People have been speculating for a long time about how robots would finally enter into mainstream lives. Roomba aside, the answer might just be as toys. Now Disney Consumer Products has added some credence to that theory with a new line of robotic toys, created in partnership with Pixar Animation Studios, Thinkway Toys and WowWee. They'll debut at the upcoming Bay Area Maker Faire, interestingly enough! (Is DIY now short for Disney?) Details after the jump.

There's been plenty of talk about the inevitable robotic uprising of the mid-to-late 21st century, but in the meantime, it's vital that we get in as many robot rides as humanly possible. Designed by Korean robotics manufacturer Airrobot, the Ringbo riding robot should help the young members of our species get in on the action early, while the robot riding's still good.

Targeted at kids ages 2 to 3, the Ringbo looks a bit like a Fisher-Price-designed "My First Segway" (or Rascal, take your pick), with a decidedly Radio Shack-esque flair for style. The device requires a good 6 to 8 hours of charging for an hour-long ride--certainly enough time to make a few trips between the TV and a juice-box-stocked Frigidaire.

The Ringbo will be on display to the public with a number of other wacky Korean gadgets at New York's Koreannovation show on May 14th and 15th.

If Jerry Lewis (and Danny Kaye before him) could conduct an orchestra, why not a robot? Especially the world's most famous automaton: the Honda Asimo. According to Wired, the 4-foot tall, semi-autonomous robot will conduct Detroit's Symphony Orchestra on May 13.

This isn't the first time Asimo has shown off an amazing new trick. At CES 2007, Asimo became one of the first running robots, stunning an overflow crowd at the consumer trade show in Las Vegas. This musical feat, however, may be a little more show than innovation. Asimo's movements are typically pre-scripted: It can, for example, navigate stairs on its own, but doesn't have free will to then decide to go for a jog. Plus any words you hear Asimo "speak" usually come from someone off-stage.

To conduct a symphony, you have to hear the music. Asimo does have sound processors, but it's unclear if they can process quickly enough for him to know the proper timing for his likely pre-scripted movements.

What's next for this globe-trotting ambassador for Honda innovation? Singing on "American Idol"?

I am bummed as all get-out that I couldn't make it to Robobusiness in Pittsburgh this year, especially since odd bot wonders like this are showing up (pretty much unannounced on the show floor). The Segway RMP (Robotic Mobility Platform) could be a personal conveyance system, a futuristic skateboard or some sort of army workhorse (it can haul 400 pounds, after all).

The robot, which comes from the same company that brought you the Segway Personal Transporter (formerly known as "It" and "Ginger"), has four wheels, so it isn't doing any amazing balancing tricks. The buzz in Make's article is the wheels. Looking nothing like typical wheels, these Mecanum devices can roll in virtually any direction. That should give this movable platform a high-degree of maneuverability.

Still, questions abound:
Who will use this thing?
Why isn't there a handle or railing to hold onto for passengers?
Does it work via remote control or mind control?
Why didn't the RMP get a nifty nickname?

We'll deliver more details when we get them.

If the original $349 price tag for Wow Wee Robotics's eerie Alive Elvis animatronic head scared you off, we have good news. Now you can get the singing, blinking, sneering, luxurious head-of-hair and leatherette jacket-wearing "The King" keepsake for just $99. The deal is only good through WowWee's online store.

We had a couple of Elvis Alive heads in here (see my unboxing extravaganza) and can confirm they're life like (in the way that Joan River's face is still lifelike) and do offer lip-synching accompaniment to original Elvis Presley song recordings, thanks to an agreement with the Presley Estate. The robot, which offers a couple of IR sensors for minimal interaction, is big, heavy and is really no Milli Vanilli when it comes to accurate lip synching. At nearly $400, we wrote it off as a too expensive and scary oddity that only die hard fans with weekly passes to Graceland could love.

At $99, all that hair and perfectly chiseled features, plus offering the option of kareoking with The King (thanks to an included microphone remote and the ability to turn the voice but not music, off) seems somewhat more attractive.

