Robotics
| SoftBank, fresh of the announcement of Pepper earlier this month, has also shared the work of it's subsidiary, Asratec. Their humanoid robot ASRA C1 has been developed to help advance the robotic software platform, V-Sido. |
Earlier this month, Japanese telecom giant SoftBank, along with French robot maker Aldebaran surprised everyone by unveiling an interactive personal robot called Pepper. Now there is news that Pepper is not the only robot SoftBank had in development.
SoftBank's subsidiary, Asratec, announced last week that they've built a prototype bipedal humanoid called the ASRA C1.
Asratec was founded in July 2013, and its goal is developing robotics products to help advance humanoid technology. Its flagship product is called V-Sido, which consists of a software package and a hardware module.
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ASRA C1 is 1.2 meters tall, weighs 13.5 kilograms, and has 35 degrees of freedom, according to specs released by the company. Its limbs are powered by Futaba servos, and it has a gyro, accelerometer, camera, and other sensors. Much of the robot is covered with soft padding, making it safer for interaction.
Asratec, based in Tokyo, posted a series of videos showing its humanoid standing up and moving its head and arms. Currently the robot isn't walking, but its creators seem to be putting significant efforts to improve its self-balancing capabilities. The robot can absorb shocks and automatically adjusts its posture to avoid falling over.
The software package, V-Sido OS, can be used for controlling a variety of commercial robot kits and servo motors. Thanks to inverse kinematics, users can generate motions in real-time using its software interface or other controllers. Asratec has just released an alpha version of V-Sido OS.
The hardware module is called V-Sido Connect. It's an ARM-based board that can control serial servo motors in combination with V-Sido OS.
It looks like Asratec built the ASRA C1 humanoid to test and demonstrate the versatility of its V-Sido systems. It's not clear if the company plans to commercialize the robot, though SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son appears determined to bring robot helpers into people's lives.
The company designed ASRA C1 in collaboration with two other Japanese companies, RT Corporation and GK Dynamics.
One unusual thing about the robot is an extra pair of appendages attached to its torso. These are meant to be grabbed and manipulated directly by a user, driving the robot's arms in a master-slave fashion. The idea, we assume, is that you could use the robot to grab objects for you, or perhaps teach it how to perform manipulation tasks.
SOURCE IEEE Spectrum
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