Honda Motor Co's humanoid robot

[lynca]

I see in the next year, humanoid robots becoming a big influence on standard robotic tasks, espeically with teleoperation enabled!

The low cost hardware is definitely around in japan, but slowly rising here in the Americas,
http://www.robotshop.ca/c215005p16471614.2.html

The robosapien V2 with programmable micro will quickly change the face of cheap humanoid robots thanks to Mark Tilden, the one man competition to Honda and Sony.

http://www.onrobo.com/content/view/52/2/

[Matt Adams]

What I think is the most incredible about this robot is the patent. Call me a bit too business savey for my own good, but I randomly came across what they patented:

Originally Posted by US Patent Office, Patent #6,822,421

1. A bipedal robot having an electric energy storage device for operating the robot, wherein:

said electric energy storage device is mounted on an upper body of the robot such that the electric energy storage device has a center-of-gravity point present at a position upward of a center-of-gravity point of the robot from which said electric energy storage device is removed and which is in an upstanding state.

2. A bipedal robot having an electric energy storage device for operating the robot and arms extending from shoulders on an upper body of the robot, wherein:

said electric energy storage device is mounted on the upper body of the robot such that the electric energy storage device has a center-of-gravity point present at a position rearward, in a forward and rearward direction of the robot, of a center-of-gravity point of the robot from which said electric energy storage device removed and which is in an upstanding state, and the shoulders on the upper body of the robot, to which said arms are coupled, are disposed in a position forward, in the forward and rearward direction of the robot, of the center-of-gravity point of the robot from which said electric energy storage device is removed and which is in the upstanding state.

(6 other claims snipped since I don't want to take 5 pages)

For those of you that dislike jargon....

They have the patent on bipedal robots with batteries above the center of gravity. That's an incredibly broad claim!

As the patent mentions:

It is customary to control the attitude stabilization of a bipedal robot based on an inverted pendulum-type dynamic model as disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 5-337849 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,659 by the present applicant. The attitude stabilization is controlled by controlling a torque around ankles of the robot with the behavioral characteristics of perturbation of the position of the upper body of the robot being simulated by the behavioral characteristics of an inverted pendulum. A robot under such attitude stabilization control can achieve better robot attitude stability if the center of gravity of the overall robot is in a higher position than it is in a lower position (a vertical position closer to the floor that is contacted by the feet of the robot).

Ten thousand kinds of awesome!

Matt

[Adam Y.]

The Japense may have programed their robots to walk but ours shall learn how to walk on our own and are also much more efficient. Muahahah....Passive Walking

[Mirza95vx]

Thats pretty amazing.

Us Americans have to keep it one step further.
Great video.

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by Mirza95vx

Thats pretty amazing.

Us Americans have to keep it one step further.
Great video.

Yeah... I think another reason why you don't see this type of research coming out of the United States is really a differnce in philosophy. The Japanese have no qualms with creating a robot that acts and looks like a human or an animal for that matter. Their religion says anything can have a soul while the religious in the United States generally believe in the fact that humans are the only people who have souls. (Ill try and dig up the aritlce if you want me too) Also, it's imperative that the Japensae do this because their workforce is also aging and they really have no alternative. I recommend Robosapien the book for anyone who's interested in robotics. It's an interesting read about the technology and scientists behind differnt robotics projects.
Also please visit this website for an open source design of a walking robot.PINO

[R81Honda]

All of these advancements in the recent years are quite spectacular! Go honda! I hope these robots simply work in tasks which wilol help those who are unable to care for themselves, such as the sick and elderly. I would kinda be upset to see these robots take over more jobs in the work place. This really hit home at the Palmetto Regional, when Pirelli Tires showed that video about their tire producing robot. As cool as the bot was I couldent help but to think that people with families used to make those tires, andthats one robotic system proabably eliminated 1000s of jobs. It really did not sit to well with me. Did anyone elso who attended the Palmetto Regional feel that way or am i simply in the minority?

[lynca]

Robots replacing people is always going to be a social issue, many of the lead developers of the technology have focused on the three D's -
The Dumb, Dirty and Dangerous , Robots will emphasize on assisting those core fields.

Dirty - Digging, lifting and other forms of hard labor that are usually mundane and physicaly exhaustive for people (Coal Mining, etc...).

Dumb - Routine tasks that can be automated (mowing lawns, cleaning, preparing food!)

Dangerous - Space, Aerial and Underwater robotics, Bomb detectors and other miliitary robots also fit this picture.

Should people be perfoming tasks which involve the three D's ?
As robots replace employees, in a humanity sense, it most likely is a good thing. The workers will be at an economic loss temporarily, but the next job might be much more meaningful.

