22 thoughts on “DIY Robots”

  1. I wanted a “Gort” suit. If you are going to do a Robot, Gort is the one to do. Would make a great Halloween costume (though probably uncomfortable).

  2. A challenge! For a time, Robbie was a very popular actor. So now that we know it contained a small boy, the name Robbie starts to make more sense.

    If they named it Walter, would that mean it was operated by a pigeon?

  3. It’s the proof-of-concept for the machines in The Matrix: combined with a form of fusion, the body heat of one 12-year-old boy is sufficient to power a 7-foot-tall robot…

  4. It’s the proof-of-concept for the machines in The Matrix: combined with a form of fusion, the body heat of one 12-year-old boy is sufficient to power a 7-foot-tall robot…

    “The body heat of a small boy supplemented by a modest 50 MW fusion reactor is sufficient to power this ROBOT OF DOOOOM!!”

    I always thought the boy would be more ideal as a control system than a power source. Think of it, a 2 year old boy’s brain controlling the functions of your typical 50 foot space robot and let loose in Manhattan or Tokyo? It’s just being practical.

  5. I dreamed of building a tin can robot when I was ten. Instead I built a lunar terrain in the attic and flew the paper LEM the gas stations were handing out. I could land it almost anywhere in the attic from my ‘control console’ (four spools of thread nailed to the floor.)

  6. Der Schtumpy, I read Forbin Project instead of group. See what too much SF does to the brain?

    Yes, that was an intentional pun damn it. Gotta save the world now…

  7. “I always thought the boy would be more ideal as a control system than a power source.”

    Hell, that’s been a staple of anime clear back to Astroboy and Gigantor. You need a giant robot piloted? Get a teenager (mental trauma optional).

  8. A psychologist (of the old-fashioned Freudian version) would say this casts an interesting light on how young boys of the time saw their fathers (large, scary, powerful, enviable). Now of course they see their dads as Homer Simpson. Progress, comrades!

  9. What young boy didn’t fantasize about Robby after all those pix with hottie Ann Francis, a.k.a. Altaira.

  10. “Control it from secret hiding place inside.” I’ve got to say that the first place I’d think to look would be the “secret” hiding place inside, especially given the picture in the published advertisement.

    I’d hack this design to allow me to control it from a truly secret location, or I’d develop some AI so that it would do my bidding without real-time control.

  11. This was a major flaw in the robonaut design. Robonaut doesn’t have legs, becuase they aren’t necessary and just added weight. However, this also limits the population of people NASA could put inside to operate it. No surprise that a private company, Morton Co., would develop a better concept.

  12. I would be afraid that with people being inside it, through a process like osmosis, it would become sentiant and self aware and then planet earth would be in dire straights.

  13. I bet it dosen’t work any better than these stupid X-Ray glasses.

    Sounds like you got robbed. For $10, I’ll email you a pdf of plans for X-Ray glasses that really work. Fulfill your boyhood fantasies and good healthy fun (well, aside from the radiation equivalent of a chest x ray to your upper face every 38 seconds…

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