Apr 28, 2011

JO-ZERO Type-2, a New Model of JO-ZERO was put on the market (April 26, 2011)

JO-ZERO Type-2, a new mode of JO-ZERO was put on the market. The upper part of the new robot's body is the same that of JO-ZERO and the lower half of the body is the same that of Weekly ROBO XERO issued by DeAGOSTINI. As 22 servo motors are used in the new model, the price (129,150 yen, including tax) increased just 3,150 yen compared that of JO-ZERO with 20 servo motors.

JO-ZERO Typ-2 also can be changed to ROBO-XERO by changing with additional hand unit, which is the same unit used in ROBO-XERO. The hand unit will be put on the market soon.

JO-ZERO was put on the market in July 2009. JO-ZERO has been developed for a biped robot kit with 3 purposes, `Cool`, `Speed` and `Human-like` by Nakamura-san, President of Himeji Softworks. The details were described in this blog.

ROBO XERO is based JO-ZERO. Servo motors `RS306MD` of Futaba Corporation are used for the robot with 24 axes. The weight is 900 g and height is 300 mm. The robot is suitable for the U1K (Under 1 kg) robot fight competition. The details were also described in this blog.

Specifications are as follows:
Length: 300(H)mm
Weight: 840g (without battery)
Axis: 22 (arm 8, body2, foot 12)
Servo: FUTABA RS304MD (torque 5kg・cm)
CPU: HIMEJI Softworks for FUTABA servo, HSWB-04FV2 with 3 analog terminal for gyro, 3 analog and 3 digital terminals
Software: JOZ Controller
Battery: PR-4S780P, a lithium polymer battery from Futaba Corporation (excluding the kit)

Option Unit ‘Sword’ and ‘JO-GUN’ (Oct. 3, 2011)

RoboTimes reported JO-ZERO Type-2 Option Unit ‘Sword’ and ‘JO-GUN’ with pictures and videos on Oct 3, 2011 (in Japasese). These units are now developing.

‘Sword’ unit is handled by the option hand unit with 5 fingers which is on the market. Robot can draw the sword from the holder in left shoulder. Video of using Sword Unit is as follows;



‘JO-GUN’ unit is attached right forearm and can shot 6 ring-shaped bullets which are loading in the holder, using the elastic band. Video of using JO-GUN Unit is as follows;




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Apr 23, 2011

Japan Team Got 15 Medals in RoboGames 2011 (April 15-17, 2011)

RoboGames is the olympics of robots from around the world to compete in over 50 different events such as combat robots, fire-fighters, LEGO bots, hockey bots, walking humanoids, soccer bots, sumo bots, and even androids that do kung-fu. Some robots are autonomous, some are remote controlled. As an open event, anyone can join.

The 8th annual games, RoboGames 2011 took place on Apr 15-17, 2011 and the results are here.    Japan team joined RoboGames 2011 and got 15 Medals. Games joined Japan team were shown on `USTREAM robogames2011jp` by Kaduhi-san.  Lem-san also reported RoboGames 2011 in his Blog with cool videos and pictures.

I tried to review games joined Japan team.  Japan team members were Kazumin (Koguma-san), Kazugon (Kazuko-san), Omegadou-san, MisterTamao-san, KENTA-san, Light Foot Shibata-san and Team Veltrobot.   Japan team robots joined were as follows; these sheets were from Operation ROBOT TOMODACHI.



Soccer: Android 3:3,  Japan Team got Gold Medal


Androids: Kung-Fu-MiddleWt, Zaura got Gold Medal


Androids: Kung-Fu-LightWt, Ryuketsu-kamen


Androids: Kung-Fu-LightWt, Ryuketsu-kamen in Rumble Fight


Androids:FreeStyle-original, Thunderbolt got Gold Medal


Androids:FreeStyle-original, Garoo and Ryuuketu-kamen


Androids:FreeStyle-kit, Vertrobot got Gold Medal


Androids:FreeStyle-kit, Kumataro


Androids:FreeStyle-kit, Yosaku


Androids:FreeStyle-kit, Kazugon


Androids:FreeStyle-kit, Somali got Bronze Medal


Andorids:Biped race, Thunderbolt got Bronze Medal


Multi-legged robot, Arnold Stallone and Vanga also joined WechWars. Two robots had a demontration game in the WechWars field. Arnold Stallone was controled through web far from Japan in the site of the 6th Robot Survival Game at Daonihongiken Office. Videos were as follows;

Arnold Stalone in the backstage


Vanga in the MechWars field


Demonstration of Robot Survival Game by Arnold Stallone and Vanga



Video of demonstration of Robot Survival Game between Arnold Stallone and Vanga by the camera on Arnold Stallone was here.

