Credit: Aldebaran Robotics

Pepper, a new humanoid robot introduced earlier this month in Japan, may herald the beginning of a new era in personal robotics. Unlike its ancestors, such as Mitsubishi’s Wakamaru and Sony’s QRIO, who had to join the halls of robot extinction, Pepper, developed jointly by the French robotics company Aldebaran and the Japanese telecom giant SoftBank, is here to stay.

Although the robot aims at possibly the most unreachable market in robotics industry, that of personal household robots, there are several major factors that can play a decisive role in Pepper’s future: his advanced emotional intelligence, surprisingly low price, and, of course, let’s not forget that looks matter – Pepper’s design is every bit gorgeous.

Softbank plans to start selling the robots next year in Japan for about $ 1,900. Until then, people can get acquainted with Pepper at certain SoftBank stores in Japan.

Although Pepper might initially seem quite unpractical – it will not clean your house and may not even be able to effectively fetch things – the robot’s strong suit lies in its ability to be good company.

Credit: Aldebaran Robotics

Pepper’s communication skills are the result of special software that allows it to effectively analyze human emotions by combining information about voice tone, facial expressions and body language. In this way Pepper will tailor each individual conversation based on how its interlocutors feel and behave. While by no means the first robot to do so, Pepper may well be the first consumer available robot with such advanced emotion-reading capabilities.

The cutting-edge emotion engine will be supported by a cloud-based “collective wisdom”, where all Pepper robots will be able to upload valuable information about their interactions with humans. Taken together, this data will allow them evolve and polish their communication skills. As an example, hundreds of robots could store information about whether a particular joke makes people laugh, and then decide whether the same joke will be appropriate in other situations.

Pepper’s emotional intelligence is a logical progression of Aldebaran’s pursuit of companion robots capable of living with humans and responding to their constantly changing moods and feelings. The robot is strongly reminiscent of Aldebaran’s previous hit Nao, but, unlike his little brother, uses wheels instead of legs to move around – a choice dictated by power efficiency requirements.

A legged version of Pepper, however, might also see the light: Aldebaran’s legged Romeo robot, which still remains in development, can in the future serve as a foundation for a legged version of Pepper. You can read a previous post to learn more about the ongoing Romeo project.

Allowing robots to understand human emotions and express their own is a critical step towards improving human robot interaction in all settings. Read this post to learn about some ongoing European projects that aim to improve emotional intelligence in robots.

Crabs know their way around the ocean floor. These crawling creatures live in all the waters of the world, so if we want to learn something new about underwater exploration, it might be a good idea to take some cues from them. And this is precisely what a research team at the Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology did.

After two years of investigation, the team, led by Bong-Huan Jun, developed Crabster CR 200, a car-sized robot inspired by crustaceans and designed to survey shipwrecks and other areas of scientific interest.

But why bother creating a crab robot – although let’s admit it: a giant mechanical crab needs no justification – when we have some pretty advanced conventional ROVs that have already proven their reliability in most kinds of underwater exploration?

The main reason is that underwater exploration sometimes requires navigating in turbulent waters where strong currents sometimes reach 1.5 meters per second – enough to destabilise any conventional ROV. In addition, propulsion systems used in such vehicles tend to raise clouds of disturbed sediment, often completely obstructing the view of the ocean floor.

Source: KIOST

Hopefully, Crabster will become a game changer. Crawling on its six articulated legs, this sea monster can resist strong currents and does not disturb the ocean floor as much as other ROVs. Crabster’s four rear legs have four degrees of freedom, while the front two have six. And although the front legs and currently only used for walking, the researchers envision them as transformable manipulator arms, which can serve to grab objects of interest within 1.8 meters reach and store them in a front compartment, fashioned as an extendable crab mouth. With many legs Crabster also has many eyes: the robot is equipped with 11 optical cameras as well as with sonars – all of which makes him the real king of the ocean floor.

Crabster remains in the testing stage and, as you can see in the video, is still rather slow and cannot operate without a power cord. Last summer the robot was put to test in natural conditions for the first time, and soon we might see Crabster explore a real 12^th Century shipwreck in the Yellow Sea.

