, it’s Japan’s way of saying “In your face!” to the 1995 quake as it also serves as the city’s guardian angel.

It not only looks like Aliens’ exoskeleton, but the Power Loader suit works like one too: known as a dual-arm power amplification robot, it’s able to lift 220 lbs with ease. Thanks, Sonic!

The initial teaser was too short to feature, but this storyline trailer for Front Mission Evolved fleshes out the plot with new cinematics and gives us a sneak peek at gameplay.

It’s every young (and young-at-heart) boy’s dream: this My Own Personal Robot t-shirt will have to do until we get our own angry, motor-oil dripping machine of metallic death.

Using a repurposed cooler, Brian De Vitis’ R2D2 carries far more than Death Star plans: it’s packed with eight consoles, a sound system and a dome-mounted projector.

Available today only at TeeFury, Alex Solis’ Eco-Friendly t-shirt resembles an amped-up franken-WALL-E; environmental themes aside, the details on this tee are absolutely incredible.

Sir Lancelot turns into Sir Spamalot in this The Robots Come Out At Knight t-shirt; castles are cool and all, but not against 50 foot tall metal monsters that spew cannon and flames.

Sometimes, you just need a t-shirt with a giant robot terrorizing humanity on it: Technophilia simultaneously satisfies our metallic overlords and apes Futurama’s Bender.

IBM’s Deep Blue may be a chess champ, but Queens University’s Deep Green is a hustler-in-training; the team is also working on human-friendly augmented reality pool.

Tarboy is partly an animated short film with fighting robots and explosions galore, but it’s also an amazing technical demo: the entire movie was animated using Flash. Thanks, Will!

The Clone Wars were disastrous for the Trade Federation, but there was one business that made out like bandits Jawas: this Droid Recycle Bin t-shirt proves it pays to be green.

Like a scary-fast robotic Allen Iverson, the University of Tokyo’s High-Speed Robot Hand makes dribbling, throwing, catching, and other human activities look like child’s play.

It came from Earth: Le Petit Prince is a slightly creepy, four-legged robotic greenhouse designed to seek out nutrients on Mars; it’ll talk to other robots wirelessly for optimal locations.

Solving Sudoku is trivial for this LEGO robot by Hans Andersson; the hardest part is image recognition, accomplished with a light sensor and several algorithms. Thanks, Nurgak!

Complete with a child named Seira and a ceremonial bow before the 59-foot mobile suit, there’s no topping this real-life Gundam Wedding for the awesomest (and tallest) venue ever.

After a day spent serving their human overlords, even the best programmed robots need a little prime time down time; My Favorite Program is dedicated to robots that serve robots.

Designed to emulate a real bug (well, one loaded with caffeine), the Phasma is a six-legged robot with stainless steel springs and rubber joints to reproduce the movement of animals.

Now that Avatar’s trailer is out, let the toy onslaught begin: this AMP maquette is based on the 14′ suits used in the film, albeit scaled down to 21″ but still tipping the scales at 12 lbs.

Had James Cameron created the original Terminator in 2004 instead of 1984, it likely would be like this Textinator t-shirt; then again, Hasta La Vista, Baby might simply be TTYL kthxbye.

Those freaky robo-squid from The Matrix still give us nightmares, but they’ll be out later this year in wicked 1:16 Sentinel figures; each sports fully articulating tentacles and mandibles.