COOL ROBOTS - Humanoid Robots, Military Robots, Japanese Robots

The robot is called PRIMER-V2, and was built by Dr. Guero of the website AI & Robot. He pedals to move forwards, and he balances like a human rider, by turning into any falls. The balance in this case is provided by a PID (proportional integral derivative) controller which uses feedback loops to adjust for error.

Robot Rides a Bike

Robot Rides a Bike

Robot Rides a Bike

Japan leads the world’s robotic industries in fields ranging from manufacturing to entertainment and security.Japanese researchers have developed a humanoid robot that can laugh and smile as it mimics a person's facial expressions.By receiving electric signals from the person it is modelled on, the robot can move its rubber facial skin to imitate expressions like a smile, a laugh and a grim look.


Check this humanoid robot video below:

"I felt like I had a twin sister," the model said.

The versatile humanoid robot Nao caught Gizmag's attention at the 2009 International Robot Exhibition (iREX 2009). What Nao lacks in size, he makes up for in features and capabilities. Nao can see (via two cameras), will react to touch, can surf the Web and can interact with other Naos. He can speak (in English or French, so far) by reading out any file stored locally in his storage space or captured from a website RSS flow. The bot is fitted with an accelerometer and gyrometer so he won't fall down, he's also equipped with two pairs of ultra-sound senders/receivers on his torso that give feedback on several echoes so Nao is aware of obstacles close by and can avoid them. 

Japan’s newest RoboCop-looking humanoid robot practices yoga, tracks faces and objects and, in what seems to be a robo-requirement these days, pours drinks.

The industrial HRP-4 humanoid robot was designed to coexist with people, and its “thin athlete” frame is meant to be more appealing, according to Kawada Industries, which built the robot with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

The 5-foot-tall, 86-pound humanoid robot is a deliberately downsized version of its larger sibling, the HRP-2. Kawada first developed HRP-2 seven years ago, and wanted to design an updated version, according to a press release. 

HRP-4 Humanoid Robot Walking Like A Real Human

HRP-4 has 34 degrees of freedom and can move its arm seven ways. It can carry about a pound in each arm. All joint motors are less than 80 watts, as CNET reports. A small laptop can be installed in HRP-4’s back to increase its data processing capabilities.

Watch the humanoid robot show off its smooth moves in the video clip below. The video demonstrating how the HRP-4 can stretch and flex is pretty cool – looks like it’s warming up for a jog.

Japan is the land of cool humanoid robots, and here we have another humanoid robot named Telesar V from Japan. Unlike other humanoid robots, Telesar V will be able to transmit sight, hearing and touch.


Telesar V is a new kind of humanoid robots, and it is created by Professor Tachi from Japan’s Keio University, and what makes this humanoid robot special is the fact that Telesar V is your real-life robot avatar. Thanks to the 3D head-mounted display, you’ll be able to hear and see all the things that Telesar V “sees” and “hears”. In addition to that, you’ll be able to feel the shape and temperature of objects thanks to the built-in hand sensors. Regarding the movement, Telesar V has 17 degrees of freedom in the body, eight in the head and seven in the arm joints, and the hand itself has 15 degrees of freedom.

cool humanoid robots - TELESAR V

How the robot operates TELESAR V
V TELESAR robot operated by the control of humans. To operate, one must use special equipment consisting of the head gear, gloves, and vests are good for controlling the robot action. Gloves made of thin polyester material coated with a semiconductor and a small motor so that users can ‘feel’ what the robot is touched, recognize a variety of sensations such as the surface is soft, wavy, and hot or cold. For vision, humanoid robot TELESAR V will capture the situation around with a camera placed in the eye. Camera image will then appear in three-dimensional format on video screens in front of the controller.

cool humanoid robots - TELESAR V

Opinion research on humanoid robots TELESAR V
Sho Kamuro, researchers are trying to operate the robot reveals his experiences. “When I put on equipment operation and move your body, I see my hands turned into a humanoid robot hand,” says Sho. “As you move the head, I saw a different scene before. It was strange to think of ourselves we really have turned into a robot,” said Sho. Check the humanoid robots TELESAR V demo video below:



Professor Susumu Tachi, a virtual reality of Keio University said that robot like TELESAR V was developed to assist human tasks. One was to go into places too dangerous if the visited by humans. One scenario is to use this robot to enter the Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power plant damaged by the earthquake and tsunami last year.