Interview of Light Foot Shibata-san


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Apr 18, 2011

The 6th Robot Survival Game took place at Dainihongiken Office (April 17, 2011)

The 6th Robot Survival Game took place at Dainihongiken Office on April 17, 2011.

Before the 6th Robot Survival Game, it was tried to control Robot Japan Team's Robot in the field of RoboGames 2011 Mech Warfare far from Japan. Demonstraion of Robot Survaival Game between `Anold Stallone` and `Vanga` was carried out. Nobarizaka-san could controled his robot, `Arnold Stallone` far from the site of 6th Robor Survival Game, Dainihongiken Office in Japan, but there were about 10 seconds lag time. Details of controling the robot from Japan were described in Osaru-kun's Blog (in Japanese with picuture) and Sanzai-san's Blog (in Japanese). Video of the demonstraion was as follows;



Six robots joined the 6th Robot Survaval Game were divided into two teams.
Igaa team robots were  `Danga`, mobile with caterpillar such as tank custom-built by Igaa, `BLACK TIGER L45`, 5-legged robot custom-built by IKETOMU and `Butank`, 6-legged robot custum-built by Osaru-kun.

Gonz team robots were  `Denryu’ with 8 wheels mobile custom-built by Gonz-san, `Yabusame`, 4-legged robot custom-built by Mota-san and  'Gunroller-kai', mobile with wheel based Gunroller on the market by Tanaka-san.

Main regulations of the Robot Survival Game are as follows;
1) Mobile bodies are not only multi-legged robot or biped robot but also mobile with wheel or caterpillar.
2) Weapons are toy-gun under 0.1 J and/or the other shooting system.
3) Equipped stopping mechanism of the body by gun-hit sensor using a solar battery covered with tinfoil (6 x 6 x 6 cm cubed or 5 x 6 x 7 cm).
4) Robot control has to be done with the image on PC from the camera attached on the robot.
5) Participants have to handle toy-gun carefully and put protector on eyes.

The 6th Games were shown on `USTREAM robo de savage` from 13:00 to 17:00 (JST) by Ishikawa-san and TOBBY-san. The 6th Games videos are keeping in the Channel.  Five Games were carried out using Camera System.  Robot control was done with the image on PC from the camera attached on the robot.

The 1st Game, Destroy the enemy completely:
Each team fights to destroy the enemy completely within 3 minutes.  The winner team is having larger number of survival robot after 3 minutes. Result: All Igga team robots were destroied by Gonz team in 1'9".



The 2nd Game, Fortress Battle: New game, a kind of Flag Fight
Each team builds fortress in each territory closed by drawn curtain. Each team fights to shoot down flag in the enemy territory. The winner is the team shot down the enemy flag within 5 minutes or the team which has larger number of survival robot after 5 minutes in the case of each flag does not shoot down within 5 minutes. Result: Each team could not shoot down enemy flag within 5 minutes. Igaa team's survival robot were two (BLACK TIGER L45 and Butank) and Gonz team one (Gunroller-kai). Igga team won the game.



The 3rd Game, Fortress Battle (divied into offensive team and defensive team):
One team is just offensive and other team is just deffensive. Just deffensive team builds fortress and offessive team attacks the fortress.  Attack team does not know enemy fortress structure by the starting time. Result: Deffensive team, Gonez team shot down themselves flug in 2'50", lost the game.



The 4th Game, Fortress Battle (divied into offensive team and defensive team):
Changed offensive team (Gonz team) and defensive team (Igaa team). Result: All Igga team robots were destroied in 2'47", Gonz team won the game.



