Do you think that our future will have robots that help mankind, such as those found in the science fiction movie I, Robot? How about droids that move around in the now Disney-owned Star Wars, those would definitely come in handy in solving the communications problem between different language groups, wouldn’t it? Sad to say, current technology is still far from achieving such high standards in robotics, but perhaps something like the Roboy is a good start.
Folks over at the University of Zurich’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab) is currently working on building a robot toddler that they have dubbed “Roboy.” The implementation of “soft robotics” technology which will mimic the human body has resulted in this 1.2 meter (3 ft, 11 in) tall humanoid robot to be a solution down the road that will hopefully make people feel more comfortable in the presence of robots when it comes to day-to-day situations.
Granted, the Roboy is far from being the cutest thing in the market at the moment, as it resembles far more like a cyborg skeleton compared to a charming child whom you would like to cuddle, but bear in mind that this is because this is still a work in progress. The laboratory’s final goal would be to build an entire Roboy from scratch in a matter of nine months, and I find the parallel of the time required compared to carrying a baby to term cute.
Work on Roboy began last June, where 15 project partners and more than 40 engineers and scientists came together, and they intend to fund the development of Roboy by creative means, such as auctioning space on the robot for logos, while hiring it out for business functions when completed.
Roboy remains more of a research project than an engineering enterprise at this point in time, and the team has set their eyes on developing new technologies while engaging scalable production using CAD and 3D printing so that it takes a matter of days to fully roll out a robot.
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[ Roboy could be a robot for the future copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Humanity is still very far from coming up with a robot that is so intelligent, it could function in the same way that we see C3-PO and Sonny (from I, Robot fame) interact. Well, this does not mean that we are not going to try (and hopefully, not die trying). A team from Switzerland has taken it up upon themselves to create a humanoid looking robot that intends to come in the form of a realistic robot boy. Known as Roboy, it was developed by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich, and comes across as a tendon-driven humanoid robot which will share a similar physical size as that of a human four year old.