A robot rises, and teaches

ITESM/DICYT Mechatronics engineering alumni Daniel Flores, Roberto Tejeda, Carlos Reyes, and Octavio Tonatiuh Morales are the brains behind "Lazarus", a project embarked upon within the “Applied Robotics” course taught by Hugo González, PhD.

The project aimed to create a humanoid robot, i.e. one with limbs and object-detecting and routine-programming capabilities, building on others already on the market to develop new robots of this kind and aid education.

Driving the development of this type of robots is to have a worthy entry at the Mexican Robotics Federation-organized Robocup Tournament, held each year at different venues in Mexico, as well as in higher learning institutions, like the Tecnológico de Monterrey, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México -UNAM-, and the Politécnico Nacional.

"Lazarus" is smaller -under 5 feet--and lighter at 6 pounds, than conventional robots like the French NAO prototype that has been on the market for some time and aids research.

There is no word yet on its possible price tag. There are robots that command between 25,000 and 35,000 dollars, and "Lazarus" costs wouldn’t even run to 10% of that.

"We've turned to materials like aluminum, as well as carbon fiber, to lower its weight", Mr. Flores said.