Get ready to be blown away by machines! We are at the crossroads entering into the next era of human intelligence. Driven by self-less machines. Putting aside the debate and speculative criticisms, development of human-like robots using artificial intelligence is on a rise.
Below are some of the top 5 humanoid robots that have been built in laboratories until 2017.
Atlas
Making its debut in 2013 at a competition conducted by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, ATLAS is capable of opening doors, balancing while walking on snow, navigating, avoiding terrains etc.
Built by Alphabet’s company Boston Dynamics, Atlas was designed to perform disaster recovery operations in locations that are unsafe for human beings.
The newer version of Atlas is completely mobile whereas the previous version was sedentary tied to a computer machine. Boston Dynamics has the reputation of building robots that are capable of running faster than Usain Bolt.
Atlas is not just one of the robots in Google’s show case as the company has invested heavily in designing man-like machines.
Asimo
Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, abbreviated as Asimo, is the world’s first robot. It was designed by Hondo and introduced to the world in 2000.
This is also the world’s first two legged robot and Honda has been working on this since 1986. The first two legged version of the robot EO in 1986 walked slowly taking a time of 5 seconds between two steps.
Since 1993, Honda focused to transform its moving robot into a humanoid one and as a result the first Asimo was developed in 2000. Today, Asimo has become more intelligent and responsive that can interact with human beings by recognizing voices, faces and interpreting human gestures.
It can also sense moving objects, their distance and direction. More technical information about Asimo can be found here.
Kuratas
Have you watched Transformers and wondered if this can be ever a reality? Wake up and smell the coffee.
Kuratas is a military robot that is rideable by a user sitting inside its cockpit or operated from outside using a remote control. The gargantuan mecha weighs 4500 kg and is loaded with ammunitions to attack the enemy. The irony is the user can start firing the enemy targets with a smile.
This feature has been given the name ‘The Smile Shot’. It’s important that the user doesn’t inhale any laughing gas before boarding Kuratas. The robot was available for purchase at Amazon Japan priced at more than $ 1 million or ￥120,000,000.
As it is only a starter kit, the order will not include the arms for the robot and they have to be purchased separately by paying another huge sum.
Kuratas was built by Suidobashi Heavy Industry and was introduced in 2012 as the “world’s first giant boarding robot”.
iCub
Opposed to Kuratas, iCub has a small body that is 1 metre high. The small body of the robot is for a reason.
The Cognitive Universal Body (Cub) built by Italian Institute of Technology learns to do new things like setting up a dining table or make a robot. iCub is built based on the idea of embodied cognition or embodied intelligence, which says that the shapes of body parts may it be human or non-human, determine the way it learns new skills.
This is the reason why iCub has a small body like as in a child which learns by interacting with the environment.
Embodied intelligence helps iCub learn new things by interacting with the world. It has got two cameras, which help them see, two microphones, which help them listen and a smart skin which helps them recognize the sense of touch.
Instead of muscles, the robot has 53 motors, which are called degrees of freedoms in robotic jargon. iCub can solve some complex 3D mazes, do archery, shooting and hit the target accurately.
Romeo
Built by Aldebaran Robotics to help elderly patients and disabled people, Romeo was a part of French research and development project funded by French Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Romeo is in its development stage and is supposed to identify obstacles, carry objects and patients in need, and monitor their health. Romeo, which is 1.4 meters high and weighs 40 kg, is considered to be an enhanced version of Nao.
Anyhow, the engineers had to build a completely different humanoid. Aldebaran is expecting to have Romeo assisting in old age care facilities by 2017 or the latest by 2019.
The robot will be available to the project partners at a cost of 250,000 euros. An improved version will be available for nursing homes and hospitals and at a later stage to individuals as well.
You just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans”
– I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
With most of our lives quasi-machinated already, modern-day robotics is making waves to create humanoid robots that are fully functional like their ancestors- human beings.
These kinds of man made machines akin to human beings are expected to become reality by 2030.
Through artificial intelligence, human beings are creating a computer-based replica of themselves by giving it the power to reason, learn and locomote like how they do.
Although, it is a debate whether machines should be taught to act on their own, we are on our path to create some of the finest humanoid robots, which can match and outperform human potential in the near future.
iCub in the featured image. Source: Wikipedia
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