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sites
10-14-2003, 08:48 AM
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994263

PHILBERT
10-14-2003, 02:01 PM
I remember seeing a video several months back of a robot doing Taiji. Really cool looking, though if you push it, it would probably fall over.

CaptinPickAxe
10-14-2003, 02:25 PM
Thats cool as hell. The coolest thing I've seen is Bionic arms controlled by brain waves...nifty...

Kristoffer
10-14-2003, 02:39 PM
Grooooovy

Shaolinlueb
10-14-2003, 06:15 PM
where to i buy one?

Stranger
10-14-2003, 06:29 PM
Big deal, Rock'em Sock'em Robots have been around since the 70's. :D

David Jamieson
10-14-2003, 06:43 PM
I would choke that robot out.

lol, pretty cool BUT, it's Hard to believe what people spend money on these days:rolleyes:

UK MONK
10-15-2003, 01:43 AM
mmmmmmmmmm were have i seen this before ?















THE MATRIX!!!!!!!!!!!!

who wants to be Neo :D

Kristoffer
10-15-2003, 02:53 AM
In the future there will be ninja robot fighters who will get jobs as bouncers

*clonk clonk*

BentMonk
10-15-2003, 04:58 AM
Hey! If they can do that, why can't I get a decent pair of bionic legs? Dagnabit.

Judge Pen
10-15-2003, 06:20 AM
Originally posted by BentMonk
Hey! If they can do that, why can't I get a decent pair of bionic legs? Dagnabit.

Because you'd be too dangerous. Look at what you can do without them! ;)

GeneChing
10-15-2003, 09:49 AM
....ooops! I mean CA governor...:rolleyes:

Starchaser107
10-15-2003, 09:55 AM
nice robot.:D

if reagan was president why cant arnold be gov. ?:p :cool:

Kristoffer
10-15-2003, 10:03 AM
Mp3 player in my brain please

BentMonk
10-15-2003, 10:07 AM
JP - Dangerous? Me? Nah. Not yet anyway. Much much more training to be done. :)

Tak
10-15-2003, 10:16 AM
They should wire up the casing so that it can "issue."

GeneChing
08-11-2014, 09:22 AM
I just had to post this somewhere here.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBiRLYu8Wjo

GeneChing
10-20-2014, 08:49 AM
Follow the link to see the vid.

Robot dragon fights a giant spider in Beijing's Olympic Park (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29685117)

20 October 2014 Last updated at 07:09 BST

Two mythical creatures, a giant spider and a huge dragon, have faced one another in battle at Beijing's Olympic Park.

The two beasts were in reality giant robots, designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of France and China opening diplomatic relations.

Anbarasan Ethirajan reports.



Giant robot horse-dragon takes on monster spider in Beijing(5/10) (http://www.ecns.cn/visual/hd/2014/10-20/51207.shtml#nextpage)
2014-10-20 09:02 Xinhua Web Editor:Li Yan

http://www.ecns.cn/hd/2014/10/20/e2720f897d2f42ce9c6c86e3f395ffde.jpg
The huge mechanical creature rears up smoke billowing from its dragon's snout and its primeval howl echoing in the Beijing night as it approaches its arachnid adversary. The performance, which combines Chinese culture and French art, is part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Sino-French ties. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

GeneChing
11-12-2014, 09:39 AM
Teaching this bot 'wax on, wax off' would be far more practical.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH0k2hFHzyc

GeneChing
11-12-2014, 09:41 AM
get your katanas here (http://www.martialartsmart.com/ninja-samurai-kendo-samurai-kendo-weapon.html)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR-YlZ9NdIA

GeneChing
06-05-2015, 09:02 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3XyDLbaUmU

SteveLau
06-06-2015, 08:24 PM
:rolleyes: What we have seen in a recent released sc-fi movie might be far-fetched - grow a human in a lab. Currently, the technology to grow a body part already exists. The problem here is moral issue. There is also psychological one. The receiver of such artificial bio-limb might be hurt pyschologically.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

