You need to see this sword fighting robot

[Image Source: NamikiLabs]

Manika Laboratory based in Japan specialise in robotics with high-speed manipulation and vision that can both move and react quicker than humans. It all sounds well and good until you hear that they programmed one to be able to sword fight. Yeah, we imagine the team behind it hasn't seen the Terminator movies.

Check it out:

There are a pair of high-speed cameras that act as the robot's eyes, giving it stereo vision so that it can perceive depth. This means it knows the position of its opponent and can also recognise their movements (as well as knowing where its own sword is in 3D space of course).

Algorithms have been programmed to analyse the initial movement and calculate the possible trajectories. It then works out the best method of defense to cover all possibilities, as well as having the quicker reaction time to its advantage.

They also demonstrated other, less scary, achievements in robotic motion such as folding paper and catching a ball in the Japanese game kendama.