RIM celebrated the grand opening of their new facilities recently by opening its doors to students and faculty for tours and live project demonstrations. Pizza and refreshments were served, as well as several large cakes commemorating the event.

Students and faculty working within RIM took the opportunity to show off their work, and thrilled guests with live demonstrations. One of these projects was a mobile autonomous arm, designed for assembling car doors by John Rogers and Jake Huckabee. Assembling car doors is one of the few automotive manufacturing tasks that must still be done by hand, so this robot is an effort to try to automate that process. The robotic arm is built on a Segway base, and balances all on its own.

Another popular attraction was two fighting robots named Oro and Kai. Built for the RoboCup competition, these two humanoid robots can stand up, recover from falls, and execute complex fighting moves against other humanoid robots. Kai, the more advanced of the two, contains a speaker and nylon joints, rather than aluminum. Kai is about the size of a large doll, and even wears doll clothes to cover up its inner workings.

Many other projects were showcased, such as a two-wheeled humanoid robot, and a speech was given by Dr. Henrik Christensen welcoming guests to the event.