You know, I only recently found the time to go to the movie theater and watch one of this summer's most famous blockbusters, the second installment in the Transformers series, “Revenge of the Fallen.” And while the movie itself was not exactly something I'm willing to talk about (since it was, from many points of view, a great disappointment), what I will discus as follows is one of the first real-life applications of the “transforming robot” concept, namely the OmniZero.9, developed by a Japanese robot enthusiast called Maeda Takeshi.

The Japanese engineer has managed to create a very versatile device, as you can from the movie.

Practically, from a fairly humanoid form, which employs its legs for moving around, the OmniZero.9 transforms in a matter of seconds into some sort of automotive contraption in order to go up a ramp. Then, it morphs back into a humanoid, only to change yet again later into some sort of moving platform, able to carry around its inventor.

Mr. Takeshi explains for Japanese website RobotWatch that the OmniZero.9 measures 105cm in height and, at 25 kilograms, is fairly lightweight. The device uses a remote-controlled servo motor, which, as you can see, is both versatile and powerful. Plus, the transforming robot delivers a very good level of versatility, since, as demonstrated, can do a little “dance of joy” after going up the ramp.

Of course, it remains to be seen just how soon this concept will move out of the area of robot demo shows and into real life, because the potential is quite impressive. I mean, just imagine just how many things a device that can go from humanoid to automotive mode would be able to accomplish, starting with military applications and going up to rescue operations and, why not, humanitarian ones. The possibilities here are limitless.





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