This year’s International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2013) was held in Tokyo, Japan— a globally recognized hotspot for some of the most fascinating robots on earth. Under the name of New Horizon, this conference aimed to get participants looking forward towards a new era of intelligent systems capable of meeting the needs of the fast-changing times we live in.

The event which was held over six days this November, drew top-notch experts from various areas of robotic expertise. Most of us robot lovers are well acquainted with rough-terrain rovers like AlphaDog, BigDog, and Cheetah. Responsible for developing the machines mentioned above, CTO and founder of Boston Dynamics, Mark Raibert, gave a plenary talk at this year’s IROS. The theme of his discourse centred on the theme of what makes machines capable of leaving the lab and entering the real world? And, how do we enable them with the kind of athleticism and agility normally only found in humans and animals?

But what about the robots we’d like to keep in labs? Masayuki Yamato, of Tokyo Women’s Medical University has been investigating the use of robots in regenerative medicine. In fact, Yamato is currently looking at how robots may be able to help fabricate transplantable layers of cells.

You may be familiar with the use of medical robots but now researchers like Tim C. Lüth from Technische Universität München in Germany are looking at ways to manufacture robots quickly for one-time use with individual patients. The solution is straight out of Sc-Fi: disposable robots made from 3D printers.

A large robot exhibit was also part of this year’s event- held every 2 years the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) marked it’s 20th anniversary. Many of the humanoid robots on display may have seemed to take on an almost eerily-human appearance. To explain the rhyme and reason for our feelings about creepily life-like bots, the event also held a special session:The Uncanny Valley Revisited, A Tribute to Masahiro Mori

The robots being built around the world seem to be as diverse as the cultures they come from. While some have been engineered solely for people’s practical needs, others have been made to appeal to and keep the company of humans.

While it’s clear that cultural environments affect the way people build machines, could religion really be the key factor? This is a question that scholars and robot-lovers alike have been pondering for years. Many have focused on the huge differences in the way that two major robotics power houses have been producing machines: USA and Japan.

So how could the prominent religious beliefs of these two nations be affecting the way they’re making their robots? Though many people in Japan consider themselves non-religious, Shinto and Buddhism remain prominent institutions. Within these religions, the natural world is worshiped and humans hold a glorified position within it. The term Kami refers to the Shinto notion that our natural world is filled with sacred entities. Because humans are considered to be divine, so are the things we create. From this perspective, it only makes sense to create machines which could be natural companions to humans; hence the Japanese fascination with robots that are life-like, cute and cuddly, and made to accompany and care for people.

As a predominantly Christian nation, it’s been suggested that — from a religious perspective — development of robotics in the US has been centered on purpose and salvation. In David E. Nye’s  2004 book, America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of New Beginnings, he makes the case that modern-day AI researchers seek a heavenly kingdom within virtual reality much the way early American settlers sought to create a second Eden on the continent. Similarly, the American/European eagerness to create a super-computer as intelligent as the human brain is conducive to the Christian concept of  immortalized human souls in resurrected bodies stripped of their earthly nature. Following Christian ideology, if robots could be a form of such resurrected bodies, they should certainly not take on overly-human characteristics, as this would be an obscene imitation of god’s creation.

So from a religious standpoint it may seem that robots in Christian cultures should be intelligent and useful while robots in Buddhist/Shinto cultures aught to be enchanting and realistic. But enough about religion affecting the development of robots, could robots themselves ever become religious? Surprisingly enough, the issue has been explored by several researchers including Edmund Furse, David Levy, Anne Foerst, and Robert Geraci. The theme has also been satirically portrayed in the Futurama episode ” Hell Is Other Robots.”

Scientists at Seoul National University (SNU) have recently created a robot inspired by tiny blood-sucking bugs: fleas! Pesky as these little insects may be, they’ve got an incredible physical ability that not even an Olympic high-jumper could compete with — these guys can jump over 200 hundred times their own body length! See for yourself in NewScientist’s video above.

Not every insect is capable of such an extraordinary feat, so what is it exactly that puts that special spring in every little flea’s step? The muscle is the flea’s upper-leg is endowed with a special protein called resilin. Nerve impulses stimulate the compression and decompression of the stretchy resilin and in coordination with tissue that acts a bit like a latch, the flea’s jump mechanism operates much the way a spring does.

