Humanoids

Pal Robotics’ REEM-H1 is the first prototype in their new line of humanoid service robots that move on a wheeled base (their previous humanoids, REEM-A and REEM-B, were both bipedal).  By ditching the legs the REEM-H1 moves quicker while being much more stable, and is thus safer for use in commercial applications.  It uses stereoscopic cameras to recognize faces, microphones for detecting multilingual speech, and has several ultrasonic sensors and a laser range finder in its base for mapping and obstacle detection.  With its autonomous navigation capabilities, it is suited to working inside office buildings, hotels, museums, and the like.  Looking a bit like a robotic Captain Picard, it has already been tested in public spaces around Barcelona such as trade expos.
Similar in design and functionality to Fujitsu’s ENON, REEM-H1 has a storage bay that can be used to carry your bags (up to 6kg [13 lbs]), and a touch screen on its chest which can be loaded with customized software.  It is both taller and heavier than ENON, meauring 165cm (5’5″) and 90kg (198 lbs) compared to the ENON’s 130cm and 50kg.  ENON also manages to carry more (up to 10kg [22 lbs]).  That said, REEM-H1 improves on the ENON’s traveling speed (4km/h compared to 3km/h) and has excellent battery life (up to 8 hours).  A few photos and a video follow after the break.
Already Pal Robotics is working on REEM-H2, which sports a more sophisticated design.  And far from abandoning their work on bipedal robots, the company is holding a contest to determine potential designs for the upcoming REEM-C.

REEM-H1 @ Pal Robotics
REEM-H1 specs @ Pal Robotics

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Image credit:
Pal Robotics | Okokitsme @ Flickr

Pal Robotics, the developers of the REEM-A and REEM-B humanoids, are holding a couple of contests that wrap up on October 1st 2010.
The first contest asks you to come up with an original and feasible killer app idea for their latest, more commercially-oriented REEM-H. Entry titles must be no more than 100 characters and the summary should be no more than 1000 characters. A prize of $500 USD will be awarded to the winner! See contest details here.
The second contest asks you to design the look of REEM-C, which will be the follow-up to REEM-B. The design can be anything from a pencil sketch through to a complex 3d rendering. They suggest you try to make it reasonably realistic, and to try to make it look friendly and not toy-like. Three prizes will be awarded, with the first place winner receiving $1200 USD! See contest details here.
So what do you think?  Do you have an idea for a commercial robot that hasn’t been explored?  And have you studied the look of the humanoid robots on this site and elsewhere and think you can do better?  Get to work, and be sure to apply before the October 1st deadline.
[source: Life In The Robotics Lab] via [GetRobo (JP)]

Popular Science has an excellent three page article on the development of Virginia Tech RoMeLa’s CHARLI bots, the state of robotics funding in America, and the different attitudes towards humanoid robots around the world.  The version that appears on the cover of Pop Sci’s August issue is CHARLI-L, the one with lightweight legs.  Here’s some choice quotes from the article:

“I think a full-size humanoid is the Holy Grail of robotics,” says Dr. Dennis Hong. “It’s a system of systems. It combines all the disciplines of robotics, from artificial intelligence to autonomous behavior to dynamics to controls to mechanical design—everything!”
“They represent incredible research and technology that’s then backed into an application” says Colin Angle, the CEO of iRobot. Roboticists working on humanoids, he says, “are doing amazing, exciting work, but it’s just not going to drive the robot industry—unless it’s for entertainment purposes.”
With robots like Asimo, Dr. David Hanson says, “Toyota and Honda have solved manual-dexterity tasks that used to be unsolvable. It’s just that they show them off in silly ways. They get him to play trumpet or the violin. But with that dexterity, imagine what you can assemble in a factory! These are massive breakthroughs.”

Besides some choice photos of CHARLI-L, the article also includes a decent image gallery of some of the world’s most famous humanoids, though sadly some favorites (the SONY QRIO and Toyota Partner Robots) didn’t make the cut.  Hit the source link for the article!
[source: Popular Science]

Singapore’s A*Star Social Robotics Laboratory (ASORO) unveiled a pair of service robots at RoboCup 2010 called Lucas and Olivia.  The receptionist robot Olivia is 160cm (5’2″) tall, weighs a hefty 152kg (335 lbs), and moves on a four-wheeled Power BOT base.  Olivia has 26 degrees of freedom (head x2, 2 arms x6, 2 hands x6).  When not in use, it’s two arms can be kept out of harm’s way by retracting inside the main body.  The arms can replicate human gestures, and its hands can grasp and hold small objects.
It has stereoscopic cameras for vision with an additional mono camera, which focuses on the face to detect and track features (like lip movements), 8 microphones in its head for sound localization, and an additional 4 mics in its chest for improved speech recognition.  A pair of touch sensors in its head allow Olivia to react to physical contact, and color-changing light rings display its status and mood.  Ultrasonic sensors and a laser ranger finder in its base provide obstacle recognition.
A*Star’s social robotics research uses a dialog management system called Apollo as well as Attention Directed Dialogue to study human-robot interaction.  At RoboCup 2010, visitors could tell Olivia to turn a nearby lamp on and off as an example of how it may be used to control appliances.  It’s main function would be greeting and guiding visitors using natural spoken language and gestures.
A few more cg renders and a couple of videos of Olivia in action follow after the break.
[source: ASORO] via [IEEE Spectrum]

