MIT Researchers Develop 'Real Steel' Robot With Human-Like Reflexes

MojoKid writes: MIT researchers have developed HERMES, an advanced robot that is capable of manipulating objects and environments in nearly the same way as humans do. But this isn't just a project design of a robot only mimicking the actions of its human controller; it can also learn and make precise movements that weren't possible with prior robots. The HERMES robot is controlled by a human operator who wears a remote controller exoskeleton. Movements carried out by the human operator are directly transferred to the humanoid robot with human-like reflexes and haptic feedback in return to the human. This means that HERMES can successfully perform actions such as picking up objects, delicately pouring coffee into a cup and even punching through walls should the need arise. HERMES was developed to help out in emergency situations that would otherwise be too dangerous for human responders.

Comments

no robot

[nospam007]

"... controlled by a human operator who wears a remote controller exoskeleton. "

IOW it's a teleoperated waldo and not a robot.

I know I could read the article, but that would be cheating.

Re:no robot

[Falos]

It took the summary, your post, a TFA glance, and a bit of fridge-delay for me to remember that Real Steel was a movie. And I even watched it.

Yeah, it was pretty forgettable. Their mech-boxers were remote-operated though.

Re:no robot

[Cederic]

I thought it was very watchable. Not a movie great, but the CGI was very well implemented, the story was derivative but well constructed and it was a competent professional film.

Boxing is boring. Robot on Robot action I'd tune in for - shit, I watched Robot Wars, which was largely the same thing.

Re:no robot

[OhSoLaMeow]

I immediately saw "HERPES" and therefore approved of the human's exoskeleton for avoiding that virus.

Indeed. I read the headline as "MIT researchers have developed HERPES" and my heart went out to them.

It's a waldo, not a robot

[Pikoro]

FTA: âoeWeâ(TM)ve designed the robot to be stronger than a person so weâ(TM)d imagine that in the future we want to merge some level of autonomous control along with the humanâ(TM)s intelligence.â

We imagine. The summary has been pulled out of someone's ass. The article says nothing like what the summary does.

Slashdot.

[jpellino]

It's now the web version of "Memento"

Re:Slashdot.

[Applehu Akbar]

"It's now the web version of "Memento""

But hopefully with a larger SSD.

Specifically, a dupe from yesterday

[tlambert]

Specifically, a dupe from yesterday.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/s...

Re: The Aliens Chick Already Did It 30 Years Ago!

[wasteoid]

Sigourney Weaver?

Deja Vu

[jklovanc]

I think I have seen this somewhere before. Editors, lol.

Wait...that sounds familiar...

[Irate Engineer]

...delicately pouring coffee into a cup and even punching through walls should the need arise

So MIT has developed a robotic IT mid-level manager. Companies will love this; they should save on the salaries of those high-priced MBAs

Re:The AI crowd exaggerating - as usual

[thinkwaitfast]

I don't know. Maybe launch it into orbit and perform satellite repairs without having to send astronauts and a few days of limited support equipment. Maybe do an upgrade to Hubble instead of crashing it in a few years. Or maybe jwst if something is broken rather than scrap it. Who knows, it they can be made reliable, inexpensive enough, include a copy on every dangerous remote station so if something breaks, have a technician vtelnet into the device to try and fix things remotely before sending expensive and gooey people. Send it to the bottom of the marianas trench and have it live down there. Have three shifts of oceanographers 'living' underwater 24 hours a day and going home at night. Maybe in a generation or two of upgrades later, add in some semi autonomous capability to account for transmission delays and have a small army of of these things walking across the moon or Mars for a fraction of the cost of sending a single person.

Re:This is a dupe.

[PPH]

Of course. The robotic exoskeleton mimics the movements of its human controller. Evidently with a latency of one day.

Bet It Can't Limbo

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Like the real Hermes Conrad ;) http://s2.dmcdn.net/h1Bu/526x2...

Isn't this

[renzhi]

Isn't this more like a surrogate than a robot?

Get with the program!

[Okian Warrior]

IOW it's a teleoperated waldo and not a robot.

Haven't you heard?

Anything that can skitter across the table is a robot.

Anything with eyes and moveable facial parts is a robot.

Any machine that looks like an arm is a robot.

A robot is anything that looks remotely like it's alive, or a piece of something alive.

Get with the program!

Re:Big Step Forward

[GigaplexNZ]

I'm curious what sort of feedback will be passed back to the operator if the robot falls through an unstable floor.

Human-like, or just human?

[wonkey_monkey]

If there's a human controlling it, doesn't it just have human reflexes? In fact, isn't just the human who's got any reflexes at all?

In fact... isn't this not a robot?

Yes robot

[Wraithlyn]

First of all, "teleoperated waldo" is redundant.

Second of all, that's still a type of robot.

Careful with that haptic feedback!!

[ThatsDrDangerToYou]

Punching through walls with full haptic feedback is not as fun as it sounds.

How do you define a "robot"?

[mykepredko]

When I do robot classes and workshops, I define a "robot" as a device which:

1. Can perform different tasks.

2. Uses sensors to control its operation.

These points are pretty common for definitions. One additional requirement that I have seen is "more than three axis of movement".

From these requirements, I would say this is a robot.