The development of humanoid robots has made significant progress in recent years. Although several systems have impressive walking abilities, when it comes to their abilities to manipulate objects or interact with their surrounding they are quite limited.
To overcome this limitation, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mathematics developed a human-like torso with two arms and two hands. Justin is used to test programming and control concepts for two-handed mobile manipulation, and in a recent demonstration was able to show impressive abilities including catching two balls in mid air just like a skilled human would do.
The researchers see the future of humanoid robots in household assistance as well as in space environments. Being able to carry out complex manipulation is key to creating a useful humanoid robot. For this purpose dual handed manipulation is currently a matter of active research around the world.
Justin does not have human-like legs; instead it uses wheels to move from one place to another. It's lightweight arms have four fingers. Justin is equipped with numerous sensors (dozens of them exist around its "body") as well as cameras which allow it to create a 3D reconstruction of the its environment and enable it to perform given tasks autonomously.
More information on the project can be found on the
DLR website. A video showing Justin in action can be found
here.
