We’ve got some big news. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (aka IEEE) really, really likes what we’ve been doing at BotJunkie, and they want to make us a part of their flagship online and print publication, IEEE Spectrum. Specifically, they’ve got a robotics blog called Automaton, and BotJunkie is going to be moving there.

Now, please don’t panic or anything. IEEE likes BotJunkie ’cause we’re BotJunkie, and when we move over there, we’re going to keep things snarky and fun and keep writing about what we like to write about. Just because IEEE is a professional organization doesn’t mean we’re going to turn all professional. We’ll have the same type of coverage that you know (and hopefully) love, just in a slightly different place that gives us more options and opportunities to do cool robot stuff (more on that later).

On a personal note, I started BotJunkie (with the help of OhGizmo’s David Ponce) back in 2007. We didn’t know what was going to happen with it, and at the time, I hadn’t the least idea of how to write about robots. In 2009, we celebrated our thousandth post, and it’s now 2011 and we’re nearing our two thousandth. I love writing about robots, but it’s you guys, our readers, who really make it worthwhile. You’ve helped us grow BotJunkie into something special, which also happens to be one of the largest dedicated robotics blogs in the known universe. Every time one of you reads, or emails, or comments, it makes me both weirdly happy and more determined to bring you the most awesome robotics news.

So, thank you. Thanks for reading, thanks for making BotJunkie into something amazing, and I really hope you’ll all come along as we evolve into something even better.

You probably still have questions, but don’t worry, we’ve got answers!

-What’s going to be different?

The big change is that we’re going start posting our articles on IEEE Spectrum’s Automaton robotics blog. To keep enjoying our robotics articles, you’ll want to head over there, since we won’t be posting here anymore.

-What’s going to be the same?

We want to be clear about this: the reason we’re teaming up with Automaton is that they really like what we’ve been doing here at BotJunkie, largely because YOU like it. They don’t want that to change, and it’s definitely not going to. We’re going to be posting about the same types of things, in the same format, with the same tone and length, just in a new place with a new name.

-What’s in it for us, your loyal readers?

Lots of stuff! Firstly, we’re going to actually have a team of incredible people to write about robots. Even though I like to use the word ‘we’ when I talk about BotJunkie, it’s really just me (Evan), and it gets lonely around here sometimes. More people = more sweet robot articles. We’re not going to spam you with stuff, but at the moment, there’s more going on in the robot world than I can write about by myself, and with IEEE, we’ll be able to cover more.

Secondly, we’re going to be able to branch out a little bit, posting some longer and more in-depth articles in addition to our regular daily content. This means more interviews, more reviews, and more videos. You may not have heard of IEEE, but it’s actually a pretty big organization, and we may end up with some new strings we can pull to get our hands on awesome exclusives.

Finally, those of you who have been reading for a while might remember that I constantly bemoan the fact that BotJunkie doesn’t have a travel budget. Well, Automaton does! We’ll be heading to places like China, Japan, and Europe to bring you live coverage and breaking news from robotics conferences and events worldwide.

-What the heck is IEEE?

IEEE is the world’s largest association of engineers and technologists, and their mission is to “advance technology for the benefit of humanity.” They should really toss an ‘and robots’ on there at the end, but we’ll let it slide, for now. They’ve got something like 400,000 members worldwide, they publish several hundred peer-reviewed journals, they put on a bunch of international conferences, and they also develop electronics standards. Like, you know how Wi-Fi is also called 802.11? It’s actually IEEE 802.11, ’cause IEEE developed it. Same with FireWire. Not bad, right?

-How do you even pronounce ‘IEEE’ anyway?

It’s “eye-triple-ee.” I know, it’s weird.

-What does IEEE know about robots?

Tons. IEEE has an entire society devoted to robotics and automation, creatively called the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS). They have their own magazines and journals, and they also put on a bunch of super cool robotics conferences, including ICRA (the giant International Conference on Robotics and Automation) and more specific conferences like IEEE-RAS Humanoids, which is all about humanoid robots. We’ll be collaborating with RAS on interviews, exclusive stories, and more.

-What’s Automaton?

Automaton is the robotics blog of IEEE Spectrum, IEEE’s-award winning news and features magazine. The blog is edited by the capable and handsome Erico Guizzo, and has contributors worldwide. I’ll be stepping in as Senior Writer, and coming up with daily content just like I’ve been doing here on BotJunkie.

-What’s going to happen to the BotJunkie website?

The homepage that you see when you go to BotJunkie.com will soon automatically redirect you to IEEE Automaton; this’ll happen Wednesday or thereabouts. All the new content we write will go up on Automaton, not here, and there’s already some robot awesomeness there waiting for you!

-What about all those articles you have in your archive?

All that content is my blood, sweat, tears, blood, blood, and lots more blood and tears. It’s not going anywhere. We’ll be copying some of the best stuff over to Automaton’s archive, but any bookmarks or links you have to pages on BotJunkie will still work just fine, and you can still browse the archive by clicking here: http://www.botjunkie.com/page/1/

-What’s going to happen to my RSS feed?

