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QURO (Sony)

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

 
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Sony's humanoid QURO (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.
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.

Dec 2003 - the QURO 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 QURO has some ability to recognize faces and objects in its environment. Here we seen one in a "playroom"

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

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

Older model - 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 has developed a small biped walking robot "SDR" (3X and 4Xprototype). This is part of Sony's continuing exploration of new possibilities for the entertainment robot. 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 uses vision to navigate. In particular, it 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.
"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