Mechanical Animals: 36 Steampunk Sculptures & Robots

 

Bones and metal parts are fused together to create the skeletons of bizarre bionic animals straight out of science fiction. Beetles’ wings are spread to reveal complex arrangements of gears. Robotic creatures walk, run and slither just like their living counterparts. These 36 mechanical animals by 11 artists are sometimes nightmarish but undeniably fascinating to view.

 

#11 Metal Sculptures by Jessica Joslin

(images via: jessicajoslin.com) Via: weburbanist.com

Combining animal bones and discarded scrap metal into stunningly intricate sculptures, Jessica Joslin has created a zoo of surreal steampunk creatures. Though Joslin once sourced the skeletons herself, largely from roadkill, she now purchases the bones from certified dealers. Gas lamps, radiators, chandelier parts and light fittings are among the detritus that are transformed into headdresses, ornate costumes and other details for the sculptures.

#10 Steampunk Taxidermy by Lisa Black

(images via: behance) Via: weburbanist.com

New Zealand artist Lisa Black combines the preserved remains of animals with machinery like sewing machine parts and clock gears to create bizarre hybrid creatures. Black’s artist statement explains, “Her work is a reflection of our undeniable technological progression; seeing animals with carefully integrated mechanical additions encourages us to reassess how we define ‘natural’. By creating beauty within this supposed paradox, she challenges the concept of a world separated into the ‘sacrosanct’ natural and ‘vulgar’ industrial.”

#9 Theo Jansen’s Wind Powered Sculpture

(images via: artsculture) Via: weburbanist.com

At 2010′s Exeter Summer Festival in England, a massive mechanical animal sculpture actually walked around on the beach – with the use of wind power. Theo Jansen, a Dutch artist and kinetic sculptor known for his large works resembling skeletons, created ‘strandbeest’ out of scrap plastic tubing and water bottles. Jansen has displayed similar sculptures at many other festivals and events over the years.

#8 Gleaming Metal Animals by Andrew Chase

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Fully automated and strikingly complex, Andrew Chase’s metal sculptures recreate animal biology with reclaimed metal like automobile and plumbing parts. The elephant can lower its trunk up and down, the giraffe’s neck rises and, with the magic of stop-motion animation and Chase’s brilliant mechanics, the cheetah can actually run.

#7 Nemo Gould’s Steampunk Trophy Heads

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An acoustic guitar and a rocking chair became “Acoustapus”, while an electric guitar and an electric jackhammer make up a frightening creature known as “Heavy Metal”. Other metallic steampunk ‘trophy heads’ by Nemo Gould incorporate garden trowels, parts of a golf caddy cart, salad spoons and vacuum cleaners.

#6 Les Machines de I’lle Nantes

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In 2008, the French city of Nantes became home to an imposing collection of machine-inspired animal sculptures by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice. Manta Rays, squid and sea monsters with chilling blue eyes are fitted with all manner of mechanical parts, and each of these creatures is actually a moving vehicle. Most impressive of all is Le Grand Elephant, a 36-foot-tall sculpture weighing more than 40 tons.

#5 The Mondo Spider

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This amazing mechanical spider was built in 2005 and 2008 and has toured such events as Burning Man. The 8-legged arachnid was originally powered by a Honda V-twin engine and a system of hydraulic pumps and motors, but got a zero-emission makeover in 2010.

#4 Mike Libby’s Steampunk Insects

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Mike Libby dissects beautiful insect and arachnid specimens and replaces their innards with watch parts. Scorpions, beetles, spiders and butterflies are among the creepy-crawly creatures that have gotten the steampunk treatment for his series, Insect Lab.

#3 Rideable Mechanical Tiger by Kezanti

(images via: kezanti) Via: weburbanist.com

Not only is this mechanical tiger a jaw-dropping metal representation of a tiger’s anatomy – it’s also rideable. The robotic giant cat actually walks (albeit very loudly, with the use of motors).

#2 Metal Insects & More by Edouard Martinet

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Radio antennae, hair pins, electrical fans and bike brakes: all of these parts went into the shrimp in the top photo, made by artist Eduoard Martinet. The sculptor gathers up unwanted materials and pieces them into carefully crafted, imaginative little critters that strikingly resemble the real thing.

#1 Incredibly Lifelike Robot Snakes

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Cool snake robots like this one, built by Dr. Gavin Miller, are not just being developed for fun – they could eventually be used to disable explosives. Miller’s series of robotic snakes move in a way that’s stunningly similar to real snakes; his latest prototype is equipped with motion and range sensors.

Mechanical Animals: 36 Steampunk Sculptures & Robots

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Revolutionary Robots: 16 Cool & Crazy Creations

 

Artificial intelligence is getting more advanced by the day, in ways that are both scary and exciting. There are robots that can help make the world a better place – leading schools of fish away from turbines, or helping the disabled regain mobility. Then there are the pole dancers, ketchup squeezers and graffiti sprayers. These 16 robots run the gamut, with functions that delight and amaze.