So tell us, would you pay almost ten sawbucks for the chance to have plastic and rubber sneer at you, "Thankyouverymuch."?

If you're still not sure, I present WowWee's own Top 10 Elvis Alive Uses, after the jump.

Boston Dynamics's DARPA-funded Big Dog robot may sound like a demonic weed whacker and look like a headless Hellraiser refugee, but it sure is impressive. It manages to recover from a slip on an icy patch with more grace than most humans could ever manage, shrugs off a hard kick to its side, picks its way over a precarious pile of cinder blocks, and finishes with what seems like a gleeful hop, skip and jump.

In the coming years, these creepy robotic beasts of burden will either help soldiers carry heavy gear across the battlefield, or hunt humans down mercilessly after SkyNet takes over. You know, whichever comes first.

Video after the break.

Via Automaton

Last week, my Ugobe Pleo Robot Dinosaur underwent minor brain surgery, receiving a .0.2 upgrade to his LifeOS--the software that essentially functions as his brain. I'll admit, I was apprehensive about the procedure. Altering a computer's OS can result in side effects, and in Pleo's case, there are no external controls. If this firmware update failed, I could have ended up with a lifeless, rubber-skinned chew toy.

I followed the Website instructions to the letter, downloading the ZIP file from www.pleoworld.com/support and expanded the file in a folder on my desktop PC. Then I found a standard density SD Card (Pleo seems unable to read high-capacity ones). It didn't have to be blank, but I had to load the unzipped filed in the parent directory so Pleo could find them. Making sure Pleo was off, I inserted the card, turned him on and heard a few distinct beeps. After a minute or so, Pleo returned to life. As instructed, I quickly shut him off, removed the card and then turned him on again.

The Space Shuttle Endeavor, set to blast off sometime this Tuesday, will carry with it all the makings of a good science fiction movie: astronauts, some mild apprehension, and a huge yet still unassembled robot.

The giant bot, which will eventually become a working member of the International Space Station team, is called "Dextre." According to an AP report, NASA astronauts have to build the faceless, marginally intelligent robot in space. When complete, Dextre will be 12 feet tall with two, massive, multi-jointed, 11-foot arms.

Lacking artificial intelligence, Dextre (short for dexterous) will be tele-operated and is expected to handle some station repair jobs. Most of the bot's intelligence appears to be in its sense of touch and precision control. The $200 million dollar robot can pivot at the waist but only uses one giant arm at a time.

Though Dextre lacks legs and the ability to make decisions on its own, that didn't stop astronauts from describing it as "scary," "monstrous," and a"Frankenstein." Expect more than one astronaut to suffer a few robot nightmares once Dextre establishes permanent residence on the space station.

Rufus Terrill runs bar in downtown called O'Terrills. He's had it with drug dealers, vandals, prostitutes, and the homeless, so naturally he combined his rage with an old meat smoker, added an arsenal of non-deadly weapons, painted the thing black, and christened it the "Bumbot."

The Bumbot sits atop a scooter, features a high-powered spotlight, infrared camera, a loudspeaker, and a powerful water cannon. CNN met up with Terrill and discovered that, for some strange reason, not everyone is keen on the Bumbot's unique brand of mesquite bum-spraying justice. Who knew?

Boobs. Gawked at by every boy and man. Treasured by every girl and woman. Massaged by every Chinese robot. Say what?!?!

A team of engineers from Beijing BUBBY Robot Technologies Co. is planning to bring its Breast Massage Robot (BMR) to market. Led by Wang Wei, it's equipped with an intelligent control system that's meant to simulate hand movements to give the perfect massage to—you guessed it—your breasts. After each use, it's also designed to:

• improve the growth and "prettiness" of the breast
• destroy cancer cells
• speed up the recovery process during breast surgery
• release the swelling pain when a woman is on her period
• lower the incidence of mastopathies
• improve a female's sex life
• relieve stress

The team estimates that it will sell 360,000 sets in China in its first year, followed by 180,000 in Southeast Asia, and 360,000 in Europe and America. Patents have already been filed.

