Robot Saturday - Another robot roundup

Robot posts have been thin on the ground lately (as have all kinds of posts), but this means I've been saving up all my robot related items for one huge mega-post for you all to enjoy. Enjoy!

Robot Paints Its Feelings
Well, not really, but artist and composer Ben Grosser has developed a robot which paints from a palette of 4 colours, using input from its microphone. So, the noises of what's going on in the room around it, plus the noises it makes itself while painting, are all incorporated somehow (don't ask me how; you know, using robots) into the design it is currently painting. They've also tried playing a violin at it to see what happens. It's quite hypnotic to watch. This Vimeo shows the machine in action, as well as showing some of its finished works at the end - I would totally have one of those in my house, were it not probably going to be ridiculously expensive to buy one. I love that the artist credited is 'Interactive Robotic Painting Machine'.

Someone's Made The Power Loader From Aliens
Yes, you heard me right. Well, not quite exactly, but the Raytheon Sarcos Modified Ditch Witch is probably the closest you'll get anywhere in the world today. Who could forget the scene in Aliens where Ripley rocks up in some unholy robotic suit, in order to kick the ass of some aliens? Well, compare the two videos below, and judge for yourself.

The footage of the Ditch Witch doesn't necessarily confirm whether it would be good for kicking the ass of things, but it does lift some brilliant objects, including several squares, a cylinder, and an I-section girder. It also includes a clip from my favourite film of the last decade, Real Steel.


Robot Tea Infuser

Combining my love of robots with my frankly unhealthy obsession with tea, this infuser from ModCloth grabs the sides of the cup like an adorable little robot, and creates lovely lovely tea. Don't all buy me one, that could get embarrassing. Also, we just bought far too many teabags because we forgot we already had some, so we won't be using any leaf tea for a while yet.

Robots Playing Table Tennis
I'm not going to bother to write a description for this one properly, because we all know what it's about. It's about looking at some photos of some goddamn robots playing goddamn table tennis. And isn't that all we really want, anyway?