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QRIO (Sony)

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/top_nf.html

 
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Sony's humanoid QRIO (formerly SDR) robot can dance, react to its environment and get up from a fall. Amazing small, self-contained robot!  Sony's goal? - a personal entertainer.

QRIO pictures and video (2005 model)
Major technology includes stable dynamic walking and running, full arm movement allowing throwing a ball, voice/face recognition, stereoscopic vision, obstacle avoidance, visual mapping, wireless network. Its "pinch detection" senses if a finger is caught in its joints - a major step to a robot tactile sense.

The new 2005 QRIO robot shows advanced features, including a "third eye" camera which allows it to notice and track individuals in a group of people. The new model also has improved dexterity - the fingers actually work! In a December 2005 demonstration, QRIO showed off its ability to identify blocks by size and color, lift them using its lower body and stack one on top of the other.
 
The links below are to the QRIO 2005 compared with the 2003 model - taken by John (www.rs-tech.net) at the 2005 Christmas show in Japan
Video 1 (Windows Media) Video 2 (Windows Media) Video 3 (Windows Media)

QRIO (2003 model)

Dec 2003 - the QRIO demonstrates the ability to run (meaning at some points in the walk, both feet are in the air). In other words, a robot that jumps! Note the new arm joints compared to earlier 2002 models. The QRIO has some ability to recognize faces and objects in its environment. Here we seen one in a "playroom"

Links to movies of QRIO running, throwing a ball, and dancing! (Windows Media)

Running in place Throwing a ball Extended run
Sideways run Fan dance Run and rotate

Nice shot of the little critter in its case. As of late 2004, 100 QRIOs were in existence worldwide. According to Simon Perry (who had a rare backstage look at the QURO:

"...The head of it is the most sensitive component, as it contains the two camera that enable QRIO's all-important stereo vision. QRIO understands this and does everything it can to protect it. In the rare times that it does feel itself moving to a fall, it moves very quickly to shift its weight to correct it. If the needed correction is too large it will then move to fall on its arms, thus protecting its head.

Interestingly, when they're doing demonstrations, they have found that the AI in QRIO is so strong that if you haven't been friendly with it before hand, for examples, by not kicking back a football it kicks to you, it will refuse to do what you ask it in the demonstration. Effectively it is expressing its annoyance...."

Here's the QRIO pressed into being an "ambassador"
 

QRIO at Robodex 2002
4 sony robots dancing
Sony Corp.'s small biped entertainment robots perform a synchronized dance at Robodex 2002 (movies below) Picture of SDR-4x in its Borg-like power alcove at Robodex 2003
sony robot on surfboard Sony robot being touched by human hand
The two pictures above show the dynamic balance of the Sony robot. Despite its small size, it has the same stabilization system as larger humanoid robots. On the left, the Sony robot adjusts to a surfboard-like rotating platform. On the right, a human pushes the Sony robot backward. It responds by adjusting its balance and walking backward.
Links to Movie (QuickTime, Wimdows Media, click on images)
Additional Movies (click on hyperlinks)
Sony robot dances and gets up after it falls Introduction
Sony Robot Does Tah Chi Second Movie
Video showing other robots, but a shot at the end showing Sony Robot in the famous "God and Adam" hands pose Third Movie
Fourth Movie (singing)
Fifth Movie (dancing)
More Photos
SDR-4x performs a ribbondance at Robodex 2003
four sony robots salute the audience
hand close-up leg close-up
A shot of the hand. A shot of the feet.
woman holds sony robot in her arms, man looks on

Sony SDR-3X - Robodex 2001
Two Sony SR robots dancing Sony robot sees and kicks soccer ball
Sony robot, showing its small size Side view of Sony robot kicking soccer ball

Three Sony humanoid robots dance
Sony Corporation originally developed a small biped walking robot "SDR" (3X and 4Xprototype). By synchronizing the movements of 24 joints on its body, the robot can perform basic movements such as walking and changing direction, as well as getting up, balancing on one leg, kicking a ball and dancing. The "brain" of the SDR builds "occupancy grids" of the visual environment similar to the systems of Hans Moravec. Photos of the occupancy grids look like Moravec's work from 7-8 years ago.

The robot uses the same OPEN-R architecture as Sony's four-legged autonomous Entertainment Robot "AIBO". Two technologies applying the OPEN-R architecture, the "actuator" that moves the joints and "Whole Body Coordinated Dynamic Control" for real-time control of the joints realize the biped walking motion of the SDR-4X.

To realize stable walking movement, the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) where the combined force of both the inertia and body weight meet, must be judged against whether balance is possible on the surface that is being walked upon.The SDR-3X uses two RISC processors for thinking and motion control. Information gathered from a CCD camera, microphone, posture sensors and touch sensors on the bottom of the feet are processed to synchronize movements of the body joints.
HOnda CEO with his replacements"There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This would be if every machine could work by itself, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation."
- Aristotle, from his justification of slavery in Politics