Awesome Robots

“It’s going to take a bit of work for you to truly understand the depths of the stupidity…” Shane from Stuff Made Here decided his first attempt at a robot that gave haircuts wasn’t good enough, so he went back to the drawing board. The new version is a bit more versatile, accurate, and can carve patterns, sorta.

The CableEndy is a robot that uses a cable-driven mechanism to manipulate and stabilize an object at its center. To show off its mechanical prowess, its makers at B&R Automation and Brno University of Technology created this demonstration that shows how it can toss and catch a tennis ball with amazing precision.

Rather than hand-program their robot to walk on varied terrain, scientists from ETH Zurich, KAIST, and Intel allowed their quadruped to learn for itself through software simulation. They then turned it loose using only basic sensors to give the robot awareness of its own internal state. Two Minute Papers explains.

It’s The Strokes vs. the Robots in the Roman Coppola-directed music video for their track The Adults Are Talking. Donning awesome Houston Astros-inspired uniforms, Julian Casablancas and his bandmates go toe-to-toe with a baseball-playing android. But will humanity prevail, or will the bots win the day?

We’ve seen some realistic animatronics in the past, but scientists continue to work on ways to make robots even more lifelike. Engineers from Disney Research have been working on a robot with realistic facial movements that can react to humans it monitors using a 3D camera. Too bad it’s terrifying with the skin off.

Shane from Stuff Made Here has a thing for robots. For Halloween, the engineer repurposed parts from his terrifying haircutting robot into a CNC machine that can automatically carve pumpkins based on images he uploads to it. Along the way, he got to play with a fancy new Tormach plasma cutter.

Designed to combat blazes while keeping humans at a safe distance, Textron Systems and Howe & Howe’s remote-operated robots can blast 1,250-2,500 gallons of water per minute. The robots can climb stairs, shove and winch vehicles, and endure extreme heat. Would also be fun as a response to Elon Musk’s flamethrowers.

Simone Giertz has built some strange and wacky devices. Her latest creation is a wall of fake teeth that she rigged up with motors and a MIDI controller so she can use them as a musical instrument. Along the way, she plays amateur dentist, chats with Andrew Huang, goes house shopping, and has a good cry.

Do you suck at basketball? Maybe you need a robotic assist. Stuff Made Here has previously built a motorized basketball hoop that deflects a ball into the hoop, but only work if you at least hit the backboard. This new robot solves that problem, letting you toss the ball pretty much anywhere in its general vicinity.

While we’d love to have a Boston Dynamics Spot robot to play with, the $74,500 price tag exceeds our toy budget. The Petoi Bittle may not be as large or sophisticated, but it certainly reminds us of the quadruped. Sold as an easy-to-assemble kit, the tiny robot uses 10 servos and a custom circuit board to control them.

We’ve seen the amazing walking mech from Furrion Exo-Bionics before. The Hacksmith managed to score some seat time piloting this incredible 9,000 pound exoskeletal robot. It’s a bit involved just squeezing inside of the thing, but he learns to make it walk in just seven short lessons. When can we have a go?

Developed by engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), these compact robots can work together and assemble themselves into various structures, allowing them to not only to move large objects like furniture, but to become furniture themselves.

When you’re working on construction projects, you could always use an extra hand. Developed by Createk, Université De Sherbrooke, and Exonetik this waist-mounted robot can do things like use a paint roller, squeegee, a gripper hand, or even a metal fist to break through walls. It’s all a bit silly looking if you ask us.

From the “Satisfying Robots” file comes this video footage of the LiSEC TPA-A, a fully-automated system that applies thermoplastic spacers that provide insulation between panes of architectural glass. The robot securely holds the glass in place using suction, then rolls it along its conveyor as it works its magic.

To help deploy high-speed Internet access to rural areas, Facebook Engineering has been developing a robot which can ride along on existing power lines to install fiber optic cables, saving time and money compared to conventional methods such as digging. The system uses with special cables which resist weather damage.

Lots of us have been putting off getting a haircut during the pandemic. But Shane Wighton of Stuff Made Here finally decided to bite the bullet. Rather than risking a visit to the barber, he built a scissor-wielding robot to snip his locks for him. It seems like a dangerous idea, and the resulting haircut is right on par with a Flowbee.

Goldthread introduces us to Sun Shiqian, a man whose love for robots has turned into an obsession. In his studio in the Chinese city of Dalian, he has built numerous giant robots, including replicas of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, as well as a huge, wearable mech suit.

Matt Colglazier and Charles Benevento’s CG animated short film Spark drops us into a factory where robots do all of the work. After one robot is “retired” by some bullying boss bots, one of its components lives on, and brings joy to the warehouse – at least for a little while.

Armpal is a unique tabletop game that asks players to move and stack blocks by manipulating a robot arm. Each machine comes as a laser-cut wood kit, with gears, springs, and simple hydraulics to make them move. The arms work with interchangeable heads, including a claw, excavator, and magnetic crane.

The nature film experts at John Downer Productions show off another one of their animatronic camera spies. As an eagle drone flies overhead, a robot turtle on the ground infiltrates a bale of 20,000 olive ridley sea turtles coming ashore on a Costa Rican beach to lay their eggs. From “The Tropics” episode of Spy in the Wild 2.

A while back, maker Ivan Miranda built himself a robot which could write words in the sand. He’s back to build an upgraded version of the machine which can draw much faster than the previous one. It uses 50 mini servos to doodle, two mini tanks to drive, and Arduino Mega controllers for its digital brains.

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robotic quadruped is finally available for purchase. Starting at just $74,500, you can have one too. To entice buyers from commercial, academic, and engineering worlds, the company put together this video of some of the robot’s capabilities, from climbing to carrying, to self-righting, to working in sync.

Using a high-tech 3D printer that can print up to 8 different materials with a single nozzle, engineers from Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS are showing how they can create tiny soft robots which use a mix of hard and flexible substances. By introducing a vacuum into its chambers, it’s able to walk without motors.