Hi everybody,

I am keeping myself busy writing a Wiki about the concept of Component Driven development applied by robotics.

This paradigm is very popular in robotic middlewares such as OpenRTM, Orocos, Smartsoft, Opros and (even if not formally) ROS,
www.robotic-middleware.org
I hope to get some feedback from readers to improve it.

Davide

Big news from the creators of REEM-A.

The second prototype,REEM-B, has been announced. The second prototype got many improvements: a fingered hand with 12 motors, the ability to go up and down stairs, additional 6 axis force sensors on the arms, ultrasonic range finders to avoid obstacles and a completely new look (but we must wait February 2008 to find out how it looks like). As well, REEM-B will be able to perform SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping).

REEM-A, the humanoid robot built by Pal Technology, is learning new features.

The equilibrium has been improved thanks to a new algorithm that detects external forces and adjusts the posture of the robot to dump the disturbances. A video, can be seen on-line.

We used the force/torque sensor to detect the reaction force of the ground (the Center of Pressure) and move the robot's hip accordingly. In the video you can see as the robot can even decide to take a step when the pusching strong is too high to keep the equilibrium.

REEM-A is the first prototype of humanoid robot built by Pal Technology, a company located in Abu Dhabi , with a branch in Spain.

Even if REEM-A was meant to be a preliminary version of the final product, it can be already defined as the most complete and advanced humanoid robot in Europe and Middle East. REEM-A can walk, recognize people and various objects, grasp simple objects, recognize voice commands and detect obstacles (watch the video). As well, it is completely self-contained: the on-board batteries last 90 minutes and the embedded computers have sufficient computational power to perform in real-time all the tasks.

In autumn 2007, a more advanced version will be presented: REEM-B. The second prototype will be the base for the development of a commercial version of humanoid robots.