Resource List:  AHRA
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The Mahru/Ahra series of robots have been developed by KIST - the Korean Institute of Science and Technology ? since 2005. The name has a similar root to the difference between 'android', and 'gynoid'. In this case, Mahru refers to a male robot, and Ahra to a female robot. The gender differences are used to drive interaction and vocal differences between the two robot types. Otherwise they are quite similar.

Ahra?s body tends towards more pastel hues, and her gestures and mannerisms are somewhat more deferential. For example, Ahra senses a person?s hand strength during a handshake, and automatically adjusts her grip to appear relatively weak. Quite what this says about Korean society is open for speculation.

KIST use these definitions in each robot they create. Different generations are differentiated between by the letters
after the Mahru or Ahra prefix. For example Ahra-A, or Ahra-B.

Both genders are what KIST refers to as 'network based humanoids'. This means that most of the actual processing does not occur in the robot body, but on external computer systems, networked together with the robot receiving a continual wireless data feed.

This novel approach means that the robots can be controlled by remote servers, and one-day, directly by humans, located elsewhere through the net.





Locally Hosted resource Dictionary: Network Based Humanoid







Locally Hosted resource Resource List: MAHRU

A resource list containing resources that detail Mahru, Ahra's more masculine companion robot series.





Locally Hosted resource VR Interfaces: Ahra-A

The first of the Ahra series of robots was produced by KIST - the Korean Institute of Science and Technology - in 2005. This robot was identical in weight, height and body shape to the Mahru robots the institute also develops. However, there were some differences. Ahra's body was coloured orange and white instead of the blue and white of the Mahru series.