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Meka's M-1 Mobile Manipulator, a cuter Cody the spit bath robot (video)
Remember Cody? The robot from Georgia Tech designed to give spit baths to the elderly and crippled? Well, Cody's got an attractive younger cousin named M-1, and for $340,000 this fine piece of machinery could be all yours. Built by San Francisco-based Meka Robotics, the M-1 Mobile Manipulator (based on Cody) runs on a combination of ROS and proprietary software and sports a Kinect-compatible head with a five megapixel Ethernet camera, arms with six-axis force-torque sensors at the wrist, force controlled grippers, and an omnidirectional mobile base. If the standard features don't fit your needs, Meka offers various upgrades, including four-fingered hands and humanoid heads, complete with expressive eyelids (à la Meka's Dreamer), ears, and additional sensor compatibility. These add-ons will of course cost you, but we think its worth it to have those big translucent eyes staring back at you. A rather touching demo after the jump.
Meka, UT Austin researchers show off 'sociable' Dreamer robot head
The folks at UT Austin's HCR Laboratory have been working on a Meka humanoid robot for some time now, but they've only just recently added one pretty significant component to it: a head. This so-called "Dreamer" isn't just your ordinary robot head, though -- described by the researchers as a "sociable humanoid head," the head is modeled on anime and comic characters, and promises to establish an "organic link to its biological counterpart, creating feelings of quasi-affinity in response to gestures and synthetic emotions." In other words, it's impressive enough to hold your attention while you interact with it, and it may very well creep you out a little. Head on past the break to check it out in action.