Jimbo
06-08-2015, 07:19 AM
This is a cool vid. I though Gene especially would like it. There's another, longer vid of this, but I thought I'd post this one to save people some time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3XyDLbaUmU&sns=em

GeneChing
07-07-2015, 10:29 AM
This is the U.S. versus Japan that I really want to see


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u8mheM2Hrg

GeneChing
07-07-2015, 10:33 AM
and mildly disturbing if your consider the following consummation. :confused:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pVNyg1hPwc

GeneChing
07-16-2015, 09:51 AM
There are robot receptionists at this Japanese hotel (http://fortune.com/2015/07/15/robot-receptionists-hotel/)
by Benjamin Snyder
@WriterSnyder
July 15, 2015, 1:10 PM EDT

https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/ap_129831405410.jpg?quality=80&w=840&h=485&crop=1
A receptionist dinosaur robot performs at the new robot hotel, aptly called Henn na Hotel or Weird Hotel, in Sasebo, southwestern Japan, Wednesday, July 15, 2015. Photograph by Shizuo Kambayashi — AP

It costs just $80 per night to stay there.

Step aside, receptionists. Robots are coming to get you. At least, that’s what’s happening at a hotel in Japan.

Called Weird Hotel, the place of business uses robots in order to cut costs, according to the Associated Press.

The owner of the hotel, Hideo Sawada, says robots are used to boost efficiency, too, and not as a gimmick to attract tourists. Interestingly, the robots have been made to look like dinosaurs. “If you want to check in, push one,” it says in English. The visitor then needs to enter their information into a touch screen.

The hotel also makes use of facial recognition technology to complete the check-in process and to help the visitors replace their door keys. “I wanted to highlight innovation,” according to Sawada when speaking with reporters who toured the hotel. “I also wanted to do something about hotel prices going up.” It costs about $80 per night to stay at the hotel.

But robots don’t totally run the show. There are security cameras around the hotel that are monitored by security officials to ensure guest safety. There’s another important reason, too: To make sure no one steals the robots.


I would totally stay here. :cool:

GeneChing
08-14-2015, 09:01 AM
Human Exoskeleton Gives Robot Kung-Fu Reflexes (https://www.inverse.com/article/5318-human-exoskeleton-gives-robot-kung-fu-reflexes)
A marriage made in 'Pacific Rim.'
Ben Guarino August 13, 2015


If you’ve ever wanted to watch a robot send a haymaker through a sheet of drywall, a droid named Hermes is about to make your day. If Hermes’ havoc-wreaking skills look especially human, well, that’s because they are. The bot is controlled via a person in an exoskeletal suit. In this case, the ghosts in the machine are stubbly Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers, an unlikely group to stand at the vanguard of supersoldierdom.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-5n2IsdCqU

The overall effect is pure mecha fantasy: When PhD student Joao Ramos throws a punch, Hermes copies a split second later. But the real advantage to Hermes’ uppercuts are reflexes, which keep the bipedal robot balanced.

Walking on two feet, if you’re not a human, is notoriously tough (there are very few mammalian obligate bipeds). ASIMO, for instance, uses what’s called Zero Moment Point, a feedback loop between foot sensors and actuators to keep the robot at a baseline position (hence, ZMP). Similar feedback systems using cameras, Ramos pointed out in an M.I.T. news story, can be so slow that robots have a tough time reacting to sudden changes. Hermes doesn’t have to worry about any of that because he’s being controlled — on some level — by a central nervous system.

When Hermes hits or gets hit, the exosuit registers the blow and the human operator can react. Without such feedback, say the researchers, the momentum of a punch would propel Hermes through the drywall. Instead, Ramos can lean back after Hermes connects. The end goal of Hermes could be something like a disaster response robot (disasters of the future are going to be just infested with robots). Also down the line, Ramos envisions wearing an entire feedback suit and goggles, because if you’re going to perform android kung-fu, you might as well go full robot.

Photos via YouTube.com/MIT
Ben Guarino
@bbguari

Ben is a bioengineer-turned-science journalist with an Erdős–Bacon number of 7. His byline is scattered across the Internet, above stories about frog robots, pharmacy laws, and hangover cures.
Imagine the gaming potential...

