KCB-3WL, New Wireless LAN Board for Hobby Robot from KONDO (Feb 20th, 2010)

KONDO KAGAKU Co. Ltd opened a new wireless LAN board for hobby robot during Humanoid Helper Project 2nd on Feb 20th, 2010. KCB-3WL is a board for remote controlling robot system by watching image around the robot on PC. It seems to be useful for such as Humanoid Helper Project, multi-legged robot game etc.

The new board will be put on the market July 29th, 2010. The price including all systems is 58,800 yen (including tax).

KHR-3HV with KCB-3WL and camera demonstrated to control the robot through the image from the robot on PC. KCB-3WL is also able to control robot autonomously by the image recognition around the robot. It seems to be also useful for such as autonomous robot soccer. The presentation video using KHR-3HV was as follows;


Specifications are as follows;
Size: 49.2 x 52 x 12 mm
CPU: SAMSUNG ARMbase32bit CPU 200MHz
Memory: RAM 16MByte, Flash ROM 8MByte
Wireless Interface: IEEE802.11a/b/g(54Mbps/11Mbps)
USB port: USB1.1 x1, Full Speed (12Mbps), 500mA from USB port
GPIO port: x 12
STATUS LED: x 3
Power Supply: 16 V ( for HV), inside 5 V and 3.3 V, 240 mA~1A.
OS: Linux OS or VM Ware Player

KONDO also introduced a 4-legged robot with KCB-3WL and small camera in the KONDO booth. The robot was custom-built with 8 KRS-2552HVs for 4 legs and RCB-4HV as the main control board. The robot was able to be controlled through the image from the robot on PC. The pictures and video are as follows;




In the 1st Humanoid Helper Project on Aug 17th and Sep 6th 2008, some robot builders used NetTansor of BANDAI for image sensing. Robot builders have been waiting such a small board for image sensing. The same samll sensing system 'Remo' was put on the market on Dec 15th, 2009. It is expected these new small board will be applied to variety of biped or multi-legged hobby robots.

The details were also described in NODE by Moriyama.

Since Oct. 19th, 2009
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ROBO-ONE Light Class Selective Fight in Yokohama ( Feb 20th, 2010)

ROBO-ONE Light Class (under 3 kg) Selective Fight, sponsored ROBO-ONE Committee, took place at Housquare Yokohama, during Humanoid Project 2nd on Feb 20th, 2010.

The 17th ROBO-ONE will take place in Kawasaki on March 21st, 2010. Winner robot gets the right of attend the 17th ROBO-ONE. The 17th ROBO-ONE will be held as the tournament with winner of the local robot competition.

ROBO-ONE announced new regulation of the 17th ROBO-ONE Tournament on Feb 1st. The main change of regulation is arms and body horizontal total length, which is changed from under 340 % to under 240% that of leg. The arm length is not changed under 120 % that of leg. As the result, body wide length is limited compared with former regulation. This selective fight tournament was carried out under the new regulation for the 17th ROBO-ONE

Fourteen robots joined the competition. The winner was Fantom, the 2nd place was Gargoil-mini and the 3rd place was stormwave light2. Fantom was newly remodeled custom-built robot with parallel linkage leg mechanical structure by Black. Gargoil-mini was also custom-built robot with the leg structure. The structure is well known to a stable one for fight among bobot builders.

The idea of parallel linkage mechnical structure to apply to hobby robot was opened by Yoshimura, who called as `God of ROBO-ONE` in July 2007. Then it was introduced to ROBO-ONE fight in the Over Regulation Class (ORC) robot, 'Cavalia' by Emanon at first. It was also introduced to Standard Regulation Class (SRC) Robot, ‘Daigakku’ by Akitsuka at ROBO FIGHT 8 (Nov 2~3, 2008). His SRC robot joined the ORC tournament and defeated 'Yogoroza', one of the 4 strong robots called four god machine in Kansai District of Japan, and also defeated 'Automo 03' one of the strong robots in Kyushu District. Of course, the winner of SRC was `Daigakku`. Since the parallel linkage leg has been being popular leg system in the robot fight. Daigakku also attended this tournament, it lost the semi-final match by the winner Fantom.

In the Kanto-gumi Robot Training Meeting on Feb 14, 2010, Kupapa also introduced his newly remodeled custom-built robot 'Chrom-Kid' with parallel linkage leg as photo.

Videos are as follows;

Semi-final match:Gargoil-mini vs stormwave light2

Semi-final match:Fantom vs Daigakku

Final Match:Fantom vs Gargoil-mini

This article was also introduced in Get Robo.
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Humanoid Helper Project 2nd, Preliminary competition in Yokohama (Feb 20th, 2010)

Humanoid Helper Project 2nd, sponsored by ROBO-ONE Committee, took place at Housquare Yokohama on Feb 20, 2010. The purpose of Humanoid Helper Project is to commercialize useful robot for human through competitions. The 1st competition preliminary took place as ‘Helper Robot Project’ in Kawasaki on Aug 17th and final took place on Sep 6th, 2008.