You’ll need to change it. Automaton’s RSS feed can be found here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/rss/priv/blog/automaton

-Can I still send you tips?

Of course you can, we love tips! And, we’ll have more people around to take your suggestions and actually write them up, which has been a bit of problem in the past. My email address, evan (at) botjunkie (dot) com, will keep on working.

-Don’t abandon us! Why are you selling out to the Man, man?

Aw, c’mon, don’t be like that! We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think that it would be good for you and good for us too. We’re going to keep doing exactly what we’re doing, just in a place where we’ve got a little more support and a couple extra people to help us produce the fantastic robot content that you know and love.

Got more questions about what’s going on? Post ‘em in the comments, and I’ll get back to you straightaway.

We gave you the rundown on iRobot’s new Scooba 230 back when it was first announced in January, but we got to see it in person at CES. First impression: it’s damn tiny. If you’re familiar with the cleaning habits of the Roomba, the Scooba won’t offer much in the way of surprises, but we had iRobot take us through it all on video anyway, and there are definitely some interesting tidbits that came up. Check it out:

As for what’s next for the Scooba, while (as always) iRobot wouldn’t speculate, I did hear several general mentions (from them) of how some kind of wireless technology would be pretty cool. Like, for areas like the kitchen and bathroom where you might want to run your Roomba first, followed by a Scooba, wireless inter-bot communication could allow you to schedule a single cleaning time where multiple robots would cooperate to do a better job. Anyway, we’ll see what happens, but as I’ve mentioned before, it’s wonderful to see iRobot (finally) pushing some new robots as opposed to just reskinned versions of their older tech.

[ iRobot Scooba 230 ]

Innvo Labs was out in force at CES 2011, the last few videos from which I’m still messing with. I know, I know feel free not to tip me this week. Anyway, I got some cute pics of their new Pleo Reborn plus 10 minutes with Innvo’s COO Derek Dotson, one of Pleo’s original daddies from back in the Ugobe days:

While it’s a bit disappointing that those adorable pink and blue Pleos won’t be available over here, and that the male and female behaviors that we heard about weren’t implemented, Pleo rb is still much more sophisticated than the original Pleo, especially in terms of software and interactivity.

I’m particularly looking forward to some of those future features that Derek alludes to in our interview, like the wireless connectivity and nose cam access. I mean, if both of those get hooked up, presto, you’ve got a remotely accessible surveillance dino. It’ll be a while yet, but just bombard Innvo with emails, ’cause they’re listening.

Looks like Pleo Reborn is backordered until about April, which is good news for Innvo and the commercial future of Pleo but bad news for you if you want one. They’re $470, and extra food and learning stone kits are $20 each.

[ Pleoworld ]

This is a robotic dragonfly. If I told you that some company had just invented it and it was flying around today, you’d probably be impressed. Instead, I’m going to tell you that it was developed by the CIA and was flying in the 1970s. And not just flying like proof-of-concept-it-gets-off-the-ground flying, but reportedly, the flight tests were ‘impressive,’ whatever that means. It was powered by an ultraminiaturized gasoline engine (!) that would vent its exhaust backwards to increase the bot’s thrust, and the only reason they seemed to have scrapped it was that its performance in a crosswind wasn’t that good:

In the 1970s the CIA had developed a miniature listening device that needed a delivery system, so the agency’s scientists looked at building a bumblebee to carry it. They found, however, that the bumblebee was erratic in flight, so the idea was scrapped. An amateur entymologist on the project then suggested a dragonfly and a prototype was built that became the first flight of an insect-sized machine.

A laser beam steered the dragonfly and a watchmaker on the project crafted a miniature oscillating engine so the wings beat, and the fuel bladder carried liquid propellant.

Despite such ingenuity, the project team lost control over the dragonfly in even a gentle wind. “You watch them in nature, they’ll catch a breeze and ride with it. We, of course, needed it to fly to a target. So they were never deployed operationally, but this is a one-of-a-kind piece.”

In of itself, this dragonfly is not particularly crazy. It’s also not particularly crazy that it was done 30 or 40 years ago, I guess. What IS crazy is when you start thinking about the state of technology 40 years ago versus the state of technology today, and what might be possible now (but currently top secret) if they had an operational insect robot way back then. It blows my mind.

The CIA also came up with a robot squid (its mission is STILL classified) and a robot research fish named Charlie. Pics and video of that, after the jump.

CIA’s Office of Advanced Technologies and Programs developed the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) fish to study aquatic robot technology. Some of the specifications used to develop “Charlie” were: speed, endurance, maneuverability, depth control, navigational accuracy, autonomy, and communications status.

The UUV fish contains a pressure hull, ballast system, and communications system in the body and a propulsion system in the tail. It is controlled by a wireless line-of-sight radio handset.

Cute! And once again, seriously not bad for such a long time ago.