I don't know about you, but no robot is getting to second base with me! But if you don't mind getting up to bat, check out the video of this breast-lovin' robot in action!

Thanks to Gearlog reader Derek for the tip!

St. Louis-based researchers conducted a study on loneliness at three U.S. nursing homes. One group was given a flesh-and-blood dog named Sparky to play with, another received a Sony Aibo dog robot, and the third got no dog at all.

Where the researchers reasonably expected that Sparky would have been far and away the most popular of the three scenarios among the homes' residents, the dog actually finished neck and neck with the AIBO when it came to alleviating loneliness.

"The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments," Dr. William Banks, who worked on the study, told Reuters. He added, ""Loneliness is common in nursing homes. Robots may be very useful for people who cannot for whatever reason have access to a living dog."

"The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments," said Dr. William Banks, who worked on the study, told Reuters. Adding, "Loneliness is common in nursing homes. Robots may be very useful for people who cannot for whatever reason have access to a living dog."

After all, robots don't mind as much when you don't feed them. Unlike real dogs, however, they do get discontinued, as is the case with the AIBO. In the meantime, might I recommend a nice Rolly?

In an amazing feat of hyperbole and a logical leap big enough to challenge Evil Knievel's failed Grand Canyon jump, University of Sheffield Professor Noel Sharkey is warning that robot terrorism is coming--in the not-to-distant future.

According to a report in Science Daily, computer science Professor Sharkey, whose credentials include being the lead judge for a television show called Robot Wars, extrapolates from the current crop of human-controlled robots on the ground and in the air in Iraq and other fields of battle to terrorists grabbing--perhaps kidnapping--one of these bots, copying the design and spitting out a new army or terrorist bots.

No doubt Sharkey is on the money about the proliferation of robots in battle and it is true that the Department of Defense and, likely, other nations, are looking to build military robots that can "pull the trigger' on their own.

However that shift to autonomous robot warfare is a significant one that will likely endure heated debate before it really happens. Sharkey also seems to think that sophisticated robot building expertise is everywhere and that the parts and skill needed live in the mountains and caves where the terrorists are currently hiding.

Human technology has a way of wreaking havoc on nature. Take, for example, the recent mass disappearance of honey bees that researchers have been chalking up to cell phone interference.

However, sometimes nature can't help but fight back.

A Manhasset, NY paper ran a story the other day, written by a local fifth grader, recounting a harrowing tale in which a hawk snatched his Wowwee Dragonfly out of the air. Overlooking, for a moment, the fact that the paper is printing stories by ten-year-olds, WowWee has stated that they're looking into the plausibility of such claims, adding that 45 people have reported similar attacks in the past two months.

Plus, check out the totally sweet shot that the fifth grade gonzo journalist snagged at left, the robotic insect resting in the hawk's talons.

Technology: 80,000,000, nature: 45.

Lance already got to the HexBugs that were a featured toy for this company at Toy Fair this year. And we've written in the past about the VEX Robotics Design System, a robot-building platform for serious enthusiasts that sells for around $300.

Lying in the middle ground between cute, inexpensive toys and pricey, serious systems are the upcoming VEX RCR Mini kits. As with the higher-end VEX kits, you'll be able to follow plans to build specific little bots or create your own. The kit will be less than $100, though; it'll come wiht 300 parts, though additional accessories will be available; and most/all of the parts will work with the original VEX kit, in case you decide to upgrade. Look for the Mini kits in August.

One of the bigger surprises at this year's Toy Fair was the general lack of green-themed products. We saw a few green toys here and there, but it seems that the toy industry is lagging behind others when it comes to marketing environmentally responsible products.

As an exception, Southern Californian tech-toy company OWI had a pretty nice spread of solar-powered robot kits. Targeted to children ages 8 and up, the kits are designed to be easily assembled while teaching them the principles of alternative energy sources. Priced between $11.95 and $17.95, the kits are available in a series of different forms, including Peppy Orangutan, Aerial Cable Car, Sonic F1 [racecar], Flapping Sea Gull, and Valiant Viking Ship [pictured above], among others.

More shots of the various kits, after the jump.