the ‘MH-2’ (‘miniature humanoid 2’) robot is meant to offer telepresence to friends or relatives in another location

the ‘MH-2’ (‘miniature humanoid 2’) robot being developed by researchers at yamagata university’s telerobotics lab in japan is designed to be a portable companion, which stands in for friends who are not present by sending them its ‘vision’ and itself duplicating their words and gestures. currently consisting of a head and torso, the robot can already wave, bow, and make other gestures, via 22 actuators connected to a small controlboard backpack.

researchers are foremost seeking to minimize the weight and bulk of the control system. the long-term goal of the project is to create telepresent robotic avatars of friends or relatives who are in other locations. a user brings an ‘MH-2’, while his friend at home enters a motion capture environment (like kinect or leap) with an immersive 3D display. the robot’s ‘vision’ is projected for the friend at home, and the ‘MH-2’ itself replicates his/her speech and gestures.

video introduction to ‘MH-2’ (gestural demos beginning at 0:44)

shoulder perching robot companion photographs of the ‘MH-2’ adopting various poses (see them in action in the video above beginning at 0:44)

project engineers Yuichi Tsumaki, Fumiaki Ono, and Taisuke Tsukuda presented the ‘MH-2’ robot at the recent 2012 IEEE international conference on robotics and automation in minnesota, USA.

via IEEE spectrum