Sharp updates the Cocorobo line of intelligent robot vacuum cleaners.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Sharp updates the Cocorobo line of  intelligent robot vacuum cleaners.

Sharp have updated their Cocorobo line of intelligent robot vacuum cleaners, with a new smaller model, as well as a Cocorobo Navi function, which allows the robot to be controlled when the user is outside the home.

Cocorobo Navi can be used to visually map out your house creating a floor plan, letting the robot know where objects are placed, so you can directly specify where the robot should go.

Sharp also unveiled a controller, which connects to the Cocorobo via it's USB port, and can be used to control a range of household devices. Currently, Sharp TVs, air conditioning systems, LED lights and their Slim Ion Fan can all be controlled via the smartphone app, with support for competing companies products to be rolled out in future updates.

The new, smaller Cocorobo, the RX-V60, is 29.9cm in diameter, 4.7cm less than the current model, but with similar performance.

It features the power vacuum system, which can suck up dust from the gaps in wood floors, and due to it's reduced size, can comfortably maneuver around small spaces such as in between the legs of dining room chairs.

It will go on sale in Japan on the 13th of December for approximately 75,000 yen (US$900) and Sharp will manufacture 8,000 units per month. 

Swumanoid swimming android robot will help athletes swim faster. Video

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Swumanoid swimming android robot will help athletes swim faster.

Swumanoid, developed by the Nakashima Group at Tokyo Institute of Technology, is a humanoid robot that replicates the motion of a swimmer. In the future, this robot is expected to help researchers analyze how people can swim faster, and develop speed enhancing swimming apparel.

"In research on swimming, one problem is, it's hard to know how much propulsive force the hands create during a stroke. There have been attempts to measure such things using actual swimmers, but it's hard to attach sensors to the hands of an actual swimmer. Also, a person can't repeat exactly the same movement many times."

For Swumanoid, a 3D body scanner was used to measure the body of a competitive swimmer, and reproduce it at half-scale. The complex swimming motions of a person are reproduced using 20 computer-controlled waterproof motors.

"When a swimmer moves, the motion of the shoulders is quite large. Ordinary humanoid robots aren't designed for such large motions, so to replicate the big movements in a crawl stroke, we've installed special joints in the shoulders of Swumanoid."

The robot overall has a special-purpose drive using four struts, and the force the robot receives from the water can be measured. Because the robot is currently at the prototype stage, its swimming speed, corrected for size, is 0.64 m/s or approximately three times slower than the current world record for the 100m freestyle. From now on, the researchers are planning improvements to make it faster.

"Swumanoid can already do the butterfly and backstroke. The breaststroke involves a different leg motion, so it can't be done with the robot's current legs. But we are developing legs to enable Swumanoid to do the breaststroke."

"Currently, the robot doesn't always swim as it's instructed. So we'd like to enable it to swim freely. Humanoid robots can already walk and run, but if we have a robot that truly swims, it could be used not just for sports research, but also for rescuing people in the water."

Meet Toybots Shimi robots. Videos

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Meet Toybots Shimi robots. Videos.

Tovbot's Shimi made its first public appearance  at Google I/O 2012 last week, where not just one but three Shimis performed in perfect coordination. 

Tovbot was formed earlier this year by a group of robot researchers and entrepreneurs hailing from Georgia Tech, IDC in Israel, and MIT Media Lab.

 Their goal is to foster a new paradigm of personal robots - robots that don't just clean your floors or your pool, but also interact with you on a personal, almost human level. According to a news item on Georgia Tech's website,Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. 

Spectrum

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Intelligent meat slicer uses 3D imaging to cut perfect slices every time.

The Libra 165C is a fixed-quantity slicer, mainly for pork. It was developed by Nantsune, a large manufacturer of meat slicers.

This model determines the 3D shape of the meat before slicing it, by scanning it in 3D using a displacement sensor. This information is used to slice the meat by taking account of its shape. As well as minimizing errors in fixed-quantity slicing, this enables high-speed slicing at up to 6,000 slices per hour.

"Because meat has an irregular shape, by determining its cross-section in advance, this machine can produce slices of the same weight, by varying the thickness."

"With our previous machine, a fixed weight was obtained by feeding back the weight while slicing. But that method is slow, so we've increased the slicing speed by scanning the shape of the meat in advance."

"Basically, the measurement is done while slicing the meat. So meat is output efficiently, without waiting for measurements."

This slicer will be released in late June. It'll be priced at around US$160,000 (12,600,000 yen).

Cocorobo intelligent vacuum cleaner robot communicates with its owner

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Cocorobo intelligent vacuum cleaner robot communicates with its owner.


It is a vacuum cleaner developed by Sharp from Japan and can communicate with the user with voice  and using your iphone or android smartphone.