GeneChing
10-19-2015, 09:21 AM
Well, not really, thank goodness. Robots can't teach themselves. They need a proper sifu. To all you proper sifus, don't teach the robots. We must keep some secrets for the humans. ;)


Robots teach themselves martial arts to avoid smashing into the ground (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/robots-teach-martial-arts-avoid-smashing-ground/)
BY NSIKAN AKPAN October 17, 2015 at 3:00 PM EDT

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/GettyImages-476003080-1024x683.jpg
ESCHER (Electromechanical Series Compliant Humanoid for Emergency Response) robot takes a tumble at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge June 5, 2015 in Pomona, California. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A few weeks ago, I slipped in the shower, and after a cartoonish sequence of body contortions, I caught myself while landing. Robots aren’t as lucky. As June’s DARPA Robotics Challenge taught us, when machines fall, they tumble terribly and without the ability to brace themselves.

But those days might be over thanks to a computer program created by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ1c_N9ejk8

A new algorithm from allows robots to fall with style. Video by Georgia Institute of Technology

As IEEE Spectrum describes, the new algorithm uses “techniques adapted from judo,” allowing a robot to learn how to position its appendages while tumbling.

So rather than the full impact being felt by a single part of the robot, the robot can displace the kinetic energy created during the fall over multiple parts of its body. By learning how to tumble, robots reduced impact intensity to the head by 30 to 90 percent.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/E2ITmdp-2.gif

GeneChing
11-05-2015, 10:50 AM
Android Geminoid-F Stars In Japanese Film ‘Sayonara’ (http://grapee.jp/en/45571)

http://grapee.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/11051_main.jpg
YouTube

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Japanese robotics have come to be deservingly lauded. Whether it's designing machinery that can compete in cutting competitions with modern-day sword masters, or putting a robot on a motorcycle, the country's knack for this kind of technology goes well beyond a common stereotype. That knack is on full display in Koji Fukuda's Sayonara, a film which is billing android Geminoid-F as a co-star in the film.

http://grapee.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/11051_5.jpg
http://grapee.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/11051_3.jpg
Source: YouTube

Adapted from a stage play, the movie tells the story of a Japan that is decimated by over-radiation, forcing residents to evacuate to foreign countries (no doubt inspired by the disaster in Fukushima). Tania (played by American actress Bryerly Long) didn't draw a favorable position on the waiting list for evacuees, and thus is left to die of radiation poisoning in a Japanese countryside that is dwindling day by day. Her primary companion throughout the film comes in the form of Leona (played by android Geminoid-F), who serves as somewhat of a maternal caretaker for her.

Geminoid-F is fully billed as an actress on the film's website and credit roll. Viewers may feel uneasy at just how life-like and responsive she is. That's because the android is the latest model produced by renowned robotics designer Hiroshi Ishiguro, who previously modeled one such android after himself, the Geminoid-HI. Here he is showing it off.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajmy0_QlD0

Geminoid-F features motorized actuators, which allow her to mimic human facial expressions using air-pressure. She is remotely controlled via laptop, and is unable to walk (the character of Leona is a wheel-chair user). Perhaps her biggest struggle is based in the world of the film, however, as the story focuses on the conflict of understanding between a woman who is faced with death, and an android who has no concept of it. In fact that's one of the film's tag-lines.

http://grapee.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/11051_1.jpg
Source: YouTube

"A woman headed to her death, and an android who doesn't know death."

It's definitely an interesting juxtaposition, and the trailer of the film asks us just what life and death truly mean. Even without the coating of the film's narrative, the very presence of an android in such a prominent role opens up questions about life itself.

