/ News
Japanese Robot SCHAFT Shows Off Its Strong Limbs
Despite the popular notion, propagated by Hollywood and the media, that humanity should fear its extermination at the hands of evil humanoid robots with superhuman strength, the reality is that the electric motors used to power most robots aren't very powerful at all. Famous examples like Honda's ASIMO are only capable of lifting a few kilograms, and most other adult-size robots could be described as having one-tenth the strength of the average person. So much for Terminator and the rise of the machines!
But now a Japanese startup, SCHAFT Inc., has announced a breakthrough in motor technology that may bypass the limitations of existing systems. The company, a spin-off of the University of Tokyo's Jouhou System Kougaku (JSK) Laboratory, has developed—and patented—a new kind of actuator that may make robotic muscles much stronger. Gulp.
We got our first glimpse of this technology almost one year ago, when JSK Lab revealed the Urata Leg (named after Junichi Urata, who earned his PhD working on it). It was a modified version of the HRP3L, a biped robot from Kawada Industries, a company with a longstanding relationship with JSK Lab (the H series robots, developed at JSK, immediately preceded Kawada's HRP series).
The Urata Leg replaced the standard servos with high output capacitor-powered, water-cooled motor systems. These, along with advanced bipedal control algorithms, allowed the robot to maintain its balance when kicked and shoved. Suddenly, the compact size of the electric motors—a necessity in humanoid robots—no longer meant sacrificing strength.
Not long after, the JSK researchers decided to spin off SCHAFT to market the technology. At the heart of their system is a high-voltage and high-current liquid-cooled motor driver that gets its power from a capacitor. The capacitor can supply lots of current very fast and reliably, something that batteries are not good at. This in turn allows the electric motor to deliver high speed and high torque to the arm, something that is hard to do with conventional motors. [The motor, the driver, and the arm are pictured above, from left to right.]
The company has now completed a prototype robot you see at the beginning of this story. It may not be as sleek as its HRP cousins, but it's impressive in a mechanical way. The robot is already walking and practicing for the upcoming DARPA Robotics Challenge. There, it and other robots will stand-in for first responders in a mock hazardous environment. The video below is a sneak peek we obtained last year:
The DARPA challenge will be a great opportunity for SCHAFT to show off its innovative motors. A good performance at the competition would compel the next generation of humanoid robots, in Japan and elsewhere, to adopt the technology. The company says it will market the robot's arms, which are small, highly articulated, and powerful, as a stand-alone part for use in mobile robots and manipulation research.
With its storied history and connection to JSK Lab, SCHAFT may be run by a young group of engineers but it benefits from more than 30 years of research and development in humanoid robots. Besides marketing their proprietary technology, the company, which is currently looking for investors, plans to offer consulting services on the development and operation of humanoid robots. Let's just hope Cyberdyne Systems doesn't hire them.
Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/japanese-schaft-robot
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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