Advanced Robot-Boy “Roboy” Due To Arrive in Nine Months
iRobot, and other sci-fi flicks of that kind, have made us reconsider what it is to be human. Robots have grown increasingly important in the consumer electronics universe, growing smaller and smaller while being more and more important to healthcare and science. But Roboy is hoping to take the mass appeal of robots to the next level, as it's said to be "one of the most advanced humanoid robots” according to researchers at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich.
15 project partners and over 40 engineers have teamed together to build an initiative to create Roboy, which needs some $500,000 to happen. To date, they've received nearly $300,000. It'll reportedly be a tendon-driven robot that is highly modeled on humans, with the goal being to create a robot that can move "almost as elegantly as a human." It won't just be for fun, either. Instead, it'll be designed as a service robot that can help other humans in a multitude of ways. If all goes well, a model of Roboy will be unveiled at the Robots On Tour event this coming March.
It's also one of the very first high-profile robot builds to be crowdfunded. It's unclear is this model will work out, but if so, it could easily boost the interest in advanced robotics. While grants are tougher to get and science is being pushed on the backburner while more pressing issues take precedence, opening up robotic research via crowdfunding could kickstart things in a major way.
15 project partners and over 40 engineers have teamed together to build an initiative to create Roboy, which needs some $500,000 to happen. To date, they've received nearly $300,000. It'll reportedly be a tendon-driven robot that is highly modeled on humans, with the goal being to create a robot that can move "almost as elegantly as a human." It won't just be for fun, either. Instead, it'll be designed as a service robot that can help other humans in a multitude of ways. If all goes well, a model of Roboy will be unveiled at the Robots On Tour event this coming March.
It's also one of the very first high-profile robot builds to be crowdfunded. It's unclear is this model will work out, but if so, it could easily boost the interest in advanced robotics. While grants are tougher to get and science is being pushed on the backburner while more pressing issues take precedence, opening up robotic research via crowdfunding could kickstart things in a major way.