In the competition, controller of robot could not handle by watching the robot, but had to handle through camera attached by watching the screen on PC. Because, robots will have to go shopping for their owner by themselves in future.

Competition was consisted with following 3 events in the preliminary on Feb, 20th.
1) Ladling water with a bottle into a cup
2) Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray
3) Thirty minutes durable race
The final competition was scheduled with 2 events which were Fashion show and entertaining the guest on Feb, 21st. (see YouTube andonoblog Channel and Sanzai's Blog)

Three big robot, Doka Harumi (Doka project), THKR-4 (CAP Project) and Musashi (MARU Family), attended the competition. The 1st place was Musashi, the 2nd place was THKR-4 , the 3rd place was Doka Harumi in the preliminary competition.

Videos are as follows;

Ladling water with a bottle into a cup by Doka Harumi


Ladling water with a bottle into a cup by THKR-4


Ladling water with a bottle into a cup by Musashi


Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray by Doka Harumi


Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray by THKR-4


Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray by Musashi


Thirty minutes durable race by Doka Harumi, ThKR-4 and Musashi

This article was also introduced in GetRobo
The details were also described in Game Watch by Moriyama.

Multi-Legged Robots were Introduced at the Kanto-Gumi Robot Training Meeting ( Feb 14, 2010 )

The 47th Kanto (Tokyo region)-Gumi (group) Robot Training Meeting was held at ‘Robotoma.com’ , robot shop in Itabashi, Tokyo on Feb. 14th, 2010. The meeting was produced by Mr. Ishikawa , who is the leader of Kanto-Gumi. He is also the sponsor of enjoyable competition, `Wonderful Robot Carnival`, which takes place 2 times every year in Tokyo. Kanto-Gumi is consisted with about 20~30 members. Everybody has a robot, could become a member of Kanto-Gumi when he joined the meeting. Robot shop or public meeting room is used for meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is not only robot fight training but also exchanging information or know-how about robot making. Usually attendants practice robot fight, but attendants sometimes fights a duel with his rival before members. The meeting is scheduled on the holiday every month changing the place. Every meeting starts at about 13:00 and closes at about 20:00. Every member joins and goes out of the meeting whenever he likes. After training meeting, most of attendants go to pub to drink sake while talking about ideas of robot.

The 47th meeting was scheduled as the 2nd presentation meeting for robot game or competition. About 25 members joined the meeting. Five presentations were carried out. 1) Survival game of robot by Tanaka, 2) Robot Sword Fight by B-saku, 3) Robot competition using balloon by TOBBY, 4) TIROL CHOCO Robot competition by Masayuki, 5) Robot-Billiards by Mr. Ishikawa.

Concerning the survival game of robot, multi-legged robots such as 4 legs, 5 legs, 6 legs and 6 legs with wheel were introduced to the meeting members.


New 4-legged robot, pictures are as follows:


Igga also introduced his new 6-legged robot 'Vanga' with wheel for high speed moving and horn for close combat. Pictures are as follows;


'Vanga' and 'BT-L15' demonstration video was as followes;


There are three Training Meetings in Japan. One is `Kanto-Gumi Training Meeting`, others are `Chubu (Nagoya region) Training Meeting` and `Kyushu (Fukuoka region) Training Meeting` .

The 47th Kanto-Gumi Robot Training Meeting was also described in Sanzai’s Blog .

This article was also introduced in Get Robo

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The 4th TIROL-CHOCO Robot Competition in Akihabara, Tokyo ( Feb 13, 2010 )

The 4th TIROL-CHOCO Robot Competition

sponsored by MASAYUKI, supported by RT Co., Ltd. and cooperated by TIROL-CHOCO CO., took place at RT Office in Akihabara, Tokyo on Feb. 13th, 2010. The competition is for robots with TIROL-CHOCO exterior. The 1st competition was held on July 9th, 2007. After that, the completion took place every year. The 2nd competition was held on Feb 11th, 2008 and the 3rd competition was held on March 21st, 2009.

Regulation of robot body was as follows;
1) Robot had to put on big TIROL-CHOCO exterior, which size were bottom (100 mm x 100 mm), upper surface (86 mm x 86 mm) and height (46 mm) respectively.
2) Biped robot. Number of servo for legs was under 4. Total number of servo was not limited.
3) Control method such as autonomous, radio and wired was free.
Such type robots are known to Roppo type robot which was produced by Mr. Iwaski, Robot Force . Such type robot, Pirkus-R Type-02 (chobi) with 8 axes was also put on the market.

The competition was consisted with three kinds of games . Each robot got points depended on the order of each game.

1) Two m Foot Race with Obstacles
Robot walks 2 m course within 5 minutes. The order is depended on the time. If robot cannot walk for 2 m within 5 minutes, the order is depended on the distance from start line. Each robot can try twice and the best time is recorded. If 2 cm bump put in the course, the time is calculated to shorter.