Using a special alloy called nitinol, derived from nickel and titanium, Minkyun Noh and his team at SNU constructed three tiny springs that function much like the flea’s. Embedded into a tiny 2 cm robot, the insect-inspired machine is able to leap about 30 times its own body length.

Currently, this bot relies on an external power source but scientists are trying to figure out a feasible way to get some nano batteries on board. While applications for the bot have yet to be specified, researchers believe this kind of technology could be used in a wide range of fields— from medicine to environment monitoring.

For more information on the design of this robot, you can access the paper HERE

South Korean pop artist PSY’s song Gangnam Style has become an international sensation. Some consider the song to be unique and catchy yet others maintain it’s rather repetitive and annoying. While the tune might get old, most will agree that PSY’s dance moves will not! And now that Gangnam Style has gone viral, even machines are moving to the melody!

Early this month at a robot dance competition in Hangzhou, China, first place was awarded to a bot designed by Zhao Sheng that performed a routine to the South Korean hit.

The dance competition was part of the second Chinese Intelligent Exposition and Industrial Summit Forum and it had nothing to do with the common concept of “doing the robot ” — stiff movements were replaced with some pretty intricate and creative choreography! Along with dancing, robots were also judged on their boxing and serving skills.

More than 30 contributors from six universities took part in the event which even included robot ballet. You can read more about it from China’s CCTV HERE

Naturally, the Kuratas is far from being practical and it is solely intended for entertainment. Some may even be put off by several of the Kuratas’ weapon features. While the guns embedded in the bot are merely toys, there is something disturbing about the ¨smile feature¨that enables the firing of harmless pellets when it detects the user’s smile.

Whether you think the Kuratas is cool, creepy, or just plain over the top, it’s important to remember that robots can be much more than extravagant toys. A recent report by the BBC features the Kuratus and discusses Japan’s fascination with robots. Most of the report focusses on work being carried out at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), where robotocists have once again turned to nature for inspiration.

Profesor Shigeo Hirose started modeling some of their robots after snakes back in the 70′s. Their latest versions of these bots are being specially designed for use in disaster situations where they could help people trapped under buildings or enclosed in a tight spot.

Roboticists at Tokyo Tech are also working on an android that can swim, thanks to inspiration from dolphins. Micheal Phelps won’t have to step aside for this bot, it’s actually being developed to help professional athletes train. Check out the video HERE.

Electro sensors inspired by fish who navigate their way through murky waters, robots that dance with the honeybees, and artificial muscles and blood vessels making their way into modern medicine. These are just a few of the research topics that were discussed at this year’s Living Machines Conference that took place from 9th to the 12th of July in Barcelona, Spain.

Chairs of the session  Paul Verschure, from Pompeu Fabra University and Tony Prescott from the University of Sheffield, welcomed delegates to one of Barcelona’s architectural gems; Antoni Gaudí’s La Pedrera building.

During 4 consecutive days, leading scientists in the fields of Biomimetics and Biohybryd systems gathered for pre-conference workshops, lectures, poster sessions, exhibitions and open panel sessions to present their work and discuss issues related to the development of real-word technologies inspired by biological systems.

The first day finished off with a panel-lead discussion centred on the question: why study nature? Co-chair Tony Prescott got dialogue flowing by providing two general reasons: to build technologies that could be useful in solving current challenges, and to better understand nature itself.  While the speakers and audience engaged in the discussion agreed that these are likely the main motives, other interesting opinions surged through out the conversation.

According to Barry Trimmer who specializes in Neurobiology at the University of Tufts,  by attempting to understand nature’s complexity, a biomimetic approach may allow us to bypass the limits of human creativity.

Toshio Fukuda who specializes in Micro-Nano Systems Engineering at Nagoya University is often inspired by particular functions or geometric shapes found in nature to help make devices such as the artificial blood vessels he works on more efficient.

