Carol Reiley, a surgical robotics PhD student at Johns Hopkins' Computational Interaction and Robotics Laboratory, wrote in to share how they unwind after a long day of research.  She writes, "Here's a video of the Johns Hopkins Robotics lab playing the board game Operation on the $1.3M dollar (Da Vinci Surgical) robot. The video emphasizes the robot's precision and hand tremor reduction as well as how difficult Operation is to play, even with a robot. :-)" Fun, whimsical, and a bit meta.  Surgical roboticists seem to enjoy themselves; seems like just yesterday they were using the robot to make little paper airplanes or produce dance videos.

Many folks visiting Hizook today are looking for a "robot coffee machines," specifically, the Tassimo BrewBot by Bosch.  In actuality, BrewBot is not a robot at all!  They are using a cute robot coffee machine to sell decidedly non-robot coffee makers, and it makes me sad... I want the actual robot! Either way, kudos to the clever marketers at Bosch for making such a great commercial (embedded below).  In the meantime, if you're interested in seeing a real coffee making and delivering robot, go check out the Nestlé Nespresso Nesbot.  Dang it, now I've got a hankering for an espresso...

This new robot blimp, powered by electroactive polymers (EAPs), comes from the Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA). It reminds me of the Festo Air Ray, and definitely ranks up there with other cool EAP robots like the Artificial Muscle EPAM variants previously discussed on Hizook.  Be sure to check out the video.

Like almost all roboticists, I'm a huge fan of robot movies.  My common favorites include: I-Robot, Blade Runner, Iron Man, Short Circuit, AI, Wall-E, Hinokio, and so on.  Well, there is a new Sci-Fi movie called "District 9" coming out this weekend that (based on previews) sports some impressive robotic systems -- particularly exoskeletons.  The writer / director of this new movie is Neill Blomkamp, who has also produced numerous short films featuring robots (a few of which are shown below).  In a psuedo-tradition, we're having a lab outing to a matinee showing of "District 9" this weekend.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes in the comments, but in the meantime check out the pictures and trailers below.

I came upon this new commercial (video below) entitled "The Runner -- Exploit Yourself" created by Big Lazy Robot (a design / visual effects studio) for Nike.  The humanoid robot performs impressive feats of urban acrobatics, strongly resembling a more agile version of the movie-star robot, Hinokio.  It is always interesting to compare robot fact with fiction.  Hopefully the future lives up to (nay, exceeds) our expectations.

I would like to mark this momentous occasion by sharing it with you -- that, and it is just plain cool (and artistic)!  The folks at RadiologyArt.com have been building Computed Tomography (CT) scans of various objects (dolls, electronics, vacuum tubes, McDonalds hamburgers, etc).  The addition of a remote control dog and wind-up drumming bunny represent (to my knowledge) the first examples of CT scans of robots, albeit rudimentary robots.  Read on for pictures and amazingly detailed videos.

Describing science as "beautiful" makes perfect sense to me; I believe the physics experiments described in The Prism and the Pendulum are on par with the greatest paintings and sculptures ever conceived!   However, I'm having difficulties classifying the $30,000 robot, Keepon:  Is it a research robot, an art-robot, or both?  On one hand, there is evidence supporting its role in important robotics research.  On the other hand, there are the numerous (many more?) whimsical videos of Keepon dancing to music or traveling the world, such as the "Keepon Goes Seoul-Searching" video to be shown on Friday at the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) 2009 conference (we show this video below).  Having seen Keepon in person, I can attest to its "cuteness" factor and quality design... but my questions are: "Where is the line between art and research drawn?"  "Does such a line, necessarily, exist?" and "How can HRI researchers and peer-reviewers objectively evaluate important robotics research that also possesses strong artistic components?"  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Festo is known as a top-notch automation hardware manufacturer, but apparently their research division is capable of making very artistic, bio-inspired robots as well.  This post specifically examines their robotic dirigible and submersible manta rays, both of which harbor a life-like gracefulness.  I encourage you to check out the videos below; the technical specifications are provided for good measure.