 

#16 Bear Pillow Tickles Snorers in the Face

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Does your partner have a snoring problem? Imagine buying them this totally innocent-looking bear pillow and watching their reaction when, prompted by the sound of snoring, it raises its arm and touches their face to make them stop. The Jukusui-Kun Robotic Bear Pillow not only listens to the volume of snoring, but also monitors oxygen levels, making them a great companion for people with sleep apnea.

#15 Autonomous Snow Plow Robot

(images via: geekologie) Via: weburbanist.com

Nobody likes shoveling snow, and in some climates, winter clean-up is an exhausting, never-ending task. Too bad we can’t all have our very own Yuki-taro robots – autonomous snow plows that seek out snow, gobble it up and then excrete compressed blocks of ice which can be stacked and stored until summer, when they can be used for refrigeration or cooling. The researchers that developed it hope that it will be commercially available within five years.

#14 Pole-Dancing Robots

(images via: youtube/giles walker) Via: weburbanist.com

You might find these pole dancers a little stiff. The fully animated robots – along with a DJ – were made by Giles Walker out of raw materials found in scrap yards. Walker controls the robots through a PC using a DMX lighting program.

#13 Twitter Robot Acts Out Your Friends’ Emotions

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Ken Lim’s Guardian Robot from InsideGuardian on Vimeo.

Most people don’t have the time to constantly monitor their Twitter stream for comments that indicate that their friends are either really happy or really sad. Well, there’s a robot for that too. Ken Lim’s ‘Guardian Robot’ will either raise its arm or lower its head in response to your friends’ comments. You can give it a high-five when it’s happy or a hug when it’s sad to return it to its idle state.

#12 Clean Your House Remotely with Kinect-Powered Robot

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You’re having company tonight, but you haven’t had a chance to clean – you’re stuck at your office job instead, doing busy work. But if you had Yaskawa’s SmartPal VII, you could be cleaning your house remotely – using a robot powered by XBox Kinect. Maybe it won’t scrub the toilet, but it moves well enough to pick some things up off the floor.

#11 Senseless Drawing Bot

(images via: vimeo) Via: weburbanist.com

If you’ve ever felt the need to cover a surface in graffiti but couldn’t be bothered to do it yourself, there’s a robot just for you. TheSenseless Drawing Bot by So Kanno and Takahiro Yamaguchi moves back and forth in a straight line along a wall, its mechanical arm spraying random scribbles in the colors of your choice.

#10 Automated Ketchup-Squirting Robot

(image via: tasteologie) Via: weburbanist.com

It’s a robot that squeezes ketchup, and it’s got its own theme song. The video speaks for itself.

#9 Kazu Terasaki iPad Walking Robot

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iPads and iPhones become walking, googly-eyed robots in the hands of Kazu Terasaki. When watching the video of this unusual modification, you can’t help but cringe waiting for these expensive gadgets to walk right over the edge of the table and crash to the floor.

#8 Fractal Scene Robot Goes On and On Forever

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It’s not a physical robot, it’s a digital robot, but it’s still pretty cool. Programmer Matt Kozak created a fractal scene of a robot reproducing. Check out Matt’s website to view the scene from various angles and zoom in and out for the full trippy effect.

“Several years ago, I built a robot whose sole purpose in life was to create an even smaller robot just like himself… So much like himself, that this robot endeavoured to create yet another tiny robot, ad infinitum. This continued for a while until an extremely tiny speck of robot tried to endow purpose upon a cloud of molecules with ruinous result.”

#7 Robot Fish Leads Schools of the Real Thing

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Professor Maurizio Porfiri has produced a robot fish that behaves with such realism, living fish can’t tell that it’s an impostor and will let it lead their school. Porfiri’s fish uses ionic polymers that swell and shrink in response to electrical simulation in order to power its tail for smooth, silent movement. The robot could actually be used to escort schools of fish away from dangers like hydroelectric turbines.

#6 Robot Arm Turned F1 Simulator

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Ever wonder what it’s like to drive a Ferrari at top speeds? A robot by Paolo Robuffo Giordano and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany acts as a simulator to replicate the experience without the actual vehicle. A hot pink robotic arm, of the sort normally seen at amusement parks, holds an elevated seat that whips the rider around in front of a massive screen. While this might just be the world’s coolest simulated driving game, it’s also helping researchers study how the human body reacts to motion.

#5 16 Forms: Programmed Robotic Music Experience

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Displayed at this year’s DesignTokyo Tide, ’16 Forms’ by Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi combines a robot arm, turntable, scans and 3D prints of a dancer to produce a strangely hypnotic audio and visual experience. Watch the video at vision.ameba.jp.

#4 R7 Rideable Robot

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Korean company Robo3 produced a few amazing robots that were available for sale on the company’s website back in 2005 and 2006. Along with a robot bartender and a dinosaur, Robo3 offered the R7, a rideable robot that could have been yours for $5,250.

#3 Robot Planter Seeks Sun

(images via: the play coalition) Via: weburbanist.com

Fitted with a woven planter basket, the ‘Plant Bot’ by The Play Coalition has four mechanical legs that move the plant around the room to find patches of sunlight. Its legs move something like those of a spider, and though it might help keep your plants alive, its best use might be surprising the hell out of unsuspecting guests.

