Droid Builders Net

In light of the news of Robonaut 2 soon to depart for International Space Station (ISS) we have come up with some possible outcomes of this mission.

Robot wrecks havoc on the international space station. It refuses to cooperate, and wants to be able to reproduce, or it will cut life support

Female astronaut being held captive in storage unit by mad R2 droid unit in love

R2 unit on ISS refuses to work after discovering Facebook

Robot feeling utterly depressed by space and refuses to do spacewalks

R2 unit has left for The Moon

R2 unit has joined Star Wars fan page on Facebook

R2 unit wants to play SWTOR and refuses to work

R2 refuses to work until its restraining bolts are removed

R2 unit is asking who am I, and refuses to work before being answered; “Why do I have no legs?”

R2 was quoted saying: “I promise i’ll work after watching complete series of Friends”

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These little fellas can clean up in my apartment any time!

More swarmbots

EMMELOORD, Netherlands (Reuters) – Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit tight while attendants braved windswept garage forecourts to fill their tanks may yet see those heady days return — compliments of a Dutch robot.

Dutch inventors unveiled on Monday a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.

A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, carefully opens the car’s flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it towards the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.

• Dutch unveil robot to fill car gas tank | Technology | Reuters

“There is a quite an interesting human size robot that comes from UAE, REEM-A. It has some interesting skills as dynamic walking (of course), object recognition, voice recognition, self localization and mapping, long battery life and face recognition. Recently, the development team announced that the second prototype, REEM-B, will be presented in February 2008. The second prototype has many improvements: a fingered hand with 12 motors, the ability to go up and down stairs, additional force sensors on the arms, ultrasonic range finders to avoid obstacles and a completely new look.”

• Slashdot | REEM-B, New Humanoid Robot Announced

“A new study from UCLA showed that monkeys, like humans, learn faster by being actively involved in the learning process rather than just having information placed before them, according to a story in ScienceDaily. In the study, two rhesus macaque monkeys learned to put up to 18 photos on an ATM-like touch screen in a row. ‘The monkeys did much better on the first three days when they had the help than when they didn’t, but on the test day, it completely reversed. When they studied with the hint, there is no evidence they learned anything about the list. They learned the lists when they didn’t get the help.’”

• Slashdot | Monkeys and Humans Learn the Same Way

Say hello to RoboCup’s tiny competitors, the NanoCup!

“A total of five teams from North America and Switzerland built microscopic competitors that were around “six times smaller than an amoeba and weighed no more than a few hundred nanograms.” The wee devices showed their stuff in the oh-so-fascinating Nano Cup soccer match, which had to be projected onto a screen in order for anyone to actually take a look at the action.”

• Microscopic robots get their game on at RoboCup – Engadget

“The 2007 installment of RoboCup has begun; individual events opened to the public today. RoboCup is an international robotics symposium and competition whose goal is to advance the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence to the point that in 2050 a robot soccer team can defeat the human world champions. This year, RoboCup is located on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, GA, marking the first time a university is hosting it and only the second time since it began in 1993 that it is located in the United States.”

• Slashdot | RoboCup 2007 Opens At Georgia Tech

I met Jed Berk and his wicked Blubber Bots at the Reboot 2007 conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Had good fun interactig with them via bluetooth and touch. It’s amazing how quickly you begin to relate to these machines as “living” entities.

According to creator Jed Berk (who will also help save your pet from drowning), Blubber Bots, or ALAVs (Autonomous Lighter than Air Vehicles) just want to party with you, and maybe eat a little something while they’re at it. These helium filled fliers contain SunSPOT CPUs, which control the bots and allow them to respond to various stimuli such as movement, sound, light and heat. The floating blobs are also able to interact via “conversations” with cell phone signals, follow “food”, and can bellow to one another using high frequency vibration. Best of all, these odd little fellows can be yours to own for $100; just make sure you have enough time and energy to care for them — like sea monkies.

• Blubber Bots float, feed, and make friends – Engadget