Tokyo University and Toyota Develop New Home Assistant Robot
The Center of IRT (CIRT ) at the University of Tokyo announced on Oct. 24 a new humanoid robot that can help with household chores. The new robot called AR (for Assistant Robot) was developed under a joint project between Prof. Masayuki Inaba's team and Toyota.
(Photograph borrowed from ROBOT WATCH)
AR is about 1.6 meters tall and weighs 130kg. It has 32 degrees of freedom - 3 on the neck and head, 7 on both arms, 6 on each hands, 1 on the hip and 2 on the wheels.
The robot has 3 key functions according to ROBOT WATCH.
1. It can recognize the environment by combining the data from its laser rangefinder and stereo camera.
2. It can create motions based on a 3D geometric model.
3. It can visually determine whether its task was successful or not, and if not, it can try again.
The group showed AR picking up a tray and bringing it to the sink, pick up a T shirt from a chair and put it in the washer and then press the button as well as sweeping the floor. It seems to have taken a lot of time for AR to accomplish these tasks but you can see the videos on ROBOT WATCH.
Besides AR, CIRT is working on 3 other robots which will all be announced by the end of this year. A personal mobility robot that can carry a single passenger, a kitchen robot and a type of robot that is "attached to" humans (whatever this means).
Too complex and unnecessary for at home work. It misses the point. A very simple mass produced "robot" platform (humanoid functions are not needed) is what is actually needed.All the world needs is a plaform that can self navigate in the house and repond to come and go signals. You could then attach whatever "extras" you want for your personal application. I have floated this idea to American companies and all I get is silence.
Posted by: Hoodoo | February 24, 2011 at 09:45 AM
I like it, but it is rather large. I think the Yaskawa SmartPal V has similar capabilities, but is smaller and more compact. Though considering Toyota and others are involved, I'm excited to see where this (and CIRT's related projects) will go from here.
Posted by: 34beat | February 01, 2011 at 10:15 AM
i liked this robot it looks so cute
Posted by: mahamed | March 30, 2009 at 06:22 AM
Toyota are being incredibly innovative. It a far cry from my days of programming 6801 processors back in 84'
Posted by: Holdens | November 14, 2008 at 02:24 PM
I like it, but it is rather large. I think the Yaskawa SmartPal V has similar capabilities, but is smaller and more compact. Though considering Toyota and others are involved, I'm excited to see where this (and CIRT's related projects) will go from here.
Posted by: Alex | October 30, 2008 at 11:59 PM