2) TIROL-CHOCO Shooting
Three paper cups with TIROL-CHOCO on the top put on the field. Robot shoots the paper cups away at a distance of 65 cm. Robot gets dropped TIROL-CHOCO from the top of paper cup. The order is depended on the number of shot TIROL-CHOCO.

3) TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race
Two arm-robots put on the 2 m course. Player removes TIROL-CHOCO from the basket of arm-robot to the basket on the robot. Each robot carries TIROL-CHOCO on the robot within 5 minutes for 2 m. The order is depended on the time and the number of TIROL-CHOCO carried.

After the 3 games, participants and watchers took a vote on which was the most popular TIROL-CHOCO robot and each robot got points depended on the vote. The winner was robot gotten the most total points of game and vote.

Six robots, BT-R (IKETOMU), Fuga (Igaa), Bosa-2gou (Mukouyama), Chocon-4 (KENTA), Fault (Kubo) and Puchro (KEG) attended the competition. As marketed robot, Robovie-i is fitting the body regulation, Bosa-2gou based Robovie-i joined the competition.


The most intersting game was TIROL-CHOCO Shooting game. Each robots had interesting shooting system. Especially, Fuga (Igaa) had ball type shooting system and got 32 points. Chocon-4 (KENTA) had missile type shooting system and got 24 points. Puchro (KEG) also had missile type shooting and got 7 points. All systems could be applied to the other game.

The winner was `Fuga`, custom-built by Igaa. The 2nd place was `Chocon-4`, custom-built by Kenta. The 3rd place was `BT-R`, custom-built Roppo type by IKETOMU. Chocon-4 also got the most elegant robot prize by the vote.

The video are as follows:

Two m Foot Race:BT-R, Fuga, Bosa-2gou, Chocon-4, Fault and Puchro. The winner was Fuga, the 2nd place was Chocon-4 and 3rd place was BT-R


TIROL-CHOCO Shooting:BT-R, Fuga, Bosa-2gou, Chocon-4, Fault and Puchro. The winner was Fuga, the 2nd place was Chocon-4 and 3rd place was Puchro.


TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race:BT-R


TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race:Fuga


TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race:Bosa-2gou


TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race:Chocon-4


TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race:Fault


TIROL-CHOCO Carrying Race:Puchro

This article was also introduced in Get Robo.
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Biped robot builders began to make multi-legged robots ( Feb 4, 2010 )

Multi-legged robot has been being miner robot compared with biped robot in Japan. Just G-DOG , a kit of 4 legs 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.

Shimaken who is a member of Kanto-Gumi Robot Training Meeting, joined `Wonderful Robot Carnival Petit in Soka` with his custom-built robot with 6 legs `Shiguma`on Nov 2, 2008.

Bishii , (Asakusa-giken) and Tanaka , (Dainihon-giken) declared `the 1st Kanto Robot War` on Dec 4th, 2009. They announced that they began to make multi-legged robots with gun and sensor for detecting the impact, which were controlled using image monitor as`Remo`. The movement of making the multi-legged robot began from this announce.

ROBOSPOT held an information exchange meeting about multi-legged robot on Jan 23rd, 2010. Some robot builders joined the meeting and exchanged the opinion. And the presentation was also carried out. My new robots with 5 legs, BT-L5 and BT-L15 videos were also presented. After the meeting, ROBOSPOT announced a plan of competition with multi-legged robots in this spring.

Mr. Morinaga , who is famous for `Metallic Fighter` and called as `Father of ROBO-ONE` also started to making multi-legged robots with 7 legs named Metallic Bio. Igaa who is a famous biped robot builder of `Saaga` and `Soga`, also made a new multi-legged robot with wheel for `the 1st Kanto Robot War` and opened the video on Feb 1st, 2010. His wheel complex multi-legged robot can move with high speed. K who is famous for a big Gundum robot at S.H.R.B. , is also making a multi-legged robot with 4 legs .

ROBO-ONE announced new regulation of the 17th ROBO-ONE Tournament which holds with under 3 kg robots on March 21st, 2010. The main change of the regulation is arms and body horizontal total length, which is changed from under 340 % to under 240% that of leg. The arm length is not changed under 120 % that of leg. As the result, body wide length is limited compared with former regulation, the new regulation is more strict for robots such as `Cavalia` and `Gargoil` with wide body and parallel linked legs.

ROBO-ONE regulation has been changed in each competition, and changed more and more strictly for robot builders. These strict regulations was made for not to give advantage to the typical structure robot. On the other hand, it seems that these strict changing has been defeating the challenge spirits to a new structure and mechanism of robot builders.

Multi-legged robots competition which ROBOSPOT is in planning will be no regulation except for biped robot not to join and prohibit wheel using. Therefore, many new type of multi-legged robots will be built and builder`s idea will be presented.

Multi-legged robot is stable to walk compared with biped robot and even low powered servo motor can move the body. It is not so hard for biped robot builders to make a new multi-legged robot. Biped robot builders also have a lot of idle controller, servos, arms and parts. It is interesting and expecting that what kinds of new type multi-legged robots will be introduced.

This article was also introduced in GetRobo
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