Waseda group announces TWENDY-ONE

Hello from Tokyo! Tokyo is bustling with robot-related news this week due to the 2007 International Robot Exhibition which started today, and GetRobo is here to see all the action.

First of all, Waseda University announced a new humanoid robot called TWENDY-ONE. The new robot is the 21st century version of WENDY - thus the name. The Waseda team is led by Prof. Shigeki Sugano, shown below with TWENDY-ONE, and Associate Prof. Hiroyasu Iwata.

Prof. Sugano calls TWENDY-ONE a "human-symbiotic-robot" meaning that the robot is designed to live together with humans. For a robot to really become part of our daily lives, it has to meet all of the following 6 requirements - it must 1. be safe  2. create a sense of companionship 3. have means to communicate with humans 4. be skillful 5. be able to perform physical labor  6. have mobility

TWENDY-ONE is "the first robot in the world with all 6 features," says Prof. Sugano.

I will write more about TWENDY-ONE on a separate day but here are some videos from the press conference.

TWENDY-ONE helps grandma (played by one of the students) get out of bed and into her wheelchair.

TWENDY-ONE takes out the ketchup from the fridge while grandma prepares her breakfast.

TWENDY-ONE carries the breakfast tray to the table for grandma.