• Videos: Iranian Humanoid Surena 2

    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

    Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

    Iran isn’t exactly the first country that springs to mind when it comes to robotics, but the Center for Advanced Vehicles at the University of Tehran has developed a pretty advanced model. Dubbed Surena 2, the humanoid made quite a big splash even in non-tech-related media when it was first unveiled last month.

    IEEE Spectrum has been digging deeper and found out some more details about the robot. It weighs 45kg, stands 1.45m tall, can be remote-controlled and has 22 joints. Surena 2 is able to walk, make a bow and even stand on one leg (holding the balance is actually quite a big challenge for humanoids).

    Watch Surena 2 in action in the videos below (these are new clips obtained by IEEE Spectrum). Design-wise, the humanoid is obviously “inspired” by Honda’s Asimo and lacks his agility, but it doesn’t look bad for a 2nd generation robot overall.

    Video 1:

    Video 2:

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