Gentle Robot Has ET's Looks and Disposition
Developers demonstrated Twendy-One, a squat but strong robot with soft hands
and a deft touch.
Reuters
Saturday, December 01, 2007 8:00 AM PST
TOKYO - A pearly white robot that looks a little like E.T. boosted a man out
of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in
Tokyo last week, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their human
inventors.
Twendy-One, named as a 21st century edition of a previous robot, Wendy, has
soft hands and fingers that gently grip, enough strength to support humans
as they sit up and stand, and supple movements that respond to human touch.
It can pick up a loaf of bread without crushing it, serve toast and help
lift people out of bed.
"It's the first robot in the world with this much system integration," said
Shigeki Sugano, professor of mechanical engineering at Waseda University,
who led the Twendy-One project and demonstrated the result.
"It's difficult to balance strength with flexibility."
The robot is a little shorter than an average Japanese woman at 1.5 m (5
ft), but heavy-set at 111 kg (245 lb). Its long arms and a face shaped like
a giant squashed bean mean it resembles the alien movie character E.T.
Twendy-One has taken nearly seven years and a budget of several million
dollars to pull together all the high-tech features, including the ability
to speak and 241 pressure-sensors in each silicon-wrapped hand, into the
soft and flexible robot.
The robot put toast on a plate and fetched ketchup from a fridge when asked,
after greeting its patient for the demonstration with a robotic "good
morning" and "bon appetit."
Sugano said he hoped to develop a commercially viable robot that could help
the elderly and maybe work in offices by 2015 with a price tag of around
$200,000.
But for now, it is still a work in progress. Twendy-One has just 15 minutes
of battery life and its computer-laden back has a tendency to overheat after
each use.
"The robot is so complicated that even for us, it's difficult to get it to
move," Sugano said.
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jerry Norton)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139978/article.html
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| User: "JTEM" |
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| Title: Re: Gentle Robot Has ET's Looks and Disposition |
02 Dec 2007 01:20:49 PM |
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"Docrodile" <swampth...@hellsbayou.net> wrote:
Gentle Robot Has ET's Looks
Well you could always stand next to it, to make it
look attractive by comparison.
Of course, there's always the danger that your stink
will get clingy....
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| User: "Docrodile" |
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| Title: Re: Gentle Robot Has ET's Looks and Disposition |
02 Dec 2007 06:33:36 PM |
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"JTEM" <jtem01@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:6ae7f787-5dc7-4d49-b35d-7d9362484a9c@w34g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
"Docrodile" <swampth...@hellsbayou.net> wrote:
Gentle Robot Has ET's Looks
Well you could always stand next to it, to make it
look attractive by comparison.
Of course, there's always the danger that your stink
will get clingy....
It'd be the only animated thing that'd ever endear itself to a lump of
excrement like yourself. You should be looking forward to purchasing one.
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| User: "skddlbyp" |
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| Title: Re: Gentle Robot Has ET's Looks and Disposition |
04 Dec 2007 05:12:35 PM |
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TOKYO - A pearly white robot that looks a little like E.T. boosted a man
out
of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in
Tokyo last week, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their
human
It would save a lot of time if humans could be trained to serve the
robots.
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