Babies |
Mechas |
| 1. IS Robotics offers a
super-realistic interactive life-sized human baby toy. IS Robotics was founded in 1990 by
Rodney Brooks and Colin Angle of MIT. Last year they hooked up with Hasbro Toys to have
them produce the baby-bot. It
can be operated with a RC joy-stick control system. It has up to 60 servos and many
movements.  14KB |
1. A Japanese company called Sakakibarar
Kikai (located in the Gunma prefecture about 100 miles NW of Tokyo
on the island of Honshu) has built a Mecha which they call Land
Walker. This Mecha is right out of Star Wars or
Robocop. It is equipped with gatling guns which
shoot 4" diameter foam balls. It is 3.4 meters tall, 1.65
meters wide, and 2.4 meters long. It weighs one metric ton and is
powered by a 250 cc engine. It can walk at 1.5 Km/hr (nearly 1
mile/hr). FABULOUS! They have videos of it walking and
shooting. Get yours now!
Land Walker Mecha
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| 2. Hiroaki Kitano of Kitano
Symbiotic Systems (Tokyo, Japan) which is a subsidiary of Japan Science and Technology
Corp (see entries 9-11 of the World's greatest android projects)
which is in turn funded by the Japanese government is building an android baby called
Pino. Pino has 29 motors and stands about 75 cm tall and weighs 8 kg.
Main Pino site is
here. Here
is the design.  
Pino |
2. Colin Mayhew has built a MONSTER Mecha which he calls the
Mini Cooper R50 or the R50R for short.
His Mecha stands about 14 feet tall and about 12 feet wide. It is
powered by 4 1.6 liter automobile engines. It is controlled by 6
PCs running RT Linux and its balance is monitored by 6 gyros. Colin has several videos on
his site.
Several readers have written to say that this Mecha is a
FAKE. Too bad, but its a pretty good fake. Here
is a link to a story about the faking.
Mini Cooper R50
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| 3. Dr. Aude Billard formerly of
USC has a project to build baby androids. She calls them Robota
dolls. These are dolls which have been taken apart
and 5 motors are inserted in place of the torso to move the legs, arms, and head (5
DOF). Prof. Billard is now at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de
Lausanne (Switzerland) where she is a member
of their humanoids project.
 
Robota Dolls |
3. A group in Okayama Japan has built a giant Gundam. It is 7 m (23 ft) tall,
3.5 m (11.5 ft) wide and weighs 2 tons. Here is another set
of photos. And
here is the report.  
Gundam 46KB
You can find some more pix here.
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| 4. Here is a baby project in Italy. The LIRA-Lab
is building a baby humanoid. 
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4. TMSUK has introduced a giant self-propelled mecha with
humanoid hands and arms called T5. Its 2.9m (9.5') tall, 1.8m (6') wide and can lift 600kg
(1320 lb). The latest version is called the Hyper
Rescue Robot T-52. The robot is being marketed by a company called
Enryu. Here are a few
pix of T-5 
T5 - 24KB
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| 5. Anybody remember the Small Wonder TV series
which ran from 1985-1989? It starred Tiffany Brissette as Vicki the android girl.  Vicki 38KB
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5. Mechanized Propulsion Systems is
building a 25 foot tall Mecha. 
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| 6. The Keihanna Human Info Communications Research
Center is building a baby robot which they call the Infanoid. Hideki Kozima is working on the
project at the Communications Research Laboratory. The Infanoid was shown at the recent
Osaka Robot Festival where Eric Schreiber took some nice pictures of it. 
Infanoid
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6. Joe Cronin is leading a project at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney to build a humanoid robot called Robolift. It will be 3 meters tall and be
capable of lifting 1100 pounds (500 kg). Another nearly identical
report. 
Robolift 6KB
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7. Giant steel fire-breathing
dinosaur. This robot is 40 feet tall, weighs 58,000 pounds and cost $2.2 million
to build. The site shows pix of the robot picking up cars and even airplanes. Check
out: http://www.robosaurus.com/
Image is 75K
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8. The Amorphic
Robot Works in San Francisco, California (USA) consists of a group of artists who
build "Amorphic Robots". They tour the world with 60 interactive and
computer-controlled human and abstract machines ranging from 12 inches to 30 feet in size. 
30 foot Mecha
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9. Carlos Owens of Alaska, USA is building a 11m (35 foot)
tall Mecha
which he calls the NMX03-1. It will look anthropomorphic with
two arms and two legs. Good luck Carlos!
NMX03-1 Mecha
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