RoboTokyo

Researchers at UC Berkeley used Willow Garage’s PR2 robot to fold towels. The UCB programming used some innovative visual scanning techniques, allowing the PR2 to pick up a towel, find its corners, and fold it on a table perfectly. According to the paper presented at the 2010 ICRA (PDF), the robot successfully completed 50 out of 50 attempts to fold a single towel, and also folded 5 out of 5 towels when they were presented in a group. Is watching a robot do laundry really that exciting? Hell yes — wait until you see the video!

UC Berkeley used a Willow Garage robot to develop their own sophisticated robotics program. That validates the whole premise of the PR2 — faster development by letting researchers use a common platform. Score one for open source robotics!

The washing-up is piling up in the kitchen, you are too tired to get up and make dinner or even just grab a beer - do not fear! Those crazy Robots from Japan are here. They will take care of your cooking needs, supply you with drinks and even wake you up for work…Here are five robots every lazy person wishes they could command!

1. Motoman Robot: Fancy breakfast in bed? Robots could soon be taking over kitchens up and down the country if the impressive Motoman is anything to go by. The industrial robot expertly flipped and cooked a Japanese pancake on a hotplate during a demonstration at an exhibition in Osaka. Built by engineers from the Japanese giant Yaskawa Electric, the SDA10 has ‘human-like’ flexibility of movement. Both its arms can work together or independently and the robot can operate in confined spaces. The Motoman robot can also be used for more traditional tasks such as assembling and packaging items as heavy as 20kg as well as complex handling that could once only be done by people.

2. Kitchen Robot: Professors at Tokyo University have developed a robot that can help out around the house. Its movements are jerky and not very fast, but this robot can pour a cup of tea and even wash the cup afterwards. Because really, if you’re gonna invest four years of your life into a robot, your primary goal should be getting it to do the least exciting things possible. Why not build a robot that sits in a chair and reads a book?

   


3. Twendy-One Robot: Have trouble getting out of bed in the morning? Japanese scientists have developed a robot who can help you do just that - AND bring breakfast to your table. The 17-stone robot called Twendy-One was developed at Waseda University in Tokyo. Built with arms and hands the size ‘of an average adult female’, Twendy has enough strength to support humans as they sit up and stand, and can pick up and manipulate delicate objects such as a drinking straw.

4. El E Robot: The nuances and imprecise nature of human language pose big challenges for developers looking to advance voice control technology of helper robots, but researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found an effective way to circumvent verbal communication by instructing a robot to fetch items under direction of a laser pointer.

5. ApriAttenda Robot: Japanese society is already hedging its bets in the face of a rapidly declining population with the promise of robot workers. The latest addition to Japan’s emerging service class is the updated version of the ApriAttenda, created by Toshiba. At just one meter tall, the robot can open doors, handle trays and drinks and comes equipped with cameras in its three-fingered hands. The robot is expected to join the ranks of day care and nursing robots being designed to meet the needs of the graying populace. Shown below is the ApriAttenda being trained by one of the humans it will soon replace.

Info From 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Even though I can’t wait to see the new The Day the Earth Stood Still and see the updated Gort terrorize us with his planet love, the film will be overshadowed by the lameness of: Keanu Reeves.
No matter how many microbots Gort becomes, his shiny metal coolness will still be overpowered by the pure evil of Keanus’ acting.
Why can’t we just have a whole film of robot induced destruction and no Reeves? why…