The T-Rot Bartending Robot
By David Ponce
That’s it, Korea! Go ahead and develop uber robots, with bubbly heads and massive forearms. Hey, it doesn’t matter if you’re planting the seeds for our eventual plunge into slavery… robots are cool!
This one is called the T-Rot (for Thinking Robot!). It is serving as a bartender at the APEC forum currently underway in Busan. It’s able to carry on conversations and fetch drinks. It features special sensors on its hands that allow it to determine just what it is holding, and apply appropriate pressure.
The skin, developed by a team led by Gang Dae-im and Kim Jong-ho from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, has polyamide film and three-axis sensors that can detect vertical pressure and horizontal sliding. It is capable of recognizing the weight of objects with a less than 10 g margin of error when it holds a 100 g object.
That means that when you shake your robo-bartender’s hand, after it’s listened to your stories of sorrow, you will not be rewarded with a trip to the ER.
More here. Story VIA
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