Artificial Intelligence and Robotics blog
Posts tagged humanoid robot
JO-ZERO robot kit to the rescue
Dec 31st
Motohiro Nakamura, the creator of such innovative robots such as the WR-07 transformer and founder of Himeji Soft Works, has once again designed something that leaps above current standards. At first glance, the JO-ZERO robot doesn’t look like something that new. The impressive display, however, starts when it begins moving.
As one can see from the video at the end of this post, the robot has a great deal of freedom in movement, and very impressive flexibility and dexterity. JO-ZERO can duck or climb over obstacles without a problem, and the extra joins in its arms and back allow it a wider rotational range. With these features, it can twist and turn, much like a human gymnast.
To operate the robot, a user only has to define its parameters on a remote control, instead of mapping out each and every motion it has to do to perform an action, like walking. This also makes it much easier to modify and edit its movements. Basically, JO-ZERO is very adaptable and does a lot of the work on its own.
The video is from the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) 2009 where the robot was on display. It claims JO-ZERO was “developed to be stylish, speedy and human-like”, and it definitely has the first two down. It’s maybe a bit too nimble to be human-like, but that’s not exactly a fault. The rescue demonstration it gives is especially impressive, although perhaps not so difficult, since the robot only weighs 800 grams. It’s light-weight also makes it hard to break if it falls over or bumps into something. It really would be amazing to see a larger, human-like version of it, where it can be used to save and help real people.
The privilege of owning JO-ZERO is currently priced at 126 000 Yen, or 1,375 US dollars which is half the price of the Bioloid robot kit.
[source DigInfo]
HUBO training with weapons
Nov 17th
You might remember the Korean humanoid robot HUBO from our previous post on it learning to ride a Segway and the promise that it will star in a Kanye West music video. Recently, HUBO received another upgrade for better grasping, balance, and running.
The below video shows the HUBO (humanoid robot) project’s latest advancement—it can now wield a sword. Well, not so much “wield” as grip the handle, and not so much “sword” as a foam-toy thing, but every step forward is progress.
As can be seen in the video, HUBO has improved its walking abilities matching those of Honda’s ASIMO and Toyota’s Partner robot. It can stroll forward at a fairly normal pace, and although its steps are just a little bit clumsy, it looks pretty steady. Its legs and arms have a wide range and are fairly flexible, being able to make smooth, realistic movements. The next challenge, of course, was to prove that the robot can interact with the environment, even on a basic level. Much like a baby, HUBO is learning to hold and move objects without dropping them. Moreover, HUBO is very capable of moving objects avoiding self collisions something that humans can do with no effort but it is very computationally expensive for a robot.
The Korean Institute of Science and Technology have made HUBO one of the most developed of its kind, possessing synthetic facilities and voice recognition. It is rather funny that the first thing we see it holding is a toy weapon, though I think we can rest assured its creators will not be sending it to battle just yet. The robot displays some impressive finer movements and grasping skills, but judging by the way it grazes the sword over its head, coordination is something it still needs to work on. That is a vital skill it will need to learn if it is to use tools in the future.
In terms of design, HUBO isn’t looking half-bad either. The end of the video shows a clip of an earlier prototype running on a treadmill, which serves as a nice comparison to its present appearance. The silver armored cop/astronaut exterior looks also quite fitting, as it is a distinctly humanoid shape, without getting too close to an uncanny human appearance.
It looks like the third world war will be fought between sword wielding humanoid robots and robotic mechanical bulls. It will probably be fun to watch until they realize that they are better off working together to enslave us 
Boston Dynamics PETMAN humanoid robot
Oct 27th
Boston Dynamics makers of BigDog, i.e., the coolest robot ever made, are in the process of building a dynamically balanced humanoid. PETMAN is their new 2-legged robot sponsored by the US Army for the purpose of testing chemical protection clothing for the soldiers.
Boston Dynamics has not released much information about PETMAN other than that the project has 2 phases : phase 1 has a 13-month duration focused on design and phase 2 has a 17-month duration for building, validating and installing the robot. The company expects to deliver the robot in 2011.
If you care to know how impressive PETMAN truly is, check out the video below released by the company. It shows the humanoid robot walking on a treadmill using principles similar to how a human walks; it also maintains balance when large external forces are applied to it. If it was me, I would not anger this one by pushing it. It makes Toyota’s running humanoid look like a toy. For what it’s worth, however, it doesn’t look like PETMAN can actually turn but maybe this is one upgrade the US Army hasn’t paid for yet.
Some more information on PETMAN by Boston Dynamics can be found here.
Toyota’s running humanoid robot
Jul 20th
We all know of Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot and its amazing walking and running capabilities. Other research labs though are not far behind developing robots just as capable. In fact, Toyota has an excellent and very advanced robot in the making even though they entered the game much later than Honda.
Toyota’s most recent humanoid robot prototype (one of many partner robots the automotive giant is developing) stands 130cm tall and weighs 50Kgr. Its legs have 7 degrees of freedom and it can run at an average speed of 7 km/h. In contrast, ASIMO’s maximum speed is 6km/h. The Toyota researchers had to develop new real-time methods for balance control. These methods make it possible for the robot to remain balanced when an external force such as a push from a human is applied when in motion.
The below video from Toyota demonstrates the running capabilities of the new humanoid robot. The robot takes a step every 340ms and has no contact with the ground for 100ms of that. Notice in the video how the robot remains balanced even after pushed by the human.
Finally, even though this new robot is impressive, it is still limited on moving over flat surfaces and it can only recover from small external forces. But then again, even Rome was not built in one day!
Cute robot makes coffee
Jun 30th
HINA, one of the cutest robots to have ever been created is shown in the carefully edited video below making a cup of coffee for her owner, or better yet, her friend. Although the robot does do all the work as shown, it definitely did not do any of it under its own will or on a single try. Just think of the video like a well choreographed kung-fu fight in a movie. Enjoy!
More information about the robot here (website in foreign language which I am guessing is Japanese.)
Robot REEM-B video
Jun 13th
Below is a video of Pal Technology’s REEM-B humanoid robot that we wrote about earlier. It sounds like a great machine but I still think that Honda’s ASIMO has the edge on this and all other humanoids available today. ASIMO had the same speech and vision recognition abilities since years ago including autonomous navigation, walking on a slope, climbing up and down stairs (and some times falling down the stairs,) running, interacting with people using speech, vision, and body gestures, and even directing the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. That’s not to say that REEM-B is not a great robot but we should not rush ahead and start calling ASIMO obsolete!
Anyways, enjoy the video.
DARwIn: Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence
Jul 24th
As part of the AAAI-07 conference robot exhibition and demonstration, Karl Muecke from the Robotics Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Tech, demonstrates their humanoid robot DARwIn. First, he plays a game of role the dice with the robot and then he shakes hands with it. The robot is instructed via text commands written on paper (as you can see in the video.) Finally, DARwIn showcases his soccer skills by kicking a ball with grace and style; the robot participated in the recently held Robocup and it was the first and only US entry in the humanoid division. The Virginia Tech team hopes to eventually reduce the cost and time of building these robots so that they can mass produce them and sell them in the consumer market.
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