Humanoid Robots Gain Ability - Slowly But Steadily
From: Nikkei Weekly - 01/08/2007 -  Vol. 45, No. 2267, P. 16
By: Shogo Matsuda

The University of Tokyo is collaborating with Toyota Motor, Matsushita
Electric Industrial, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and four other major
companies on research to integrate robotic technologies and information
technologies so that practical humanoid robots can be developed and put to
use. The project is expected to consume approximately $8.4 million annually,
and the plan calls for robot caregivers within 10 years, to be preceded by
incremental breakthroughs such as robots that can help put things away,
bed-making robots, and robots that can carry people and provide other kinds
of assistance. Toyota's effort is focused on improving robotic leg movement
and dexterity; developments in this area include a one-legged hopping robot
and a prototype with a motor in the torso linked to limbs via wires, allowing
for lighter, faster-moving arms and legs. A research group led by University
of Tokyo professor Yasuo Kuniyoshi has devised a humanoid machine that can
adjust its movements according to the condition of the ground it rests on as
well as get to its feet from a supine position using a "skin" of tactile
sensors. Enhancing humanoid robots' precision in action is the goal of a
group at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology, which has developed a jointed robotic hand that can mimic the
finger and thumb movement of a real hand. Meanwhile, professor Makoto Shimojo
of the University of Electro-Communications is concentrating on the creation
of robots that can adjust their actions by determining the state of the
person or object they are caring for or conveying. His group has developed a
sensor-equipped robot hand that can securely grasp and hold objects through
adjustment of finger strength. 

Link to the publication's homepage:
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/

Links:
Makoto Shimojo
http://www.rm.mce.uec.ac.jp/study-shmj/shimojo.html

Yasuo Kuniyoshi
http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/k/Kuniyoshi:Yasuo.html

Emergence of Embodied Behavior: Coupled Chaos System and Fetal Motor
   Development
http://vesicle.nsi.edu/users/seth/AlifeX/Kuniyoshi.htm

Organised chaos gets robots going
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6582

Walking robot carries a person
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4409