Everyday I go hunting for interesting tech news to bring to my subscribers and everyday I find myself amazed at how much has changed between the time I went to bed and the time I wake up.
Here's another story about a new robot recently developed that is changing the way we think about robotics and the potential is there at least in changing society completely. This my friends is another game-changer.
Of course we have seen other humanoid-looking robots in the past, I've reviewed many of the newest robotic prototypes and models on @techblogger and have been very impressed with new robots coming out of the Toyota and Boston Dynamics R&D labs lately.
But here's one that is different, its body can be described as very analogous to our own when it comes to moving and interacting with the environment.
Japanese researchers have been working on this new robot prototype for quite some time now and it has been designed to mimic not just human movements but the way humans actually accomplish those movements. The most interesting fact about this new robot is the fact that, yes, it sweats.
Kengoro is a second generation model, a new robot (its predecessor was released last year) which has unique abilities, for example it has flexibility. It has been designed to more closely follow 'true humanoid structure' over power or efficiency.
A recent paper published by Science Robotics had this to say:
A limitation of conventional humanoids is that they have been designed on the basis of the theories of conventional engineering, mechanics, electronics, and informatics.
By contrast, our intent is to design a humanoid based on human systems — including the musculoskeletal structure, sensory nervous system, and methods of information processing in the brain — to support science-oriented goals, such as gaining a deeper understanding of the internal mechanisms of humans.
The paper uses Kengoro and similar robot, Kenshiro, as examples of how to accomplish that intent; indeed, the whole issue of Science Robotics was dedicated to the concept of improving anthropomorphic robotics.
Imitating human biology has been the main goal of this project in terms of how they have designed and manufactured Kengoro. Human-like motions are the pincale of design goals and that means incorporating our weaknesses as well as our strengths in the design of this robot.
A good point was made while researching this topic. True human-like motion should always be the goal when you are attempting to develop robots that are supposed to exist in human-centric environments and interact with people.
After putting together Kengoro with muscle, joint and bone-like arrangements of motors and struts, the researchers put these similarities to the test by having the robot attempt a number of ordinary exercises, from push-ups to calf raises.
As you can see, he’s a little jittery ( “he” because the robot is modeled after an average 13-year-old Japanese boy). He probably should have stretched first. Still, he probably did more crunches for this article than I did this year.
When I saw this new Kengoro doing all these exercises in such a similar fashion to how a human being would do it, I was extremely impressed! I feel robotics is entering a new and fascinating frontier which reminds me of the series Westworld. Lets hope they aren't used for such nefarious purposes as they are in the series.
The sweating thing is quite interesting as well, lets look a bit deeper into that shall we? Basically, the way it works is that the motors have water running through them to help cool them off as they work, and they can expel that water through artificial pores in order to more quickly release heat.
According to designers this isn't completely necessary in terms of its overall ability to function but if you’re going to mimic humanity, you might as well go all the way.
It’s a very tall order and complex endeavor that Yuki Asano et al. are working to accomplish, but nobody can argue with the fantastic results they have seen so far! The “human mimetic humanoid” project is ongoing. It's very likely we will be hearing a lot more about Kengoro in the near future.
What are your impressions of this new and advanced humanoid robotic prototype? Are we close to entering no-mans-land in regards to what we are doing with science and technology yet?
Please leave your impressions below.
Thanks for reading @techblogger
Source:
This humanoid robot works out (and sweats) like we do (or should) - TechCrunch
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