HondaAsimo
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HUBO 2 has articulated hands, can walk 2 km on a charge: yours for $400k
HUBO has come so far from mastering the basics of mobility. The latest from KAIST is HUBO 2, a robot with flexible limbs that allow it to bend down and even do push-ups. The HUBO 2's hands are another big improvement, now allowing the humanoid to open car doors, operate a gear shift and hold up to 7 kg. KAIST used "individually actuated" fingers that adapt to the shape of whatever HUBO 2 is holding, a la Honda's new ASIMO. The robot can walk 2 km on a charge, and it looks like it's a little less of a slow poke now, too: KAIST increased its running speed to 4 kph from 3 kph. Check out the source link and video below to see the HUBO 2 in action -- if you're impressed, it can be yours for a cool $400,000.
ASIMO mimics your every move, edges closer towards Single White Robot territory (video)
Hey, look Engadgeteers! It's another Kinect hack -- except this one uses a real deal robot. Honda ushered ASIMO out to the crowds at IEEE's 2011 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems to show off its newly acquired pop and lock skills. Alright, so the silicon-gutted fella can't krump with the best of'em yet, but he can probably do the locomotion -- it all depends on your dance repertoire. After toiling away in their mad scientist lairs, the researchers behind the bot have managed to devise a means of mimicking human movement that translates mapped points on a user's upper body into real-time, robot-replicated motion. The devious among you are likely imagining left-of-center uses for the tech, but let us deflate that mischievous balloon; there'll be no instances of "stop hitting yourself ASIMO" here, as engineers have built-in collision and stability safeguards. The so-lifelike-it's-Uncanny advancements don't end there either, since ASIMO also contains a database of text-inspired gestures -- giving our future robot friend a means of physically expressing his cold, "I hate you so much right now" robo-tone. Other than finding himself at home in Italy, these innovations are sure to put ASIMO on the other end of our remote-controlled behest. Click on past the break to see this automated mime drop it like it's hot.
Latest ASIMO prototype is made of wood, requires one human
Honda may have bestowed plenty of improvements on ASIMO over the years, but it looks like an alumni of rival robot maker Waseda University has taken it upon himself to deliver some improvements of his own that make it even more lifelike, though no doubt just as prone to tumbles. The key, it seems, is to ditch the robotics and high-tech materials altogether and instead use something called "wood," which can be fashioned into a shell (or "costume," if you will) that's able to accommodate one slightly uncomfortable human. Either that, or ASIMO has been robot-napped from Honda and is now being held at an undisclosed location. Check out the video after the break to decide for yourself.
ASIMO learns to understand three people at once
ASIMO has already proven itself to be pretty multi-talented, but it looks like it's now added yet another trick to its repertoire, with a pair of researchers giving it the ability to understand three people speaking at once. That was done with the aid of eight microphones and a specially-designed software program dubbed HARK, which works out where each voice is coming from and isolates it from other sounds. Right now, however, that's only being used to referee games of rock-paper-scissors, with each individual shouting out their choice at once, but the researchers eventually hope to get ASIMO up to the level of humans' ability to listen at a cocktail party, although they admit that is still a "long way" off.
