Have you ever wanted to see some hot combat robot action in slow motion? Here’s your chance. This footage was recorded at the Carolina Combat event this past weeked in North Carolina (how’d I miss it?!) by Robert Woodhead. The video is shot with a Casio Exilim EX-F1 camera, that can take video at up to 1200 fps (the video below is shot at 300fps). The quality and detail is absolutely stunning.



[Via BoingBoing ]



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Congradulations to the Phoenix Mars Mission team! Phoenix touched down and has sent the first pictures back to Earth. Once again, NASA has accomplished an amazing feat. Now begins Phoenix’s three month mission.



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The Phoenix Mars Mission is scheduled to touch down on Mars today, May 25th, at around 9PM EST. Keep track of the progress on the mission’s website. We’ll keep you updated with details.

Update: You can watch live coverage of the landing on NASA TV. Mission briefing starts at 3PM EST, and landing coverage starts at 6PM EST.

Update 2: Here is a detailed minute-by-minute breakdown of what Phoenix will be doing for the rest of the day. The propulsion system pressurization will begin shortly. NASA will also be live-blogging the landing from inside Mission Control.

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  Chris Anderson, over at DIY Drones, has posted some great new information on his new, ultra-cheap, autopilot, the ArduPilot. This fully open source project allows an aerial vehicle to autonomous navigate GPS waypoints, maintain altitude, and can trigger a camera or other external device.

The autopilot, which is built around the Arduino architecture, will replace Chris’ other project, the Basic Stamp Autopilot, and forms the core of what Chris calls, 

… a $110 autopilot, thanks to the open source hardware. By comparison, the Basic Stamp version of this, with processor, development board and failsafe board, would run you $300, and it’s not as powerful.

Throw in a FMA Co-Pilot for stabilization, a Hobbico SuperStar plane, some servos, and a 6-Channel radio system, and you have all the parts for a $440 unmanned aerial vehicle. Way to go Chris!

 

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Instructables and RoboGames have teamed up to create a robot building contest. The task is to design and document one specific aspect of your robot.



The grand prize is a trip to the 2009 RoboGames, with the flight and hotel room included. 2nd place winner will receive a RoboPhilo Walking Android kit, and the 3rd place entry will get tons of cool robot schwag.

Entries are judged based on six categories: Locomotion, Manipulators, Brain, Sensors, Asthetics, and "Reuse and Recycling". The deadline for entries is June 29, 2008. Send us a link to your projects in the comments!



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Both Jawa Lunk and Scot Washburn have sent us some cool updates from the Wall-E builders group. For those not familiar with the Wall-E builder’s group, it’s an array of hobbiets that are building scale models of Wall-E, the star of the upcoming Pixar film about a robot named Wall-E.

The group currently has over 600 members who have, "grouped together to build a real working, 1:1 scale Wall-E from Disney / Pixar’s latest movie which isn’t even in theaters until the end of June 2008."

The group is making good progress with building several Wall-E models, including the "Game Cube" Wall-E model, by Jawa Lunk.

Reader Scot Washburn sent us some pictures from his Wall-E model:

 

You can find plenty more cool Wall-E models on the Wall-E Builder’s Group Flickr page.

 

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The Automaton blog is reporting the NPR featured robots on its weekly "Science Friday" talk show.

According to Automaton,



I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, so let me know what you think.

 

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The RoboTurK system, based on Microsoft Robotics Studio, is designed to be an autonomous system for taking video surveillance of emergency areas. The motivation fur such a system is events like the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, which took the lives of over 45,000 people. The RoboTurK system will enable emergency crews to quickly assess the damage even when communication systems break down.



The system is designed around a standard RC helicopter and uses Microsoft Virtual Earth for mapping and to display realtime video of a location.

You can keep up with the progress of the RoboTurK project at their website.


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