USTC's robot playing football
A robot developed by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) had its debut show at the RoboCup 2009 Exercise Competitions, China which took place from May 16 to 17 in Hefei, Anhui province.
This is the first time USTC reveiled its robot technology to the public. This average-looking robot can listen to people, talk and identify its acquaintances in the crowd. More complex tasks such as finding and fetching things can also be easily performed. "It is actually capable of many more complicated tasks," according to the commentator, "for example, cleaning rooms and shopping at the supermarket."
The1.5-meters-high and 30-kg-weight robot is composed of a pedestal, arms and various sensors. Technologies such as language recognition, natural language comprehension, automated reasoning, task planning, motion planning, and sensing and control were used at it. It was the first time that natural language comprehension and planning technologies were applied to a robot and it therefore acquired more ability in interacting with people, comprehending languages and solving problem.
Home service robot is a hot topic in robot research and development both in China and abroad, noted Chen Xiaoping from the Department of Computer Science and Technology, USTC. Intelligent robots are also one of the four manufacturing technologies listed in the National Outlines for Medium and Long-term Planning for Scientific and Technological Development (2006-2020).
