About Robot And Machines

Seon.Jae.Kim

Our imagination has reached the point where robots are able to cook, educate, protect, sense their situations and act on their own.

The portrayal of robots in reality is beyond most people's imagination, and especially filmmakers' ideas, now, though.

Imagination alone, however, does not create robots.

After every inventive scheme comes a lot of work.

While the people's imaginations run wild, researchers at the Division for Applied Robot Technology (DART) of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) are working their fingers to the bone trying to keep up.

Just as three elements are required for a plant to grow, if government is compared to the sun and the enterprises are like the rain, researchers are the earth that provides nutrition to the roots of the robot industry.

Research centers make sure the robot industry takes in a balanced diet, which includes core technology, high technology, applied technology, contents, and strong parts.

"Over the years, we have learned that in the long run of core technology development, applied technology must be developed and commercialized along the way in order to encourage the market and put core technology back in line," said Kim Hong-seok, the Managing Director of the Center for Intelligent Robots.

This is one of the reasons why the DART at KITECH has chosen to display actuators and modules at RobotWorld 2008 this year.

DART plans to fulfill its role as a research center and promote components and subsystems like actuator controllers and electro-hydraulic servo controllers.

"These are not things that are difficult to make with our current technologies, but actually the parts required are not freely available for scientists who need to build compact robots.

Our institute has been putting continuous effort into the production of small yet reliable motors to put in the robots," Kim said.

In fact, Kim says, of his team's priority R&D projects are Android robots, EveR-1and -2. These female humanlike robots are nearly 5.5 feet tall and only weigh 100 pounds.

"You can imagine how light and small the motors in their joints have to be," said Kim.

According to Dr. Kim, the research institutions are the places that also have to support business through the building of infrastructure and the running of project management.

Since its establishment in 1989, DART has shown consistent progress in the development of robot technology.

Korean robot history can easily be learned by studying the accomplishments of DART over the past two decades.

"At first, these robots did not look like what we normally picture in our heads.

They rather looked like machineries.

Some research and developments from the 1990's including omni-directional Autonomously- Guided Vehicles (AGV's), master/slave robots, plasterer robots, and welding robots are good examples," explained Kim.

With the development of wireless remote control systems, 3D accurate positioning technology, and 3D noncontact measurement system in the 2000's, the robots have started to look like the ones we have seen in the movies.

Not only have robots become humanoid, though, now they are on track to becoming android robots with artificial silicon skin that makes them look like a Korean female in her 20's. EveR-1 models are built with servo motors that are compact in size and reasonable in price.

They can give the robots the ability to produce various gestures and emotional facial expressions, maintain eye contact, and make them able to conduct basic conversations, with a vocabulary of 400 words.

EveR-2 is the world first robot singer - it can produce various gestures with 60 servo motors and can communicate with a larger vocabulary of 1,000 words. DART is still advancing in the research and development process with the EveR series, which it is producing alongside a quadruped walking robot that is expected to be used for multi-purpose by the military in the near future.

However, things have not been easy for DART.

Kim said, "We made our own parts to connect the pieces together, since the industry for making the parts that we need lags our advances in Korea.

Not only should research and development get more intense in the robot industry, but so too should the development of subcomponents in order to keep in with fast-changing trends."

The completion of previous inventions, such as SEROPI, which stands for Service Robot Platform Initiative, a humanoid robot with a wheel base, and a hovering robot for the surveillance of hazardous situations have proven that, in many respects, some robots can indeed be called "intelligent robots".

Such "intelligent robots" include service robots for both personal and professional use, manufacturing robots, and components and subsystems.

<Thank you> (^.^)