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HIRO, the realistic 'torso bot' for researchers and fans of El DeBarge
Are you a serious scientific researcher / evil genius looking for a robot for serious scientific research / "evil genius" research? Do you need something whose movements more closely approximates those of the humans who you might wish to help / destroy? Kawada Industries and General Robotix in Japan (GRX) have teamed up to develop a little something called HIRO, or "Human Interactive Robot." Designed to move in a more lifelike fashion that any robot on the market these days, this bad boy has fifteen degrees of freedom (including two in the neck, six in each arm and one in the lower back). It can also carry an object weighing up to 2kg in each arm, and its finger tip features an operating force of up to 10kgf. If that weren't enough, it also includes a head-mounted double-lens stereo vision camera, two robot hands, two hand cameras, a control PC, and a PC for information processing. For the OS, this device uses that perennial favorite of evil genuises everywhere (Windows XP) while it uses something called QNX for control systems. Available for delivery to academic research institutes and mad scientist's hideouts sometime this fall for a price of ¥7.4 million (just about $77,000) -- or, if you're on a tight budget, the basic package (which excludes the head-mounted camera, the two robot hands, and includes a simplified neck) is priced at ¥5.4 million (roughly $57,000). One more pic after the break.
