NICT (National institute of Communication and Information technology) Japan has developed the ‘i-1’ robot which is a part of their Universal communication research. Unlike other robots which respond to voice commands the ‘i-1’ responds to gestures and motion. The robot stands 155 cms tall (5 feet) and weighs around 85 kgs. It has 7 sensors each in the arm and leg, 3 in the waist and neck, 6 in the each hand and two in each eye for smoother movement. The arms, legs and waist are powered by a hydraulic actuator whereas the fingers are powered by a pneumatics actuator. A load of sensors serve the i-1 with constant information it has 4 stereo cameras and 2 mics in its head along with 26 axial force, 3 axial gyro and 1 axial accelerometer sensors which are located throughout the body. The robot using the stereo cameras analyzes and stores human motions and gestures. It runs on ART-Linux and uses Ethernet for internal communications. i-2 is a part of research and wont be commercially available.
(More images and videos after the jump)

Teddy tracking