Few Wall-E Lego creations recreate both the cuteness and the basic functionality of the lovable bot as authentically as this one does. It was programmed using Lego Mindstorms and can transform itself into a box, pick up and carry objects, look up and down, and even utter and respond to sounds. It can be controlled remotely or it can do things by itself.
It is simply…adorable. Videos below.
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Rubik’s cube is a puzzle that can only be beaten by the nerdiest of humans and robots. That’s probably why we see so many robots solving it these days. This Android-powered LEGO robot can fully solve the Rubik’s cube in under 25 seconds.
It was created by David Gilday and uses an Android-powered Motorola Droid smartphone running a custom application.
Everyone has their obsessions. Lego has their obsession making movie themed blocks. And Asoblocks has their obsession with robot themed blocks. Originally from Aichi, Japan, Merzen’s Asoblocks come in a variety of packs, but the pack shown above is the basic 251 kit which contains 164 pieces.
In each kit you can assemble more than one robot with the easy to put together plastic pieces. If you agree that Lego has gone down a more commercial road than creative road, hop onto the Asoblocks band wagon and make some Japanese robots with us. The basic set is on Amazon, it’s $36.95.
We’ve covered simple robots and amazing complex robots here at Botropolis, but we can still be impressed by a simple robot that plays Tetris. It’s a robot that plays Tetris! Why wouldn’t we love that? Branislav Kisacanin’s Tetris-Bot uses a video camera to watch the computer screen, gathering visual data which is sent to a TI DM6437 DSP board. The board runs some AI and visual algorithms to determine which shape is which and where to put them. That info is sent to a Lego Mindstorm NXT robot, who hovers over the keyboard with three fingers ready.
We love that the head is a R.O.B.-like head too. The creator was inspired by other Lego Mindstorm NXT creations like the Rubik’s Cube and Sudoku Solvers out there and made this one to engage his kids.
Lego biped robots are nothing new, but this one is something special. It’s the first walking Lego robot. And it is awesome. It walks by raising its feet. For real. It could not have been easy creating this one, but now that it exists, I wonder what other Lego mechas it will inspire. Video below.
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Sariel has created this amazing robotic hand, made only from LEGO Technics parts in just one weekend. It’s called simply The Hand. The most complex part of this was obviously the hand itself since it has so many moving parts. The arm is fully articulated as well, and uses electric motors and pneumatic valves for movement.
It obviously isn’t that easy to control, but it’s very impressive. The index finger and the thumb can be independently controlled from the other fingers as well. It can exert a maximum pressure of 20PSI. Great job.
What could be better than robots, dinosaurs and LEGO all in one? Nothing. Robo-Rex has everything we love. It’s the brainchild of Alyse and Remi. A LEGO Technics build that they designed themselves. Some of the gears and parts are decorative, but some are used for articulation. The mashup was inspired by this German commercial.
We’ve seen our share of Cube solving bots. In fact we haven’t solved one around here without robot help in like three years. But, of all the Rubik’s Cube solving bots we’ve encountered, none of them completely surround the cube like this guy.
It goes by the name CubeStormer and is amazingly fast at what it does. That cube never had a chance.
This Segway was built entirely from Legos in a standard NXT 2.0 set and even features a cute Wall-E type rider. It balances itself by leaning on the NXT Color Sensor in light sensor mode to detect its angle relative to the ground.
If you want to build one yourself, there are complete instructions at the link below.
We’ve seen several bots adept at the twists and turns of Rubick’s Cube and this guy is the latest. It uses Lego Mindstorms parts, a Lego programmable robotics kit and even a Nokia N95 mobile phone.
The ARM armed Nokia N95 sits above the cube, scanning it with its camera as it solves the puzzle. Interesting take on a cube solving bot.
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 Robots are a fact of life. Soon they will kill us. We’d like to document the coming apocalypse. |
