all you need to know about robots....

what's new from japan


snake-like robots

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souryu
snake robots are also known as serpentine robots.
as the name suggests, these robots possess multiple actuated
joints thus mulitple degrees of freedom.
this gives them superior ability to flex, reach, and approach a
huge volume in its workspace with infinte number of configurations.
this redundance in configurations gives them the technical name:
hyper redundant robots. ideally, the future snake design will
consist of three degree of freedom stages - roll, pitch, and extension.
souryu or blue dragon, is a remote-controlled robot designed by
tokyo institute of technology's professor shigeo hirose.
the snake-like souryu crawls using six tracks, two on each
side of its three-part body. it is equipped with a camera
and microphone to search for victims, and can bend at
the joints or roll over on its side to maneuver through rubble.

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ACM-R3
the first successful mechanical snake was also developed
by professor shigeo hirose.
the active cord mechanism consisted of 13-links.



spider-like robots

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comet III
was designed by chiba university professor kenzo nonami, and
is part of a state-funded project to develop de-mining technologies
for afghanistan. four metres long and weighing one tonne,
the comet III walks on six sturdy metal legs.
an additional limb in front is equipped with a metal
detector and radar to find mines, while a second sprays
paint on the ground to mark the spot.



legged-walking robots

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yambo III
one of the moving and task performing robots,
the legged-walking type, which has high terrain adaptability,
is yambo III. generally walking robots need so many degrees
of freedom (DOF) that robots become heavy and its mechanism
become more complicated. one of the effective solutions to
these problems is developing the robot with bipedal configuration.

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morph 3
officials and researchers in japan, home to almost half
the world's 756,000 industrial robots, hope a new robot
industry will give the stagnant economy a boost.
japanese researchers want to advance the technology
by improving mobility or making robots more autonomous.
morph 3, a 38-cm-tall humanoid robot, tries to stand
after being laid on its back during an experiment at the
chiba institute of technology in narashino, chiba prefecture.
the project is a joint project between kitano symbiotic system
project and leading edge design corp.
athletic properties of the robot become the highest among
the same size robots in the world.
the robot appeared on the stage of robocup 2002 held in
fukuoka, japan.

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cyclops
is an interactive human-shaped machine. the machine is
equipped with a single camera eye and a spinal column
structure. this work was developed for 'robot meme exhibition'
at the national museum of innovative technology and
emerging science, tokyo, in 2001. cyclops was shown in
september 2002at ars electronica center in linz, austria as a
part of its permanent exhibition.

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DB
an expert in brain science, kawato developed the DB,
a humanoid robot that can imitate human action, based on his
knowledge that the cerebellum plays a key role in learning
and memory. however, the robot has managed to learn only
24 kinds of human action over three years.

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atom
japanese researchers are advocating a grand project,
under which the government would spend 50 billion
yen a year over three decades to develop a humanoid
robot with the mental, physical and emotional capacity
of a 5-year-old human - the atom project.

'most of today's robots operate with a program written by
humans. in order to develop a robot that can think and
move like a 5-year-old, we have to first understand the
mechanism of how human brains work,' mitsuo kawato,
chief of the computational neuroscience laboratories
at the kyoto-based advanced telecommunications
research institute internationa said, admitting the difficulty
of his project. 'that will be equal to understanding
human beings.'

tthe project was inspired by the popular robot animation series
'tetsuwan atom' by the late cartoonist osamu tezuka
(unlike cartoonist tezuka's 'atom' character, known as
'astro boy' overseas, based on an image of a 9-year-old
boy, the atom project aims to create a humanoid robot
with the physical, intellectual and emotional capacity of
a 5-year-old that would be able to think and move on its
own). the researchers say it would help promote scientific
and technological advances in japan, just like the u.s.
apollo project, which not only succeeded in landing men
on the moon but contributed to a broad range of technological
breakthroughs - a project of this magnitude would inject
much-needed vigor into a nation depressed from years of
economic slump.