Humanoid robot developed to help the elderly
A humanoid robot called Twendy-One has been developed by the Sugano laboratory at the Waseda University in Japan and private industry, with the aim of supporting human activities, including care of the elderly.
The laboratory is headed by Professor Shigeki Sugano, of the Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, which in 1999, developed “WENDY” (Waseda ENgineering Designed sYmbiont), which had dextrous hands with human like fingertips which succeeded in breaking an egg flawlessly for the first time in the world.
The new robot is 1.467m high and weighs 111kg and can adapt passively to an object by absorbing external force generated by positioning deviation. In this way, it can adapt to human motion and hold a human, and can manipulate an object dexterously.
“We must be very careful about the appearance and the materials used when we design the outer shell of a human-symbiotic robot because the robot should never hurt the humans or the surrounding environment on its contact,” explained Professor Sugano, “Also, the appearance is very important from an affinity standpoint. Exposing many cables outside the robot’s body shell could create major problems, and therefore, we must place all cables inside the shell. Furthermore, cables must be compact in order not to interfere with moving parts.”
The robot was designed using Pro/Engineer, including the piping and cabling extension in order to achieve this goal.
