Okay, so it may not look quite as impressive as some other mechanical cheetahs we’ve seen in the past, but this new one from Boston Dynamics certainly has a lot of potential. That robot, plus a new humanoid called Atlas, have won DARPA contracts and so will be put into at least limited production, much like the company’s earlier BigDog. Cheetah is said to run “faster than any existing legged robot and faster than the fastest human runners,” while Atlas can “move through difficult terrain using human-like behavior,” meaning neither running nor hiding will work. That leaves only fighting, so get ready to buck up.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Boston Dynamics Cheetah and Atlas robots get DARPA funding, getting ready to find you originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Part 5 of 9. To build a humanoid that can function in our world is a bold challenge being taken up by isolated labs around the world. Researchers are infusing robots with abilities ranging from grasping to hearing and vision.

Japan must have a solid number of customers willing to pay a ton of money for home-use robots, because otherwise there wouldn’t be so many of them actually available for end users like you and me. Take ISAMARO [JP], for example, a new humanoid that hasn’t been build for demo purposes, research etc. but for people who actually want to use him.

Made by Tokyo-based venture Robotma.com, the little guy stands 40cm tall, and weighs 16.7kg. ISAMARO is powered by a lithium-ion polymer battery, comes with a USB 2.0 interface and has a total of 19 joints in his body. Robotma.com throws in a piece of software (Windows XP) through which users can program ISAMARO who can then be remote-controlled (the Bluetooth remote costs extra money though).

Robotma.com already starts accepting pre-orders and will start shipping the first ISAMAROs next month. One robot will cost you $1,600.

Via NODE [JP]

It’s been over four months since I last paid a visit to a robot store in Akihabara/Tokyo, namely the Vstone flagship store. But I have to say the Tsukumo Robot Kingdom [JP] is much cooler, mainly because the shop is larger and offers more robots than its rival. The Robot Kingdom is located on the 4th floor of the Tsukumo PC Store II in central Akihabara.

Just like the Vstone store, the Tsukumo counterpart offers a plethora of different parts and bits for your robot pleasure:

The humanoid on the left costs the equivalent of $1,100, while the right one sells for $1,300:

No robot store without one of the most popular humanoids out there, Robovie-X (pictured below in the middle, price: $1,600):

The humanoid on the left costs the equivalent of $1,000, while the one on the right is priced at $1,050:

KHR-3 HV costs $1,300:

$1,100, that’s the price for this cool Hello Kitty robot:

Here’s a short video showing the store/kingdom (not made by me):

Japan’s Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) has unveiled robovie mR2 [JP], a cute desk robot that stands just 30cm tall and weighs 2kg. The cool thing is that users can place an iPod touch in his chest to control the robot (via Wifi or by touching the screen).

ATR says he can use “information gathered with the iPod by means of gestures”. Other features include a CCD 3.4MP camera, two microphones, a mono speaker (2W), 18 joints (3 in each eye), and 18 servo motors. The robot can also be controlled via Bluetooth.

ATR says the goal with robovie mR2 was to design a „likeable“ robot with particularly cute looks. The institute might actually commercialize the humanoid in the future.

Here’s a short demo video (with English subs) showing robovie mR2 in action:

Via Node [JP]

Japan has a lot of different robots so why not develop one that looks like a tower – even if it may make no sense whatsoever? That’s what a total of seven Japanese companies thought and built the Tsutenkaku Robotto [JP] (Tsutenkaku roughly translates to “tower that extends to the sky”). And as the name suggests, the robot is pretty tall: 170cm.

In fact, the makers claim their robot is the tallest humanoid ever produced. Tsutenkaku stands on two legs, is battery-powered, has 80 LEDs that help him light up and can strike poses with his arms. The main purpose of the robot is to boost the coolness factor of Osaka (Tsutenkaku is being marketed as Osaka’s own hero).

The robot is scheduled to make his public debut next week during a street festival in central Tokyo and will also be showcased during the Shanghai World Expo in May.

Watch Tsutenkaku in action in this weird promo clip (in Japanese):

Via Yomiuri Shimbun [JP] via Plastic Pals