RI-MAN, the soft-skinned robot
RI-MAN, an autonomous lifestyle-support robot developed at RIKEN’s Bio-Mimetic Control Research Center (Nagoya, Japan), now has soft skin. If put to work in care facilities, RI-MAN’s soft arms and chest will enable it to perform delicate work that present-day robots are not allowed to do, such as lifting patients up into its arms.
The robot, which is 158 cm (5 ft 2 in) tall and weighs about 100 kg (220 lbs), consists of a humanoid upper body that sits atop a wheeled base. A 5-mm layer of silicone covers most of the upper body, including the face and chest. The skin sinks in slightly when pressed, giving it a resilient, supple feeling. Under the layer of silicone are 320 pressure sensors that enable RI-MAN to self-adjust the softness as needed.
Research team leader Zhiwei Luo says, “We may see commercial applications of this technology in as early as five years.”
UPDATE: Read RI-MAN revisited for more details.
[Source: Asahi Shimbun]
Touchy-feely softy droid…
Speaking of our friendly robotic pals, RIKEN’s RI-MAN droid has had a makeover and now comes in a soft-skinned version. The little green fella has been softened up to allow him to work in health-care applications that require the……
Is that suede! It’s a bit creepy seeing a robot with animal skin, they should stick with man made fibres.
[…] The Xenophobic angle is that the Japanese are especially eager to use robots in the healthcare field for their growing elderly population, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Filipina nurses are ready and willing to work in Japan at a fraction of the cost. But I’m not so sure it’s entirely a xenophobic thing. I have to admit, if it were me, I’d much rather have my spoon-feedings and enemas performed by a robot. Especially this one. Still, over the long term, the Japanese jones for robots should continue to push breakthroughs in a robotics industry that is already the world’s most advanced. […]
Today in Engadget: February 28, 2006
http://www.engadget.com/2006/0…-in-engadget-february-28-2006/Date: 2/28/2006 5:59 PM Author: Evan Blass
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Wow, what a full day over here at Engadget-…
[…] More details about RI-MAN, the soft-skinned robot, were revealed in a press release issued by RIKEN yesterday. […]
[…] En una revisión del post original, podemos leer que RI-MAN está equipado con 19 motores, controlados por un “sistema nervioso”, que le provee de la autonomía necesaria para responder rápidamente a cualquier cambio que se produzca en el entorno: RI-MAN revisited. […]
[…] Así por ejemplo un muñeco animado de Mickey Mouse moviendose solo en Disneyland o el robot Asimo de Honda caminando a tu encuentro, nos puede parecer chocante pero aceptables hasta cierto punto si conocemos la situación. Aunque sean figuras antropomórficas y se mueven de formas similar a los humanos, sus proporciones físicas y la imagen que representan no pretenden sustituir la imagen de una persona real. Sin embargo lo que sería una auténtica pesadilla es abrir la puerta de casa y encontrarse con uno de los androides de Actroid moviendose torpemente y frunciendo su ceño de silicona, por muy buenas intenciones o minifalda que lleve. Para suavizar estos problemas se usan diseños más neutros que recuerdan pero no intentan imitar a un ser humano, como muñecos con rasgos humanos poco marcados o simplificados, como el Asimo de Honda, el Qrio de Sony, o el RI-MAN del Rike. El robot Albert Hubo estaría ya entrando en el peligroso terreno del rechazo del valle inexplicable, al integrar la cabeza animatrónica de Albert Einstein en un cuerpo robótico, pero seguramente eso es lo que estén buscando (llamar la atención). […]
[…] Superstar • Bush-Nachschub • Insekten-Armee • Glasflügelfalter: 1, 2Spinnennetze: 1, 2 • Stiletto-Run • Slippies • RI-MAN: 1, 2slow motion (flabber) • Tetrod • ES-Fan-Board (privat) Wir stellen ein… […]
Caption contest #30…
This week’s photo looks at Japanese advances in robotics. Via Pink Tentacle, this is Ri-Man, a robot prototy……
[…] Yahoo News, Pink Tentacle Articles | RI-MAN Website (in Japanese, with video clips) […]