#2 Giant Robotic Spiders Prowl Yokohama

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French performance artist group La Machine brought two insanely nightmarish robotic spiders to Yokohama, Japan in 2009 for Expo Y150, a 5-month festival in honor of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the city’s port. The spiders crawled along the streets in a spectacle that brought dubious 1960′s B-rated horror movies to life.

#1 You Don’t Control This Robot, It Controls You

(image via: spectrum.ieee.org) Via: weburbanist.com

Sure, you can make robots do all kinds of cool and crazy things, but at least one of them turns the tables by controlling a human limb. The robot sends small electrical currents to electrodes taped to a person’s forearm to hold a ball and then drop it through a hoop. The technology could someday be used to help disabled people regain some of their motor skills.

Revolutionary Robots: 16 Cool & Crazy Creations

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Technologies of the Future We Want Now

#14 Flying Cars

From watching shows like The Jetsons and Futurama, if you’re an 90′s kid, you’d think the post Y2K era would bring about huge changes to mundane life. It wouldn’t be a car anymore if you never drove it and just flew it. How many times have you been stuck in traffic and just wish your car could vertical take off? It’d only be cool if you had one.

 

 

#13 Holograms

It’s not like they don’t have holograms, but you’d think it’d be an everyday utilized technology by now. Hatsune Miku and Tupac singing at concerts are about the closest thing they have now. Imagine just having a hologram of you lining up in a long line while you shopped at the store. Come check out time you’re paged by the hologram and you come up to pay!

 

#12 Robot servants

You hear of these in Japan but do they really have them? Get them out already! Again another “The Jetsons” reminder that we’re not in the future just yet. Almost…? Roomba

#11 Teleportation device

We dream that one day we can travel great distances within a blink. Thanks to “Star Trek” and “Star Gate”we wish we could be “beamed up”. Imagine internet shopping teleporting your products instantly! Gotta eat the nasty cooking of a friend or family, teleport that into your stomach! Too lazy to chew? Teleport that food!

#10 Space Colonies

We all thought from the many expeditions by NASA to space that outer space living or at least tourist ventures there would be possible. We imagine lunar colonies and the International Space Station is giving us hope for that. Thanks “Total Recall”. Why aren’t we out there yet?

#9 Mechanized battle suits

Countless tv shows draw upon this as fantasy material and who could disagree that the future of war shouldn’t be badass? Just to name a few shows and movies that bring this up….”Gundam”, “Power Rangers”, “Voltron”, “Mech Warrior” and countless other iterations

 

#8 Food replicator

What’s a future without food? Imagine being rid of our human need for food. We’d eat, but we’d never eat for sustainable. Every meal we’d eat for pleasure. Food tailored to our every whim, health traits, palette, and culture wherever, whenever. The lack of struggle for food will make us post-human and leave us with more time for intellectual development.

#7 Nanobots

What would a future be without nanobots? Nanites that would act according to our desires manipulating everything down to the molecular make up of any structure. Self-replicating machines that repair, destroy, combine, construct, and remove anything and everything at a molecular level. It could remove our species of disease, filth, biological functions (waste management) and much more. Imagine never having to cut your hair again because nanites could chew off the tips of your hair when they reached a certain length. Have nanites assist your body in repairing your wounds and removing scar tissue, tumors, bacterial infections, and parasites. Technologically we could construct any piece of material from the molecular structure up. The human condition could be a thing of the past, with material wealth and bodily health we would be post-human in our existences.

 

#6 Robitic limb enhancements

Remember “Mortal Kombat’s” Jax? That guy that got robot arms because his name implied he jacked it too much? Or Robocop, that guy that had his whole body repaired by machines? We have prosthetic but why not ones that increase our killing power or at least utility?

#5 Jetpacks, hover shoes, hover board

Tired of walking? Fly! Ever since that “Back to the Future” movie with the “Mattel” hover board I’ve been wanting one. I’d imagine that I’d never walk again. Of course that’s not a thing to consider anymore. The closest thing we come to flying off the ground is with a couple hundred dollars and a trip to the airport. Flying is a possibility today but we wish we could do it alone and with the wind in our hair. Maybe then we could try some quidditch or many other variations of the boring grounded sports we have today. Imagine hover board basketball, baseball…

 

#4 Underwater colonies

We have all heard the craze of underwater hotels. Why not start marketing parts of the sea as real estate by now. Space cannot be the final frontier if we have not even explored the depths of this planet.

#3 Robot toys

We thought the future was here when Sony released the robotic companion Aibo. Honda followed with ASIMO. But none of that ever became more than a fad. Though toys like Furby and Aibo were consumer products, this category of robotic companions did not create a market. We could’ve all had an Aibo for Aibo dog fights.

 

#2 Laser tools

Why are laser tools only for precision surgery. Imagine laser can openers or laser scissors. Never have the wipe the blades off again when you can cut food with a laser knife.

Source: dailypix.me

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Technologies of the Future We Want Now

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