Jan 10 2011
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, has developed a new humanoid robot called HRP-2.
HRP-2 robot
The humanoid robots are being trained to use objects as tools to perform particular tasks, and to walk in a manner that mimics an elderly person. These are considered as a major milestone in robotics Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the future.
The HRP-2 robot had been demonstrated recently at the Humanoids 2010 conference conducted in Nashville, Tennessee. Sébastien Lengagne of the Institute commented that the robots are normally designed to notice objects as blockages to be ignored. He further said that we use the desktop as support to search something below the desktop. However, most techniques would direct the robot to perform by avoiding the touching, he added.
New Scientist has reported that the HRP-2 robot could do elemental tasks including bending over a table to stabilize itself, while booting a ball.
Source: http://www.aist.go.jp