GetRobo Blog English

Tmsuk's New Security Robot Nets Intruders

 Robot company Tmsuk announced a new security robot called T-34. The robot will alert you on your cell phone if it senses something wrong. You can see through its camera and operate with your cell phone. A joint development with security firm Alacom.

 T-34 can move at 10km per hour and can launch a net to capture the intruder. Check out the videos on Robot Watch to see how the capture works. This Net Launcher product from Nippon Koki is actually interesting. It was initially developed for nightwatches at schools (yes, in Japan there is usually a man staying overnight at each school - even public schools - that patrol during the night). You hold it like a flash light and push a button to launch the net.

 Although, according to the Robot Watch article, it's a little tricky to operate this because there's a 0.8 second time lag between what's really happening and what's on your cell phone screen. Plans are to commercialize it by the end of this year at around 500,000 yen. Photo below borrowed from Robot Watch.

Videos of Anybots' Telepresence Robot QA

 Here is a follow-up of the previous post. First let's ask Trevor himself to introduce us QA.

 As he mentions in the video, the robot can easily follow you around and it can move at up to 12 miles per hour. The laser navigation system "limits it to a speed appropriate for the environment." QA's balancing system uses the 3rd generation technology originally developed for a self-balancing two-wheeled scooter. The image stabilization technology comes from what the team learned from Monty, Anybots' earlier creation.

  Next, a look at the controlling interface and live video stream. You can move QA forward and backward by clicking on the circles. Left and right circles will turn the robot to that direction. You can make QA bend at the waist with the lever on the right side of the screen. The two buttons on the left are for the camera. You can get a rear view by clicking the backward button.

 QA can sit and stand up on its own, although it needed a little help in getting up this day. Battery lasts about 4 hours when QA is running - charging takes 2 hours.

 Overall, I felt that QA has a presence but not an overwhelming presence, which I think is good. I can imagine future users "customizing" its looks with costumes and whatnot.

QA - New Telepresence Robot from Anybots

 The 2009 International CES started today. Unfortunately I am not there this year, but I did get to see and try out a cool new robot that is being announced there. That is, the new telepresence robot named QA developed by Anybots. I had the chance to visit the company located in Silicon Valley right before QA and the team left for Las Vegas.

 Unlike previously announced telepresence robots from other companies - such as Rovio or ConnectR - QA is designed to look like a human albeit on wheels.It stands 5 feet tall and a 5-megapixel camera is situated on the neck. The great advantage of this is that it is much easier for the person who is controlling the robot via a PC thousands of miles away from the robot, to communicate with the people that are in the same room as the robot. (It's difficult when your eye-level is like 5 inches from the floor when using other telepresence robots.) QA is connected to the world using corporate Wi-Fi or public 3G networks. It has a screen in the front which can show a photo of the operator or whatever the operator wants to show the people on the other side.

 

 Trevor Blackwell, founder and CEO of Anybots, calls this "video conferencing on wheels."  An ideal user would be "a mechanical engineer in the U.S. who wants to communicate with a factory in China without flying there." The green light you see in the photo above next to the camera is a laser pointer. It is supposed to correspond directly to where you click on the PC screen and the system stabilizes the laser spot when the robot moves. So the mechanical engineer can use the laser system to point out things/places that need attention.

 QA is scheduled to be available for purchase in Q3, 2009. Price will be in the $15,000 to $25,000 range. Anybots would like to ship a dozen units for beta testing this summer.

 I did get to control QA and the interface was pretty intuitive. "We wanted to be able to drive it around like you would control an avatar in Second Life," Trevor says. Right now you need to get used to how close you can move QA to other humans without running over them, but according to Trevor, they are working on an obstacle avoidance system which they will probably not be able to demonstrate yet at CES. (By the way, QA did run over my foot once but I was OK. QA weighs only 35 pounds.56 pounds.=corrected Nov. 9, 2009, when I found out that 35 pounds was the goal that was never met.)

 I will post some videos I took on my next post. Photographed below is the Anybots team with QA. From right, Daniel Casner, Trevor Blackwell, Scott Wiley and Benjie Nelson.

 

 Another photo of QA provided by Anybots. They call it the "MySpace angle."

 

 Oh, and in case you are wondering, what's the Japan angle here (since this is supposed to be a blog about robots in Japan right)?  Well, QA has a Hokuyo (Japanese company) laser range finder on the base for navigation, which seems to be becoming increasingly popular among mobile robots. And I think QA would be very useful in Japanese nursing homes where the small number of staff are constantly being beeped by the elderly people. If QA can run over to their rooms to chat with them and allow the nurses to focus on the real emergencies, I think it would be a great help.  So, yeah, I write about Japanese robots but since I currently live in Silicon Valley I am fortunate to have the chance to see and write about the robots here as well.