iRobot’s new robotic hand, developed for DARPA’s Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program, takes a licking and keeps on ticking, like the old Timex commercial. See the hand’s fingers, holding a baseball, ‘teed off’ by a baseball bat in the article video. Not quite the beating promised by the headline, but hardly the end of it as DARPA’s requirements include both dexterity and strength: write with a pen, use pliers, unzip a duffel bag, drill a hole with a power tool, insert a key to unlock a door, assemble an object from a parts kit and unpinning a grenade and throwing it. iRobot’s new hand can take a beating from a baseball bat (GizMag)
From Japan, Honda’s HEARBO robot’s HARK system can process four sounds, including voices, and can locate them in a room. It cancels out its own motors and can distinguish between the different types of sound such as an alarm clock, music and people. Honda plans to incorporate it into its US$60 million humanoid robot, ASIMO, which they have committed to commercialize eventually. Honda’s HEARBO robot has excellent hearing (GizMag)
And, for French speakers, a French TV item via YouTube on NAO and Kompaï: Kompaï and Nao at France 2 JT