STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS – STORY : New Zealand’s leading news and information website: Inventor builds robot with personality

Mark Tilden believes robots have an image problem.

The Daleks from Dr Who and R2D2 from Star Wars have a lot to answer for.

‘They’ve always been so serious. And because they’ve been so mechanical, their actions look threatening.’

So Dr Tilden set out to produce a friendly robot with personality and a sense of humour that could move around easily.

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The origin of ‘robot’? Czech it out

QUESTION: Where do the terms ‘robot’ and ‘robotics’ come from?

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Brain learns like a robot: Scan shows how we form opinions.

Researchers may have pinpointed the brain regions that help us work out good from bad. And their results suggest that humans and robots are more alike than we may care to admit, as both use similar strategies to make value judgements.

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Wired News: Robots Invade San Francisco

Over 400 robots rolled, walked, climbed and strutted their stuff at the first Robolympics this past weekend in San Francisco’s Fort Mason. Engineers and school kids, coming from as far away as Korea and Belgium, brought their creations to compete in contests of strength, agility and intelligence.

The biggest draw was the battling bots. Armed machines with names like ‘Max Wedge’ and ‘First Abe Lincoln on the Moon’ met in a closed arena to rend each other appendage from appendage. Often resembling murderous pizza boxes, the contestants were divided into weight classes ranging from 340-pound behemoths to one pound and below.

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BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | A Grand plan for brainy robots

Day trip from home: Steve Grand takes Lucy to his lecture

On a good day, Lucy can tell a banana apart from an apple.

And that’s handy skill to have if you are an orang-utan. Even a robotic one.

It might not sound like much to a too-clever-to-know-it human like you or me, but it represents pioneering work in the field of artificial intelligence.

And it is all down to one man working alone for years – in his garage – because his mind is fired up by the power of the brain.

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asahi.com : Sony to breathe life into robots at new lab

Imagine a robot that can speak the lingo so well you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish it from the ramblings of a flesh-and-blood human being.

Now imagine it was only five years from now.

That’s one of the goals Sony Corp. will set out to achieve when it opens a laboratory in May or June to research next-generation robots.

“In five years’ time, we want to create a robot that is able to talk so smoothly that it cannot be discerned from human beings,” says Sony Executive Vice President Toshitada Doi, who sources say will head the tentatively named Life Dynamics Laboratory. Doi previously led the development of Sony’s robot dog Aibo.

Research is expected to transcend the robotics field to include brain science.

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Ananova – Toyota unveils trumpet-playing robot

A trumpet-playing robot has made its musical debut in Japan.

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:: Xinhuanet – English ::: Toyota to commercialize humanoid robot by 2010: report

TOKYO, March 11 (Xinhuanet) — Toyota Motor Corp. aims to commercialize humanoid robots around 2010 by establishing a section specializing in their development early next year, a major Japanese business daily reported Thursday.

The leading automaker will consolidate the resources of group companies and business partners to achieve the objective, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

The section will be established within Toyota’s production technology headquarters and staffed with several hundred people, including robot engineers from the automaker’s technology headquarters and those from Toyota’s technology lab in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Toyota is currently developing a humanoid robot for the 2005 Aichi World Exposition at its production technology headquarters.

JCN Japan Corporate News Network – Toyota Announces Overview of “Toyota Partner Robot” – Robots to Be Unveiled at Expo 2005, Starting March 2005

Tokyo, Japan, Mar 11, 2004 – (JCN Newswire) – Toyota Motor Corporation (TSE: 7203; NYSE: TM) today announced an overview of the project to develop partner robots designed to function as personal assistants for humans.

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Overview of the Partner Robots

Walking —

– Applications: Assistance, elderly care

– Features: The walking model walks on two legs similar to a person, making it easy to become accustomed to. It is able to use its hands to carry out a wide variety of tasks.

– Height: 120 cm

– Weight: 35 kg

Rolling —

– Applications: Manufacturing, mobility

– Features: The rolling model zooms along quickly without taking up much space. It is able to use its hands to carry out a wide variety of tasks.

– Height: 100 cm

– Weight: 35 kg

Mountable —

– Applications: Elderly care, mobility

– Features: The mountable model is capable of carrying its passengers almost anywhere they need to go. It is fun to ride and operate.

– Height 120 cm 100 cm 180 cm

– Weight 35 kg 35 kg 75 kg

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Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP – High-Tech

Japan co. unveils walking robot

Nuvo, a prototype of a human-shaped walking robot developed by a Tokyo-based ZMP, walks on the stage while showing its back during a press unveiling in Tokyo Tuesday, March 2, 2004. The 39-centimeter-tall (15-inch-tall) Nuvo walks on two legs, picks itself up when it falls, recognizes voice commands such as “advance” and “stop,” and relays images of its surroundings to a videophone from Japan’s top mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo. ZMP, which has so far only made robots for research and rental, said the new Nuvo model will be mass produced for sale at 500,000 yen (US$4,600) by the end of the year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

TOKYO — A Japanese company unveiled on Tuesday a prototype of a human-shaped walking robot it said will be mass produced for sale at $4,600 by the end of the year.

Tokyo-based ZMP, which has so far only made robots for research and rental, expects to sell about 3,000 of the new Nuvo model, which will be manufactured by another company. The manufacturer and sales network have not yet been decided, ZMP president Hisashi Taniguchi told reporters at a Tokyo hall.

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