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Image credit:
A*Star

Researchers led by Ingo Lutkebohle at Germany’s Bielefeld University are working on an expressive humanoid robot head called FloBi that has simple doll-like features to avoid the effects of the uncanny valley.  Slightly larger than an adult human head, FloBi’s modular design allows the researchers to change its perceived gender by snapping together pieces with clips and magnets.
The head and neck have a total of 18 degrees of freedom, including a proprietary magnetic actuator for moving its lips which improves on comparable designs (see KIST’s FRi & Silbot, and USC’s Bandit) by concealing the anchor points of actuation.  Its eyebrows, eyelids, eyes, lips, and neck can all move independently to express the usual selection of emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, and fear).  FloBi is equipped with a camera in each eye, microphones, a gyro sensor, and LEDs in its cheeks to simulate a blush response.  It will be used to study natural human-robot interaction and the effects of its external appearance.  FloBi probably wouldn’t look out of place in Toy Story.

Personally, I’ve always favored robots with features that match its level of sophistication.  Robots as realistic as the Geminoid may look mildly convincing in still photographs, but the effect is shattered when you see it in motion because the actuators and materials simply aren’t there yet.  Detecting even the slightest movement of an eyebrow, for example, comes so naturally to people that even Hollywood’s best visual effects studios struggle to recreate them in computer animations.  The average person may not be able to tell you what is wrong with something, but they’ll know when it doesn’t look right.  Additionally, I think we expect them to be more intelligent than a simple chatbot with canned, halting responses.  Robots with extremely abstract features like the SONY QRIO, for example, could never be mistaken for a reanimated corpse, and they lower the observer’s expectations to more realistic levels.
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[source: Bielefeld University CITEC] via [IEEE Spectrum]

This 10 meter (32 ft) tall, 6 ton statue of Optimus Prime, standing just outside the “Bird’s Nest” at Beijing’s Olympic Park, is actually made of scrap metal.  It’s part of the Green Dream Park, opening today, thanks to its use of recycled automobile parts.
[source: People Daily] via [Topless Robot] via [Technabob] via [Gizmodo]

The International Modern Hospital Show 2010 is taking place from July 14th to 16th at Tokyo Big Sight, where more than 380 companies are exhibiting.  A special display will showcase the Future of Rehabilitation Care (as opposed to surgical robotics), which aim to improve patient quality of life and support independence of the elderly or disabled (such as through power assist technology for transferring patients from their bed and bath).  Most recognizable are the technologies from Cyberdyne (HAL), NEC (PaPeRo), and AIST (Paro).  EMC-250, a wheelchair with a robotic arm capable of picking up a coin from the ground was also shown.
[source: Int'l Modern Hospital Show] via [CB News (JP)]

Fuji-Q Highland, an amusement park located near Mt. Fuji, is constructing the 1:1 scale bust of a mecha from the popular Neon Genesis Evangelion anime.  Mycom Journal has a number of photos from the project, which include early prototype dioramas and models, to the ongoing assembly work which should wrap in time for the July 23rd opening date.  I’ve included a sample of the most interesting images here.  It should be noted that the these are mostly from the trial fitting stage, so any imperfections in how the pieces come together have yet to be rectified, and final finishing is still to come.  The exhibit will also feature a life-size statue of one of the mecha pilots with whom fans cans have their photo taken.  Looks pretty cool!  Too bad they couldn’t build the whole thing…
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[source: Mycom Journal (JP)]

A 2008 survey suggests that people aren’t interested in robots that look like humans.  The survey asked people at a home  and living show about robots in daily life.  Botjunkie took one look at the graphs and concluded that it isn’t a good idea to design robots that look like people.  What the graphs and paper do not show is that there is a range of humanoid robots, from ones that look realistic to ones that have abstract human features.  The survey uses the blanket term “humanoid robot” to describe robots as different as this:

The reason why this is important is that almost half of the respondents (44%) admitted harboring fears related to robots, including that robots could replace humans someday, and the ever-popular possibility that humans would lose their jobs.  In other words, if it looks like a person, talks like a person, and walks like a person, it seems much more likely that they could replace a person.  Despite the fact that factory and industrial robots can in fact replace human workers, people are clearly more comfortable with them because they can’t imagine them replacing their job.

However, all is not lost for humanoid robots.  The following graph of “What Should Robots Do?” reveals that people want robots that can perform a variety of household tasks.  Unfortunately, it does not ask them if they would prefer to own 50 specialized robots that each do one specific job (such as the various products from iRobot), or 1 humanoid robot capable of doing all of the work (such as a hypothetical future ASIMO).  After all, the whole purpose of designing a robot with the same shape as a human is so that it can do a variety of tasks in a human-centered world, and not because we are more comfortable with them for their human-like appearance.
I also wonder how people in their twilight years would respond to these questions (only 6% of respondents were over 65), since the maintenance of many home robots would be a job in and of itself.
Naturally people don’t want robots to do the jobs they feel require a human touch, such as taking care of the kids, or that are considered above mechanical work, such as cooking and driving, though paradoxically they do want robots to take care of them when they get old.

