Skip to main content

Human Robot

Of course, I know that Mr. Gray is a huge robotics guy.  This blog is an attempt for me to suck up to maybe get some extra points toward my grade in this class.  I decided to google "science news" and find what came up.  I found a cool website called sciencenews.org.  I guess scientists aren't that creative when coming up with names for things.  I found a very interesting article about a boy named Kengoro.


Image result for science news
Kengoro is not your typical teenage boy.  Although he has the same body structure and proportions as other teens, Kengoro is actually a robot.  He was created at the University of Tokyo by an engineer named Masayuki Inaba and his colleagues.  The robot is named Kengoro, and he is completely life sized.  I'm not really sure if I can call a robot a "he," but, for the purpose of this blog, I will. 

humanoid robot




Kengoro is a very advanced boy robot.  He is able to do physical activity for 20 minutes at a time, and is powered by batteries in each leg.  It is absolutely mind blowing that this robot is also able to do pushups, sit-ups, and pushups.  Even more incredible is the fact that this robot can go up on his tip toes.  
Image result for kengoro
Reading this article, I was first very skeptical.  Of course I love technology and I use it all the time, but what is the purpose of making robots that can do what humans do? If these robots have the same strength and artificial intelligence that humans do, many people would be out of jobs and it would be honestly creepy to walk around and see robots out there living their lives while you were trying to live yours.  This article put some of my fears to rest.  There are different things that this robot could be used for that would greatly help the human population.  
Image result for robots walking cartoon
At this point in time, test dummies are used to see what would happen to a human if their car were to get into an accident.  They are needed often when new models of cars come out and are used in many studies.  This robot or other models like it could be used in place of test dummies.  Since Kengoro is so anatomically correct, the tears in his "muscles", the hits to his head, and whether or not he is thrown from the car would be very accurate compared to a human.  This would obviously help because it will help humans to be safer when driving and survive more car accident. Image result for test dummy

Another useful place for this robot is in the development of prosthetics.  Being able to create humanlike muscles is an amazing advancement in science.  It is interesting how closely physics and medicine interact.  There are so many people who need prosthetics.  Some people are born without limbs, others lose them due to cancers, and still others lose them to tragedies such as war and car accidents.  It is amazing that researchers are doing things to help these people.  
Image result for prosthetic

fun fact: Kengoro can also play badminton. 

link to the article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/boy-robot-passes-agility-tests?mode=topic&context=96


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Physics of Black Holes...Or Lack Thereof

Isabella Jacavone To comprehend how the universe works, we must dwell into the most basic building blocks of existence; matter, energy, space, and time. NASA's  Physics of the Cosmos program involves cosmology, astrophysics, and fundamental physics intended to answer questions about the elusiveness of complex concepts such as black holes, neutron stars, dark energy, and gravitational waves. In this blog post, I'd like to elaborate on a subject that is very intriguing  to me; Black holes. And more specifically, what would happen if we got near one. A black hole is anything but a hole, but rather an immense amount of matter compacted into an extremely small area. A black hole is caused when, hypothetically, a star four times more massive than our sun collapses into a sphere no bigger than 600 square km. To put that in perspective, that's about the size of New York City. B lack holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which showed that when a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Physics of Sound Dampeners and Active Noise Cancellation

Physics of Sound Dampeners and Active Noise Cancellation Sound dampening foam panels in a recording studio. ANC headphones worn by pilots and/or passengers in consumer aviation aircraft.  Acoustic treatment of soundscapes has grown alongside the sound production industry. Whether through absorption panels, diffusors and cloud panels to treat a space or headphones placed directly over the ears of listeners, acoustic treatment comes in many forms. Environments are treated acoustically to absorb excess sound to prevent sound levels from crossing a threshold above which the desired goal cannot be had. Before getting into sound dampening, we must discuss sound. Sound is produced when an object vibrates (a form of oscillation) and temporarily displaces nearby air molecules causing a wave effect as the displaced molecules collide with their neighboring molecules. Sound waves are fluctuations in pressure as the initial displacement of molecules experiences collisions that in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Physics Behind the Rail Gun

Magnets and Magnetic Fields: Magnets are well known for their ability to repel and attract other magnets and various pieces of metal, but what people seldom understand are the physics at work that cause such occurrences. Magnets are everywhere, from within TV's and cellphones, to the Earth itself, and they are all producing magnetic fields. For a particle, a magnetic field can be defined to be "a vector quantity that is directed along the zero- force axis" with a magnitude equal to the dividend of the magnetic force and the product of the particle's charge and speed, and for a bar magnet, the field is best demonstrated as arcs going from one pole to the other. With that said, magnetic fields can also be created; the basic principle of electromagnetism is that the movement of electrons through a conductor produces a magnetic field in the region around the conductor. This is the fundamental principle behind the workings of the rail gun. Unlike a bar magnet, a ...
Post a Comment
Read more