Toyota Partner Robot Plays Violin Badly, Still Impressive
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 7 of December , 2007 at 6:40 am
I’m no violinist, and neither is this robot, but still… Wow. That’s pretty good, I’d say, since playing a violin (I imagine) takes a lot of finger dexterity and precision control. Heck, robots playing the violin well is a work in progress even in 2366. The humanoid robot (android, rather) is 1.5 meters tall and weighs 56 kilos. It has 17 joints in its arms and hands, and is designed to be helping us out with household chores by 2010 (which is really not that long from now); they’ll begin testing in hospitals and Toyota-related facilities next year. By the way, when the violin solo was done, I clapped. That’s right, here in front of my computer at 3:41 am, I clapped for that robot violin solo even though nobody in the audience did. Just wanted you to know that.
The second robot is a “mobility robot.” It has a top speed of 6 kph, and a range of 20 km (!) after a 1 hour charge (!!). It can climb slopes of up to 10 degrees and avoid obstacles. Although it’s designed for people who really need one (the elderly, for example), it’ll hopefully be available to lazy people like me around the same time as the violin robot.
[ Toyota Partner Robots ] VIA [ Physorg ]
Video VIA [ Akihabara News ]
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1 Comment
Comment by xamox
Made Friday, 7 of December , 2007 at 11:52 am
Hey, it can play the violin better than me.
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I’m no violinist, and neither is this robot, but still… Wow. That’s pretty good, I’d say, since playing a violin (I imagine) takes a lot of finger dexterity and precision control. Heck, robots playing the violin well is a work in progress even in 2366. The humanoid robot (android, rather) is 1.5 meters tall and weighs 56 kilos. It has 17 joints in its arms and hands, and is designed to be helping us out with household chores by 2010 (which is really not that long from now); they’ll begin testing in hospitals and Toyota-related facilities next year. By the way, when the violin solo was done, I clapped. That’s right, here in front of my computer at 3:41 am, I clapped for that robot violin solo even though nobody in the audience did. Just wanted you to know that.
The second robot is a “mobility robot.” It has a top speed of 6 kph, and a range of 20 km (!) after a 1 hour charge (!!). It can climb slopes of up to 10 degrees and avoid obstacles. Although it’s designed for people who really need one (the elderly, for example), it’ll hopefully be available to lazy people like me around the same time as the violin robot.
[ Toyota Partner Robots ] VIA [ Physorg ]
Video VIA [ Akihabara News ]
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
Comment by xamox
Made Friday, 7 of December , 2007 at 11:52 am
Hey, it can play the violin better than me.