Humanoid robots

Large-area pressure sensor sheets are mechanically flexible, as shown in Fig. 16.1, and can therefore be wrapped around fine cylindrical bars, for example robot fingers. A sense of touch for humanoid robots is far behind the senses of sight and hearing. This is mainly because a flexible, large-area pressure sensor matrix has not been manufactured at reasonable cost. Flexible pressure sensors have been made from polymers or rubber. With increasing number of sensors in the matrix, however, problems associated with wiring cannot be overlooked this makes it impossible to increase the density or total number of sensors to that comparable with human skin. 

Recently, humanoid robots inspired by the musculoskeletal system have been researched actively to achieve flexible and dexterous human-like motions (Mizuuchi et al., 2006 Sodeyama et al., 2008 Marques et al., 2010). A robot hand that is a tool constituting a humanoid robot is necessary for conducting various tasks in daily life. A multifingered robot hand especially plays a great role. 

Marques, H.G., et al., 2010. ECCEl the first of a series of anthropomimetic musculoskeletal upper torsos. In Proceedings lEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2010), Nashville, TN, USA. 

As has been described, DM PCs are attractive for light traction appHcations with power capadties lower than 5 kW. Another low-power appHcation is a humanoid robot, and an example was described in [94]. A DMFC stack of 405 W was coupled with a 200 Wh battery via a DC-DC converter. 

Natural muscles are controlled by neurons and network of neurons. We can imagine artificial neurons and network of artificial neurons as well. Artificial muscles with motor proteins are studied and attract attention[79]. One direction is to develop deformable machine with real motor proteins, actins and myosins, and neurons. Another direction is to develop neural network software to control distributed artificial muscles. The author has been developing open brain simulator which can emulate the activities of human nervous system for estimating internal state of human through external observation [231]. Such software is also applicable to control artificial muscle systems, which is implemented on the personal robots and humanoid robots in the future. 

Scale up most ICP actuators have been produced in relatively thin films usually 10-20 mm in length and 5-10 mm wide. While the stresses and strains produced are impressive, the actual forces and displacements are small. Large scale applications (e.g. in humanoid robots) will require tens of millimetres in displacement and tens of Newtons in force. Parallel and serial assemblies of ICP actuators are required to deliver these performances. Considering the low energy conversion efficiency of ICPs, the electrical power supply for such large actuators will be a serious limitation. 

International Journal of Humanoid Robotics (0219-8436) World Scientific. The journal covers all subjects related to the mind and body of humanoid robots. 

Location-based entertainment robotics, such as robotic museum tour guides, not only entertain visitors, but also provide them with information (Nouibakhsh et al., 1999). Health-related applications are being explored, such as robotic pet-therapy surrogates intended to provide the same health benefits as their living counterparts. Even robots for scientific purposes are begiiming to have more socially interactive qualities. For instance, NASA Johnson Space Center s humanoid robot, Robonaut, is ultimately envisioned to be a completely autonomous astronaut s assistant that can work as a productive and cooperative member of a human-robot team (Bluethman et al., 2003). 

The developed system was an accurate, cost-effective and user friendly motion analysis system for basic human motion analysis. In addition, the proposed system could be used as start-up gait laboratory where fundamental kinematics and kinetics parameters of human gait are essential. Furthermore, the scope of application of such instrumentation is wide from clinical application of studying pathological gait, rehabilitation, sport science, and eventually to telemedicine and development of humanoid robot. 

Potential applications of DE actuators are by no means limited to artificial muscles. A plethora of other DE applications have been proposed and demonstrated that can potentially be used in humanoid devices. These include loudspeakers [277-279], variable diffraction gratings [278], tunable transmission gratings [280], and micro-optical zoom lenses [281], among others. These applications may find use in biomimetics as a method to bestow polymer robots with the abilities to speak and to focus their vision. 

The logic and approach used in materials handling also applies to the use of handling equipment to move processed parts. Parts handling equipment (PHE) does not resemble the humanoids of science fiction. Robots are blind, deaf, dumb, and limited to a few preprogrammed motions but in many production jobs that is all that is needed. They are solutions looking for a problem. Most plants can use some degree of PHE, and it can substantially increase productivity. 

Mizuuchi, I., et al., 2006. Development of musculoskeletal humanoid Kotaro. In Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. 

Sodeyama, Y., et al., 2008. The designs and motions of a shoulder with a spherical thorax, scapulas and collarbones for humanoid Kotaro . In lEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. 

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