Meet DiGORO, the android that will one day clean your house for you

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Monday, August 24th, 2009

digoroDiGORO is certainly not the first robot taking care of household chores out there, but it’s definitely one of the coolest. Developed by a team of researchers at Honda Research Institute and other Japan-based organizations, the robot is capable of imitating human movements like wiping or moving objects from one place to another.

DiGORO is about 150cm tall, weighs 120kg, has two arms, a camera in his head and moves on wheels. He’s also equipped with a microphone that comes with a voice recognition function to identify his master. The researchers claim DiGORO can learn up to ten movements and is also able to adjust to its immediate environment, for example pieces of furniture placed in a room he’s supposed to clean.

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DiGORO is said to be the first programmable robot that’s designed to do housework. His makers plan to commercialize the technology within “several years”.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

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