Raincoats, plastic bottles, styrofoam, windshield wiper motors and a love for the sea; that’s what marine biologist and self-taught roboticist Masamichi Hayashi used to make these realistic aquatic robots. Among Hayashi’s creations are a porpoise, great white shark, green turtle, manta ray, killer whale and hammerhead shark. Back in 2009 they were featured on Japanese TV, Hayashi explained how they are used to teach kids about marine animal behavior and locomotion.

The 5 ft long coelacanth robot below weighs 105 lbs and cost 2 million yen ($22,000) to make.

via: Pink Tentacle

There are many different types of humanoid robots out there but this is the first one created solely for swimming. SWUMANIOD (SWimming + hUMANOID) was created by researchers Motomu Nakashima and Chung Changhyun of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The robot was made to reproduce the motion of human swimmers while measuring water resistance.
SWUMANIOD was made by first doing a 3D scan of a real person’s body, then using 3D printed parts to make a 1/2 model. Next they added 20 water-proof motors and programmed the bot to imitate human …

The robot community in Japan is never short of ingenuity, take this robot maid for example. This custom bot was built by Dr. GIY, a well respected member of the Robo-one scene. The first of the Doctor’s creations I saw live was an anthropomorphic robot cat that wowed the audience in a dance competition. It’s quite obvious he’s a wiz at making his creations dance. Watch her go.

According to Dr. GIY the choreography is not as smooth as he’d like it to be so he’ll be working on refining it. …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=djJDvgUOL7E
Japanese performance artist Momoyo Torimitsu takes her robot for a crawl in downtown Sydney, Australia. Crowds watch the bizarre sight of the life-like Japanese businessman in suit and tie slowly crawling on all fours along the pavement. The robot is a symbol of the Japan’s rigid Salaryman culture.
by itnsource on youtube 2006

Summer is cockroach season in Japan and these remote controlled robot cockroaches are the perfect way to freak out your loved ones who are terrified of them. There’s called Gokiraji from GOKIburi (cockroach) and RAJIkon (RC), and they’re 1,680 yen each. I wish they were a lot cheaper so I could buy a swarm of them.
via: JTT

This 4.9 ton, 12.5 foot (3.8 meter) metal monstrosity is Vaudeville, a project in progress by a small group of mecha enthusiasts called “Suidobashi Heavy Industry”. The single-pilot giant robot is controlled using a smartphone, master-slave control and also a Kinect sensor in the cockpit. Check out this video showing their work in progress.

It is truly amazing that a backyard project such as this could be of such high quality. The best thing about this project is that when it is finished you have a chance to own it. The …

Nobuhiro Takahashi is a researcher known for making high-tech devices for lonely people. He previous inventions include; Sense-Roid, a vest that allows you to know how it feels to hug yourself and robotic tongue for kissing over the internet (videos below). Now he’s at it again, he’s created the world’s most realistic robot buttocks. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, “Shiri”. (Japanese for butt)

So according to Takahashi and The University of Electrocommunication, this humanoid robot butt was made to explore innovative ways to use robotics in communication. They are …

The world famous 1:1 Gundam made it’s return to Odaiba this spring. Youtube user Darwinfish105 has the best short videos of this beast. Even one with last weeks super-moon in the backdrop.

Watch as this mini-Transformer shape-shifts from vehicle to humanoid mode and even throws out an uppercut. This little Autobot was designed and built by Kenji Ishida while working with JS Robotics. Making a transforming robot is a lot more difficult than it seems. Mr. Ishida’s bot performs the transformation relatively quickly while maintaining balance. All this presented in a 2 min youtube video better than the last two Transformers films.

via: PlasticPals

A little over a year ago we told you about EngKey; the robot English teachers whose mission is to replaced all native English speaking human teachers in Korea in the next 2 to 4 years. These telepresence bots allow the Korean government the opportunity save money on expensive salaries by recruiting cheaper but qualified teachers in the Philippines to operate the bots from thousands of kilometer away.
Though they may be taking away human jobs, are they cool enough to put us to shame on the dance room? This youtube video …