When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works

Home / News / Google to sell humanoid robot soon

Google to sell humanoid robot soon

Tech giant pulls rescue robot from Pentagon trials to commercialise it

A Google-owned robotics company is withdrawing an award-winning rescue robot from a military competition to concentrate on getting it ready for sale.

Schaft Inc’s bio-inspired HRP-2 robot walks on two legs and uses cutting edge liquid-cooled motors to power its movement and sophisticated hand grippers.

In December’s Darpa Robotics Challenge, the HRP-2 wiped the floor with rivals from MIT, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University in a series of tests from turning off a valve and opening doors to removing debris and driving an ATV.

According to IEEE Spectrum, Schaft announced yesterday that it would not be competing in next year’s finals of the Challenge, in order to “focus on the development of their first commercial product.” 

Robot wars

Robot wars

The Robotics Challenge was formulated by Pentagon boffins seeing the chaos at the Fukushima nuclear power station following the Japanese earthquake and tsunmai in 2011. If robots had been able to work in dangerously radioactive areas, some of the build-up of gases and subsequent explosions may have been avoided.

The HRP-2 aced the US military tests thanks to high-torque arms and legs that proved easily capable of shifting debris, climbing ladders and opening doors. New owners Google, which bought Japanese company Schaft just weeks before the contest began, is now moving forward with commercialising the technology. The potential market for a human-shaped robot is enormous, from cheap factory labour to an instant retrofit that makes any car driverless

Google founder Sergey Brin is a self-confessed robotics nerd. He has used telepresence robots to address tech conferences and speak with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and pushed the company to develop its robotic cars.

READ MORE: Google, Drive: Why you should be pumped about self-driving cars

[IEEE Spectrum]

Profile image of Mark Harris Mark Harris Freelance tech writer

About

British journo now living in soggy Seattle. Loves the tech, misses Maltesers, Martmite and warm beer.

Enable referrer and click cookie to search for eefc48a8bf715c1b ad9bf81e74a9d264 [] 2.7.22