Biannual

Well, it seems like this will be the last entry in regards to "Word of the day". With my thesis having been successfully defended early last week, this is just another indicator that the semester is coming to a close, and, as is the case for some of us, signaling the completion of our respective degrees.

Anyway, biannual- occurs twice a year or once every two years. This was somewhat of a difficult word to work with, but with the help of Google, 'Japan', and 'biannual', I was able to find something interesting to write about.:)

In Japan, there is a biannual competition known as Robo-One. It started in 2002 and has been held twice a year since then. In this competition, competitors build humanoid robots and then battle it out for an equivalent of $10,000 cash prize for 1st place, $2,000 for 2nd, and $1,000 for 3rd.

Here are some pictures of the event:









Now, this may seem somewhat less-than-stellar in writing, and maybe even less so with pictures, but with video... it. is. amazing!!!



In this next video, it's of King Kaiser, robot of the Maru Family, and it has reigned as the champion for a few years.



There are some videos of Naoki Maru demonstrating the the "master/slave" control for his robot, King Kaiser, but I could only find those videos on another site, and they can't be re-embedded here. The site is here though, if you would like to see the motion control that is used by the family to control their robot

Although, I remember vaguely hearing about this competition some time ago, I never really looked into it. Now that I have, it has piqued my interest immensely. Perhaps the next time I go to Japan, I'll have to time it so that I can view this awesome tournament.

Here is an additional link to a video of a "female" robot that can walk, speak, and mimic facial expressions:

Female robot

And here is a link to an article describing a robot that learns like a child and mimics infant learning:

Child robot