Androids

Project aims to enable humanoids to interact with people and their environmentA Drexel University-led research team late last week unveiled the newest, most central member of its collaboration with a team of Korean researchers: Jaemi, a humanoid (HUBO). Jaemi HUBO embodies efforts to advance humanoid development and enhance the concept of human-robotic interaction. The project’s goal is to enable humanoids to interact with their environment, and enhancement plans include enabling the humanoid to move over rugged terrain, in unstructured environments and to interact socially with humans and handle objects. The five-year project, funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) program, seeks transformative models […] Read More

The new humanoid robot called PETMAN, which is under current development by Boston Dynamics,is probably going to be the most advanced humanoid robot soon. The purpose of development is to test army suits under different conditions, which will require a body that is able to move like a real human. The maker of the suits says that the robot will even be able to sweat, in order to simulate the real conditions during movement better. For more, please click here. Read More

In a demonstration performed in Tokyo, Honda headquarters, it was shown that a person can make the famous humanoid robot ASIMO move just by thinking about it.The person who wore a helmet to pick up his brain signals was able to move ASIMO’s right arm, just by thinking about it. Although the movement appeared to have a few seconds delay, this is a promising achievement for future advances. The most challenging area of robotics, which is developing the AI which might one day enable robots to move like humans do, is for the most part based on reverse engineering the human brain. However, experiments like this also show us the […] Read More

With the new procedure designed by John Hopkins University, the amputees who use the artificial arm are able to control wrist, hand and elbow movements at the same time. The patients report that the use of the arm requires no more conscious effort than moving your natural arm. This is achieved by rewiring nerves in the body to the arm. The remaining nerves at the amputated location are first connected to the muscles at the chest. When the patient wants to move the arm, those muscles receive signals from the brain, and they then instruct the arm to move. This enables a smooth control of the robotic arm. The procedure […] Read More

Paris, France, September 9st, 2008. The French start-up Gostai (www.gostai.com) and Aldebaran Robotics (www.aldebaran-robotics.com) announce that the Nao robot will be equipped with the latest version of Gostai Urbi universal software platform to offer an extra programming interface. NAO is the current most evolved humanoid robot available on the market and is already shipping to universities labs that require a cutting edge but affordable development platform. With a computer at its core, it is a unique, evolving and fully programmable platform. Nao is targeting a variety of usage such as education, entertainment, home care or security in a near future. Currently Nao has been selected by the Robocup committee as […] Read More

The robotic hand under development by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has a new way of estimating the minimum force required in order to hold objects.The fingertips of the hand are filled with gel, which allows transmitting vibrations if an object in contact is slipping. The finger’s bone is also covered with electrodes. Through these mechanisms, instant feedback is received about what the hand is touching. The wearer will even be able to feel what the bionic hand is touching, with the help of a pressure device worn on his/her healthy skin. For the original story, please visit the link below. http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19926755.900?promcode=nletter&DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19926755.900 Read More

The robot developed in Taiwan called BeRobot, seems to set the current world record by being the smallest humanoid robot commercially available.The robot is only 6” tall, can be disassembled and reassembled into different configurations such as animals, has updateable software, has bluetooh or mobile phone control, ultrasonic and image sensors. For more, click the link below: Reference: worldrecordsacademy.org/technology/smallest_humanoid_robot-world_record_set_by_the_BeRobot_80362.htm Read More

The French start-up company Alderaban Robotics based in Paris is developing a highly skilled humanoid robot called NAO. Although there is no definite date yet as far as the commercial availability, its website shows end of 2008 currently. Weighing 4.5 kilograms and at a height of 57cm, the robot stands somewhere between the most humanoid toy robots currently on the market and the famous bigger ones such as Honda’s Asimo. The company seems to have two versions of the robot, one consumer version, priced around a few thousand dollars, and the other is a more developed researcher version, which the company hopes to sell to research facilities and universities. Reference: […] Read More

A new robot has been developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which can learn to use new tools by itself. It achieves this by touching and moving the tool first and observe how it’s parts move in relation to each other. One of the biggest challenges in robotics has always been to make them capable of dealing with unfamiliar environments and objects. This robot seems to be a step towards overcoming this obstacle. Here is the video from the original site. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid263777539/bctid1624415630 Reference: technologyreview.com/Infotech/21027/ Read More

Researcher Daan Hobbelen of TU Delft has developed a new, highly-advanced walking robot: Flame. This type of research, for which Hobbelen will receive his PhD on Friday 30 May, is important as it provides insight into how people walk. This can in turn help people with walking difficulties through improved diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.. If you try to teach a robot to walk, you will discover just how complex an activity it is. Walking robots have been around since the seventies. The applied strategies can roughly be divided into two types. The first derives from the world of industrial robots, in which everything is fixed in routines, as is […] Read More