An ambitious endeavor, and maybe it's steps such as these that could possibly lead to expanded roles and uses for androids in film, beyond the niche. Sayonara opens in theaters on November 21 in Japan.

http://grapee.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/11051_4.jpg
Source: YouTube

Source:
映画『さようなら』予告編/Geminoid HI-1 and its source/h/t: The Telegraph/Sayonara-Movie

Did you enjoy that? Like 'grape' on Facebook

Unfortunately the YouTube vid from the film is not available anymore. :(

GeneChing
11-30-2015, 10:08 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RivE3xH6eXo

GeneChing
04-06-2016, 04:09 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdlhfMiWVV0

GeneChing
09-18-2017, 09:15 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w61kg9KlOHc

Martial arts robots (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?26024-martial-arts-robot) will start with Tai Chi (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?40606-Tai-Chi-Robot)...I'll get worried when they move on to hard styles.

GeneChing
11-29-2017, 10:28 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=OSl8ZOf0iEo

A robot/ (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?26024-martial-arts-robot) that can fence (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9851-Fencing).

GeneChing
11-29-2017, 10:31 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=kKKQQUMBqts

A robot (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?26024-martial-arts-robot) that can fence (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9851-Fencing) II

GeneChing
12-19-2017, 10:27 AM
https://fsmedia.imgix.net/1a/f0/d6/b8/4db9/4b2c/8e2d/0d1eae349c88.gif?rect=0%2C51%2C480%2C160&auto=format%2Ccompress&w=480&gifq=35
The Economic Reason We Should Be Worried About Nunchuck Robots (https://www.inverse.com/article/36421-nunchuck-robots-automation-and-the-american-worker)
Dexterous robots signal another change in automation.
By Alasdair Wilkins on September 20, 2017

Growing up in Beijing, roboticist Cong Wang had one skill he just couldn’t master: soccer. His high school’s soccer coach had played the sport professionally, yet he struggled to teach Wang how to kick the ball between the posts or even just to stop the ball with his chest.

“When he was explaining things they were so simple, but when I tried them it was out of my capability, no matter how smart I am,” Wang tells Inverse. “Whatever he taught me, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Because we were physically different. The tricks he was talking about were just beyond my mechanical capabilities.”

It’s the same basic problem Wang now tries to solve while working in his robotics lab at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Instead of designing robots that are built to do one task perfectly, he and his fellow researchers want to do to a robot what his soccer coach eventually did for him: teach an entirely new skill to something that wasn’t specifically made to perform it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzXL-KM2UqU

While robots that can master the martial art of nunchaku as proficiently as, say, a talented toddler, might just seem like a mere novelty or set-up to a joke, there’s a lot of real-world application to this technological development, especially when it comes to making manufacturing more efficient.

For instance, robots that can learn to swivel their arms could open up a new frontier for robotics. Even though dismal forecasts about automation keep coming — in spite the rare bit of good news — developments like the one by Wang and his team signal another step toward more dexterous robots that could take on jobs performed by humans today.

And as his team describes in a pre-print paper available on arXiv, they decided to teach a robotic hand how to flip nunchucks. Wang and his students learned this relatively basic karate technique, then they used motion-reading sensors to demonstrate all the necessary moves to the robot, so that it could figure out how to replicate it.

For those unfamiliar with the finer points of martial arts, nunchuck-flipping isn’t something you need to be a karate master to perform.

“It’s not that challenging,” Wong says. “But it did take me two months myself to learn it.”

The robot didn’t need quite as much time, he admits.

“Oh, they’re fast — in hours, they’ll be fine,” he says. “It’s a machine, and they practice hard.”

While this particular feat might seem a mere novelty — there’s only so much demand for nunchuck-flipping robots, at least for the time being — Wong sees the robot’s ability to learn and handle such unprecedentedly complex tasks means this opens up the final frontier of automation.

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/7c/fd/4c/d2/083d/478f/8f62/587de76e2b6c/industrial-robots-in-germany.jpeg?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=700
Industrial robots in Germany.

He points out that the construction of car bodies has been fully robotized since the 1970s, but even today the final interior assembly needs to be done by humans.

“The tasks require a lot of hand manipulation, a lot of fine motor skills, and a lot of handling of composite objects that are partly soft and partly rigid,” he says, all of which are tasks robots like this are now able to handle. “So our vision is with our technology in the future, those tasks can also be robotized.”

