After months of trying, NASA is calling it quits on freeing the Spirit rover from the Martian sand that it’s been stuck in since May of 2009.  Unfortunately, after six years of tireless service, the end might be very near for the rover, which faces a severe Martian winter in its current position. NASA engineers will spend the next few weeks preparing Spirit to face the winter weather, and hope that it will be able to continue on as a stationary scientific platform.

“Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It looks like Spirit’s current location on Mars will be its final resting place.”

The Martian winter will begin in May. Until then, NASA will try and use remaining power to change the inclination of Spirit in order to help it capture more sunlight. NASA says that unless Spirit can be positioned in a better position, it is unlikely that it will survive.

Meanwhile, Opportunity, Spirit’s sister, continues to amble onwards towards a crater called Endeavor. NASA has some good videos summarizing Spirit’s six years.

It’s time to kick start our 10 Years of GoRobotics celebration! Our first giveaway features some great prizes from our sponsors, SuperDroid Robots, Apress, Pololu and Trossen Robotics. Entering this month’s contest will be simple. Here’s what you need to do: simply comment on this post and tell us your favorite robot. Winners will be chosen at random. Three winners will be chosen and the first winners will get his/her choice of the prizes, second place gets second choice and third place gets whatever is left over! The contest ends JANUARY 31st, 2010 at 12AM EST. Comments are moderated to prevent spam. Your comment won’t show up till the moderator has approved it.

Here are this month’s prizes:

First Prize Package – Scribbler Robot (donated by Trossen Robotics) – worth $99

The Scribbler Robot is a complete robotics platform designed for ages 8 and up. It comes with a full Parallax Basic Stamp 2 processor, many sensors, and intuitive software for getting started quickly. Perfect for beginners and intermediate builders.

Second Prize Package – Micro Maestro 6-channel USB Servo Controller + Practical Arduino Book (donated by Pololu and Apress) – worth $25 + $35

Pololu’s Micro Maestro 6-channel USB servo controller allows you to control six separate servos from your PC via USB, TTL serial from a microcontroller, and allows basic scripts to be executed on the controller itself. It also incorporates general I/O. This controller is one of the best controllers on the market, with 0.25us resolution with built-in speed and acceleration control.

Practical Arduino: Cool Projects for Open Source Hardware, by Jonathan Oxer and Hugh Blemings will tech you how to create your own Arduino-based designs, learn the arduino programming language, and will guide you through many practical projects from home automation to test equipment. This book is for hobbyists and developers interested in physical computing using a low-cost, easy-to-learn platform.

Third Prize Package – Remote Control Robot Construction Set (donated by SuperDroid Robots) – worth $46

The Tamiya Remote Control Robot Construction kit provides parts for wheeled remote control robot. Twin-motor gearbox, crank-axle gearbox, remote control box, ball caster, tires, universal arm, and other parts are included. The control box has 4 channels and enables control of 4 different movements by adding separately available gearboxes. It comes with instructions for building several different robots.

Keep reading for the complete rules, and TO ENER THE GIVEAWAY!

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A french company, named Parrot, unveiled an iPhone controlled, wifi-enabled, quadrocopter at CES 2010.  The robot, called the AR.Drone, is a sophisticated and snazzy quadrocopter that is controlled via an iPhone or iPod Touch over a wifi connection. The AR.Drone has two onboard cameras, one of which streams live video back to the iPod screen, an ultrasonic altimeter, and a gyro/accelerometer based stabilization system. The drone also has a neat “augmented reality” system that overlays computer generated graphics and objects on the video feed, to allow users to play games or compete against each other with multiple AR.Drones. CNet says, “You’ll get about 15 minutes of battery-powered fun on a one-hour charge”, and reports that the vehicle will retail for around $500.

The most interesting part of the AR.Drone is that the wifi interface will have an API! This means that there is significant potential for building complex robotics projects using an inexpensive flying system (robot swarms, anyone?). Parrot has already created a developers website and has uploaded demo code for getting started with programming for the AR.Drone.

