I saw this guy in the news and it’s really amazing. It uses the passive impedance from its arms and hands to allow a very light external force such as a person’s hand to move the manipulator arm with a very low amount of force, so that it can’t break your hand in attempt to shake it. Each of its fingertips has a 6 axis force/torque sensor to allow for delicate maneuvering such as that shown in the video. More info can be found here, on the webpage of the team building it.
THAT is exactly why I want to go to Japan. Their technology is more advanced than that of America in robotics. It’s really amazing how that robot picked up the straw. That must’ve taken years (literally) just to program it to do that! It’s cool how the guy talks to it and it talks back.
Japan and America are pretty close in terms of technology. Japan’s culture affection for robotics is off the charts compared to any other country in the world.
Check out this book written by many experts (including D. Lavery…) about the state of robotics around the world.