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Good morning’ robot who can serve breakfast – before his battery runs out

Light touch: Twendy-One carefully passes a slice of bread in a demonstration

At last the engineers have created a futuristic robot with hands that can do dishes without breaking them.
Twendy-one, as he – or she – is called, has a light touch and a soft grip with movements that respond to human touch.
But don’t be fooled – he has enough strength to support a man to sit or stand.
At the same time he can pick up a loaf of bread without crushing it and serve toast
without showering the kitchen in crumbs.

Good morning: Twendy-One serves breakfast
“It’s the first robot in the world with this much system integration,” said Shigeki Sugano, professor of mechanical engineering at Waseda University,
who led the Twendy-One project.
The project team have managed to balance strength and flexibility – but it
has taken almost seven years and cost millions of pounds to assemble the 241 pressure-sensors in each silicon-wrapped ‘hand’ and the ability to speak.
Twendy-one is 3ft 8ins tall with long arms and a face that puts you in mind of E.T. from the sci-fi movie of the same name.
The name represents a 21st-century version of Wendy, an earlier model.In a demonstration at the university in Tokyo he put toast on a plate, retrieved ketchup from a fridge on demand, and uttered a robotic “good morning” and “bon appetit”.
Unfortunately he only has 15 minutes of battery life and he tends to overheat.
“The robot is so complicated that even for us, it’s difficult to get it to move,” Professor Sugano said.
But the team is hoping to develop a version to help the elderly and patients.
There could even be a robot in an office near you by 2015 to sort the filing – with a price tag of around £100,000.