The 5th Game, Rumble Battle.
Five robot joined except for BLACK TIGER L45 which was retired by laser aming system trouble. The winner was Danga by Igga-san.



`Butank`, 6-legged robot custum-built by Osaru-kun


Trials of the Robot Survival Game were held twice on April 10th and June 13th (1) (2), 2010. The 1st Robot Survival Game took place on July 19th, the 2nd one on Sep 11th, the 3rd one on Nov 20-21st, the 4th one on Dec 11 in 2010, the 5th one on Feb 20, 2011and the details were described in this blog.

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Apr 14, 2011

ROBOT JAPAN 1st took place in Tsukiji, Tokyo ( Part 2 ) (April 10, 2011)

ROBOT JAPAN 1st took place at Tsukiji-Honganji Buddhist Hall in Tokyo on April 10, 2011.   Robot entertainment, ROBOT JAPAN was sponsored by Mazel Japan, a entertainment planning company managing the Buddhist Hall.    ROBOT JAPAN Zero was also held on Jan. 9, 2011.    ROBOT JAPAN 2nd will be hold on Aug. 21, 2011.

ROBOT JAPAN 1st had 4 Class, such as Robot Dance Class, Robot Short Performance Class and Biped Robot Fight Class which were divied 2 Class by the robot weight.  The flyweight division was the robot of 2 kg or under and the bantamweight division was 3 kg or under.

Program was as follows;
11:00 Opening and Robot Comic Dialogue (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! )
          by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography
11:30 Robot Fight Flyweight Division Tournament
          Robot Short Performance Contest
13:00 Kung-Fu Dance (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! ) by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography
Robot Fight Bantamweight Division Tournament
13:45 Tin Robot Dance (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO!) by Kazuho Shiroma choreography
          Robot Short Performance Contest
Robot Fight Bantamweight Division for 3rd place Match and Final Match
          Movie `Zanna Bianca` announcement
          Movie `Zanna Bianca` Thema Song by Keiko Date (Mini-Live)
Robot Rakugo Story (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! ) by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography
Dancing Ichimatsu-Doll (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO!) by Kazuho Shiroma choreography
Robot Dance Contest
16:30 Poem and Music by Shuntaro Takigawa and Kensaku Takigawa
          Prize-Giving Ceremony of Dance Contest, Short Perfoamance and MVP
17:00 Ending
Details were reported in Sanzai-san's Blog (in Japanese).
 
The regulation of each class was as follows;

Robot Dance Class
Every kind robot, biped robot and except for biped robot, such as multi-legged robot also can join this class.
Robot plays dancing within 2 minutes with the music requested through radio control or autonomus.
Judgement is carried out by 3 judges and 1st to 3rd place are decided.
Dance stage is 3600 mm×1800 mm.

Short Performance Class
Every kind robot, wellcome excepr for biped robot, can join this class.
Robot plays a unique short performance through radio control or autonomus.
Stage is 3600mm×1800mm.

Biped Robot Fight Class
Fight Class divied 2 division by the robot weight are flyweight division, 2 kg or under and bantamweight division, 3kg or under.  Each division has a tournament.
Robot gotton 3 knock down within 3 minutes is winner.
Stage is 3600mm×1800mm.

ROBOT FIGHT Bantamweight Division Tournament
Fourteen robot joined the tournament. The 1st place was Rykanus, 2nd place G-Saaga and 3rd place Garoo.

The 1st stage 6 matchies were 6 matches were Ryuketsu-kamen× vs Garoo○, Mongirouni○ vs Zaurar×, Cavalier× vs Rukanus○, Kurou× vs G-Saaga○, Gargoil-mini ○vs Aerobattler PENTO×, Fantom Ⅲ× vs JOKER○.


The 2nd stage 4 matches were Mongirouni○ vs Garoo×, BLACK TIGER NEO× vs Rukanus○; Autonomous Robot BLACK TIGER NEO was defeated perfectly by Rukanus, radio control robot, the winner of the bantamweight division tournament. DeKarle× vs G-Saaga○, JOKER○ vs Gargoil-mini×. 


Semifinal 2 matches were Rukanis○ vs Mongirouni×, JOKER× vs G-Saaga○.


For 3rd place match was Garoo vs Mongirouni. The 3rd place was Garoo.


