Sexy Robot of the Week - RoboThespian - July 24th

Get ready to experience a little piston envy.  I had the opportunity to go to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Orlando this past year.  While drooling over the latest and greatest theme park attractions, I saw him.  His slender exposed frame, his keen accent.... sure he was slightly effeminate, but hell, he's British.  He is RoboThespain.  More than a mere machine.....

To call him brilliant is an understatement.
Robo, as I'll call him, has a presence.  Designed by Engineering Arts Limited, Robo is one of the most advanced, attainable, and articulated robots in existence.  Will Jackson (Director) and Marcus Hold (Design Engineer) were happy to show off their baby.  Robo is blatantly a work of passion (and a work of art).  The engineers behind Robo sank a small fortune into their dream and I am glad to see them receiving commercial recognition for their efforts.

Marcus let me take the helm and control Robo through a very intuitive flash-based touchscreen panel.  And for the animators out there, he can be interfaced with Blender so that you can animate his skeleton virtually in the software and then translate that scene into physical motion.  Through this interface, Robo has truly earned the title of thespian.  He began to play games with me, monitoring my movements and commands.  One moment he was fluidly motioning and singing like Gene Kelly... the next moment he became very rigid as he convincingly impersonated C3PO.  Here is an example in this fun video of Marcus running a check-up on Robo.

One other amazing aspect of Robo is that he can be controlled remotely via the internet.  This allows for fully interactive presentations utilizing Robo while an technologically savvy actor sits behind a computer anywhere in the world.  Additionally, Engineering Arts Limited can troubleshoot your Robo while sitting comfortably "across the pond".  In an interview during CEBIT 2011, Will explains the abilities and future of Robo.

While I found Will's discussion absolutely mind-blowing, I was slightly disturbed by his enthusiasm for a collective consciousness of all RoboThespians.  Skynet is here.... and it can sing and dance.