The Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover

The Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover, a lightweight machine on wheels, accomplished a revolutionary feat on the surface of Mars. For the first time, a thinking robot equipped with sophisticated laser eyes and automated programming reacted to unplanned events on the surface of another planet.

After a few days on the Martian surface the NASA controllers turned on Sojourner's hazard avoidance system and asked it to start making some of its own decisions. This hazard avoidance system set the rover apart from all other machines that have explored space. Sojourner made trips between designated points without the benefit of detailed information to warn it of obstacles along the way

Sojourner moved slowly at one and one half feet per minute and stopped a lot along the way to sense the terrain and process information, but there was no hurry on Mars which is not visited very often.

Sojourner was carried to Mars by Pathfinder which launched on December 4, 1996 and reached Mars on July 4, 1997, directly entering the planet's atmosphere and bouncing on inflated airbags.

Sojourner was designed by a large NASA team lead by Jacob Matijevic and Donna Shirley.

Sojouner traveled a total of about 100 meters (328 feet) in 230 commanded maneuvers, performed more than 16 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, carried out soil mechanics and technology experiments, and explored about 250 square meters (2691 square feet) of the Martian surface. During the mission, the spacecraft relayed an unprecedented 2.3 gigabits of data, including 16,500 images from the lander's camera, 550 images from the rover camera, 16 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, and 8.5 million measurements of atmospheric pressure, temperature and wind.

The flight team lost communication with the Sojouner September 27, after 83 days of daily commanding and data return. In all, the small 10.5 kilogram (23 lb) Sojouner operated 12 times its expected lifetime of seven days.

Supermodel Humanoid Robot of Japan

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By Chika Osaka

The HRP-4C humanoid robot showed off her stormtrooper-like silver and black frame and bowed to a fashion-savvy audience at the start of the annual Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo -- but even her creators admit the mechanical model needs more work.

The HRP-4C has battery-powered motors in her body and face, allowing her to imitate the expressions, gait and poses of a supermodel --- up to a point.

"Our robot can't move elegantly like the real models that are here today," Shuji Kajita, director of humanoid robot engineering at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), told Reuters. "It'll take another 20 to 30 years of research to make that happen."

The 158 cm (5 ft 2 inch) high-tech model weighed in at 43 kg (95 lb), slimmed down from earlier versions just in time for her catwalk debut at one of Japan's biggest fashion events.

AIST designers say the eyes, face and hair of the robot, which cost about $2 million to develop, are based on Japanese "anime" cartoon characters.

Japan, home to almost half of the world's 800,000 industrial robots, expects the industry to expand to $10 billion in the future including models that can care for its fast-growing elderly population.

(Writing by Michael Caronna and Linda Sieg; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Humanoid Robot

humanoid robot is a robot with its overall appearance based on that of the human body, allowing interaction with made-for-human tools or environments. In general humanoid robots have a torso with a head, two arms and two legs, although some forms of humanoid robots may model only part of the body, for example, from the waist up. Some humanoid robots may also have a 'face', with 'eyes' and 'mouth'. Androids are humanoid robots built to aesthetically resemble a human.
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A humanoid robot is an autonomous robot because it can adapt to changes in its environment or itself and continue to reach its goal. This is the main difference between humanoid and other kinds of robots. In this context, some of the capacities of a humanoid robot may include, among others:

• self maintenance (recharge itself)
• autonomous learning (learn or gain new capabilities without outside assistance, adjust strategies based on the surroundings and adapt to new situations)
• avoiding harmful situations to people, property, and itself
• safe interacting with human beings and the environment

Like other mechanical robots, humanoid refer to the following basic components too: Sensing, Actuating and Planning and Control. Since they try to simulate the human structure and behaviour and they are autonomous systems, most of the times humanoid robots are more complex than other kinds of robots.

This complexity affects all robotic scales (mechanical, spatial, time, power density, system and computational complexity), but it is more noticeable on power density and system complexity scales. In the first place, most current humanoids aren’t strong enough even to jump and this happens because the power/weight ratio is not as good as in the human body. The dynamically balancing Anybots Dexter can jump, but poorly so far. On the other hand, there are very good algorithms for the several areas of humanoid construction, but it's very difficult to merge all of them into one efficient system (the system complexity is very high). Nowadays, these are the main difficulties that humanoid robots development has to deal with.

Their creators' goal for the robot is that one day it will be able to both understand human intelligence, reason and act like humans. If humanoids are able to do so, they could eventually work alongside humans. Another important benefit of developing androids is to understand the human body's biological and mental processes, from the seemingly simple act of walking to the concepts of consciousness and spirituality. Right now they are used for welding. In the future they can greatly assist humans by welding and mining for coal.

Model Robot Showing Emotions

The new Japanese humanoid robot HRP-4C displays a range of emotions (good luck discerning what they are) during a press conference in suburban Tokyo this week. Naturally, plenty of paparazzi were on hand.

(Credit: AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

She doesn't have the grace of a Cindy Crawford or Elle MacPherson (yet), but a few struts on the catwalk may help HRP-4C loosen up and hit her stride. The walking, talking girlbot will be getting practice soon, as she's set to make her catwalk debut at a Tokyo fashion show next week.

Scientists from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology reportedly designed the 5-foot (ish), dark-haired creation to look like an average Japanese woman between the ages of 19 and 29. Unlike the average Japanese woman, however, HRP-4C has 30 motors in her body that allow her to walk and move its arms (somewhat loudly and awkwardly, if the video below is any indication) and 8 facial motors for blinking, smiling, and expressing emotions akin to anger and surprise.

According to the Associated Press, the robotic framework for the HRP-4C, sans face and other coverings, will sell for about $200,000, and the technology behind it will eventually be made public so people can come up their own moves for the bot.