Robots to Run Futuristic Japanese Hotel: Kokoro’s Actroids

A hotel run by humanoid robots is no more a far fetched dream, especially from a country that is famous for robotics and technological innovation, Japan. The Henn-na Hotel located in Nagasaki plans to recruit 10 humanoid robot also named as actroid androids. These lifelike bots would greet the guests with a smile and would assist the guests by carrying their baggage, prepare coffee and even clean their rooms. Actroid, woman robot of Japanese descent Kokoro is the robotics company that is developing theses actroid robots since 2003 that looks…

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Pepper selling Espresso Machines in Japan: Humanoid to collect Customers’ Opinions

George Clooney, the brand ambassador of Nespresso has a stiff competition now, I say stiff because the new face is cute, chatty & cuddly and it happens to be an android. Pepper is the name of the droid that Nestle has lately launched. It’s not just a single robot but a fleet to bots taking the Japanese stores. The four feet tall bot has a cute human like face mounted on top of a plastic body. The interface in tablet form is located at the chest of the machine while…

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PIBOT will be the next Flying Captain: Humanoid Learns to Fly Real Airplanes

Last week, we talked about NAO, the humanoid learning to steer wheels and now we have a similar humanoid that is learning to fly real planes. PIBOT is the name of the small and affordable humanoid that is ready to take off our expectations into the skies. PIBOT has been fabricated to operate a toned down, simulated aircraft cockpit. The intelligent synthetic creature is able to make out and use the entire controls comprising of buttons and switches present in the cockpit of a light aircraft that is especially designed…

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NAO will Drive its Own BMW Sports Car: Humanoid Learns to Steer

Autonomous vehicles are the machines capable of steering by itself, a concept that we are still trying to converge on the line of safety of passengers. Now what if an external machine comes and steer away a vehicle that is designed for humans?  Robots LAB, San Francisco based distributor of educational robots, have led to the creation of this imagination, they have come forward with a tiny tot humanoid Nao along with a BMW Z4 Electric sports car. Nao is capable of steering the car independently. The vehicle is equipped…

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Baxter Research Robot: Ideal Platform for Collaborative Robotics

Baxter Research Robot is an interesting and affordable concept for the corporate and academic robotics research across the world. It would help teaching fifth graders how to code on a real robo machine. Targeted towards academic and corporate R&D departments, it would assist in human-robot interaction and collaborative robotics to the next level. Safe and reliable hardware platform The humanoid robot platform is worth $25,000 (USD). It consists of two 7-axis arms, embedded cameras, sonar, torque based sensors and direct programming access through standard Robot Operating System interface. It makes…

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Humanoid: EMIEW 2 Can Mimic Human Navigation Effortlessly

Hitachi has introduced its new and improved EMIEW 2 humanoid robot. The predecessor of this robot, EMIEW (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate), was presented in the 2007 as a service robot aided with multiple communication functions which could safely perform services for humans in an office. The impressive looking EMIEW2 robot measures 80 centimeters in height and 14 kilograms in weight and moves at a high speed of 6km/hour. For the mobility purpose, the robot features a unique system of wheels and legs, which allows it to climb…

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ASIMO the Next-Generation Humanoid: A Total Knockout

HONDA unveiled its first ASIMO robot in the year 2000. ASIMO or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility was designed to help people who lack mobility and has come a long way since then. The latest prototype of ASIMO, HONDA humanoid robot was displayed  at the International Auto Show in New York and was seen walking, running quickly and even climbing stairs with ease. Additionally, it can dance, kicks the ball, even jump and can handle uneven surfaces too.  

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Humans Might Welcome The New Robot Overlords: An Obedience Study

How would it feel working under a ‘robo boss’, constantly pecking on top of the head, reminding the amount of work that is still left. Many would feel frustrated and might leave but there would be some, who might like to finish the task without questioning. In an interesting experiment, performed by the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, revealed the responses that were received by working under a robotic supervisor. Task that was assigned to humans was extremely monotonous which of course became boring…

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Researchers Conceptualizing An In-built Privacy Design: Humanoids

With an increasing use of robotics in various fields, more and more vital information are being transferred to these bots. Sharing information with these machines might seem grandeur but its brings along the challenge to safeguard the information stored in the robots from being hacked or being shared by others. British researchers to explore different ways of preventing these stored data are carrying out a three-year project worth 2 million pound. 

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On Road Traffic Controller: Humanoids Take Over Streets

Robotics is one such area, which many people think can pose threat to human jobs. Bots could be seen everywhere, from automatizing work in mega factories to performing daily household chores. For instance, after the bar tending robot, now we would be witnessing a machine taking the charge of a traffic cop. 

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Meet Valkyrie, Johnson Space Center’s New Super Hero

NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in association with the University of Texas and Texas A&M and with funding from the state of Texas itself have built a humanoid to which they call, Valkyrie, officially designated as “R5”. The bot is 6.2 feet tall, weighs around 125 kgs with 44 degree of freedom and is powered by battery. The machine is not built for any space mission or otherwise but for the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), that’ll hold its first round of competition in the second half of this month.

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Epson’s Dual Arm Robot, Amongst Hottest Trends In Industrial Robotics

The dual-arm, adaptable industrial robot by Seiko Epson, Japanese electronic company, reminds me of Sid, the sloth. Unlike the existing industrial bots, this prototype by Seiko Epson can visualize, take decisions, adapt as per the environment, can adjust the force while grabbing objects and above all, its portable. This dual-arm bot is capable of moving independently while performing simple tasks on assembly lines. As per the press release, Epson’s autonomous dual-arm robot is able to accurately recognize the position and orientation of objects in three-dimensional space, much like the human…

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