Iran's got a walking humanoid robot, too (update: video!)

Two years ago, Iranian students built Sorena, a white humanoid machine that reportedly wheeled about via remote control. For 2010, robots experts at Tehran University decided to update the creature -- and apparently, channel a little bit of Asimo. Surena 2 was unveiled by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week, its purpose unknown. Named after a famous Persian warrior, the robot stands 4.7 feet tall, and can walk about slowly carrying its own weight of 99 pounds. Gulf News reports the robot will get vision and speech modules later on down the road. If it ends up conducting orchestras or performing show tunes, we'll be sure to keep you informed.

www.engadget.com...

you see people here (wont mention them) talk about how tecnicaly inferior the country is and it cant really build anything, this thing is kind of shocking, they must have stolen that robot from some poor american research Grad.

Looks to much like AZIMO
asimo.honda.com...

reply to post by hillbilly4rent


IT IS AZIMO, they just paint on a different name and bingo. IRANIAN techs. build robot. then slap it in the iranian post and WOW, people believe they built it.

It may be walking, but it doesn't seem very fast. I mean, if you see that thing coming with a load of explosives, you'd have time to run. I don't think it would be very good at sneaking up on anyone. Maybe if they let it out at night while people were sleeping, it could walk into a place. Even so, they'd have to place it into position and it would have to have access to a building or area. I don't know how it would be useful for a weapon just as it is. It is interesting to see what can be done with robotics, but I don't think we will be bowing to our mechanical overlords any time soon. The only way I think it would really work would be if they could somehow use a device to hijack a human body and thus control the human's movement, speech, and everything.
They may have mind control right now, for all we know. But then the body is only capiable of going into places and situations that a human body can tolerate. Even if the body is expendable, and they fully expect the human to die during the mission, there are limitations to what that person is going to be able to do.

They'd want a very physically fit body for one thing. Then they'd want a strong body for fighting, or a lean fast body for spying. That rules out most of us. They'd want fast reflexes and good mental capacity for thinking and problem solving. The body would have to be free of most diseases.

Then they'd want someone who looks pretty good, but maybe not too good. They'd want someone to blend in with everyone else.

Probably they would just create the type of person they wanted.

I think robotics are good, but if you really want something that moves like a person, you are going to need an actual person.

The best robots I have seen do not move like a person, but move more like bugs on land or fish in water or birds in the air.

This is why, if we ever have mechanical overlords, I think they'd look more like a giant scorpion something.

He looks cool but he's got a case of the slooooowwwwws!!

reply to post by jessieg


seriously, where is the weapons usage coming from,
since its Iran these students must just have the goal of making weapons?

I was just looking at this in a terminator mindset. Some people believe that this senario will actually happen, but I don't think it will be any time soon.
I wasn't trying to say that they are developing these as weapons really. I was thinking that if the machines somehow did get into the wrong hands, how useful would it be if it was so slow? Or if it somehow gained awareness. Well I don't really see how a machine could gain awareness right now. Maybe one day it may be possible if machines are somehow integrated. I know there have been robots integrated with rat brain cells and these can navigate around things. Is that a type of awareness? I don't know. It is kind of scary.

Still, robots like this one aren't very fast, so they don't really seem that bad.

I know is some countries there are older populations of people. These older people do not want younger people, especially immigrants, to care for them. So they would rather have a robot to do that. I don't know how useful a robot can be at this point. Maybe one day we will all be able to buy ourselves a robot maid, but at this point they wouldn't be able to do work very fast.

I'd like to see a swimming robot that can rescue drowing people or a flame resistant robot that can navigate a building, knock down walls and save people out of a burning building or help rescue people in a hostage situation.

I know there are good ideas for how robots can be used, as many good ideas as there are bad ideas.

But we do have to figure out what a robot can do that is evil, because chances are even those that are designed for good can fall into the wrong hands and be used for warfare.

reply to post by jessieg


you ever watch prototype this?
the robotic life guard where everything is automated?



thats good usage there

Humanoid robot is marketing ...

Easy to understant for 99% of the population, that don't understand science/robotic(industrial / nano, genetic)/ and informatic ( ia , and strong ia).

MAN : you are a robot : do you want to be more ?