A research group at Tokyo Institute of Technology has developed a teddy bear robot with soft arms and legs.
"When children touch robots, as toys they should feel soft to the touch. However, so far soft toy robots have had a hard internal structure, so when you squeeze them they feel hard. As well as this, when children move them forcefully, they can break. We tried to make a robot using materials that are soft all the way through to avoid that kind of thing."
The motor and circuits are stored in the torso of the body, and strings are used to articulate the arms and legs. This means that the robot can move it's limbs, while maintaining it's soft, cuddly feel. The strings replace the need for internal links or joints so it is durable, and won't break even if it is dropped or it's limbs are twisted.
"When the string is pulled, the arm moves like this. You can also adjust the length of the string to create movements. Also, since the string goes through it, when it is touched the string is pulled, and it takes the strength of that touch and recognizes how it was touched, so it has a sense of touch, and it can sense how strongly it was touched and can respond accordingly."
The group is currently doing research on creating movement in CG characters, and is looking at applying those movements in stuffed animal robots.
"We recreate tactile and visual senses in the teddy bear, and then it decides what it wants to do and moves. We are taking it as far as that movement in a simulator. When we put that movement just as it is in a robot, it has to measure the visual and other inputs with sensors, but it can respond with lifelike movements to a user's movements and touch."
Related Links :
- YouTube
- Hasegawa Lab.
- CEDEC 2011