A truss climbing robot has a minimalist design with three motive degrees of freedom that enable movement along three-dimensional truss structures. This robot can form a six-degree-of-freedom structure by connecting to another identical module using a passive bar as a medium. We present the design and implementation of this robot, control algorithms for moving the robot in a 3-D truss structure, and hardware experiments.

truss-climbing robot

Sick and tired of your boring old truss? This handy little cool robot may well be just the solution you're looking for. It can navigate a truss structure using its 3D-printed bi-directional gear innards, unscrew a beam with its rotational mechanism and reattach it, transforming the structure into a new shape. The structure itself is specially designed for the bot, with robot lockable connectors and reflecting segments that can be picked up by its sensors to help it detect its location. The folks behind the plucky little robot are currently working a number different concepts for the project. You can see a few of them in action in the video after the break.

truss-climbing robot

Cornell's Franz Nigl and Jeremy Blum demonstrate their truss-climbing robot in this video, which accompanies a paper accepted into IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine. The robot can climb and reconfigure the trusses in a 3D structure, redesigning a building on the fly, autonomously. It would be pretty cool to see a swarm of these running a genetic algorithm, dynamically redesigning a skyscraper.


This is one of those things where the vid more or less explains it all, although I'm a little bit curious whether the robot is smart enough to know not to disassemble a structural component that's keeping it from plummeting to its own death. The video description suggests that at some point, the robot (and a bunch of its friends) might be controlled by a system that would allow them to build (and reconfigure) structures that would otherwise be too expensive or dangerous for humans to put together, but until that happens, we can at least admire the clever combinations of 3D printed bidirectional gearing that lets this little guy do what he does.

French defence procurement agency DGA has signed a contract with ergonomic systems and mechatronics specialist RB3D for the design and production of military robots exoskeletons for the troops, daily Les Echos wrote today.A French engineering company,RB3D,has developed a robotic exoskeleton called “Hercules”. This normally wearable structure gives additional support and strength. Military robots Hercules is battery powered and can carry 100 Kg at regular walking speed. A person needing extra strength to carry heavy weight wears the device and goes about his or her business with the added support of the exosuit. It can be used for both military and civilian applications,such as fire fighting,building construction,logistics and medical applications.  
If you’re thinking Terminator here, you’re not alone. Pierre-François Louvigné, one of the exoskeleton’s creators at the French Directorate General for Armaments, says the movie was one of the inspirations for Hercule. The military robots legs are collaboration between RB3D, the French military, and Paris-based engineering school ESME-Sudria. They could be available for civilian and military use as soon as 2014.

It would seem that the times when we'll be able to build and own our own cool robots aren't that far away, since the Robotis / Virginia Tech RoMeLa DARwIn-OP (open-platform, hardware and software) humanoid robots is getting ready to hit the market for a price that's actually fairly interesting, especially if you're the type of person who's not afraid to spend a little cash in order to indulge in your passion for robotics.

Humanoid Robot Darwin-OP

The Birth of Humanoid Robots Darwin-OP 
This development of Humanoid Robots Darwin-OP began as an NSF-sponsored project with the goal of producing a humanoid robot platform for various areas of research, convenient maintenance, and scalable. Led by Dr. Dennis Hong, of Virginia tech, the project was the effort and cooperation of US universities Virginia Tech, Purdue University, University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University. To improve scalability aspects Dynamixel of ROBOTIS has was chosen as actuators. This was the beginning for what would eventually become humanoid robot DARwIn-OP. Although the concept and ideas were excellent in the robot’s early years, but these were not suitable for final goods. ROBOTIS contributed to complete final goods aspect of DARwIn-OP and also developed a new line of Dynamixel actuators, the MX series, to match the performance requirements. 

Humanoid Robot Darwin-OP

On the list of dangerous humanoid robots DARwIn is easily topped by the bow-happy iCub. Still -- we don't trust this thing one iota. While we haven't seen it pick up any weaponry just yet, our friends to the north are teaching it one of man's most notoriously violent sports: hockey. Researchers at the University of Manitoba have managed to train the former RoboCup star to stay upright while shuffling about on skates. Smacking a puck into a goal, on the other hand, has proven somewhat trickier. Eventually Jennifer, as the autonomous hockey-bot has been dubbed, managed to get the hang of it, but we don't think the Flyers or Rangers will be offering her the big bucks just yet. And, honestly, before this little guy gets too good and turns into a bully on the ice, we'd get it to switch games -- curling suddenly seems like a perfectly acceptable past time. Check out the humanoid robots video for more information.