Segway-Based Robot Opens Doors

Roland Piquepaille writes "In this short article, Technology Review tells us that Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have built a new robot, named Cardea, which is able to push open doors and has the bottom half of a Segway scooter. Cardea will be five feet tall with a torso, three arms, a variety of sensors, and a human-like head with expressive features and vision, and mounted on a Segway base. More details and references are contained in this review which also includes several pictures. For even more details, go to the Cardea Project homepage."

Comments

Segway RMP

[UWC]

The base for that robot is an official development platform called, I think, the Segway RMP, not just "the bottom half of a Segway." My college has one, too. It acts a bit differently from a regular Segway and can reasonably easily be remote controlled, balancing itself with up to 250 pounds on it. At the moment, it seems they've stuck a robot torso on top of the RMP. Not to say that's not a reasonable accomplishment in itself. I'm an undergrad research assistant in a robotics lab, and real-world application can be extremely frustrating.