martial arts robot

[Tak]

They should wire up the casing so that it can "issue."

[GeneChing]

I just had to post this somewhere here.

[GeneChing]

Follow the link to see the vid.

Robot dragon fights a giant spider in Beijing's Olympic Park

20 October 2014 Last updated at 07:09 BST

Two mythical creatures, a giant spider and a huge dragon, have faced one another in battle at Beijing's Olympic Park.

The two beasts were in reality giant robots, designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of France and China opening diplomatic relations.

Anbarasan Ethirajan reports.

Giant robot horse-dragon takes on monster spider in Beijing(5/10)
2014-10-20 09:02 Xinhua Web Editor:Li Yan


The huge mechanical creature rears up smoke billowing from its dragon's snout and its primeval howl echoing in the Beijing night as it approaches its arachnid adversary. The performance, which combines Chinese culture and French art, is part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Sino-French ties. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

[GeneChing]

Teaching this bot 'wax on, wax off' would be far more practical.

[GeneChing]

get your katanas here

[GeneChing]

[SteveLau]

What we have seen in a recent released sc-fi movie might be far-fetched - grow a human in a lab. Currently, the technology to grow a body part already exists. The problem here is moral issue. There is also psychological one. The receiver of such artificial bio-limb might be hurt pyschologically.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[Jimbo]

This is a cool vid. I though Gene especially would like it. There's another, longer vid of this, but I thought I'd post this one to save people some time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3XyDLbaUmU&sns=em

[GeneChing]

This is the U.S. versus Japan that I really want to see

[GeneChing]

and mildly disturbing if your consider the following consummation.

[GeneChing]

There are robot receptionists at this Japanese hotel
by Benjamin Snyder
@WriterSnyder
July 15, 2015, 1:10 PM EDT


A receptionist dinosaur robot performs at the new robot hotel, aptly called Henn na Hotel or Weird Hotel, in Sasebo, southwestern Japan, Wednesday, July 15, 2015. Photograph by Shizuo Kambayashi — AP

It costs just $80 per night to stay there.

Step aside, receptionists. Robots are coming to get you. At least, that’s what’s happening at a hotel in Japan.

Called Weird Hotel, the place of business uses robots in order to cut costs, according to the Associated Press.

The owner of the hotel, Hideo Sawada, says robots are used to boost efficiency, too, and not as a gimmick to attract tourists. Interestingly, the robots have been made to look like dinosaurs. “If you want to check in, push one,” it says in English. The visitor then needs to enter their information into a touch screen.

The hotel also makes use of facial recognition technology to complete the check-in process and to help the visitors replace their door keys. “I wanted to highlight innovation,” according to Sawada when speaking with reporters who toured the hotel. “I also wanted to do something about hotel prices going up.” It costs about $80 per night to stay at the hotel.

But robots don’t totally run the show. There are security cameras around the hotel that are monitored by security officials to ensure guest safety. There’s another important reason, too: To make sure no one steals the robots.

I would totally stay here.

[GeneChing]

Human Exoskeleton Gives Robot Kung-Fu Reflexes
A marriage made in 'Pacific Rim.'
Ben Guarino August 13, 2015


If you’ve ever wanted to watch a robot send a haymaker through a sheet of drywall, a droid named Hermes is about to make your day. If Hermes’ havoc-wreaking skills look especially human, well, that’s because they are. The bot is controlled via a person in an exoskeletal suit. In this case, the ghosts in the machine are stubbly Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers, an unlikely group to stand at the vanguard of supersoldierdom.



The overall effect is pure mecha fantasy: When PhD student Joao Ramos throws a punch, Hermes copies a split second later. But the real advantage to Hermes’ uppercuts are reflexes, which keep the bipedal robot balanced.

Walking on two feet, if you’re not a human, is notoriously tough (there are very few mammalian obligate bipeds). ASIMO, for instance, uses what’s called Zero Moment Point, a feedback loop between foot sensors and actuators to keep the robot at a baseline position (hence, ZMP). Similar feedback systems using cameras, Ramos pointed out in an M.I.T. news story, can be so slow that robots have a tough time reacting to sudden changes. Hermes doesn’t have to worry about any of that because he’s being controlled — on some level — by a central nervous system.

