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Anyone who likes robotics and in particular, built by Honda ASIMO robot is sure to draw much attention to the fluidity of the model shown in the video.
But there is a new and improved upgrade of the original ASIMO, but a suit built to mimic as closely as possible the friendly robot.
The creator of this suit is Katsura Yamamoto, a student at Waseda University in Japan. Who seems to be plucked up enough patience to get this suit arm, built mainly with wood chips.
The story behind this dress looks straight out of a soap opera in Central America, since at Waseda University do not feel a great admiration for the robotics team from Honda, because the latter company had received all the accolades for the design of this robot , being that the university had spent many years developing the technology of biped robots. I completed in 1973 were the first to build a biped robot that was able to walk.
But the story is even darker, because Professor Atsuo Takanishi, Waseda University alliance had a “secret” with Sony to develop the robot QRIO, which would have been the first humanoid robot for the home market. Unfortunately the teacher plans were thwarted when the company decided to close its robotics division.
But there is a new and improved upgrade of the original ASIMO, but a suit built to mimic as closely as possible the friendly robot. The creator of this suit is Katsura Yamamoto, a student at Waseda University in Japan. Who seems to be plucked up enough patience to get this suit arm, built mainly with wood chips.
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ASIMO, an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility is a development of the Japanese company Honda Motor Company, and is probably one of the most complex humanoid robots and advanced in the world. According to what can be read on the website is also the only of its kind that can also walk up stairs without any help. While other models from other companies can walk on two legs, none is as safe and delicate movements such as ASIMO.
As if this were not enough to impress, it can react to dozens of oral orders, natural language (Japanese, of course!) And can recognize faces. His arms and hands are precise enough to turn on lights, opening doors, lifting and pushing.
Instead of addressing the creation of a toy, Honda opted to build a robot that can be useful to people who can help at home, or people with disabilities who are unable to fend for themselves.
Also, thanks to its 120 centimeters tall, has her face to match ours if we are sitting in a chair. This allows jobs that were thought to be made by a person sitting, without complications.
The physical aspect of the robot created by Honda reminds us of a child wearing a spacesuit. This friendly appearance is part of the manufacturer’s strategy to prevent the robot wakes up in the public distrust.
So much has been welcomed ASIMO, which already has a job. Indeed, in the offices of IBM in Japan and the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo ASIMO is a working as a receptionist, answering questions and guiding visitors on a tour of the facilities. To achieve this it has been programmed with the layout of walls and barriers within the building and with the right answers to common questions from visitors.
While Honda charge for these services, the exhibit ASIMO in places with massive influx of public is also a great way to spread their existence.
The ASIMO locomotion system is revolutionary.
Although the walk seems to us a perfectly normal activity and simple (finally, after all, even a child can do it!) Is not at all easy to achieve a mechanism that reproduces the walk on two legs. ASIMO can not do it alone, unless it can also rotate. While other less advanced biped robots must stop, turn and go back, ASIMO is able to turn exactly like a human. It can adjust the length of their steps and the position of your hips, knees and feet to turn as you go, a very natural way.
Honda engineers spent much time studying the physics involved in walking, in fact, walking is not only a series of controlled falls, broken before the body is tilted enough to make us fall. Each step is a fall incomplete. ASIMO is controlled at the angle of the trunk of the robot, the inertia that has to go, the force of gravity, etc.. The balance between the force exerted by the foot on the floor and the floor exerted on the robot (reaction force) is what keeps it upright as it progresses.
Also monitored at all times how the ground deforms under ASIMO. The way he walks is different if you are on a carpet or on a hard floor.
The position of the trunk on the hip is right for the speed at which it is moving, to keep its center of gravity in the correct position, preventing it from falling.
When making a turn, the Honda robot moves the position of its center of gravity, using an algorithm called “predictive movement control”, also known as “Honda’s Intelligent Walking Technology”. This algorithm allows ASIMO to predict where you should place your trunk at every step, based on whether inertia, stride lengths, angle of rotation, etc.. This is much more than any other robot can do.
In general, robotic systems solve the problem of vision by comparing the images captured by the cameras that double-eye with some templates. Industrial robots, such as exist in an assembly line of a factory or automotive electronic chips operate in a perfectly controlled environment, where everything is always where the robot expects to find it, the lighting is constant, and the number of things that can occur are generally very small. In the real world, where they must operate a robot like ASIMO, things are very different, and virtually infinite variables to consider.
