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| Image Source: Businessweek |
EMIEW2 was developed as part of Hitachi's efforts to create a service robot with diverse communication functions that could safely coexist with humans while conducting necessary services.
Inside its red helmet are 2 cleverly hidden cameras and 14 positional microphones which pick up the location of whoever is speaking to it. In its neck region, it has a laser scan sensor to detect people or obstacles around it. It also has fully functioning arms with clamp-like hands capable of carrying lightweight objects.
To talk with the person in a real office building, the robot is required to recognize accurately human voices with serious noisy condition in which the noises come from upper and lower, right and left, various directions, moreover the robot mechanism becomes a source of the noise. Now, the technologies that suppress the noise efficiently with 14 microphones installed in the head of EMIEW 2 were developed. One of them is a horizontal and vertical voice direction analyzing technology that is able to focus the voice search space efficiently, and another is noise-canceling technology against the noises generated by the robot self. The voice recognition performance has been improved rapidly by these technologies.
One of the EMIEW 2′s most innovative features is its mobility system, which combines legs with wheels. Instead of walking around like other bipedal robots, it maintains equilibrium on wheels using a gyro sensor which constantly checks its center of gravity. However, the designers knew that while traveling on wheels is not only faster but more energy efficient for a robot, there are times when it might be handy to have legs.
When it stops, it automatically deploys kick-stands on each leg, which serve as impromptu feet. These stabilize it as it steps over an obstacle. It can also kneel down and ride around with a lower, more stable center of gravity, using its rubbery knee guards as a bumper in the unlikely event of a collision.
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