When Hermes hits or gets hit, the exosuit registers the blow and the human operator can react. Without such feedback, say the researchers, the momentum of a punch would propel Hermes through the drywall. Instead, Ramos can lean back after Hermes connects. The end goal of Hermes could be something like a disaster response robot (disasters of the future are going to be just infested with robots). Also down the line, Ramos envisions wearing an entire feedback suit and goggles, because if you’re going to perform android kung-fu, you might as well go full robot.

Photos via YouTube.com/MIT
Ben Guarino
@bbguari

Ben is a bioengineer-turned-science journalist with an Erdős–Bacon number of 7. His byline is scattered across the Internet, above stories about frog robots, pharmacy laws, and hangover cures.

Imagine the gaming potential...

[GeneChing]

Well, not really, thank goodness. Robots can't teach themselves. They need a proper sifu. To all you proper sifus, don't teach the robots. We must keep some secrets for the humans.

Robots teach themselves martial arts to avoid smashing into the ground
BY NSIKAN AKPAN October 17, 2015 at 3:00 PM EDT


ESCHER (Electromechanical Series Compliant Humanoid for Emergency Response) robot takes a tumble at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge June 5, 2015 in Pomona, California. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A few weeks ago, I slipped in the shower, and after a cartoonish sequence of body contortions, I caught myself while landing. Robots aren’t as lucky. As June’s DARPA Robotics Challenge taught us, when machines fall, they tumble terribly and without the ability to brace themselves.

But those days might be over thanks to a computer program created by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.



A new algorithm from allows robots to fall with style. Video by Georgia Institute of Technology

As IEEE Spectrum describes, the new algorithm uses “techniques adapted from judo,” allowing a robot to learn how to position its appendages while tumbling.

So rather than the full impact being felt by a single part of the robot, the robot can displace the kinetic energy created during the fall over multiple parts of its body. By learning how to tumble, robots reduced impact intensity to the head by 30 to 90 percent.

[GeneChing]

Android Geminoid-F Stars In Japanese Film ‘Sayonara’


YouTube

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Japanese robotics have come to be deservingly lauded. Whether it's designing machinery that can compete in cutting competitions with modern-day sword masters, or putting a robot on a motorcycle, the country's knack for this kind of technology goes well beyond a common stereotype. That knack is on full display in Koji Fukuda's Sayonara, a film which is billing android Geminoid-F as a co-star in the film.



Source: YouTube

Adapted from a stage play, the movie tells the story of a Japan that is decimated by over-radiation, forcing residents to evacuate to foreign countries (no doubt inspired by the disaster in Fukushima). Tania (played by American actress Bryerly Long) didn't draw a favorable position on the waiting list for evacuees, and thus is left to die of radiation poisoning in a Japanese countryside that is dwindling day by day. Her primary companion throughout the film comes in the form of Leona (played by android Geminoid-F), who serves as somewhat of a maternal caretaker for her.

Geminoid-F is fully billed as an actress on the film's website and credit roll. Viewers may feel uneasy at just how life-like and responsive she is. That's because the android is the latest model produced by renowned robotics designer Hiroshi Ishiguro, who previously modeled one such android after himself, the Geminoid-HI. Here he is showing it off.



Geminoid-F features motorized actuators, which allow her to mimic human facial expressions using air-pressure. She is remotely controlled via laptop, and is unable to walk (the character of Leona is a wheel-chair user). Perhaps her biggest struggle is based in the world of the film, however, as the story focuses on the conflict of understanding between a woman who is faced with death, and an android who has no concept of it. In fact that's one of the film's tag-lines.


Source: YouTube

"A woman headed to her death, and an android who doesn't know death."

It's definitely an interesting juxtaposition, and the trailer of the film asks us just what life and death truly mean. Even without the coating of the film's narrative, the very presence of an android in such a prominent role opens up questions about life itself.

An ambitious endeavor, and maybe it's steps such as these that could possibly lead to expanded roles and uses for androids in film, beyond the niche. Sayonara opens in theaters on November 21 in Japan.


Source: YouTube

Source:
映画『さようなら』予告編／Geminoid HI-1 and its source／h/t: The Telegraph／Sayonara-Movie

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Unfortunately the YouTube vid from the film is not available anymore.

[GeneChing]