Humanoid Mows the Lawn
I just finished writing about the Helper Robot Project but I found this cute video of one helping humanoid with a lawn mower through ROBOTS DREAMS. I love the ending!
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2 posts from May 2008
May 17, 2008
New Helper Robot Project Sets Off - Here's the shopping list!
The organization that holds the ever-popular robot competition ROBO-ONE has come up with a new contest - build a helper robot that will REALLY help humans in our everyday lives AND MOREOVER that will sell. The Helper Robot Project aims to entice hobbyists to compete in a series of contests that will test certain skills and if the winning robot's skill is good enough, the sponsoring firm(s) will try to commercialize it.
The first such competition will be around developing a teleoperated biped robot that can shop at a mall while you stay at home. Finals will occur on Sept. 6, 2008, and will require the robots to shop at 3 stores inside the Azalea shopping mall in Kawasaki City. (Azalea and the Kawasaki and Kanagawa Robot Business Conference are cooperating with ROBO-ONE for this event.) The robot will have to pick up a product, communicate with the clerk (bargaining will have a high score) and pay, etc. Unlike the battling ROBO-ONE competition, the teleoperator will not be able to directly see the robot in action and will have to use Wi-Fi. Also the robots will have to walk down a catwalk so that people can judge their strides and looks.
And to compete in the finals, you must first win the preliminary contest which will be held on Aug. 17. There are 3 events in the preliminary - 1. picking up hard boiled eggs and putting them in a container, 2. folding a child-size T shirt and 3. a 30 minute endurance race.
The types of products the robots must shop at the finals will not be announced till after the preliminaries and they may not have anything to do with eggs and T shirts, says Masahiro Sakigawara, General Manager of the Future Robotics Technology Center. GetRobo communicated by email with Sakigawara, who is one of the people leading this project, and he says that these objects were chosen because "we want to see more advancement in hand dexterity."
At least one robot seemed to already be making progress on building a robot that can fold T shirts (a task that at least one of my friends complains that her boyfriend can not accomplish). A robot made by the MARU Family that is very well-know in the ROBO-ONE world is photographed below. (Thank you for the photo, Sakigawara-san!)
The robot can be of any size but must weigh under 30kg. And it MUST be a biped humanoid. The reason for ROBO-ONE insisting on humanoid robots is because "we think that human-shaped robots are most compatible with our society and that they can most easily work in our everyday environment" says Sakigawara.
Unfortunately you will have to be residing in Japan to participate in this competition but you can read more about it on ROBOT WATCH (Japanese).
An update on this competition here.
