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Enter the Dragon

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Limbs of steel, head-stands, double somersaults and Kung Fu moves in the blink of an eye! And if that weren't formidable enough, there’s the menacing stamp of a Sumo wrestler readying to pin down his opponent. Meet the small robotic incarnation of Bruce Lee–Fujitsu's compact humanoid, the HOAP 2–who stole the show at the CEATEC 2003 (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) in Tokyo recently. 

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Standing 50 cm tall and weighing about 7 kg, the rather compact HOAP 2 is not likely to replace your chowkidar. Neither will he be your personal bodyguard in the near future. For the time being, HOAP 2 is more of a technology demonstrator that runs on open-source software–Red Hat Linux 7.3. Its 25 odd internal motors are powered by a rechargeable 24 V Ni-MH battery. 

You can connect and control the HOAP 2 from your computer via USB or WLAN (2.4 Ghz) and use it to understand replicating human-like motion in robots. Or you can program new moves, disconnect the USB cable and watch in amusement as the rather energetic humanoid goes through its moves. 

The HOAP series of robots were designed to help researchers study advanced robotics. Fujitsu hopes to sell about 30 HOAPs to researchers worldwide in 2004.

Benoy George Thomas

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