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19/05/2010 - Robot Fairy marries a Japanese couple
This headline would look weird anywhere else in the world, but not Japan. The robot I-Fairy conducted its first ever marriage, joining together Tomohiro Shibata and Satoko Inoue in holy matrimony at a Tokyo restaurant. The kid-sized pig-tailed robot recited its lines perfectly and made everyone smile - simple, but what more could you ask for?
The I-Fairy stands for “Intelligent”, “Information” and “Icon” and is (sort-of) designed like a fairy, with perky movements and a sing-song voice. It is not really the most advanced of robots, but it does its job of repeating pre-recorded or real-time response audio messages. Its gestures come from its movement generating software, which is programmed from a computer. The audio works the same way, except that it can also ad-lib from a person speaking on a microphone backstage.
It’s a performance robot that seeks to engage its audience, who often happen to be children. It’s gestures are also quite expressive, and can show different emotions by the way it moves it head and eyes. Besides performing on stage, it can also greet people and provide audio guidance to visitors.
Marrying people is perhaps not exactly what the developers had in mind when they first designed it, but just goes to show you how adaptive robots can be. The Japanese couple also weren’t chosen at random for an experiment, but specifically wanted a robot to perform the marriage rights, as their love for robotics is what brought them together in the first place.
The video shows the I-Fairy wearing a crown of flowers and literally flashing its eyes with joy. The ceremony looks a bit awkward, and I’m not sure how cool this will look years down the line, but more power to them. Seems like teachers won’t be the only professionals fearing for their jobs.
Wedding video courtesy of AP follows.
The I-Fairy stands for “Intelligent”, “Information” and “Icon” and is (sort-of) designed like a fairy, with perky movements and a sing-song voice. It is not really the most advanced of robots, but it does its job of repeating pre-recorded or real-time response audio messages. Its gestures come from its movement generating software, which is programmed from a computer. The audio works the same way, except that it can also ad-lib from a person speaking on a microphone backstage.
It’s a performance robot that seeks to engage its audience, who often happen to be children. It’s gestures are also quite expressive, and can show different emotions by the way it moves it head and eyes. Besides performing on stage, it can also greet people and provide audio guidance to visitors.
Marrying people is perhaps not exactly what the developers had in mind when they first designed it, but just goes to show you how adaptive robots can be. The Japanese couple also weren’t chosen at random for an experiment, but specifically wanted a robot to perform the marriage rights, as their love for robotics is what brought them together in the first place.
The video shows the I-Fairy wearing a crown of flowers and literally flashing its eyes with joy. The ceremony looks a bit awkward, and I’m not sure how cool this will look years down the line, but more power to them. Seems like teachers won’t be the only professionals fearing for their jobs.
Wedding video courtesy of AP follows.
03/07/2009 - Flapping-wing Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) from AeroVironment
According to a recent press release, DARPA has agreed to continue financing a research program for creating a small flapping-wing flying robot. AeroVironment are the happy recipients of 2.1 million dollars to continue NAV's development after achieving several breakthroughs during the now completed phase I of the project; phase I started in 2007 and lasted for 2 years while phase II is expected to continue until the summer of 2010. Specifically and as you can see from the below video, AeroVironment engineers have successfully built a small flapping-wing robot capable of hovering and flying in all directions under remote control.
The company plans to develop a robot that weighs no more than 10 grams and can be controlled from up to 1 mile away with a top speed of 10 meters per second. Obviously, there are numerous military applications for such robots including surveillance, reconnaissance, and even delivery of deadly payload with high precision.
For another nice high speed video of a flapping wing micro-robot, check out our previous post on the Butterfly Ornithopter.
The company plans to develop a robot that weighs no more than 10 grams and can be controlled from up to 1 mile away with a top speed of 10 meters per second. Obviously, there are numerous military applications for such robots including surveillance, reconnaissance, and even delivery of deadly payload with high precision.
For another nice high speed video of a flapping wing micro-robot, check out our previous post on the Butterfly Ornithopter.
27/12/2007 - Robot chair concept
A robotic chair that follows people around a library was the graduating project for a student at the Design Academy Eindhoven. The video below shows the concept chair activated using an access card and following a person around the library. Towards the end, the video also shows how a group of chairs could automatically be reconfigured to a particular formation upon a single user's command.
As noted earlier, this is not a working system but a concept demonstration. As it is noted on YouTube,
Regardless, I think it is a cool idea. I also believe that we already have all the necessary technology to develop and deploy these robotic chairs. The technology developed for the museum tour-guide robots has already been demonstrated to work well in crowded spaces and it could be used to make these concept robot chairs into a real product.
As noted earlier, this is not a working system but a concept demonstration. As it is noted on YouTube,
This is a concept. This model has a R/C remote controlled ?robot? inside.
Regardless, I think it is a cool idea. I also believe that we already have all the necessary technology to develop and deploy these robotic chairs. The technology developed for the museum tour-guide robots has already been demonstrated to work well in crowded spaces and it could be used to make these concept robot chairs into a real product.