What do you think; were the survey results influenced by irrational fears, and was it perhaps a bit too vague?  Or do you agree with the responses?
[source: EPFL Infoscience paper (.PDF file)] via [Botjunkie]

Imagine the loneliness that must set in as a person ages and loses touch with the people they love.  If the elderly had access to their family members’ social networks, they could keep connected to their loved ones on an everyday basis and not have to wait for a phone call or a letter.  They could enjoy photos and videos on sites like flickr rather than having to wait to see them during visits (if at all).  The problem is that social networking is still evolving and it’s difficult for older people to stay up to date if they don’t understand the technology, especially when computers are often seen as intimidating.  That’s where telepresence and communication robots like Kompott come in.
Kompott is a prototype robotic agent built by students at Zurich University of the Arts’ Interaction Design lab in Switzerland.  The robot’s head is a touch screen which displays intuitive icons for all the content it gathers from emails to videos.  You can browse through items by tapping on the left or right side of the head to scroll through them and simply tap on an item to open it.  For those who may have difficulty reading the text on the screen, the robot uses speech synthesis to read the messages aloud.  To reply, you speak to the robot which then transcribes your message using a speech-to-text program before sending it off as an email.  A large button on the robot’s chest gives access to all of their contacts, which are shown with a large photo.

Thanks to its simple interface, Kompott and robots like it may someday empower the elderly to maintain relationships using internet-based technologies they would otherwise never be able to use.  The obvious benefits of such a system will no doubt go a long way to eliminating the sense of isolation and loneliness that many feel.
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[source: Kompott] via [Botjunkie]

Students at the University of Tokyo and Waseda University are developing a small desktop communication robot called Kokonatchi (ココナッチ) that lights up and wiggles when a new message hits your twitter feed.  Looking a bit like a stress reliever, the Kokonatchi connects to your computer through USB and has RGB LEDs.  Depending on the context of a new tweet (including emoticons), the robot will display different colors and will vibrate when frightened, communicating the sender’s presence.  Massaging the Kokonatchi will allow you to reply directly to the incoming message.  You can also record up to about 20 words such as “hello” and “good morning” that will be played back when appropriate (up to 1000 with an additional microSD card).
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University, the Project Manager, compared what the students are trying to accomplish with the explosive popularity of the Tamagotchi, as a potential breakthrough robotics product for young people.  In order to market the robot, it was designed to be cute enough that even women wouldn’t mind having one, said one of the students.  The plan is to begin selling them this fall through a robotics venture company called Yukai Engineering, with the first batch of 1000 selling for about 4,000 JPY ($45 USD) a pop.  Prior to release a prototype will be available for 6,000 JPY ($70 USD) to test the durability of internal components.
Twitter has become something of a phenomenon in Japan, where “tweets” are referred to as “mutterings” due to their short length. Even large company executives actively twitter in remarkably casual fashion.  The character-based Japanese tweets can communicate more than the typical 148 letter English tweet.
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via [Robonable (JP)]

ココナッチ

Virginia Tech’s RoMeLa unveiled a cute new robot at RoboCup 2010 in Singapore.  It’s called DARwIn-LC (Low Cost) and was featured on a poster near the Robotis Bioloid booth with the headline “Open Platform Humanoid Robot”.  It sports 20 degrees of freedom actuated by Robotis AX-18F (18kg/cm torque) servos.  Thanks to an NSF grant, the robot will be manufactured along with its sibling, DARwIn-HP (High Performance), to be distributed to 11 of Virginia Tech’s partner universities, and may even be available through Robotis itself.  This is pretty exciting to see, and the following video shows it’s no slouch when it comes to standard humanoid behaviors.
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I think they really nailed the design of this one.  It has a cute face reminiscent of SONY’s ill-fated QRIO, and a cool exoskeleton that gives its body some personality.  Depending on the price, this could become a very popular platform indeed.  A few more photos of it follow after the break.
[source: I, Bioloid]
Update June 30th 2010: Dr. Dennis Hong (RoMeLa) has informed me that the guesstimate price point I had listed was incorrect (probably too low), so I will update when we know the actual price (he wouldn’t elaborate on the final price).  However, he did say that RoMeLa may be able to upload the CAD drawings, fabrication, and assembly manuals, as well as the basic software, online for free.  If they are able to work this out with Robotis, which is handling the business side of the partnership, then anyone with the means should be able to fabricate the robot’s plastic parts using 3D printers.  This will save universities (and perhaps some individuals) some cash that are interested in building a team of them for research and competition.

We want to form a community of DARwIn-LC users to share new ideas for improvement, hack it, etc. and use the robot for research, education, outreach, and of course, an easy entry point for the RoboCup humanoid division.

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Image credit:
Tan Junming Clarence