R1 arrives, homemade robots – Avvenire.it

 
  The now now anticipates what he had expected for tomorrow. are in fact at the starting line, ready to be mass produced and arrive on the shelves of department stores: robots designed to enter homes to work with the man, like personal assistants and as “carers”. I’m convinced all the researchers involved in this field, starting with the “father” of R1 , Giorgio Metta , of Genoa the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT): ” the commercial prospects are immense. ” And it is R1 the latest “creation” conceived by the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa to operate precisely in domestic and professional environments. “R1 Your Personal Humanoid” say dall’Iit was made based on the experience gained from the implementation of iCub, the humanoid robot for more widespread research in the world.

R1 has an Italian design, weighs about 50 pounds, has a height of 1 meter and 25 to 1 meter and 40 centimeters variable thanks to a torso extending and is made for the 50% of plastic and for the other 50% of carbon fiber and metal. It will cost initially as a small car, but in the future will come to cost a few thousand euro.
 
 For Metta, as with other researchers involved in this field, have a robot at home may be a reality in ten years, just like the end of the ’80s had predicted Bill Gates. In an article published in the monthly Scientific American Microsoft founder he predicted that in 25 years in each house would enter a robot. The arrival of robots as R1 is a sign that that prediction is now realizing, as the goalkeeper robot complete with a split symbolized by a yellow tie, made from a spin off of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, the Co- Robotics. “We set ourselves two years as a target for a model that can be produced on an industrial scale, said researcher Philip Horse, co-founder of the spin off. The same goes for the caregiver robot, complete with a blue cap. Both as R1 IIT, are ready for production on an industrial scale. “

All, as well as in homes, are able to work in contact with humans also in other environments, such as hospitals,
 
 where the first experiments were conducted. If the first robots entered the family were so far of
 
 isolated experiments, conducted primarily in Japan, things are now about to change drastically. Meanwhile work continues to bring more and more robots in contact with humans and the environment in which he lives. In Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland, for example, the testing of the first robot bellboy: small six-wheeled trucks scheduled to deliver an address food is imminent.