Build your own robot head for $600 – Engadget – www.engadget.com /
Looking for something a little more interesting than an HDTV or a digital camera or two to spend that fat tax return on? Perhaps you’d like to try the $600 homebrew android head on for size.
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HITACHI
“EMIEW=Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate”
Technology News Article | Reuters.com
Japan’s Hitachi Wheels Out Fast-Moving Humanoid
For Hitachi Ltd., Japan’s biggest electronics conglomerate, they are the next generation of humanoid robots.
Hitachi unveiled the “Emiew,” its first humanoid robot, on Tuesday, saying it was the world’s quickest-moving robot yet.
“We aimed to create a robot that could live and coexist with people,” Toshihiko Horiuchi, project leader at Hitachi’s Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory Robotics Technology Project, told a news conference.
“We want to make the robots useful for people … If the robots moved slower than people, users would be frustrated,” he said, explaining why Hitachi bucked the industry trend and went for wheels instead of feet for its 4.22-feet-tall robot.
Hitachi built the two Emiews — Pal and Chum — for the World Expo, which will take place beginning later this month in Aichi prefecture, about 205 miles west of Tokyo.
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Introduction of Human Type Robot, “HUBO”
WASHINGTON D.C. – In what could be described as one small step for a robot, but a giant leap for robot-kind, a trio of humanoid machines were introduced Thursday, each with the ability to walk in a human-like manner.
Each bipedal robot has a strikingly human-like gait and appearance. Arms swing for balance. Ankles push off. Eyeballs are added for effect.
One of the robots, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is named Toddler for its modest stature and the side-to-side wobble of its stride. Denise, a robot created by researchers at Delft University in the Netherlands, stands about as tall as the average woman.
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All three robots swing their arms in synch with the opposite leg for balance. In most ways, though, they are not as versatile as other automatons. Honda’s Asimo, for example, can walk backward and up stairs. But Asimo requires at least 10 times more power to achieve such feats.
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Robosapien Gets Major Makeover
Inside CES 2005 Robosapien, the monkey-like ‘robot’ that’s been, well, wowing crowds since 2003’s Comdex and last year’s Consumer Electronics Show, is about to get a major update and some cool new friends. Wow Wee, a company launched by former JPL robotics physicist Mark Tilden (he also worked for NASA and DARPA), will introduce a radically redesigned and significantly more expensive Robosapien V2, as well as a brand new Roboraptor and Robopet at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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Tech Digest: Meet Robosapien’s big brother (ulp)
Last year at CES we got our first glimpse of the Robosapien, that kung-fu kicking, farting robot that become top of every 12 year old’s Christmas wishlist. This time round Robo’s creators Wowee have gone completely bonkers unveiling three new models including, wait for it, Robo’s big brother, Robosapien V2 and a dinosaur to chase him round your lounge. Ten inches taller than the original version, Robosapien has also learned a whole lot of new tricks including the ability to pick up, drop and throw objects. He can also bend over and twist from side to side, so he can now sit, bend, lie down and stand up.
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In the back of Carlos Owens’ southern Alaska yard, an 18-foot-tall steel robot is taking shape in the dim light of the winter afternoons.
The 26-year-old Owens is an Anchorage-area steelworker by day. In his own time, he’s hoping to become the creator of a true “mecha”–not a robot, exactly, but a gigantic exoskeleton that can transform its wearer’s motions into eight-foot strides and the devastating sweep of a steel fist.
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