Stanford Students Create Robot Arm That Wields Foam Sword SLOWLY

If the Jedi were to induct a robotic Jedi master that was gifted with the speed of a sloth, this robotic arm could be the inductee. Engineering students at Stanford have created a robot arm that is able to have a real sword fight with you using foam swords rather than light sabers. The bot senses each time the human blocks an attack and then resets itself for another attack.

The students designed and built their project for a three-week long course in Experimental Robotics. There were a number of other projects developed during the course with one that can grill a burger and add ketchup to it for you afterwards. One of the bots even plays golf. The sword fighting bot is the coolest.

I would like to see the thing control its force and actually go at you full speed. I know robot arms can be faster than the project arm is. It would be sort of like a fencing training bot that would actually try to hit you. That would be cool. Check out the videos below to see the robot arms in action.

[via Spectrum]