Update: Chris at DIYDrones has some unboxing photos of the AR.Drone.

More images after the jump.

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As we say goodbye to the 200x’s and welcome the 201x’s it’s good to pause a bit and think about the world as it was ten years ago. There was no Wikipedia, no YouTube, internet access was still dialup for a huge portion of the population, and we didn’t have a whole heap of really cool robots. To highlight some of the great inventions of the past ten years, we’ve selected 10 of the best robots fom the past 10 years.

With any sort of list like this, things are pretty arbitrary, but we tried to pick robots that have made an impact in our culture or have impacted the hobby or science of robots in a major way. Below you’ll find 10 amazing robots from the military, toy industry, consumer industry, and science community that have had a lasting impact on robotics.

Take a look and tell us what you think. If you had to nominate 10 robots of the decade, who would they be? Keep reading for our picks for robots of the decade.

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Welcome to 2010 everyone! Thanks for making 2009 a great year for GoRobotics.net. We saw a 40% increase in visits from 2008, and more than doubled the number of subscribers to our RSS feed.  Below are the top news posts from 2009, along with some perennial favorites on the site.

2010 is a special year for us, as it marks the TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY of GoRobotics.net! Whooohooo! I’m super excited about this (and a little shocked). In April of 2000 I first bought the domain name ‘gorobotics.net’ and moved the site there. Previously, it has been running under the name “robot central” on a free hosting provider. Time sure have changed!

To celebrate this HUGE milestone, we’ll be doing a series of giveaways leading up to April and the big finale! Not sure what’s it’s going to be yet … but it’s gonna be good. I’ll be posting the upcoming and current contests on the Ten Years of GoRobotics page.

Anyway, back to 2009. Here are our top posts from 2009 (in reverse order):

8. Fantastic Retro Robo-Art

7. Boeing’s Truck Mounted Laser Weapon Destroys Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

6. The Rise and Fall of Pleo, a Fairwell Lecture by John Sosoka, Former CTO of Ugobe

5. Battlestar Galactica Returns to Sing Its Final Song

4. Cornell Wins the 12th Annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition

3. Upcoming Biomass Powered Military Robot

2. US President Defending Against Robot Apocalypse

1. 10 Years of LEGO Mindstorms – Limited Edition Black NXT

and of course our perennail favorite articles:

• How to Crimp Connectors

• How to Build a Simple Robot – Beetle Robot

So, once again a HUGE THANKS to all of the faithful readers. I’m forever in your debt and I look forward to 2010 and the future!

The famous underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle), Jason, which was integral in discovering the wreck of the Titanic and other famous ships, recently captured a spectacular underwater volcano eruption in high definition. This extremely rare event is even more impressive considering it’s 4000 feet (1200 meters) below the ocean’s surface, in an area of the Pacific ocean near Fiji. This is the deepest erupting underwater volcano ever discovered and the extreme water pressure allowed Jason to record video mere feet from the eruption. The lava spewing from the West Mata volcano is also thought to be an extremely rare, and very hot, form of lava previously only found on extinct volcanoes.

You can see videos of the eruption after the jump.

Jason is operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the work was funded by NOAA and NSF.

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As 2009 comes to a close it’s time once again for the Robot Christmas Gift List! We’re featuring a few of the same, but mostly new, things since the 2008 Robot Christmas Gift Guide. We’ll be featuring 10 items that would make great gifts for the robot lover in your life. Prices range from $10 to $900 dollars, so everyone’s budget should be covered!

Parallax Scribbler – $99

The Scribbler robot from Parallax has been around for a few years but makes an excellent starting point for jumping into robotics. The solid design and lots of ability for expansion make it a good choice for someone that has basic computer skills or someone that has limited electronics knowledge and wants an easy way to get started. The robot features a basic stamp brain, several sensors – like light, floor sensors, and stall sensors – and has two hefty motors, along with a speaker and LEDs. The robot comes with several demo modes, or can be programmed using the regular Basic Stamp programming software.

