At the center for Cognitive Robotics Research in Seoul (a department of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology), Dr. Bum-Jae You is currently working on a robot that can copy a human's moves with precise detail, thus allowing it do dance and do more than you can ever imagine a robot doing. Of course, the first thing that pops into my mind right now is recon missions, but the Koreans are only using it to get high scores at Dance Dance Revolution for the time being. The Mahru robot, as KIST named it, can capture the moves in real time and you will be able to see this impressive feature in the two videos I have embedded after the text.

It is not a suit, so don't think about Matrix and the robotic soldiers that were used to fight the Machines in the third part, no, Mahru is an independent robot that moves with help from an “operator,” meaning a human that performs the moves you want the robot to do. So, from a chef's aid to performing Taekwondo moves, the latest version of this robot, called the Mahru Z, can do whatever move its operator performs.

Since “how?” has been floating in the air for quite some time, I will tell you that Mahru is able to “act human” in two ways. One would be the filming of the operator with body markers with a traditional optical motion-capture system (like the one you have in your home right now), and the other is by dressing the operator with a wearable inertial motion-capture suit. This system allows for the robot to move in real time, even while walking and, believe me, the videos are delicious, especially the one featuring the entire body movement reproduction, which I got from IEEE Spectrum's YouTube channel.

The force-torque sensors and compliant control are the real technology behind Mahru's impressive abilities and, of course, Dr. Bum Jae-You’s at KIST. OK, this is just me being silly, but I would actually do the robot dance routine if I were to ever dance with the Mahru. Oh, and don't expect it to do a bandae dollyo chagi (spin kick) Taekwondo move in the second video. Via Plasticpals.







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