Hitachi unveils storm scooter, Toyota robot blows
"We aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people," Toshihiko Horiuchi, Hitachi’s Mechanical Research Lab. Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existenceas Workmate - or Emiew, is the new robot for Hitachi, to be showcased at this month’s World Fair. As you can see from prototypes Pal and Chum, the Emiew is a hybrid of a Star Wars storm trooper and a Segway scooter, some sort of storm scooter. It’s 4.2 ft (1.3 m) tall, can move at 3.7 miles (6 km)/hour, has sensors on the head, waist and near the wheels, responds to commands from a vocabulary of about 100 words, and can be "trained" for practical use in 5-6 years. Sony and Honda have also made humanoid robots to showcase their engineering, in a recent robot race of one-upmanhip. I like Toyota’s, because it plays trumpet. By 2007, it is predicted there will be c. 2.5 mil "entertainment and leisure" robots in homes (137,000 today), with c. 4.1 mil doing house work, according to the UNECE (UN Economic Commission for Europe) and the International Federation of Robotics.
Hitachi unveils ‘fastest robot’, BBC News.
