subject: Advances in Robotics - Vision for Personal Humanoid Robots Helping People [print this page] Personal humanoid robots guiding museum tour and offering cup of tea to guests is not limited to being a scene of old Sci-Fi movies. There are many companies that have developed and marketed humanoid robots with vision, object identification, object handling, distinguish between object, and doing many things that a servant can do. Governments are also funding companies to develop serving humanoid robots.
Speculations are high now days that in coming 5 to 10 years we are likely to see humanoid robots (human-like machines) helping elderly at public places, guiding visitors at shopping malls and exhibitions, cleaning floors at hospitals, and doing much more helping humans in every possible way.
According to a research conducted by ABI, unlike present day personal robots performing single specific task, multitasking humanoid robots would be common place and consumers would be spending as much on them as for a new car by the year 2015.
PAL Robotics, a Spanish robotics R & D Company established in 2004 at Barcelona, Spain has been developing and marketing personal humanoid robots since 2005 with progressively advancing series. Their first generation of robots, called REEM-A was developed in 2005 and this robot took part in RoboCup competition held in Bremen in 2006They introduced REEM-B in 2008, which can walk dynamically, recognize and grasp objects, lift heavy objects and move around by itself inside any building complex without running into any obstacles. It can also speak with people and has voice recognition skills.
REEM-H humanoid robot of PAL Robotics is the most advanced product. It is equipped with independent systems with capability to navigate across variety of space. It can entertain, lift and transport small objects, run multimedia applications and present variety of information through its interactive screen. It can find its application at hotels, museums, expos, shopping malls, airports, hospitals, and many other places.
While going through robotics research website, I came across an interesting blog Life in the Robotics Lab, which well describes how scientists work in a robotics lab. Blog also mentions a couple of contests in robotics field and inviting entries.
With advancement in sensor and motor technologies, and developments in software for artificial intelligence, it is expected that we will see personal humanoid robots helping us every where around us in next few years.
http://www.pal-robotics.com
http://www.lifeintheroboticslab.com
http://www.lifeintheroboticslab.com/contests
Jorien Guijs,
jorien.guijs@gmail.com,
Advances in Robotics - Vision for Personal Humanoid Robots Helping People
