Mobility Master M1 Robot Has 80s Era Movie Star Looks

This real life Johnny Five is not alive (credit to technabob for noticing the resemblance), but that’s OK because it wasn’t designed to star in any movies—it was designed to move things.

Called the M1 Mobile Manipulator, this robo hauler was created by former MIT roboticists at Maka Robotics to allow an operator to remotely manipulate objects using the M1′s sensors, optics and opposable arms and hands. Interestingly, the team also plans a version with a Microsoft Kinect head unit.

The current unit lacks a Kinect, but does come with a lofty $US340,000 price tag.

How about a sense of humour software update too? That Johnny 5 could slay back in the day. [Meka Robotics IEEE Automation via technabob]