In the last few years, the field of robotics has seen a number of new developments. The sole reason for this is the ongoing research and development work done by various government and corporate funded organizations.
One of the most important and advanced research platforms currently in use in the field of robotics research is the iCub. This is a humanoid robotic test bed. The iCub is used for research in two key areas of robotics. The first is AI or Artificial Intelligence. The second is human cognition which means the ability of robots to understand and react to the human actions, reactions and expressions, as well as mimic them as required.
The credit of development of this wonder goes to several universities of Europe who came together to form the RobotCub Consortium. The project is also getting significant support from other allied research projects like ITALK. To ensure open and maximum access to the findings of the study program, all the software code, hardware designs as schematics as well as the technical documentation have been released under the GNU General Public License. This has been one of the key reasons of the great success and deep penetration of iCub in various robotics research initiatives.
Interestingly, the name iCub is a partial acronym. The Cub part of the name of iCub stands for Cognitive Universal Body. This is a nod to the fact that the initial funding for this research program came from the Unit E5- Cognitive Systems and Robotics - which is a part of the Seventh Framework Program run by the European Commission. The initial funding amount was €8.5 million and it lasted from September 1, 2004 through September 1, 2010, five years in total.
As of now, there are as many as 20 different iCub units operational in different laboratories across Europe. One unit of iCub is also in United States. The devices are made by the Italian Institute of Technology and based upon the variant and features chosen, they are priced anywhere between €200,000-250,000, though being open source means that any robotics or engineering research body with sufficient resources and expertise can construct a fully featured and operational unit by itself.
Technically, iCub is a very advanced device. It is a meter high and its dimensions are roughly similar to those of a three year old child. A PC104 controller has been installed on board the robot to control it. All communication with the actuators and sensors is done using CANBus. The robot has as many as 53 actuated degrees of freedom allowing significant movement, stereo cameras in place of eyes and mics for ears. LED lines represent the mouth and eyelids which enable iCub to make facial expressions.
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