Roboni-i Game Robot – $189

Roboni is a neat robotic game that uses wirelessly controlled robots. The robots can be used individually or in combination for cooperative gameplay. Roboni’s clever design also makes it tempting for the hacker in me. The Roboni has 12 IR sesors that it uses to track the other Robonis in the playing field, the basestation, and various obstacles. The robot exhibites complex behavior and actually “plays” with you. It’s a relatively new toy, so take that as you will.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 – $271

When LEGO released NXT in 2006 they were coming off nearly 10 years of huge success with the RIS. Many people wondered if they could repeat the trend. It looks like they did, with tons of NXT related books being released, and lots of use in education settings. LEGO has updated the NXT and released the 2.0 version, which once again raises the bar. The NXT 2.0 set features a new color sensor, which can detect 6 different colors, or be used as a RGB light emitter. LEGO also dropped the sound sensor in favor of adding a 2nd touch sensor. There is also a different selection of beams and gears and a greatly improved programming interface. The NXT Step Blog has a comparison chart of new pieces.

Pololu 3Pi Robot – $119

Similar in price and usability to the Scribbler robot, the 3Pi from Pololu has meet with favorable reviews. The 3pi has two high power (and high speed!) DC motors, a LCD screen, and has built in sensors for line-following. The robot uses an Atmel Atmega168 chip and can be programmed in C or using the Arduino firmware and programming language. Trossen Robotics calls it, “ a great first robot for ambitious beginners.”

Phoenix Hexapod Kit – starting at $969

This exceedingly impressive kit from Lynxmotion will knock your socks off! The powerful inverse kinematics engine allows for a huge array of natural walking gaits and very “creepy” looking motion. Each leg has three DOFs (degrees of freedom) and the completed kit is wirelessly controlled via a transmitter. The parts are laser cut aluminum with black anodization. So, if you’ve got some spare change lying around, this is one slick robot to purchase. Nothing says, “I love you” like a beautifully walking hexapod robot!

Terminator Salvation DVD – $9

The continuation of the Terminator saga. Reviews were mixed, but there was some definite epic robot action. Totally worth $10.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen DVD – $21

Yet another continuation. Again, epic robot battles and mixed reviews. Certainly a “fun” movie. Check your brain at the door (or couch) though.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete Second Season – $37

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) was quite possibly the best Sci-Fi show of the past several years. Take Battlestar Galactica off the table and you have to go back to Firefly to find something comperable. Even wtih Fox (wantonly, stupidly, foolishly, idiotically, … ) canceling the show after the 2nd season, the two seasons of the show are still well worth watching and are both intellectually stimulating, fun, and heartwrenching. The first season is available new for $17.

SolarSpeeder Kit – $27

The SolarSpeeder is a great beginner kit to demonstrate the power of solar energy. The kit requires some basic hand tools and a soldering iron, so it’s best for kids over 12.

Pleo Dinosaur – $200

Pleo is back from the ashes of bankruptcy and ready to rumble. With a new update to fix many of the original Pleo’s problems, this Pleo is still his same loveable self – just with a new company backing him. This robodino has a complex personality, can move around, use his built in camea to recognize objects, and has directional hearing. Pleo has instant repor with children and the elderly, and would make an oustanding companion for the diabled – or robot hackers.

Have anything to add to this list? Add it to the comments! What was your favorite robot gift from 2008?

Several online robot retailers are offering some sweet deals for the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, a.k.a Black Friday. If you’re looking for some great gift deals, now looks like your chance.

First up is Trossen Robotics – they’re offering 10% off all in stock items from Black Friday through Cyber Monady (Nov. 27th – 30th) with the coupon code “cyber09“. You can snag yourself nearly $30 off a RoboBoard Starter Kit ($289) or some heftying savings on a Bioloid Kit ($899) or some Hexapod kits.

