We’ve shown you many Kinect-based hacks and applications over the past months, and here is a new one from Japan: major robot maker Yaskawa has developed a humanoid that can be remote-controlled using a Kinect interface. Dubbed SmartPal VII, the telepresence robot can be used to communicate with other people over a distance or even help them cleaning up rooms, for example (by controlling the robot’s arms using Kinect).
Yaskawa explains:
This robot resembles a person, so it has many degrees of freedom. We’ve given it technology that lets people utilize that freedom easily, just by moving their hands, while the robot itself considers how to move its hand, back, and trolley in optimal ways.
SmartPal VII runs on wheels and is equipped with a gyro sensor, improved wrists and arms (the previous version was shown in 2007), a set of touch sensors, an infrared sensor in its head, and a stereo camera with pan tilt.
This video (in English, shot by Diginfo TV) provides more insight: