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FOREWORD: Robots
are working all over the world almost every day to make
the lives of humans easier. Since the advent of
microprocessors and computers, the possibilities for
Robots to improve our civilisation are that much more. We
already have robot factories churning out cars to a
higher standard, than those produced in manned
factories. Simple domestic robots are finding
their way onto the market to relieve us of tedious
tasks. This is sure to mean more complex robots
will be designed and become cheaper, to in turn, free
humans more and more from everyday chores. Put
this emerging technology together with renewable energy,
such as solar cells, and the possibilities are
endless. Not only could the world rely on
plentiful renewable energy, but we'd have more time to
devote to other problem areas in our society. We
could build a higher society where food, energy,
healthcare and transport are available to
all. Accordingly,
we should encourage our children to become the engineers
of tomorrow, to build on current state of the art, to
produce practical robotic solutions for our future.
"ROBOTS
ARE A VALUABLE RESOURCE IN THE MAKING"
| 1.
Honda Motor Co (Tokyo, Japan) has a new
walking android called Asimo
(Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). This
android is 1.2m tall (47.25"), 0.45m wide
(18"), and 0.44m deep. Asimo weighs 43
kg (95 lb.) and has 26 DOF. Specs
in Japanese are here and specs
in English are here. English version Asimo
site. It has three pages of descriptions of
the robot technology at page1,
page2,
and page3.
Asimo movies
using a new
media viewer from Viewpoint. A new
version of Asimo is now available which
understands human gestures and movements and which
moves its head to follow the speaker. It
will rent for 20 Million Yen per year ($166,666)
or $17,000 per day.
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2.
Honda
Motor Co P3 - Humanoid
robot: P3
was finished in September of 1997. This
android is 160 cm tall (5'3") and weighs a
mere 130Kg (=286 pounds).
 
57KB
38KB
Here
is an index
of P3 events with lots of pictures. Four
events are listed: event1,
event2,
event3,
event4.
Here
are some MOVIES
of the robot.
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| 3.
Honda Motor Co - P2 Humanoid
Honda
built a battery powered android which can walk
like a person and can even walk up and down
stairs. It looks like an astronaut in a
spacesuit. It stands about six feet tall and it
weighs about 460 pounds. Honda spent 10 years
developing this android which was introduced in
Tokyo, December 20, 1996. Honda has now revealed
that they spent more than $100 MILLION (US) on
that project.. This android is referred to
internally as P2. Staff: unknown, project
estimated to be at least 200 man years.
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4.
Honda Motor Co. showed the original P1 android at Robodex
2000. It is 1.915 meters tall and weighs
175 Kg. Here is a link to 100
pix from Robodex 2000. Fortunately,
you can understand a picture in any language.
Honda aparently built 7
experimental walking robots BEFORE P1. Here
is a link
to E0 - E6.
The original P1.
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| 5.
Fesco, the pneumatics experts, have built a huge
android called Tron X. This android
stands about 2.8 m (9 feet) tall and weighs about
300 Kg (660 lbs). It is operated by over 200
pneumatic cylinders of all different sizes. Aparently
this android was built in Australia in 1997.
Perhaps the current model is a second version??
Tron-X - 200+ DOF
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6.
A company called Kibertron Inc, located in
Sofia, Bulgaria has a full scale humanoid project
called Kibertron.
Their humanoid looks like a terminator. It is
1.75m tall (5' 9") and weighs 90 Kg (200
pounds). They
have a staff of 23. Kibertron has 82 DOF
- that's a lot. The hands have 20 DOF each
and the arms have 8 more DOF for a total of 28 for
each arm & hand.
Here
is their project outline
front & back
arm & hand
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| 7.
September 10, 2001 Fujitsu Laboratories
Inc announced their toy android called HOAP-1, an
18" tall 13 pound android with 20 degrees of
freedom. The cost is $41,000 or 4.8 million Yen.
Now they have announced another
android called the HOAP-2. Its
about the same size. (* NEW *)
HOAP-1
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8.
On Sept. 19, 2003 Sony announced another small
humanoid called QRIO. Its quite similar
to the SDR-4X. It can walk better and can
recover from falls better. (*
NEW *)
QRIO
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| 9.
Sony introduced the SDR-4X for Robodex
2002. Great new android to compete
against the HOAP-1. Movies.
Many
pictures. Article
& more pictures.
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10.
Kawada Industries Inc. has introduced the HRP-2P
for Robodex 2002. This humanoid
appears to be very impressive. It is 154 cm
(60") tall, weighs 58kg (127 lbs) and has 30
DOF. Here is a news
release. Notice the LACK of a battery pack.
Here is a new
story about HRP2.
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