[ CIA Flickr ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

Wondering what a $15k telepresence robot can do for you? WONDER NO LONGER. With the help of a 4G wireless hotspot, this QB wandered out of the Anybots office into downtown Mountain View looking for a snack. A mile later, it found a Red Rock Coffee and ordered a berry scone, tipped something like 125% (!) and then rolled out. Classy.

While it’s a little hard to tell from the vid, I’m assuming that Anybots sent a chaperone of some sort along to make sure that nobody just grabbed QB by the neck and made off with it. And if they didn’t, well, let me know next time you send a robot out for coffee, because I totally want one and I think grand theft robot is the only way it’s gonna happen.

[ Anybots ]

Hamster powered robots are something of a running joke, but Crabfu (you remember him, right?) has managed to create a walking robot out of a kit modeled originally on Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests that’s powered by a cute n’ fluffy hamster named Princess. The first question is, of course, why would you make a robot that’s powered by a hamster? Crabfu has the answer:

That’s just stupid, which is the exact reason why I did it.

And that, right there, is one of the best possible reasons to make a uselessly cool robot.

So, the second question here is when is this thing going to get a gun? And the third question is, how soon can I swear allegiance to our new adorable little cyborg hamster overlords?

[ Crabfu ]

Northrop Grumman’s sexily badass X-47B unmanned combat air system made its first flight ever on Friday, circling a desert runway a couple times all by itself before successfully not crashing. Northrop seemed pretty happy about the way things went:

“The flight provided test data to verify and validate system software for guidance and navigation, and the aerodynamic control of the tailless design. The X-47B aircraft will remain at Edwards AFB for flight envelope expansion before transitioning to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. later this year. There, the system will undergo additional tests to validate its readiness to begin testing in the maritime and carrier environment.”

‘Flight envelope expansion’ means that they’re going to see how crazy the X-47B can get in the air. After that, they’re going to get it ready for its intended purpose, which is carrier operations. We know that drones are already pretty good at precision maneuvers, but I hear carrier landings are especially tricky. I’m optimistic (I always am about robots), but seeing this thing manage an autonomous carrier touchdown is going to go a long way towards convincing skeptics that drones really can function on a level similar to even the most skilled humans in many aspects of combat aircraft control.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

This is maybe only peripherally (ha!) related to robotics, but it’s cool enough that I thought it was worth sharing… Besides, it’s Friday, and you deserve some nifty videos to watch. Anyway, we’ve posted before on all the cool things that roboticists have been able to do with Microsoft’s stupidly cheap and effective 3D camera system, and Willow Garage took some initiative and sponsored a contest to try and kick start even more open source Kinect innovation.

First place (and $3k) went to Garratt Gallagher’s ‘Customizable Buttons.’ Using a piece of paper and a pen, you can just draw your own touch-sensitive controls:

The second and third places went to robots we’ve covered before, namely UC Berkeley’s quadrotors and Taylor Veltrop’s teleoperation, while a real-time color 3D mapping tool from the University of Freiburg took home the most useful award.

Taking home no awards, but one of my personal favorite demos, was Kinemmings, a game of Lemmings played using your body and the Kinect sensor. Yes, it may not be advancing the field of robots or whatever, but it sure looks like fun:

Microsoft should absolutely pay those guys a bajillion dollars and hire them as game designers or something. Seriously, Kinect has way more potential than one company can possibly harness. And as for robots, great strides are obviously being made, and the future is (hopefully) limitless. If any of these projects are of use to you personally, remember that since they’re on ROS, you can just download them and put them to work yourself.

[ ROS 3D Contest ]

Yeah, it’s cute now ’cause this is the first one, but unlike a super annoying person, you can’t necessarily just tell a super annoying robot to leave you alone and rely on it to a.) understand you and b.) care. ‘There’s no getting away from an offer this good,’ huh? You fill me with dread, Alpha Romeo.

Here’s a better way of selling a car with robots:

See? Audi knows where it’s at, but that may just be because some of their cars are robots already.

[ AdFreak ] VIA [ io9 ] and [ Sleepyrobot ]

If you gambled on pre-ordering a QB telepresence robot from Anybots, you lucked out, since QB is now officially shipping, and you’ll get your robot this week. Ordering a QB today (it’s still $15,000) will get you one in March, but the important thing is that QB is now a real commercial robotic product that anyone can buy. Welcome to the future!

I love Anybots, and I’m definitely hoping for the best, but as I’ve mentioned before I think they have their work cut out for them finding a profitable niche for a five figure telepresence robot. They’d probably argue that this economy is the right time for people to be looking at telepresence since it saves money on travel, and it may be true… But, there’s a perceptual hurdle that they have to get over first, convincing people who aren’t familiar with robots that they really can use a robot to create a beneficial physical presence elsewhere. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes, but Anybots’ CEO Trevor Blackwell seemed pretty upbeat about the whole thing at their party at CES last month:

Oh, and nice hat there QB, but just what the heck were you doing in the bathroom?

[ Anybots ]