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M-TRAN II
Here M-TRAN II is moving like a wheel. In the background you can just about see a model on legs that walks. The robot can interchange between all forms without outside control. You can see a very short...
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Asimo
I can't believe that I have never mentioned Honda's Asimo robot before! I have seen it a few times and it is very impressive. If you are in Tokyo you can easily see it at Honda's Aoyama Icchome...
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Until this week, almost nobody in Japan had heard of Murata Manufacturing, a small electrical device manufacturing company based near Kyoto. But then they displayed their "Murataseisaku-kun" robot...
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Pino
Technologically Pino is only mildly impressive, a cute Pinocchio for the 21st century, Its real revolutionary feature is the fact that it is the first open-source robot, a kind of robotic version of...
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Roborior
It wasn`t very long ago that home robots seemed like science fiction. In recent years some bots have beome available but have been quite difficult to get hold of. If trend-setting Japan is anything to...
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International Robot Exhibition - HRP-2
Last week I went to the International Robot exhibition in Tokyo. There were so many robots too see. Of course, the most popular robots were the humanoids. For some years now, AIST and Kawada industries...
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Ballroom `bots
There were some robots I hadn`t seen before including these ballroom-dancing robots known as PBDR (Partner Ballroom Dancing Robot). Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge is in charge of the research project...
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Can a robot be an artist?
Can a robot be an artist? The mechanics of robots continues to steadily evolve. In recent years we have seen the rise of robots that can stand up, walk, run (in a manner), even ride a bicycle. While...
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Hitachi Emiew
This is Hitachi`s Emiew robot. The robot has a vocabulary of around 100 words. Its apparent weakness; wheels instead of legs, is being marketed as a strength by the company: It means that the robot can...
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Fujitsu HOAP 3
Fujitsu recently revealed the newest addition to the HOAP line of robots; HOAP3. These small robots resemble Sony`s QRIO and are produced and sold by Fujitsu to research labs in universities and...
View ArticleJapanese robot book update
Good news! It looks like I am about to get a literary agent for my Japanese robot book. I had been hoping to get one for a while. Now, if things go well and the agent agrees, I can turn my attention...
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MuuSocial
I can`t decide if these little fellows are cute or scary. They are called MuuSocial. I am not sure who the manufacturers are, I think they are being developed by Advanced Telecommunication Research...
View ArticleBye Bye Aibo
According to news reports Sony is stopping all of its robot research. This means that soon production of the Aibo robot dog will cease and, presumably, Qrio, the prototype humanoid robot, will also be...
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Article 10
With all the hype around humanoid robots it is easy to forget that by far the biggest market in the world for robots is in industrial robots. industrial robots first appeared in the USA in the 1960s...
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This is a video I took showing the HRP2 humanoid robot doing a martial arts routine.
View ArticleRobonova
Robonova is actually produced by a Korean manufacturer but I had to include it because it is cool. Here it is doing a Tai-Chi routine but it can even turn cartwheels. All thanks to some nifty...
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Article 7
This is the "nagara" robot produced with funding from NEDO. It is a protototype that is being designed as a kind of lifestyle partner. A robot that will be able to play with humans, by, for example,...
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Article 6
A close up of Nagara III. He looked OK but not especially friendly! I guess this robot will go through quite a lot more prototype stages before it is ready to be sold to the general public.
View ArticleDoes Japan need a "Manhattan Project" for robots.
Looking at my blog, you can see how advanced the research into producing advanced robots, particularly humanoid robots is in Japan. But still the hope of producing a robot with sufficient mechanical...
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Article 4
This is a new robot from Tmusk, the RIDC-01. It is about 4 feet tall. It is one of those robots I am not too sure about. It is big, heavy and has a strange combination of functions, the main ones being...
View ArticleLife-like robot MC
There are 3 basic aproaches as to the appearance of a robot: Don`t try to make it look life-like, try to make it somewhat life-like, or try to make it very life-like. The problem with option one is...
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Article 2
When all else fails, post a photo of the Hello-Kitty Robot (it can talk with you!)
View ArticleNanotech and robots, is Japan the ideal place?
I have recently been reading a bit about future robot technologies, in particular the work of Ray Kurzweil such as "The Age of Spiritual Machines" and his most recent book "The Singularity is Near"....
View ArticleParo wins award
BBC news is reporting that the baby-seal therapeutic robot "Paro" has won the won the service prize at the Japanese-government sponsored Robot Awards 2006. Paro is not noew however, I first covered it...
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