Robot Living

At the ILTCI 2010, (Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference), in New Orleans on March 14th-17th, French robotic company Robotsoft will introduce the robot Kompaï.

Kompaï is a companion style robot that can speak, understand verbal commands, navigate a home and always stays connected to the internet.  Kompaï can remember appointments and make shopping lists as well.

This very first version is called Kompaï R&D, is intended for developers who want to implement their own robotics application for assistance of dependent persons.

The Robosoft press release states:

Kompaï is intended to help dependent persons in their daily lives. It is a mobile and communicative product. Somewhat like a dog, it has its “basket”, which is the recharging dock that it heads back to when its batteries are low. Equipped with speech, it is able to understand simple orders and give a certain level of response. It knows its position within the house, how to get from one point to another on demand or on its own initiative, and it remains permanently connected to the internet and all its associated services.

Click through for an impressive video of an elderly man interacting with Kompaï.

Link via (IEEE Spectrum)

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Tags: elderly, robosoft

A new robot from MIT called MeBot has been unveiled recently.  This robotic avatar is designed to give the user a richer more interactive experience when communicating through live video.

The MeBot’s head tilts and the arms move to help convey the users mood and expression to other viewers.

We conducted an experiment that evaluated how people perceived a robot-mediated operator differently when they used a static telerobot versus a physically embodied and expressive telerobot. Results showed that people felt more psychologically involved and more engaged in the interaction with their remote partners when they were embodied in a socially expressive way. People also reported much higher levels of cooperation both on their own part and their partners as well as a higher score for enjoyment in the interaction.

Click through for a short video.

Link via (Dvice)

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Tags: avatar, MIT

Researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology  in Malaysia have taken home the silver medal at the Malaysia Technology Expo.

Shown here are two of the inventors, Professor Nazim Mir-Nasiri and Associate Professor Manas Kumar Haldar.  Dr Chai Almon Wei-Yen and teaching assistant Hudyjaya Siswojo also worked on this project for over a year.

Measuring only 37cm x 18cm, the Window Climbing and Cleaning Robot, or WCCR in short, is a portable miniature robot that is capable of climbing windows with the aid of eight suction-cups on its body from which it attaches itself on windowpanes.

As it moves up and down in a zigzag fashion, sponges on the back and front of the robot clean the windowpanes.

The aid of an on-board electronics circuit gives it automated movement.

See our previous post about Winboni, a window washing robot from Michigan State University.

Photo from Swinburne University press release.

Link via (Borneo Post)

Tags: malaysia, robot, university of swinburne

MIT and NASA have sent a bunch of robotic spheres to the space station for a test. The small robots use thrusters with compressed air to maneuver along with sensors and a wireless connection to tell them where they are.

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) are bowling-ball sized spherical satellites. They will be used inside the space station to test a set of well-defined instructions for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers. Three free-flying spheres will fly within the cabin of the Space Station, performing flight formations. Each satellite is self-contained with power, propulsion, computers and navigation equipment. The results are important for satellite servicing, vehicle assembly and formation flying spacecraft configurations.

Using these experiments as a basis, they hope to make autonomous docking and re-supplying easier.

Click through for a video.

Link via (BotJunkie)

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Tags: MIT, NASA

This is a project from the University of Dortmund and Marko Wickwrath.

The Bioloid robot shown here can actually climb the wall all on its own.  It actually figures out where to go on the fly instead of following a pre-programmed route.

The bioloid robots climbs a freely configurable wall, this is NOT a predefinded motion sequence. It is part of an autonomous system that first looks for possible ways up (according to the abilities of the robot and to physical constraints) and after placing the robot at the start position of the chosen path the robots climbs up just by knowing the x/y-positions of the grips.
The final scenario will be a bioloid looking at the wall using an onboard vision system, detecting marked grips, calculating the best way up, walking to the start position and climbing up the wall, totally autonomously

Click through for a video.

Link via (Engadget) via (Suicide Bots) (more…)

Tags: bioloid, climbing, robot, university of dortmund