robots

Via The Raw Feed.

I went to the International Robot Expo in Tokyo last weekend and had a great time. Here's some of my favorite 'bots from the expo. There's a lot of videos so I'm going to split them up in to multiple posts. If you'd like to see everything in one place check the Flickr set.

Murata has developed a unicycle-riding robot modeled on the image of a kindergarten girl- MurataGirl ('09 model). tanding on its lone wheel, the robot can remain stationary, go back and forth and move along a curve by using built-in gyro sensors. She can ride at 15cm/sec-three times faster than 2008 model.

Guess it is close to blasphemy to say this, but, er, you know those super high-tech robots that are supposed to replace the pesky human nurse? Er, they are rubbish. Sorry, just had to be said.

In a land where robots reign, it seems no surprise that Japanese cybernauts have invaded yet another heretofore unexplored region of human endeavor.

In more strange, yet oddly impressive and compelling Japanese robot news...

In the never ending question of “what will Japan come up with next ?” I have yet again found another answer, and in no less surprising fashion than any of my other random Japan discoveries.

A robot called Robochan, built by an enthusiast in Japan, uses an Apple iPod Touch as it's head, face and brain.

Via The Raw Feed

Some robot-loving Japanese are tinkering with screwdrivers and motors instead of heading to the beach or hot springs during this nation's "Golden Week" holidays.

Japan's Cild-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, develops social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship.

Below the soft silicon skin of one of Japan's most sophisticated robots, processors record and evaluate information. The 130-cm (four-foot, four-inch) humanoid is designed to learn just like a human infant.

Japanese artist Kenji Yanobe (ヤノベケンジ Yanobe Kenji) is famous for his upbeat yet nightmarish artwork. His sculpture simulates consumer products designed for survival after a nuclear holocaust.

A company in Japan has created pollen-detecting robots to help warn hay fever sufferers of bad weather conditions.

According to a post on the Physorg website we'll soon see fashion robots strutting their stuff up and down fashion catwalks.

The robot will make an appearance at a Tokyo fashion show. Costing around $200,000 would make them cheaper than fashion models but will they have the same kind of sex appeal? Somehow I don't think so.

A trio of old-school bunraku puppet robots revived nearly 40 years after they were unveiled at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka are temporarily on display at the National Science Museum in Tokyo. Modeled after classic bunraku puppets, each pre-programmed robot is driven by around 20 pneumatic cylinders that move the arms, torso, head and face in sync with accompanying audio.

There are now 1 million industrial robots toiling around the world, and Japan is where they’re the thickest on the ground. It has 295 of these electromechanical marvels for every 10 000 manufacturing workers—a robot density almost 10 times the world average and nearly twice that of Singapore (169), South Korea (164), and Germany (163).