The Kid Should See This.
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There's just so much science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them...
But we don't underestimate kids around here.
Kid-friendly not-made-for-kids videos for all! Collected by Rion Nakaya and her three four year old co-curator.
Tip Jar: Curating this blog takes work! If you like the videos on this site, please support the science education projects that we've picked on DonorsChoose.org.
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Collosse – A Wood Tale, directed by Yves Geleyn: a short film about the meeting of a robot marionette and a little bird.
via UFunk.net.
After a friend tweeted about a research page full of passive motion robotics videos by Andy Ruina, Professor of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell and of bicycle physics paper fame (SciFri video), I happened upon this 2008 video of Andy introducing his 22-pound, four-legged bi-ped robot named Ranger.
“The basic way this thing walks is that it falls down over and over again… this is walking as falling and catching yourself over and over again.” In 2011, Ranger did this for 40.5 miles — that’s 307.75 laps on a running track or 65km (watch the video) — unassisted over almost 31 hours before it needed a battery recharge.
I love how not-human this bot looks. The kid should see this!
h/t @themexican.
Have some colored felt tip markers, some self-adhesive velcro and a milk frother? If so, then get ready to make a “robot” that can draw.
During the Minimondi Festival in Parma, Italy, artist Lorezno Bravi experienced a workshop for children to create this amazing little diy toy of sorts. It’s a variation on these drawbots (like these at the 2010 Maker Faire-NY) by researcher, writer, and artist Jonah Brucker-Cohen, PH.D.
via graphism.fr. Thanks, @toccaceliblasi.
The kid and I both exclaimed WHOA at the same time when we saw this jumping Sand Flea robot make its second jump. From Boston Dynamics:
Sand Flea is an 11-lb robot with one trick up its sleeve: Normally it drives like an RC car, but when it needs to it can jump 30 feet into the air. An onboard stabilization system keeps it oriented during flight to improve the view from the video uplink and to control landings. Current development of Sand Flea is funded by the The US Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.
Boston Dynamics is an engineering and robotics firm who made the BigDog Quadruped Robot in 2008, and has partnered with DARPA to fund many of their robots, including this one. They also recently made news with their collaboration on a robotic cheetah.
via @jcn.
A robot built for blowing massive bubbles! This Bubble Bot was invented by Zvika Markfeld, who wrote a how-to on making them for MAKE. You can see another video of one of his Bubble Bots here.
This isn’t like the robots we usually feature. This robot is soft and “boneless,” so to speak, like a squid, or starfish, or worms. Created by researchers at Harvard, this robot has multiple gaits (walking, crawling, and slithering), using pumped air to give it temporary “solid” states as it moves.
The bonelessness gives this robot such a strange organic quality that more rigid robots don’t have. — Kids (and everyone else) should definitely see this!
via La Boite Verte.
