The only thing worse than taking a paintball pellet in your ass is when your return fire won’t end up inflicting the same pain on your opponent. That’s what you have to look forward to if you end up going toe-to-toe with this robotic foe.

Created by builder Che Edoga (aka “darkback2″), his wood and metal robot “Gepetto” can fire paintballs while it tools around via remote control.

In addition to being able to carry a load, Gepetto has a built in video camera and screen for interacting with passersby (or maybe to remotely taunt its victims when in paintball mode).

Gepetto is actually strong enough to carry around a laptop on its back, and can manage driving on challenging surfaces thanks to independent wheel mechanisms that can travel as much as three inches in height. While the robot is strong enough to navigate on carpet or other uneven surfaces, it’s probably not going to climb hills any time soon.

Darkback2 plans on continuing to refine the ‘bot’s navigation, intelligence, vision and other systems in the coming months. Check out the details of his progress over on the Trossen Robotics forums. (by the way, Gepetto was a runner up in Trossen’s latest robot contest).

In the mean time, if I see Gepetto coming down the road, I’m heading the other way.

 quotationweb