A robot named Monirobo (Monitor robot) was deployed in Fukushima nuclear plant in japan. What does this robots do?  Well it was said to help workers at the nuclear power plant  in monitoring the radiation level. The 5-foot, 1,300-pound Monirobo has a robotic arm for collecting samples and moving obstacles, and it drives using a pair of treads. It is designed to go where humans can’t, using a radiation detector, four video cameras with 3-D capability, and temperature and humidity sensors. The  robots  was developed by Japan’s Nuclear Safety Technology Center in association with the Ministry of Economy.

The robot has two version, the red and yellow.  The red was design to detect radiation level while the yellow has different functionality. The yellow one is designed to collect dust samples and monitor flammable gas.

Its good to know that finally Japan is starting to move up and using all their technology to recover from the earthquake that brought disaster to their people.

PASAY, MANILA Nov.6 – first robots Olympics  held in the Philippines.  With over 1,000 candidates from 22 participating countries. Filipino participants are Adiel De Jesus, 15-yrs old; Ma. Nerissa Nicolas, 16; Ellaine Bulaclac, 16; at Alexandra Guevarra, 14(high school level) and Dave Adrien Biel, 11-yrs old; Kate Dela Cruz, 11, Michelle Alcanar, 12;  John Emmanuel Cruz.(elementary level).  This students are from DYCI (Dr. Yanga’s Colleges Inc. BOCAUE, Bulacan)

The regular categories consist of some traditional Filipino games like “Knock and Secure Bottles” or “Tumbung Preso”  in this game the robots must complete a task, they must follow a tracked line from the starting point, knock down a bottle, secure and bring along another bottle to the finish line. This category was participated by junior high school contestant.  And “Climbing Pole” or “Palo Sebo” participated by senior high school contestant in this match, robots are tasked to climb a pole, get the ball from the top and climb down with the ball.

In the open category, contestant are given task to showcase their fully customized robot’s unique functionality, the  function and features of this robots must tag along with the theme “Robot Promote Tourism” or “Dynamic Robots Promote a National or Cultural Heritage of your Country” else they will not receive a points and gets zero as their final score.

The World Robot Olympiad, an annual scientific and technology event participated by students from all over the world will showcase their Robotic Skills in a friendly competition. We also encourage the students ages 10 years to 18 years old to engage in a cultural exchange and networking with fellow robotic enthusiasts. Said MYLENE ABIVA (President /CEO  FELTA Mutli-Media Inc. and Project Director, World Robot Olympiad 2010 )

This event has given us Filipino people opportunity to show the world that we also have the ability and skills in robotics and  can contribute knowledge in modern technology.

Robots, they had been  my favorite toy since I was a kid, and still fascinated whit them  up to  now . Well,   now in our daily living , as technology evolves, robots and robotics has been a part of  it not only in toys but also in some industries like car manufacturing , some medical instruments, agriculture  and military equipment. Some of us is aware of that and some are not.  There are people who are interacting with robots yet not noticing it. Maybe the reason is some of us think that robots is the same as what they see in the movie or television.   As mention by Alicia Jones (Supervisor, Corporate communication American Honda) in the video below, she said that some people are watching to much television, and I agree with her that we could imagine lots of possibility in a scifi movie but in reality, applying it, is a very difficult task to achieve.

Now the big question is, are we ready to accept them as part of our community? Let’s put ASIMO as an example, a bipedal robot created and  developed by HONDA, who could walk like human, run and climb stairs.  Almost 24 years of experiments and development, ASIMO’s technology is evolving little by little from walking, running, avoiding obstacles and now they are even developing ASIMO’s AI capabilities.  This leads many other robots developing institution and companies in making robots that could help us in our daily living .  I think accepting them as part of our life would motivate developers to continue in researching and perfecting this kind of technology.

Manny people think that robots will dominate us in the future.  Hmmmm.. it only happen in the movie like irobot and terminator. how about you?,…. are you ready?

Great balancing ability, this just tells that there is no stopping our technology from growing.

Robotics plays a great role in our technology today. It said to be the engineering science and main technology of robots. It is in relation with electronics, mechanics and software. Base in its history, the design for a humanoid robot or what was called the Mechanical Knight was design byLeonardo da Vinci in 1495. In 1737, Jacques de Vaucanson design a life-sized  automaton in the form of a duck.  The design was said to have the ability to eat grains to metabolize and defecate them. In 1800′s, The Japanese designed the karakuri toys , a mechanized puppet or automata that can served tea, fired arrows, and painted.

The robots  was first introduce to public  in the 20′s by  Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), the story was about a factory that build artificial people also known as the robots, more like an idea of an androids and clones – creatures who can be mistaken for humans, that has the ability to think by itself.

In 1933 – 1938,  a robot was build by pittsburgh-based Westinghouse it was named Electro, it is a seven feet tall robot and weighing 265 pounds, more like a humanoid.  It can walk by voice command, can speak about 700 words, blow up balloons, smoke a cigarettes and it can also move its arms and head.  Its eyes are consist of photoelectric materials tha can distinguish red and green light.

General Motorsluched Unimate in 1961 at New Jersey, it was the first industrial robots.  Its engineering technology was created by George Devolin the 50′s using his own original patents. Devol together with Joseph Engelberger started the “Unimation” it is a robot manufacturing company that was first ever build. The machine do the job of transporting die castings from an assembly lines to weld this parts on auto bodies.  Unimate is consisted of a computer box link to another box connected to an arm design for high speed operation in car manufacturing. since it is programmable, it can also do some other task.

In 1973 KUKA Robotis, a leading German producer of  industrial robots created the worl first industrial robot with six electromechanical driven axes, known as  FAMULUS. It ranges from 3 kg to 1300 kg payloads and 350 mm to 3700 mm reach, all controlled by a PC based controller platform.

The structure of robots is most likely the functionality of the human Body and its skeletal system or what we call the kenematic chain. It is consist of  links like  our bone,  actuators that can be compare to our muscles and joints that can allow a series degree of freedom. Robots are mostly powered by batteries, but potential power sources can be consider like pneumatic(compressed gasses), hydraulics(compressed liquid)  and a radio active source.

The legacy of robotics had help us in many ways through our living.  We could almost see them every where. almost all industry in manufacturing line uses an industrial robots and it gives them greater output and safety to the workers. We might even have a robot worker and helper in the future just like in the movies.

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