Eggy Robot
Full Conference
One-Day Full Conference
Basic Conference/Exhibits Plus
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The most recent progress on the Eggy Robot project, which aims to synthesise a robot that helps us feel and imagine the emergence of primeval organisms. |
Enhanced Life
The Eggy Robot project is the very first attempt to implement a totally soft robot, a synthetic being that consists of "soft balloons" and pneumatic muscles. The robot moves in a very novel manner, approaches humans when they are detected by the robot's vison system, and offers greetings.
Goal
The short-term goal is to synthesise artistic, child-safe, entertaining robots. The long-term goal is to develop Eggy Robots that will explore the surface of Mars or the deep oceans.
Innovations
When a robot consists of "hard" materials such as aluminum, it is easy to control its behavior. But when a robot is made of soft materials, it is almost impossible to control its behaviour with traditional control theory. The Eggy Robot project explores a novel behavioural-control architecture in which robot behaviours emerge from the interplay among the robot's neural system, its bodily dynamics, and its environmental dynamics.
Vision
The technologies exploited in this project will help robotic or toy companies build effective, useful, child-safe home robots in the next 20-50 years.
Contributor
Yoichiro Kawaguchi
The University of Tokyo