Final match was Rukanus vs G-Saaga. The winner of bantamweight division tournament was Rukanus, custum-built by SHIBAURA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SRDC Team Rukanus.


Robot Rakugo Story (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! ) by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography


Dancing Ichimatsu-Doll (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO!) by Kazuho Shiroma choreography


Robot Dance Contest

V-Bot, the 2nd place


RoboCarZ28gou


Saikoro-Great, the 1st place


Somari, the 3rd place. Somari was the winner of ROBOT JAPAN ZERO Dance Contest.


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Apr 12, 2011

ROBOT JAPAN 1st took place in Tsukiji, Tokyo ( Part 1 ) (April 10, 2011)

ROBOT JAPAN 1st took place at Tsukiji-Honganji Buddhist Hall in Tokyo on April 10, 2011.   Robot entertainment, ROBOT JAPAN was sponsored by Mazel Japan, a entertainment planning company managing the Buddhist Hall.    ROBOT JAPAN Zero was also held on Jan. 9, 2011.    ROBOT JAPAN 2nd will be hold on Aug. 21, 2011.

ROBOT JAPAN 1st had 4 Class, such as Robot Dance Class, Robot Short Performance Class and Biped Robot Fight Class which were divied 2 Class by the robot weight.  The flyweight division was the robot of 2 kg or under and the bantamweight division was 3 kg or under.

Program was as follows;
11:00 Opening and Robot Comic Dialogue (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! )
          by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography
11:30 Robot Fight Flyweight Division Tournament
          Robot Short Performance Contest
13:00 Kung-Fu Dance (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! ) by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography
          Robot Fight Bantamweight Division Tournament
13:45 Tin Robot Dance (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO!) by Kazuho Shiroma choreography
          Robot Short Performance Contest
          Robot Fight Bantamweight Division for 3rd place Match and Final Match
          Movie `Zanna Bianca` announcement
          Movie `zanna Bianca` Thema Song by Keiko Date (Mini-Live)
          Robot Rakugo Story (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO! ) by Yoshihiro Sibata choreography
          Dancing Ichimatsu-Doll (Tsukiji GO!GO!GO!) by Kazuho Shiroma choreography
          Robot Dance Contest
16:30 Poem and Music by Shuntaro Takigawa and Kensaku Takigawa
          Prize-Giving Ceremony of Dance Contest, Short Perfoamance and MVP
17:00 Ending
Details were reported in Sanzai-san's Blog (in Japanese).
 
The regulation of each class was as follows;

Robot Dance Class
Every kind robot, biped robot and except for biped robot, such as multi-legged robot also can join this class.
Robot plays dancing within 2 minutes with the music requested through radio control or autonomus.
Judgement is carried out by 3 judges and 1st to 3rd place are decided.
Dance stage is 3600mm×1800mm.

Short Performance Class
Every kind robot, wellcome excepr for biped robot, can join this class.
Robot plays a unique short performance through radio control or autonomus.
Stage is 3600mm×1800mm.

Biped Robot Fight Class
Fight Class divied 2 division by the robot weight are flyweight division, 2 kg or under and bantamweight division, 3kg or under.  Each division has a tournament.
Robot gotton 3 knock down within 3 minutes is winner.
Stage is 3600mm×1800mm.

Robot Fight Flyweight Division Tournament
Ten robot joined Flyweight Division (2 kg and under). The winner was Osaru4goukai, the 2nd place was Ryuketsu-kamen Purple, the 3rd palce was Searu.

  The 1st stage 6 matches were as follows; ①Gaiki× vs Lean○, ②Searu○ vs Ryuketsu-kamen White×, ③Zerufar○ vs Strongmachine5gou×, ④Balt○ vs Ryuketsu-kamen Purple×, ⑤Osaru4goukai○ vs Searu×, ⑥Ryuketsu-kamen Yellow○ vs Balt×.



Flyweight Division Semifinal matches were ①Osaru4goukai○ vs Lean× and ②Ryuketsu-kamen Yellow○ vs Zerufar×.



Flyweight division for the 3rd place match was Lean vs Zerufar. The 3rd place was Lean.



