From Garco To The New Bots In Town
stability as they are quite
mobile, walking and
balancing on two legs and
feet. Some of the newest and
most unique — if not most
capable — bipedal robots
come from two countries
people usually do not think of
for this type of technology:
the United Arab Emirates and
Vietnam. Several months ago,
I mentioned an interesting
robot called the REEM-B from
a UAE company. It is an
amazing robot and I had
quite a few emails asking me
more about it.
The REEM series of
robots gets their name from
Reem Island, or actually Al
Reem Island about 600
meters off the coast of Abu
Dhabi, UAE. This city is the
center of explosive growth in
the Middle East and many
companies — both small and
large — are centered there, as
well as lavish housing and entertainment facilities. The
REEM robots were developed by Pal Technology based in
Abu Dhabi. The company is well known for its reverse
osmosis desalinization plants (a greatly-needed product in
this parched part of the world) but they also are big in
construction, IT, and security.
A division of Pal Technology is Pal Robotics, builders of
the REEM robots. The company is situated in Barcelona,
Spain and is led by an Italian, Davide Faconti, who leads the
team of Italian and Spanish engineers. Their first robot
(REEM-A in Figure 12) was built in 2006 when several
FIGURE 12.
FIGURE 13. The
REEM-B robot.
at Pal Robotics vastly improved their design and the REEM-B
evolved (shown in Figure 13). The new robot debuted in
June ‘08 and weighs 60 Kg, stands 1.47 meters high, can
operate for an amazing two hours, and possesses 51
degrees of freedom in the arms, legs, and body joints. It
can walk at 1.5 Km/hr, can climb stairs, and can carry a
payload of 12 Kg. Obviously, to walk as a biped REEM-B
needs a gyro system, as well as accelerometers feeding its
FIGURE 14.
REEM-H2 robot.
FIGURE 14. REEM-H2 robot as museum guide.
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