Abu Dhabi: A professor at UAE University (UAEU) along with his team of student scientists has developed a hi-tech robot that can be controlled by human movements, allowing the robot to replicate the exact type of movements being carried out by the human.
Most robots are commonly controlled by remote control, which is what distinguishes this robot, named Avatar, from the rest. By connecting sensors on the human and the robot, the robot is directly controlled by the person’s movements rather than inputs on a controller.
The project has already received the support of the UAE Armed Forces with a grant of Dh55,000.
“We built a 3D robot with the intention of having the robot replace humans in dangerous and risky situations such as bomb disposals, for example. It is already common to use robots in such circumstances, but what is different about our robot is that it is not controlled by a remote control or a pre-programmed artificial intelligence (AI),” said Dr Fady Al Najar, assistant professor in the Department of Information Technology at UAEU and the head of the project.
“With our robot, we have developed full-body sensors that a person can wear. These sensors will be able to detect the person’s exact movements with their fingers, hands, arms and shoulders. These movements are then copied by the robot, so if a person moves his arm, the robot will also move its arm, so this gives the person complete freedom in how he wants to control the robot,” he added.
Al Najar explained that the robot will also have a camera placed on its head, with the human controller having access to the live footage through a virtual reality (VR) system.
“At the top of the robot, there will be a 360 camera, and it will transfer the footage in real time to the person that is controlling it. The human controller can see the live video by wearing VR glasses, and so it will be like he is actually in the place of the robot.
“If the robot is in a garden, for example, it will be like the controller himself is in the garden and in the same situation,” he added.
Al Najar said the first stage of development has now been successfully completed. In the next phase, they are looking to complete the upper body of the robot. However, “because of budget limitations we are now focusing on completing the left limb”.
“We received a few different offers from interested companies during the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi to help fund the completion of the robot’s development. If we do get the full funding for the project, we could build and complete the whole robot by the end of this year,” he added.