Conversely, as a mechanical engineer specialized in aerodynamics, David Lentink  is not so much interested in biomimetics as an outfit for a design, but rather in specific principles which might make sense from an engineering point of view ¨ We don’t want to look at the final detail of a bird wing to make an aircraft because it’s simply too complex, but some of the principles are extremely useful and they allow scientists to really think outside the box.¨

While a biomimetic approach often involves studying some of the most puzzling aspects of nature scientists have yet to wrap their heads around, there are still many things nature can’t do. ¨ Biological systems satisfy many constraints at one time so they may not be optimal for any one function that we may want to imitate. Flight is a great example because we can do things by optimizing that birds just can’t do and we can exceed the capabilities of birds with jets and planes that we build,¨explained Frank Grasso, director of the Biomimetic and Cognitive Robotics lab at Brooklyn College, New York.

However, Dieter Braun, who specializes in Systems Biophysics at Ludwig Maximilians University, pointed out that it’s really a two-way learning stream and just because ¨evolution did not invent the bicycle¨ nature still has plenty of tricks to teach us and we need not be afraid of its complexity.

Check back to find out more on what what was shared during the 2012 Living Machines Conference; proceedings from the conference will be published in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNAI/LNCS).

The  HRP-4C Humanoid  robot was developed by The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) of Japan and Kawada Industries. As you can see above, this robot can put on quite the show! Created mainly for entertainment purposes, this robot has even hit fashion runways! Actroid- DER3, developed by Osaka University and the robotics company Kokoro, is also being used for similar purposes.

Another pretty face below- the mask bot which uses a simple projection of a real human face to achieve its life-like appearance, was developed by AIST and  the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS) at the Technische University in Munich .

Some humanoids can even play music! Check out a robot released by Toyota back in  2007 that can play the violin.

A joint project between the MIT Media Lab and Drexel University put on this performance using 4 HUBO robots which were developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Many robots are developed for use as research platforms. Nao, developed by Aldebaran is currently being used in all sorts of research at elementary schools, hospitals and universities around the world.

MIT Media Lab’s Nexi is giving researchers insight into human-robot interaction. While it couldn’t pass for a human, the robot does manage to display rather convincing facial expressions.

CB2 is another robot developed by Osaka University. Similarly to the iCub (developed by the European RobotCub consortium), it expresses child-like behaviours and learning abilities to help researchers study human cognitive development.

Of course there are plenty more humanoids out there! What’s your favourite android?

Humans may not have the fastest or strongest bodies on earth but they are super multifunctional. Sure, we can’t jump as high as frogs, or swim as well as dolphins but we’re still able to achieve both forms of motion. The versatility of our physical ability has inspired us to create a world filled with tools and structures that would be impossible for many other animals to use – can you picture a cat using a door handle or a fish using stairs?

When industrial robots first came into the picture several decades ago, they were mainly used to accomplish very specific tasks and so their designs were purely functional. Today, there’s a big interest in developing robots for broader purposes including using them as research tools to further understand ourselves.

Some of today’s humanoid robots may seem a little bit creepy but sometimes it does make sense to give robots human-like bodies so they’re apt to operate amongst our human-centred designs. Many robots used for research need human bodies too, because researchers interested in studying human cognition know that while we need our brains to interact with our bodies, we also need our bodies in order to interact with the world.

So what does it really take to be a humanoid robot? Well, it should be able to move on two legs, use hands similarly to the way we do and perceive their own state and the state of the environment around them. They should also be able to communicate through modalities like speech or facial expression. Furthermore, they should be able to learn from and adapt to the environment around them.

This month, DARPA (the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) announced a new robotics challenge: While they maintain that it’s not imperative that the robot take on a humanoid form, the robot must be compatible with human operators, environments and tools. Robots in the running will compete with each other in a sort of obstacle course that will pose 8 real-world disaster site challenges. Among the tasks are: climbing a ladder, driving a utility vehicle and removing debris blocking an entry way. Proposals are due by May 31st, 2012.

The video above features Boston dynamic’s PETMAN who may already be capable of performing some of those tasks. While it seems like a bot that could get some serious work done, there are other humanoids that are a little easier on the eyes! Check out a video of Honda’s latest version of their Asimo robot below. If you want to check out something that’s a little bit different check out iiee spectrum’s compilation of robot babies and for more ideas on future robots, check out the European initiative: Robot Companions for Citizens.