a robot in the shape of a human - two arms, two legs, one head, one torso is generally classified as a humanoid robot

humanoid robots are the most likely to successfully enter the human world of daily life, simply because they will fit into it more neatly than any other shape of robot

they can move around our buildings, they can increasingly use the same tools as us, and perhaps most importantly they have the potential to move in a way that naturally makes sense to us - which makes them safer to be around

the problem is that until now humanoid robots have only been designed to look like the human body on the outside

on the inside they are constructed to be as rigid as possible so that they can be controlled by a method devised in the 70's

being rigid means that the robot can calculate where its body is positioned at all times but it also means that if it makes a mistake then the full weight of the robot will come to bear on whatever it has accidentally touched

this cannot be avoided - making the robot quicker to avoid a near miss must also increase the potential damage caused when it finally does get it wrong

this kind of robot comes from factories and that is where it is always destined to remain

for robots to enter our daily lives they need to be fundamentally safer, they must not just look like us, they must also move like us

The Robot Studio believes that the only way to achieve that, is to study and copy the human body

this process began with the Cronos project and is now entering a new phase with the ECCERobot project