 Kansei’s ability to communicate feelings makes it one step closer to recognizing when humans are happy or sad, an important characteristic for machines expected to one day help care for the elderly, clean house, or greet people at a reception desk.
Kansei, which means “sensibility” and “emotion” in Japanese, also contains speech recognition software, a speaker to vocalize, and motors that contort artificial skin on its face into expressions. The robot could even one day learn to distinguish and articulate whether foods taste good or bad.
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There may be a different fish to see for every day of the year at the London Aquarium at County Hall, but there’s a new variety that has never swum any of the world’s oceans. From today the Aquarium’s unique robotic fish will be swimming in a specially-designed tank, open to the public for the first time ever.
Faced with a growing number of medical students and few training hospitals, this Mexican university is turning to robotic patients to better train future doctors. The robots are dummies complete with mechanical organs, synthetic blood and mechanical breathing systems.
South Korea announced it was developing highly sophisticated combat robots that could complement the roles of human soldiers on battlefields. Equipped with six or eight wheels or legs, they would be capable of walking or running through rough terrain.
The BraunPrize for 2005 has been awarded to Jens Andersson from Sweden for his design “Rescue Buoy” - a swimming robot in the form of a lifebuoy.
Fujitsu has begun limited sales of their new service robot, enon, on a limited basis in Japan from September 13, 2005. enon is an advanced practical-use service robot that can assist in such tasks as providing guidance, escorting guests, transporting objects, and security patrolling. enon will be presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan 2005, scheduled to be held at Keio University in Tokyo from September 15. enon will also be exhibited at the 2005 International Robot Exhibition to be held at Tokyo Big Sight from November 30.
Looking at all the other Robot Pets made before, you probably think this one is just another common product of that kind, but no… When Mark Tilden (former NASA scientist) created Robotpet, he reached a new level in terms of robots and pets.
I’m pretty sure the last thing any robot-humanoid researcher wants to do fifteen times a day is pick up and reorient a 150 pound machine every time it falls, but the R. Daneel Study 1 (whose name is not only an Asimov reference, but means Responsive Dexterous Actions aNd Embodiment ELucidation) developed by the University of Tokyo is officially in the running for our robot of the year award.