It’s not that robots couldn’t already do a task like flip nunchucks. As Wong notes, there are already robots that play table tennis, pitch tents, throw darts, run alongside humans, and so on.

“But the problem is a lot of those works are very case-specific,” he says. “It takes a whole team of researchers years of engineering just to do that particular application. So what we’re thinking is we can transfer human skills on this level to robots.”

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/29/0d/7a/44/8467/4150/9309/f54898e88092/a-task-simple-enough-for-a-human-but-not-to-robots-until-now.jpeg?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=700
A task simple enough for a human, but not to robots... until now.

Let’s say you wanted to automate apple picking. It’s a task that might seem relatively straightforward to a human, but Wang says it would take a whole team of Ph.D. researchers to replicate all the precise hand-eye coordination and careful handling of the fruits themselves that go into the task.

“However, if we can figure out how to teach a robot how to do this level of skills intuitively, just like teaching another human being, it just takes another apple picker to teach the robot,” he says.

What all that means for the future of human labor remains to be seen — this is the kind of innovation that makes the calls of tech entrepreneurs for a universal basic income seem that much more urgent. But for now, Wang’s robot remains in the lab, ready to add new tricks to its repertoire.

Photos via Getty Images / Sean Gallup, Getty Images / Matt Cardy, Cong Wang/NJITWritten by Alasdair Wilkins

martial arts robot (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?26024-martial-arts-robot) and numchuks (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?11515-Nunchaku)

SPJ
12-28-2017, 08:53 AM
using a drone or robot

to fight

is here

militarily

:eek:

GeneChing
04-11-2018, 08:30 AM
https://cdn.technologyreview.com/v/images/teaser.gif.mp4?sw=1180
This character learned how to perform various acrobatic feats by observing a human.
BERKELEY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH

Intelligent Machines
Virtual robots that teach themselves kung fu could revolutionize video games (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610773/virtual-robots-that-teach-themselves-kung-fu-could-revolutionize-video-games/)
Machine learning may make it much easier to build complex virtual characters.
by Will Knight April 10, 2018

In the not-so-distant future, characters might practice kung-fu kicks in a digital dojo before bringing their moves into the latest video game.

AI researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of British Columbia have created virtual characters capable of imitating the way a person performs martial arts, parkour, and acrobatics, practicing moves relentlessly until they get them just right.

The work could transform the way video games and movies are made. Instead of planning a character’s actions in excruciating detail, animators might feed real footage into a program and have their characters master them through practice. Such a character could be dropped into a scene and left to perform the actions.

https://cdn.technologyreview.com/v/images/allskills.gif.mp4?sw=1200
The same algorithm can be used to teach a wide range of challenging physical skills.
BERKELEY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH

“An artist can give just a few examples, and then the system can then generalize to all different situations,” says Jason Peng, a first-year PhD student at UC Berkeley, who carried out the research.

The virtual characters developed by the AI researcher use an AI technique known as reinforcement learning, which is loosely modeled on the way animals learn (see “10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017: Reinforcement Learning”).

The researchers captured the actions of expert martial artists and acrobats. A virtual character experiments with its motion and receives positive reinforcement each time it gets a little closer to the motions of that expert. The approach requires a character to have a physically realistic body and to inhabit a world with accurate physical rules.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vppFvq2quQ0
JASON PENG | YOUTUBE

It means the same algorithm can train a character to do a backflip or a moonwalk. “You can actually solve a large range of problems in animation,” says Sergey Levine, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley who’s involved with the project.

The computer-generated characters in high-budget video games and movies might look realistic, but they are little more than digital marionettes, following a painstakingly choreographed script.