[Adam Y.]

Dumb - Routine tasks that can be automated (mowing lawns, cleaning, preparing food!)

Unfortunately all three of those tasks are not routine for a robot. Mowing lawns is a dangerous proposition because of living beings getting in the way there is really no simple way to tell the machine get out of the way. Cleaning is different though because at least if the vacuum bumps into you, you won't run the risk of something being chopped off. Preparing food... I don't know much information about robots that prepare food. Trust me when I say we have a long long long way to go when we can't even build a machine that matches the level of competence of a supermarket cashier.

[R81Honda]

Originally Posted by lynca

The Dumb, Dirty and Dangerous , Robots will emphasize on assisting those core fields.

Dirty - Digging, lifting and other forms of hard labor that are usually mundane and physicaly exhaustive for people (Coal Mining, etc...).

Dumb - Routine tasks that can be automated (mowing lawns, cleaning, preparing food!)

Dangerous - Space, Aerial and Underwater robotics, Bomb detectors and other miliitary robots also fit this picture.

Do you realize the number of people who work those jobs? Think about it, Food service, Cleaning, construction, and assembly line work. In all of those fields there is aleast 30 million people who work in one of those fields. The unemployment rate would simply skyrocket, and because those workers are generally unskilled, jobs for them would be nearly impossible to find for those who once worked in those fields.

So it comes down to this which would you rather have robots working potentially dangerous, or mundane jobs or a massive number of unemployed people?


In fact the only places where i would really like to see a large increase in robotics developement is in the military. I would really like to see robots relplacing soldiers in the most dangerous of tasks. Also i would like to see more robotics technology in assistance for the disabled.

[Mike]

It's true that as you create more advanced robots, it will replace more and more jobs. It will also create jobs. You need to build new robots and maintain current ones. You would need
- Programmers
- Mechanical Engineers
- Mechanical Designers
- Robot Operators (Who says they will be autonomous?)
- Robot Testing
- Field Servicers
and much much more.

So what are we supposed to do? Hold the advancement in technology and keep those who have already chosen a career in a job, or keep on advancing in technology and provide new jobs (however, getting rid of old ones), and maybe make a breakthrough that can save lives.

The invention of TV got rid of thousands of radio jobs, the invention of jet airplanes got rid of thousands of train jobs, the invention of the light bulb got rid of thousands of candle jobs, the invention of the ATM got rid of thousands of teller jobs, etc.

As time goes on technology will advance, and you must adapt. If you don't adapt, you don't survive. I know that whatever career I choose will be obsolete soon, so I have to always be learning in order to adapt to a new job. It's Darwin in action.

[R81Honda]

Originally Posted by MikeWasHere05

It's true that as you create more advanced robots, it will replace more and more jobs. It will also create jobs. You need to build new robots and maintain current ones. You would need
- Programmers
- Mechanical Engineers
- Mechanical Designers
- Robot Operators (Who says they will be autonomous?)
- Robot Testing
- Field Servicers
and much much more.

So what are we supposed to do? Hold the advancement in technology and keep those who have already chosen a career in a job, or keep on advancing in technology and provide new jobs (however, getting rid of old ones), and maybe make a breakthrough that can save lives.

The invention of TV got rid of thousands of radio jobs, the invention of jet airplanes got rid of thousands of train jobs, the invention of the light bulb got rid of thousands of candle jobs, the invention of the ATM got rid of thousands of teller jobs, etc.

As time goes on technology will advance, and you must adapt. If you don't adapt, you don't survive. I know that whatever career I choose will be obsolete soon, so I have to always be learning in order to adapt to a new job. It's Darwin in action.

Very good points. Its just going to be interesting to see what those workers who are replaced by robots will do. Waht really makes the robots in the work place controvesial is that Robots have the possibility of doing just about anything(just not yet). So when you think about no job is 100% safe from being obsolete, except perhaps those which require large amounts of creative thought. The idea of Robots bieng able to have creative thought still does not click in my head.


Edit: The field of robot repair and modification will skyrocket. There could be lots of jobs in that field

[Adam Y.]

Waht really makes the robots in the work place controvesial is that Robots have the possibility of doing just about anything(just not yet). So when you think about no job is 100% safe from being obsolete, except perhaps those which require large amounts of creative thought. The idea of Robots bieng able to have creative thought still does not click in my head.

Yes. Robots replacing every single job in the world. Trust me if we build robots that can replace any humans job we would have bigger problems on our hands. As Mark Tilden would probably say,"Robots today are nothing more than puppets with humans pulling the strings."