Flyweight division final match was Osaru4goukai vs Ryuketsu-kamen Yellow. The winner was Osaru4goukai, custum-built robot by Osaru-kun who was a 1st-year student of junior high school.



Robot Short Performance Contest
Five robots joined the contest. The winner was BLACK TIGER NEO and the 2nd place was V-Bot, the 3rd place was Saikoro-Great.

(1)Robocar-Z28gou by Ueda-san. Robot leads 3-3-7 claps.



(2)V-Bot by Team Veltrobot. LEGO robot car goes up and down the stairs. The 2nd place.



(3)BLACK TIGER NEO by IKETOMU. Autonomous robot knocks down four 500 ml bottles equiped water and covered paper. The 1st place of robot short performance contest.




(4)Saikoro-Great by Garu. Dice(Robot) transforms into robot. The 3rd place.



(5)Ryuketsu-kamen by Mister Tamao. Ryuketsu-kamen is knocked down by aaudience will power.



ROBOT JAPAN 1st Backstage of Flyweight Division and Short Performance



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Apr 8, 2011

KMR-M6, a New KONDO 6-Legged Robot Kit, will be put on the market ( April 8, 2011)

KONDO KAGAKU CO. LTD. announced that KMR-M6, a new 6-legged robot will be put on the market in early May, 2011. The new robot is the second one of the KONDO ANIMAL ROBOT Series.

KONDO uploaded the manual and sample motions of KMR-M6.

KONDO is the leading company of biped hobby robot and is well known to a maker of KHR-series robot as KHR-1, KHR-2HV and KHR-3HV.  The first new category multi-legged robot, turtle type 4-legged robot has been put on the market.

Multi-legged robot has been being miner robot compared with biped robot in Japan. Just G-DOG , a kit of 4-legged robot, was on the market from HIP JAPAN in July 2008.   Recently, robot builders who has been making custom-built biped robot are interested in making multi-legged robot.   Five times of Robot Survival Game with multi-legged robots were carried out in Tokyo.  The first one took place on July 19th, 2010 and the 6th one will take place at Dainihongiken office on April 17th, 2011. 

KONDO also held twice of KONDO LAND Multi-Legged Robot Obstacle Race at ROBOSPOT in Akihabara, Tokyo on Dec. 23rd, 2010 and Jan. 23rd, 2011The third one will took place at ROBOSPOT on May 7th, 2011.

Characteristics of the new robot are as follows:

1. The 6-legged robot can move with highly stability. The robot can walk over the hard bumps with tight grips.
2. Light weight robot body was made by synthetic resin parts. Spring inside the leg parts for absorbing shock makes robot move fast.
3. Robot can move freely with limitted number of servos by the linked-leg system and high powered servo, KRS-2552HV which is using in KHR-3HV.
4. Setting battery under the backpack of the robot makes easy battery change.
5. The dummy head can be exchanged with a real servo for moving the head.
6. RCB-4HV, the control board with 10 analog terminals and 10 digital I/Os of KHR-3HV is also used in the robot.
7. HeartToHeart4, software for motion creating makes easy a lot of variety of motions.
8. Powerful Ni-H battery and rapid battery charger are attached the kit.




Specifications are as follows:
Frame: Light weight aluminium alloy
Leg: Synthetic resin
Control board: RCB-4HV
Servo: KRS-2552HV ICS RedVersion ×12
Battery: ROBO power cell HV D-type 10.8V-800mAh Ni-MH
Battery carger: AC100V MX-201
Parts: screws, cables, plastic parts
CD-ROM: manual, software, sample motions etc.
Size: 182(H)×335(W)×223(D)
Weight: 1,070 g  (including battery)
Price: 79,800 Yen  (including tax)

Parts of KONDO 6-Legged Robot, KMR-6 will be also put on the market by the end of May, 2011.
Multi-legged robot leg unit set type A (KO205) : 1,575 Yen (including tax)
Multi-legged robot body frame type A (2 parts)  (KO2107) : 2,100 Yen (including tax)
Spring(standard) 10 pieces (KO2108) : 315 Yen (including tax)

Lem-san also reported the details of the hexapod with video in his blog.

Craft House made motions for KMR-6M as follows;



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