As part of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations, the French company La Machine created this 50 foot monstrosity and called it art, when in actuality it is a movie prop from Eight Legged Freaks that none of the cast wanted to take home.

The installation cost £1.8million to bring to Liverpool – and all but £250,000 of this was funded by the taxpayer.

Man, if I lived in Liverpool (I’m glad I don’t because I hear they’ve got a spider problem these days), I’d be glad to know my tax dollars are being put to good use creating robot spiders that roam the streets.  The worst part about this entire thing is that, in the name of art, La Machine is turning this into some kind of weird city-wide LARP. That’s live action role play.  After some phony story about this mechanical spider was written, the citizens of Liverpool still approve and want to go along for the ride.

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Sure, watching the most impressive athletes in the world sprint a 500M is probably the most entertaining thing you’ve see in a long while, save for these racing robots from the the annual Robot Athletic Meet in Tokyo’s Akihabara district.

Check out the robot on the left. He’s playing for keeps. It might appear as if it’s falling over due to his unstable infrastructure but, in actuality, it is ready to bulldoze Mr. Goody-two-shoes over on the right. And don’t think he won’t be able to topple him over, either. He’s got those bitchin’ tonfas on his robot arms. Could he be a ninja robot? Inconceivable.

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Editor’s Note: The one on the right looks like Ryan.

Are you a big dick player? Lookin’ fly in your G5 airplane? Step up. You need this chrome Lamborghini from German tuning firm Hamann. At $630,000, it’s a bit expensive but nothing your rich uncle can’t afford. Chrome paint job, performance tuning. Yeah. This Murcielago LP640 will make you a big dick player alright.

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If I was a hacker of any sort, I’d probably get a lot of credit for picking such a cool fucking name like LockWasher. That aside, LockWasher is a guy who makes all kinds of cool doo-dads. A jack of all trades, if you will. Found on MAKE, these robots are made from various bits of junk, electronic, scrap metal and the like. Really beautiful, retro-inspired designs. You can only stare in amazement at the craft, wishing your grubby little paws could own a few of these bad boys. Keep dreaming (of electric sheep).

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In The Matrix, robots are self-aware of their existence. This is a bad thing as it eventually leads to the enslavement of mankind. The idea of a human brain inside a robot is intriguing for anyone whose ever wanted to put their brain in a robot body to become an Adrian Barbobot. Scientists are getting closer to that vision, having equipped a small robot with rat neurons to control itself.

An interesting trait of the artificial brain is that it can get bored. If it doesn’t receive any information from the electrodes it’s connected to, the neurons will break the connections, likewise, when the neurons are stimulated, more connections are formed. The robot that was built runs on wheels with an ultrasound sensor enabling it to spot when it is approaching a wall and redirect itself accordingly. That’s great and all but could’t you just do that with an Arduino?

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With all this RFID implant business going on, the Magic School Bus days are getting closer and closer. We already have a pill that’ll show you your insides, so what’s next? How about a robot you can swallow that attaches to your intestinal wall which can then perform biopsies, deliver drugs, or administer localized treatment to your gut? Metin Sitti, a professor at NanoRobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon, and his team were looking for an appropriate adhesive to adorn the robot’s feet with so it would be able to attach itself to the intestinal wall easily.

With no luck, the team looked to insects like beetles, directly drawing inspiration from the oil-like liquids they secrete along their foot hairs in order to stick securely to surfaces. With their homemade “beetle juice”, the team was successful in having the robot attach to an animal intestines as well as on an animal esophagus. I’d hate to be the poor animal that gets to shit that robot out.

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This robot may not be well versed enough in sports to partake in Robot Soccer, but it’s certainly lazy enough to be a sports fan. With three different modes of control: universal remote, beacon navigation, and thermal sensor following, the RoboStool tries its best to find you, so it can take the weight off your feet or die trying.

Labeled as furniture on demand, the RoboStool was created by Norris Labs, which was kind enough to post schematics to build your very own RoboStool.  You could have it eerily stalk your guests, unwilling to let anyone take a seat without having a comfortable footrest, but you’ll probably turn it into something that can make drinks, like a robot bartender.

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Remember that R/C Tortoise and the Swashbot, from the folks at Crabfu? They’re still hard at it, coming up with some awesome new robots. The latest on the line is the Putter Bot, a remote-controlled golfing robot. Actually, make that putting robot as I doubt this little guy is capable of a long drive without a driver. Getting through the rough wouldn’t be too hard though, with the two servos this thing has for powering the tracks.

In any case, this bot is sticking to mini-putt, which we all know is more fun than regular golf anyways. No business deals to be made, just all fun and games. That is, until someone loses an eye or this robot loses its light.

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For those not familiar with the term “salaryman,” it’s the Japanese term for male office workers who bend over backwards for their job and work overtime on a daily basis. After this, they crawl their way home on all fours, bickering about how much they hate their own lives. Artist Momoyo Torimitsu, in an effort to address the issue of recent economic crashes in various countries, has created a crawling robot resembling a salaryman.

The video shoes the robot crawling through Sydney, Australia in an effortless attempt to bite ankles. Torimitsu follows it, dressed as a nurse while maintaining its insides by way of an ass-panel opening. She says, “Crawling is the soldier’s motion in the battlefield. I would say this is the business soldier.” So, that’s why she follows it around dressed as a nurse. Now I get it, but it’s still awkward.

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Thanks to a team of German scientists, robotically-enabled laziness may soon be a reality. The good people at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart have revealed what they’re calling the prototype of a new generation of service robots,” the Care-O-bot 3. This one-armed robot can serve drinks and carry items from one room to another. It moves on a platform with “four separately steered and driven wheels” that allow it to travel in any direction. The Care-O-bot can identify objects thanks to color cameras, laser scanners, and a 3D range camera. The camera allow it to be directed with hand gestures as well as spoken commands. It can also learn to recognize unfamiliar items like cups and bottles.

The Fraunhofer folks say their robot is all about helping the handicapped, but it’s clearly also ideal for drunks. These Germans have their priorities straight. First they brought us Oktoberfest and now they’ve made this robot that basically can do nothing but serve booze. Care-O-bot 3 seems to be a long way off from being able to mop or wash dishes, but with its flexible highly articulated arm it can clean up small messes and carry items on command. Get this thing and one of those Roomba vacuums and you should be well on your way to living the dream of completely automated errands.

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