Roboy, the robotic 'boy' set to help humans with everyday tasks (and scientists hope to build him in just nine months)



1.2m tall humanoid robot designed to help people with everyday tasks

Uses artificial muscles to move, and is covered with a soft skin

Hoped it could lead to helper robots that allow the sick and elderly to retain their independence

Scientists have revealed an ambitious plan to create a humanoid helper robot with artificial muscles - in just nine months.

Engineers at the University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Lab hope that 1.2m tall Roboy, designed to look like a child, will eventually help the sick and elderly by acting as a mechanical helper.

To help the robot move, the team are developing radical artificial 'tendons'.

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An artist's impression of how Roboy could look. Scientists plan to spend nine months creating him, and hope he could become an automated helper for the sick and elderly

Roboy will have a skeleton similar to a human's and will be operated via special artificial tendons that flex like out own muscles.



The team has already signed up 15 project partners and over 40 engineers, and hope to fund the project using a combination of commercial partners and crowdfunding.



'Financing the project through sponsorship and crowd funding enables us to implement an extremely ambitious project in an academic environment", said Professor Rolf Pfeifer, wh is leading the project.

The team hope Roboy will become a blueprint for 'service robots' that work alongside humans.

'Service robots are machines that are, to a certain extent, able to execute services independently

for the convenience of human beings,' the researchers say.

'Since they share their 'living space' with people, userfriendliness and safety are of great importance'.

The project will use artificial tendons.

'Thanks to his construction as a tendon-driven robot modelled on human beings ('normal' robots have their motors in their joints), Roboy moves almost as elegantly as a human,' the team claim.

'Our aging population is making it necessary to keep older people as autonomous as possible for as long as possible, which means caring for aged people is likely to be an important area for the deployment of service robots.



'We can very safely assume that service robots will become part of our environment in the future, as is already the case today for technologies such as smartphones and laptops.'

The team is already developing parts of the Roboy, such as its skeleton like chest which houses spring-like artificial tendons