A humanoid-type robot as it must be able to move about inside a house, building or office, doing some kind of work and interpret the objects that its cameras will show. For example, walking through an unfamiliar area, the robot must recognize and interpret these objects in real time through features such as shape, color and edges, which must compare with patterns stored in his memory, a knowledge base may include hundreds of everyday objects.
In the particular case of ASIMO has its head camcorders fulfilling the function of eyes, and an algorithm that Honda ownership allows him to perform, recognize objects and move between them, even if their orientation or lighting is not exactly the same as the one stored in its database.
This same algorithm is responsible for recognizing human faces that are familiar, or to interpret such gestures as stop if someone moves in front and lifted a hand sign to “stop”.
Cameras mounted on the head of ASIMO can transmit those who watch via USB to a PC, so the robot can work as a roving camera.
You can recognize human faces.
Although it may seem, not a robot ASIMO 100% autonomous, at least not in the sense that he can not enter an unfamiliar room and decide how to move it. Previously, must be programmed with specific details of their environment, and tasks that he must perform or otherwise be controlled remotely by a human.
The “backpack” that load on your back is not more than one computer (acts as the “brain”, although not in his head) that controls the movement of ASIMO. In fact, you can control three different ways: from a remote PC, wirelessly with a kind of joystick or by voice commands.
Indeed, using a laptop or PC with 802.11 technology Circles ASIMO can be controlled, and in turn he is able to bind to the internet through the PC and search for information by us (news, etc.)..
Using the joystick control can be managed like a remote control car, pointing the direction you must move, including diagonals. While it seems a long way to drive a robot by remote control, we must not forget that even in this mode ASIMO is still able to stop before an obstacle, avoid it, adjust their steps to the ground, etc..
His ability to recognize spoken commands is one of the latest additions to the design of ASIMO, and its database contains routines for about 30 instructions it can recognize. This feature is what makes it ideal as a receptionist can answer questions posed by visitors.
Like other representatives of the realm of robots, ASIMO is controlled by a device known as “server”, which are but small (but powerful) electric motors with the addition of a control system and an “encoder” that allow move only a certain angle. When the motor has rotated the desired angle, is nailed in that position until he is ordered to turn back.
ASIMO has 26 servomotors to move his legs, arm, head, feet and hands, among other tasks. To feed them with a rechargeable 40-volt Nickel-Metal (the same battery technology that powers most mobile phones), which gives the robot an autonomy of 30 minutes. It is located in the center of ASIMO, which helps the robot’s center of gravity is located in a position to assist in its movements as it moves. It takes about four hours to fully recharge the battery of ASIMO, and it is practically indispensable to have another hand if we want a more or less decent autonomy.
If we are rigorous in our analysis, we conclude that it is no wonder ASIMO. Finally, after all, is “just” a mechanism of a meter and peak height, which can understand a few words, move slowly across a room, and in half an hour will have stopped by lack of energy.
However, these achievements provide the basis of what a robot can do in the future. In fact, the road to a mechanism such as ASIMO is capable of recognizing a human face or understand signs made with the hands in front of their cameras is very long. Years of research in artificial intelligence have been necessary for ASIMO understands us when we speak. It is undeniable that in its current state has little practical value, but as a prototype of new technology is invaluable.
Not infrequently, was Honda who developed this wonder. The company has a great track record in technological innovation. Certainly, robots that see in the next decade, or perhaps beyond, are based on the foundations built by ASIMO.
ASIMO, an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility is a development of the Japanese company Honda Motor Company, and is probably one of the most complex humanoid robots and advanced in the world. According to what can be read on the website is also the only of its kind that can also walk up stairs without any help. While other models from other companies can walk on two legs, none is as safe and delicate movements such as ASIMO.As if this were not enough to impress, it can react to dozens of oral orders, natural language (Japanese, of course!) And can recognize faces. His arms and hands are precise enough to turn on lights, opening doors, lifting and pushing.
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UC3M Researchers have participated in an international competition with the aim of improving the virtual intelligence used in virtual worlds. The challenge for participants was to develop a program capable of acting as a person in a video game.
The second edition of this competition, known as BotPrize, Started from the test developed by Alan Turing in 1950, considering that one can speak of artificial intelligence if a human is not able to tell whether the speaker with the speaker, without seeing it, is another person or a machine. In this case, participants had to adapt this test to the video game environment in order to generate human behavior as possible in the artificial characters that appear in the virtual world.
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