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Yaskawa Electric's SmartPal VII lets you clean up grandma's house using Kinect (video)
The world's largest industrial robot manufacturer, Yaskawa Electric, wants to invade your grandmother's home. Alright, maybe invade isn't the word we're looking for, but if your Grams is anything like ours she probably wouldn't be happy about you dropping off a robot helper (she can take care of herself, don't you know). The SmartPal VII is a telepresence bot that can be controlled remotely using a Kinect. (Seriously, what can't Microsoft's gaming controller do?) The head-mounted stereoscopic cameras and infrared sensor enable it to navigate a room autonomously, while the light-weight arms equipped with touch sensors make it safer for human interaction. The demo of the bot picking up toys and putting them in a bin isn't the most exciting in the world, but it does show just how much control an operator has using simple hand gestures. Check out the video after the break.
Japan's METI Robot Award 2008 winners announced
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (or METI) in Japan has announced eight 'Robot Award 2008' winners from 65 applicants. Nabbing the prize for industrial robots were Denso Wave Inc. with their XR-G small assembly conveyance robot, which was released for commercial use in April, 2008 and is sold to automobile and electronics factories. Also awarded a prize was Yaskawa Electric Corp's Motoman-CDL3000D, an "LCD glass substrate handling robot" -- apparently the fastest and most precise one in the world. There were six other prize-winners, including an automatic page-turning robot called Book Time and one that transplants rice. Also in attendance but walking home empty-handed was a robot that does nothing but sleep, as well as one which responds "you look great in that!" every time you ask for feedback about your outfit.
Yaskawa Electric puts robot on package-sorting duty
It looks like Japan's Yaskawa Electric has found yet another human job for its Motoman-DIA10 robot to take, with the company now teaming with Mitsui & Co. and Hokusho Co. to put the bot to work sorting packages. Apparently, the multipurpose bot will be paired with Hokusho's existing sorting system, letting the robot scan the barcodes on packages and route them appropriately, supposedly at a rate of 1,000 items per hour. As you can see above, the robot certainly seems to mean business, boasting seven-axis robotic arms that are no doubt capable of far more than simply sorting packages. [Via Pink Tentacle]
