Androids

Robid, a new humanoid robot developed by Tomatoka Takashi of Robo Garage, a japanese company, is able to perform moves that are pretty good for its size… The robot weighs 1.6 kilograms (3.5 lbs) and its height is 38 cm (15 inches). The frame is made of carbon and plastic and it has 30 degrees of freedom which is very good for a robot at […] Read More

After the Big Dog robot, a four legged technology marvel which mimicked the natural walking mechanism of a four legged animal, the US based robotics company called Boston Dynamics has now developed a two legged version of the robot, and this one seems to imitate walking of a human. The bipedal robot called Petman, has primarily been developed for the US army, to test military […] Read More

Japanese company Vstone has just unveiled a new humanoid robot called Robovie-PC, which has PC equivalent controls inside the body. The robot goes for around $4,500 in the US, with 20 degrees of freedom, a built in camera, USB connections and a gyrosensor. The robot may be considered a high end humanoid robot in its category due to its mehcnaical abilities as well as controllers. […] Read More

Making a working artificial hand has always been a great challenge in medicine. Even until now, most amputees without arms have to make use of hooks in place of their hands. Recently however, technology seems to get close to making a really functioning artificial hand. The artificial arm is called the DEKA arm, which is part of a $100 million Pentagon program under the direction […] Read More

The artificial leg developed by an Iceland based company called OSSUR, can learn the users walking gait and then adjust itself accordingly. Not only that, but the leg is also able to give the user enough strength so that the natural walking motion is not interrupted as in ordinary artificial legs. The future of this technology is of course the artificial leg providing the user […] Read More

The european humanoid robot research project called Eccerobot, which stands for “Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot” aims to mimic the human anatomy in a humanoid robot more than any of its kind before. The project is run by University of Munich and has several European partners and supporters. By making a design that mimics human body, which is called a “Anthropomimetic” design, a […] Read More

Autonomous navigation is one of the most challenging parts of building a robot and especially, if it is a humanoid robot you are dealing with, things easily get much more difficult. Of course, real world conditions involve changing environments as well. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, were able to come up with an algorithm that enables Honda’s famous humanoid robot Asimo to walk through a […] Read More

Making bipedal running motion is a challenging task. Engineers at Toyota achieved not only this but were able to break the speed record for a running bipedal robot. Another addition to the robots physical abilities is balance keeping, such as when pushed backwards, the robot regains it balance and straightens itself up back again. See video below… Read More

At University of Texas Nanotech Institute, Scientists have created an artificial muscle that runs on alcohol and has the ability to generate strong forces in a short period of time. These muscles use chemical fuels instead of battery energy. The muscles use methanol, which has 30 times the energy storing capacity of a conventional battery. The nickel-titanum alloy coated in platinum particles, which are only […] Read More

The robot head developed at University of San Diego in California, uses self learning algorithms to improve the reality of its facial expressions.The robot has 30 servo motors each of which make up for a facial muscle, by controlling muscles with tiny strings. Without the use of machine learning, all of these muscles had to be calibrated manually by humans to move at the right […] Read More