Go inside the creative world of the R2 Builders Club thanks to an extensive profile in the May 2008 issue of Servo magazine for the robot innovator.

Craig Smith advises prospective members about the amount of time it takes to create a droid: “R2 built from scratch or built from club parts is not a quick project. It will take months to complete a static, non-moving display — even years for a motorized version. When I look at the parts on my droid, I recall the week it took to make the shoulders, the days it took to make the ankle covers, the days it took to re-make the ankles themselves because I did not offset them correctly. And there are dozens more parts on the droid with similar memories. A project such as this is a huge commitment!”

Read the full article here:
The R2 Builders Club and the Jedi Code

Move over, John Williams! Here’s a great video of the Honda ASIMO Robot conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as they play “The Impossible Dream.”

We’re still hoping that the R2 Builders will see this video and make the next Artoo able to play guitar solos with the Foo Fighters, just to show up the Honda ASIMO Robot. Hint hint.

VIDEO: Honda ASIMO Robot Conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

See more of the amazing ASIMO Robot at Asimo.honda.com.

It’s everyone’s favorite droid! IEEE Spectrum talked with R2-D2 builder Steve Simmons at Maker Faire to find out how the Star Wars droids work.

VIDEO: Maker Faire 2008: R2-D2 Builders

VIDEO: Artoo dancing with children at Maker Faire 2008

For more info about R2 Builders, check out Artoo-detoo.net.

Every year mad scientists, robot builders, power tool drag racers, craftsters, and other DIY guys and gals gather together at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds for one of the coolest events in the Bay Area — the Maker Faire!

This year there were plenty of fun things for Star Wars fans to see and do — including crafts, R2-D2 dancing, prop displays, the LEGO Jeep, Steampunk contraptions and more!

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Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself mindset. Maker Faire happens May 3 and 4 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds in California. It’s a fun event for creative people of all ages who love to tinker and make things.

Whether it’s playing with robots (and there’s a lot of them!), checking out huge fire-breathing contraptions from Survival Research Laboratories, gawking at Tesla Coils, drag racing power tools, making all kinds of crafts, or just having fun geeking out, there’s plenty for everyone to do.

Here’s a selection of Makers and Exhibits that Star Wars fans might dig the most:

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Sure R2-D2 doesn’t cook or make a mean margarita, or screen your calls, or even pay rent; but he has a knack for turning your living room into a deluxe movie theater or gaming-on-the-ceiling arcade. He even plays all the songs on your iPod so you can invite the neighbors over for a dance party!

If you haven’t been drooling over the R2-D2 Digital Audio and Video Projector yet, perhaps this techno-saturated, R2-D2 as a supermodel, demo video will do the trick.

VIDEO: R2-D2 Projector (via nikkoamerica.com)

INFO: R2-D2 Digital Audio and Video Projector (StarwarsShop.com)

Could war spider bots become a reality? There’s some buzz in the media this week about the global military contractor BAE Systems announcing that it will lead “a large alliance of American academics in building an army of miniature robots to aid the US military.” The effort, known as Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST), will receive $38m of US Army funding.

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(GH-7 medical droid shown above from Revenge of the Sith)

Star Wars fans know all too well that where there are lightsabers and blasters, there’s bound to be a few injuries. Luckily, there are plenty of droid nurses and medics to patch up our favorite characters. Their bedside manner might not be as human as we’re used to seeing via “Grey’s Anatomy” or “House” but they do a decent job in everything from giving Jedi new arms to delivering babies.

So it’s no surprise that medic droids, and R2-D2 for that matter, have become the inspiration to engineers at the University of Warwick who are helping to design “R2-D2″-type robo nurses for a program called i-WARD, which could be in UK hospitals by 2020.

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The Carnegie Science Center plans to open the nation’s largest permanent robotics exhibition in spring 2009 called roboworld which will feature 30 hands-on interactive exhibit stations in three thematic areas focusing on robotic sensing, thinking and acting.

“roboworld will be both educational and entertaining,” said Joanna Haas, director of Carnegie Science Center. “It will showcase the latest in robotics technology — much of which has been developed in this region — and help visitors understand the tremendous impact robotics has on everyday life for each and every one of us.”

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First there was the BigDog robot story that had technophobes quaking in their boots. Now, the so-called “Bum Bot” is on patrol in Atlanta:

That is what Rufus Terrill calls the rolling, remote-controlled invention he uses to flush out the prostitutes and pushers who gather near his Atlanta bar, which is two blocks from the city’s largest and most controversial homeless shelter.

The Bum Bot, like the homeless people it polices, is a creature of hand-me-downs. The wheels are from one of those scooters for the elderly; the PA system is a walkie-talkie wired to a home-alarm speaker. The rotating turret is an old Cajun meat smoker.

The cylindrical smoker gives the Bum Bot its R2D2-ish profile. But its black armor - made of exercise mats - and the stenciled letters spelling out SECURITY lend it a menacing air.

An infrared camera and a 2 million-candlepower spotlight are mounted on the turret under a homemade cannon, which squirts jets of cold water at up to 200 pounds per square inch.

Using a twin-joystick remote, Terrill usually sends his robot up the street to the parking lot of a day care center, where a sketchy, drug-dealing crowd congregates after dark. The police sometimes round them up, Terrill says, but soon, it seems, they are back on the street.

Anybody else disappointed his last name wasn’t Tyrell instead of Terrill? Read more here and here.