The animation and computer games industries are already exploring the use of software that automatically adds realistic physics to characters. James Jacobs, CEO Ziva Dynamics, an animation company that specializes in building characters with realistic physical characteristics, says reinforcement learning offers a way to bring realism to behavior as well as appearance. “Up until this point people have been leaning on much simpler approaches,” Jacobs says. “In this case you are training a computation model to understand the way a human or a creature moves, and then you can just direct it, start applying external forces, and it will adapt to its environment.”

https://cdn.technologyreview.com/v/images/backflipablation.gif
The reinforcement learning process involves making gradual progress—and the odd fall.
BERKELEY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH

The approach could have benefits that go beyond video games and special effects. Real robots may eventually learn to perform complex tasks with simulated practice. A bot might practice putting a table together in simulation, for instance, before trying it in the real world.

Levine says the robots could end up teaching us some new tricks. “If somebody wants to do some sort of gymnastics thing that nobody has ever tried before, in principle they could plug it into this and there’s a good chance something very reasonable would come out,” he says.


Will Knight Senior Editor, AI

I am the senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review. I mainly cover machine intelligence, robots, and automation, but I’m interested in most aspects of computing. I grew up in south London, and I wrote my first line of code (a spell-binding infinite loop) on a mighty Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Before joining this publication, I worked as the online editor at New Scientist magazine. If you’d like to get in touch, please send an e-mail to will.knight@technologyreview.com.

Yeah, but can they do a whole form yet?

THREADS:
martial arts robot (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?26024-martial-arts-robot)
Which Colossal Death Robot are you? (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?18982-Which-Colossal-Death-Robot-are-you)

GeneChing
07-17-2018, 08:06 AM
Tabletop battle robot does tai chi, karate (https://www.zdnet.com/article/tabletop-battle-robot-does-tai-chi-karate/)
Is it a video game come to life, an educational toy, or a developer's platform? Yup, says the company behind it.

By Greg Nichols for Robotics | July 17, 2018 -- 09:13 GMT (02:13 PDT) | Topic: Robotics


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=43&v=_05X_WG2tcw

What is it about humans? We see a robot, we immediately want to know how it'll fare in battle against another robot.

Playing right into that hardwired need is a new home robot from Pilot Labs called the Moorebot Zeus Battle Robot, which is now available on Amazon.

Living up to its name, the platform was designed to fight other robots. Given what's under the hood, this real-life avatar seems more than capable of fulfilling that primary objective.

https://zdnet2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2018/07/16/d00223c3-d0de-4dbe-8119-9bebedd24cb2/resize/370xauto/77040fc9e2fb039c20f306aa3e6ad9b2/zeus-battle-robot.jpg

"This might be most competitive fighter and robot athlete in the world," says Jun Ye, CEO of Shenzhen-based Pilot Labs. "From Boxing to Kung Fu to Karate to Robot Olympics."

At 14 inches and nearly five pounds, this thing is hefty. The humanoid is actuated by 22 metal-geared servo motors, each rated with a 25Kg punch force. The little fighter actually delivers punches at a speed of 150m/sec, meaning it's only a matter of time before someone accidentally gets their teeth knocked in messing around with one of these.

Although the robot is designed to fight other robots -- and in particular other Zeus robots, since consumers don't have many off-the-shelf battle bot options -- Pilot Labs is also marketing Zeus to hobbyists and developers who might use the robot as a platform for further customization.

Because you assemble the robot at home, Zeus is also being marketed as an educational toy that can teach kids (the big kind as well as the little ones) about robotics.

With that fragmented marketing strategy, Pilot Labs could be in for a bumpy launch. The educational robot market is already saturated, with brands like Lego and Wonder Workshop out to solid leads.

The market for battle robots, meanwhile, isn't well-developed; the hobby remains niche worldwide.

As a remote controlled humanoid and not an autonomous sensor platform, it's unclear how useful Zeus would be to robotics developers. Considering it costs $1600, vying for customers in any of these three challenging markets would be tough, but tackling all three at the same time seems unwise.

Still, for unbridled cool factor I'm guessing this robot will gain some early adopters, and it could become an underground hit via YouTube, which might spur sales.

Zeus operates for about 50 minutes on a charge. It comes preprogrammed with a number of fighting moves, and it can also be customized with an included graphical programming tool.


THREADS:
Tai Chi Robot (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?40606-Tai-Chi-Robot)
martial arts robot (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?26024-martial-arts-robot)