You won’t be the life of the party with this shoulder robot

With one on each shoulder, you’d have a robot angel and devil for counsel.

(Credit:
IEEE)

Got a chip on your shoulder, pal? Or is that just a 20-axis humanoid telepresence robot?

For cyber-boffins from Japan’s Yamagata University, it’s the latter. It seems this creepy little golem has been riding around on shoulders in northern Japan, probably freaking citizens out.

The project, dubbed the MH-2 wearable communication robot, was recently presented at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in St. Paul, Minn., where it turned some heads.

As IEEE Spectrum tells us, the MH-2 is a telepresence robot that acts as an avatar for your friends around the world. With its intricate parallel wire mechanisms and 20 axes of motion, it can reproduce their movements in a realistic fashion.

As seen in the video below, the shoulder bot can wave, dock a mock bow, and perform other movements. It even has a chest movement to mimic breathing. The 22 actuators aren’t exactly discreet, but they’re placed behind the puppet on top of a backpack.

The remote operator, meanwhile, would use a motion-captur… [Read more]

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