Last Week On BotJunkie

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we started off feeling compelled to donate money to a professional begging robot, went “awwww” over some itty bitty teeny tiny humanoid robot toys, learned some tips and tricks about designing micromice, kicked back to some smooth robot jazz, wished we had a robot lawnmower that sends text messages when it needs help, were irked by the reaction to an accidental robot injury in Sweden, wished we understood Spanish after hearing a bot compose Spanish poetry for money, found some robot jewelry just in time for mother’s day, pondered spending a quarter grand on a replica robot mech toy, felt safer after meeting a modified Rovio that can autonomously put out fires, heard a rumor about some new micro pet robots from Tomy, learned about a new type of cloud sourcing that helps home robots complete complex tasks, didn’t know what to think (besides ‘awesome’) about a new Discovery channel show involving robot cars trying to destroy each other, got a sneak preview of some of the bots that will be at RoboGames 2009 this June, met a telepresence bot designed to care for the elderly, realized that it’s too late now that robots can make sandwiches, tried to wrap our brains around an optical illusion that may help us understand how to make robots see like we do, and finally watched a video that vividly illustrated how powerful a $300 servo is and what it can do to your finger.

This week, we’ve already posted about the 2009 Austrian Hexapod Dance Contest, robot babies that are almost as bad as the real thing, a robot that knows where you’re looking, a horrifying robotic sheep shearer, and a robot that knows how to play fetch.

Don’t forget last week’s Bot With Stuff, after the jump.

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