- Cubelets by Modular Robotics
- RobotEarth
- The Bilibot project
Cubelets are just cubes which you can snap together and immediately begin interacting with each other. Cool idea in bright, flashing colors. Think of them as lego bricks on steroids. They are sold as a "modular robotics kit", which can be great fun for kids and grown ups alike. But that is just that. Not sure how many different types of cubelets there are, but I have the feeling that there aren't all that many different combinations you can try. I would not put that lego Mindstorm kit away just yet.
The RobotEarth is a project aiming at collecting the learning experiences of different robots and making them available to every cybernetic creature. Think Wikipedia for robots. The motivation is to try to avoid re-inventing the wheel whenever a robot must solve a learning problem. And that is just fine, but just think about the countless different shapes robots come in. Sensors, actuators, hardware, colors and smells. Ok, that last one is streching it a bit. And now think on how alike humans are. No, really. Despite external physical appearances, and some internal ones as well, humans are very much alike wherever you find them. Unlike robots, which pretty much came in all shapes and sizes. That is why I am a bit skeptical on the utility of this robot aimed Wikipedia. But hey, after so many encounters with the robots in the field one cannot avoid becoming a cynical pessimist.
Finally, the Bilibot. If it ever manages to sell, it promises to be robotics on a shoestring. Well, at about 700 US$ it is still an expensive shoestring but at least they aim at making it available to the masses. Let's hope mass marketing can make it cheaper.
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