Jan 11, 2016 | By Kira

Jinn-Bot Robotics & Design is a Switzerland-based company that has manufactured the first Swiss-made 3D printed walking humanoid robot, capable of hearing, speaking, expressing ‘moods’ and performing a variety of movements, all while controlled via a either a PC or Android device and freely downloadable app. Named Jinn, this friendly-looking and modular bot was designed to educate and train users of all levels in CAD, 3D printing, and Javascript programming, and to present various real-life solutions and applications for robotics in everyday life.

Standing at an impressive 110 cm tall (roughly 3’6”) and weighing 5.3 kg (11.6 lbs), Jinn’s components are entirely 3D printed in PLA plastic (ninety 3D printed components total), and are modular and expandable. Its multiple sensors, including motion, voice, light, Bluetooth and ultrasonic, and its higher functions, including complex motion sequences, reading SMS or playing music, are all controlled by the Android app, developed by Roger Seeberger and his team. The app manages 24 different servos on the standard version, and thanks to WiFi connectivity and various software upgrades, Jinn can easily ‘learn’ new capabilities and be adapted to users’ individual needs.

Various videos of Jinn in action show it standing up by itself, walking on meter in six seconds, and even standing on one foot. Jinn also responds to voice controls, and its animated face display changes based on its ‘mood’.

Aside from putting a friendly, humanoid face on robots, however, the main advantage—and indeed purpose of Jinn—is to make robotics more accessible, and to introduce teachers, students, and vocational users to robotic technologies. The Jinn-Bots team founded the company in order to give robots ‘mass appeal’, and now provides robotic systems based on industry-standard modules for classrooms, universities, or vocational trainers.

Their educational products, which include Jinn, a feline-shaped robot known as Kitty, and a Robotic Arm, are all designed in CAD and manufactured using 3D printing. The parts are open source and can therefore be modified, and software is based on Java, the ‘industry standard’ for programming, giving users a solid introduction to the world of robotics hardware and software. On the one hand, the company wants to show how robots can provide real-life solutions for everyday situations, yet they also see applications for humanoid robots in health care (elderly care or use in children’s hospitals), entertainment, manufacturing, packaging, and more.

While Jinn is already a quite advanced humanoid robot, what makes it special is its capacity to be upgraded at both he hardware and software levels quickly and continuously. If you want to get your hands on your own walking humanoid 3D printed robot, however, a fully-assembled model will cost you roughly €10,700.

As human-robot interaction becomes an increasing reality in our very near future, we will not only need to be comfortable with the presence of humanoid robots, we will also need the knowledge to design, manufacture, and control them for our various needs. Thus, educational projects such as Jinn, as well as other 3D printed bi-pedal or biomimetic bots, including PLEN2 and experiments in soft robotics, are an important step in that direction.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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peterobot wrote at 1/11/2016 1:43:19 PM:

nice thingy, but why €10,700 and how is it ompatible with the open source thinkerer market? this shoud be around $200-$300 without the servos and the smartphone, when produced on industrial scale. they could try to finance their software dev.buy having a subscription plan to diffferent apps enabling the robot to do different things..



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