RQ-TITAN is a robot created by RoboBuilder with the sole purpose of competing in an athletic event, along other metallic androids. Don’t expect it to score any hat-tricks or do the scissor kick on the field anytime soon.
The ones who are interested in buying a bipedal robot, but don’t want to spend tremendous amounts of money on such commercial options as KAIST’s HUBO or Kawada Industries’ HRP-4, should turn their heads to RQ-TITAN, the soccer playing robot.
As seen in the above picture, RQ-TITAN comes with a built-in PC that offers it the following features:
- 4 USB ports
- 1 Serial port
- 2 Ethernet Ports
- 1 HDMI video output
- Line out for speakers
- Line in for microphone
- Wi-Fi
The brain of this 22 pound (10 kg), 95 cm tall robot is a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU that runs in tandem with 2 GB DDR3 RAM. Its software is stored on a 60GB SSD and since it is open-source, it can be used on Linux Mint, Windows 7 and Android OS.
The microphone and the speaker are used for inputing and outputting sound. More precisely, these two components are used for speech recognition and synthesis. Presumably, the robot is able to interpret and execute vocal commands, and also to give some sort of vocal feedback to its user.
The force sensors, the gyrometer and the acceleration sensor are used not only for setting the robot in motion, but also for helping it keep its balance. This last detail is particularly important, given the purpose of the robot. The 5-cell 18.5 volt Li-Po battery will keep RQ-TITAN running on a soccer field for up to 30 minutes.
RQ-TITAN may not be cheap, but it still is a lot more accessible than its aforementioned competitors. At $30,000, this soccer playing robot is up to 13 times cheaper than those two commercial options. To make it look better, the ones who are planning to buy an RQ-TITAN are given the option to purchase an exoskeleton. However, this additional feature will cost people $10,000 more.
Of course, there are cheaper options, too. It is important to understand that not all people who want to buy a bipedal companion are interested in the same features. For example, some might pay more attention to the physical abilities of such robots, while others find the processing power more relevant. Either way, it is good to see that robots of all sorts are developed each day, regardless of how cheap or expensive they are.
If you liked this post, please check the basketball shotting robotic seal and the positive pressure universal gripper robot.
