P3 and ASIMO - The Honda Humanoid Robots

Honda has released a new version of its humanoid robot Asimo. This version is not fundamentally different from the previous one, but nevertheless provides significant improvements in the capabilities of the robot.
The best short (two times faster, or 6 km / h, but more importantly being able to follow a curve or slalom ant between plots). It is accompanied by new sensors, enabling it to better recognize its environment, or to hold a human hand in adapting its movements and displacements. It may finally seize objects and transport, maintaining his balance and adapting is also necessary force permanently. Read more »

Through a rather simple equipment, a giant amoeba command the movements of a six-legged robot. Perspective: draw some manufacturing secrets that will one day be useful to robots.Quand the robot to six feet away from itself a source of light placed nearby, it does to any software or even a network Neural. The pilot is… a mold! More precisely Physique polycephalum, a strange organism in forests under the fusillades. This nice six-legged robot moves systematically light. However, no programme and no human would command him to do so.
This kind of yellowish giant amoeba, which is usually a few millimeters but may reach thirty centimeters, eats bacteria and small mushrooms. It has no legs and no body. All the cells were merged into a single plasmodia. Biologists rank among the myxomycetes, along with a few zoological curiosities hardly classifiable or plants or animals.
In short, this modest living being is nothing that can make it the ideal driver for a hexapod robot. Yet the role that made him played Klaus-Peter Zauner, Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (United Kingdom), in collaboration with a team from the University of Kobe, Japan. The driver, it’s him! This Schumacher Car hexapod is a kind of mold inform, moving like an amoeba. Read more »

In the eagerly awaited World Exposition, which runs from March 25 to 25 September 2005 in Japan, the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, will present its latest innovations in robotic its pavilion!
The site is located in Aichi an industrial area that is the stronghold of Toyota. Some therefore not hesitate to say that “Aichi 2005, Toyota Expo”. The theme on which this company has committed is: The dream, pleasure and excitement of mobility in the 21st century. The Toyota group will present at the opening of its pavilion and the inauguration of the International Exhibition 2005, a welcome spectacle with a show opening orchestrated by robots! They invite the visitor to discover the world of tomorrow.The main show will certainly be spectacular; visitors can admire the latest technological innovations robots vehicles unit and i-i-foot, a large screen to swivel 360 degrees and extraordinary scenic devices will be implemented so that visitors discover life, the nature and the future society represented on stage … Read more »

A robotic head of bats capable of transmitting and detect ultrasound in the band of frequencies used by bats in the real world will give an important impetus to research in the field of echolocation. “Bat - Bot “, developed under the project CIRCE of the IST (Information Society Technologies) may also stir ears, technique often used by these animals to modulate the characteristics of the echo.
CIRCE developed the Bat-Bot to mimic more closely at the amazing qualities of echolocation in bats. “The sonar in water is an area controlled, but studies on a sonar air are much less advanced,” says dr. Herbert Parmesans, who heads the laboratory of active perception of the University of Antwerp and CIRCE coordinating the project. “Wherever roboticiens want to build an autonomous robot, they deal primarily the sonar, but they quickly encounter problems due to the nature too simplistic devices of commerce, and then spend the visual systems or laser. We hope that our research on the bat robotic systems will lead to more sophisticated sonar useful for robot navigation and other applications, “he says.
One of those potential applications could be identifying plants by echolocation. Read more »

A new humanoid robot will serve as a guide loquace in the museum’s first automobile manufacturer worldwide, Japanese Toyota, inside his stronghold in central Japan.
Presented Monday, the robot to look feminine, with a height of 1.20 meters with a weight of 60 kilos, moves independently on wheels, avoiding obstacles.
Called “Robina”, it will guide visitors to the museum Automotive Group-Toyota City, near Nagoya (center).
According to its designer, “Robina” is capable of giving explanations to watching a person who recognizes the name on a badge. It can also keep a pen and sign autographs willingly, promised Toyota.A like his compatriot and Honda with its advanced technologies, Toyota has been actively engaged in the development of robotic technologies, convinced that the robots will in future play an important role in the aging Japanese society. Read more »