Next up is Pololu Robotics and Electronics. They’re offering big sales on many items with up to 60% savings from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monady (Nov. 26th – 30th). Their popular 3Pi Robot is being sold for $50 (half off! Use coupon “BF3PI“), which is a fabulous deal if you’re quick.  Or, you could pick up a 6 channel servo controller board for only $10 (coupon “BFMAESTRO”).

Finally, Parallax is offering free shipping this weekend on orders over $100.

Get ‘em while there hot!

Update: iRobot is offering a free Dirt Dog robot with any purchase over $350 – Thursday and Friday only. Robots.net tipped us to BGMicro’s sale – 10% off front page items till the 30th of Nov.

Reuters via DailyKos

President Obama,  in remarks today about the importance of a solid education in Science and Math, tipped his hand on national defense – National defense against ROBOTS. Apparently he’s aware of the potential for an upcoming robopocalypse, saying:

I believe that robotics can inspire young people to pursue science and engineering. And I also want to keep an eye on those robots in case they try anything. (emphasis added)

So, there you have it. Robots are mainstream, and so are the fears.

Update:

Here’s  a video of the press conference. Skip to 1:51 for the words that will go down in history (at least till the robots take over, and then they will erase it):

[Via NYMag via @TheHobbyGuy]

A couple of weeks ago we reported on Jon Hyland’s NanoSeeker Micro AUV project. Today Jon posted some more details on his project and he seems to be making rapid progress. With the help of a rapid prototype machine there are now working prototypes of the vehicles in the water. The NanoSeeker has a “3-axis, solid state compass, with an integrated 3-axis accelerometer”, a bluetooth debugging interface, and runs on a ATmega328 microcontroller. The vehicle is steered via two control surfaces controlled by a Solarbotics GM15 pager gearmotor. Oh, and don’t forget that the vehicle is 6 inches long and 1.25 inches in diameter!

Video of the prototype after the jump.

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Boilerplate, the fictional robot created by artist Paul Guinan, now has a robolicious coffee-table book called Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel. Featuring historic scenes from the 19th and 20th century, we see Boilerplate’s military prowess as he fights along-side military giants like Teddy Roosevelt and Pancho Villa. The book’s “trailer” is hilarious and worth a watch (after the jump.)

Boilerplate was a mechanical man developed by Professor Archibald Campion during the 1880s and unveiled at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.



Built in a small Chicago laboratory, Boilerplate was a prototype soldier for use in resolving the conflicts of nations. Although it was the only such prototype, Boilerplate was eventually able to exercise its proposed function by participating in several combat actions.

Unfortunately Boilerplate was lost to history during WW1 and his final location remains a mystery to this day. According to wikipedia, some speculate he was captured by Germans and used to fuel their mighty technological advances between the wars.

Great alternate history.

BOILERPLATE: History of a Victorian Era Robot.



[Via io9.com]

MEDbot is good for what ails you | The Brothers Brick | LEGO Blog.

Intel is cooking up something, and they’re using stereotypical engineers and some gadget-y sort of glove to advertise it. Check out the video, help support GoRobotics, and post your conspiracy theory in the comments.

Watch CBS Videos Online

The video above is worth watching for two reasons. One, the amount of engineering and hard work put into these arms and legs is astounding. It should make any engineer applaud. Second, and more importantly, it shows people trying to fix a huge problem and pay back a debt we owe to the soldiers that defend our country.

The video is a segment from the US show “60 Minutes” that describes DARPA’s work into developing a prosthetic arm. It closely profiles the work done by Dean Kamen’s DEKA company in creating the world’s most sophisticated (and useful) arm, dubbed the “Luke” arm after the famous scene from Star Wars. Also shown is some cutting edge work at Duke University (just down the road from me!) on creating an arm that is controlled via electrical signals from the brain to the now missing arm. Pretty amazing stuff. It’s well worth watching. The point where Fred Downs describes what it was like to have a hand after 26 years is very moving. You can also read an accompanying article here.